Thursday, October 1, 2009

More Tombstone Progress

I wanted to give you an idea of what the tombstones look like to start with, if you've never made them before. For those who have, bear with me, please!

I really love my power sander for tombstones! If you're patient and have decent control, you can round off any sharp edges, and also add some nice cracks and dings to your stone. Of course, always wear a mask when working with foam, as once the particulate matter gets in your lungs, it's staying there! I also added a little architectural element to this one, courtesy of a friend of mine. I glued this one on with the Liquid Nails product for foam, but have since been told that Gorilla Glue should work with this, too. I'm going to try that on my next tombstone, for certain.
Here are two tombstones in the beginning stages. The one on the right has had the ol' power-sander treatment, and got hit pretty hard with the cheapest spray paint I could get my hands on. The left one is pre-sander. (Spike was my husband's old dog, who made Marley look insanely disciplined.) I do hate working with bead foam with a purple passion, though, because you get that honeycomb look after the spray paint treatment.
After the Drylok treatment, the tea-staining results.
Here's Spike's tombstone after a couple of extra details were added. I wanted the one edge to look bitten through, and I added some claw marks that I'm pretty pleased with.
My homage to The Fog. I managed to get the dry-brushing done on it Monday night. I'm pretty pleased with how it's going.
I will give away a pumpkin pot to the first person who translates the Latin on this tombstone. (The person who did the font for me isn't eligible, sorry!) I'm not too happy with the seam on the peak, but I can re-do that later, and probably no one will notice but me, anyway.
You can see how nice those architectural elements look once they're painted.
I'm really excited about how great the graveyard will look! I've never had one before, and I'm happy that my first one will look so much better than Rite-Aid purchased tombstones. I also have to thank the Frog Queen for all the help she's given me on these! Couldn't have done it without her!

4 comments:

  1. Drats. No Latin in my background.

    They look authentic, though--especially the Latin one. And I love the claw marks on the Spike headstone! It belongs in a Pet Sematary.

    ReplyDelete
  2. All I came up with was.."Always upon the making festive" which...is obviously wrong lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. "We're always in the s**t, its just the depth that varies"

    Stones are looking KILLER, love the progress shots.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good one, Dixie! You win! Send me your address to shellhawksnest@yahoo.com and I'll send out your pot!
    ShellHawk

    ReplyDelete

In order to protect my readers, I screen all comments. Spammers will immediately have their comments deleted, so please, if you are a spammer, just go away. I will promote your blog or site if I know you, but if not, please accept my invitation to the world.