Learn how to create Halloween grave markers with epitaphs that look carved in stone. In Parts 2 and 3, we'll show you how to distress and paint them to look spooky and aged.
Thank you so much for this! I did a few tombstones last year and had a friend who is a skilled wood carver do the lettering, however she will not be available to help this year and I have been trying to figure out a way to do this and make it look good. Thank you again!
You can also use regular paper and trace around the letters with one of those wheel things from a craft store that pokes holes in your material, fill in the letter with black marker and use a soldering iron to get great results. You can follow up with paint as needed. That gives you less of a chance to warp the foam with the heat of an iron... it's more precise. Just something I've learned from other videos. To each his own. These look really good though! :)
I can't get the 2 inch extruded foam either, however to make a good thick tombstone I can get the extruded in 3/4", I glue that to the white beadboard/granular foam. It gives a nice thick realistic tombstone.
Wow came out great this will be our 1st Halloween in our new house n theres lots of kids round an we wanna go all out!!! Hope mine come out as nice .... now if i could only get my girlfriend to let me use powertools
Do you have any more videos of your home haunt. I would love to see more videos of what it all looks like or see some pictures. You have great tutorial videos. Thank you for that.
@DevonTT I'm not sure if it made the difference or not, but I'm using white styrofoam (the beady stuff) not the extruded pink stuff you used. I used a scrap and tried transferring with the iron set to 3 and it melted the foam. It transferred the letters, but badly melted/compressed the foam, and I wasn't pressing hard. I reduced the temp to 2 (nylon) but I couldn't get good transfer. I've decided to freehand lettering with a soldering iron. Won't have the nice fonts, but I couldn't make it work.
@screaminscott Thanks for the suggestion! I actually used a soldering iron, not a Dremel, for my lettering, and was trying to marry the idea of the transfer and heat carving. I ended up penciling on the letters freehand and using that as a general guide for using the soldering iron. My lettering wasn't very elaborate (or even) as they might have been with the fancy fonts, but it worked. (Tried using a woodburning "pen" through paper, more like your suggestion - didn't work well.)
@lykaina1: Great question! On my iron, "3" is Polyester/Rayon. "2" is Nylon/Silk and "4" is Cotton blends. Hope that helps. Let me know how your project goes!
Thanks I was always afraid to put epitaphs on my tombstones fro a couple reasons First because I'm lazy, Second I'm afraid I'll ruin my tombstones and lastly because I change Haunt themes and I like to keep them period and theme neutral. You made it seem so easy I think I'll change my mind. Thanks
Always looking for new ways to make tombstones, this is a great one. I did notice you might be getting a sore neck from watching where you are carving the letters. There is a better attachment, it is called the Dremel Model 230 Router Attachment. They nolonger make this attachment however you can pick them up on E-Bay and other similar places for less then 10.00. You can see your work better, has a better base and it will save your neck, LOL Just a tip from one haunter to another.
I made the text in Photoshop and used Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. If you're using Word, you'll need to create the text as Word Art. You'll probably want to change the typeface, color, fill, etc. to get the style you want. Once it's finished, click on the text box, then use the Rotate button under the Format menu to flip it to a mirror image. If you've already got your text prepared without using text boxes, see if your printer menu has a mirror command that will flip it when you print.
@SynAndVice: Sounds like that would work, but it could be expensive if you're doing a lot of tombstones. What I didn't mention in the video is that many of the larger tombstones required lettering taller and wider than 8.5" x 11", which meant that I had to tile the printing onto 4 sheets of paper. Multiply that a few times and you could easily go through $20-$30 or more in transfer paper. Using laser paper is cheaper and allows you to make mistakes without going broke! :)
That's interesting. I did some experimenting with damp paper, but dry worked better for me. Are you using the dense construction foam? Did you try it with a lower heat setting on your iron?
You said the iron was set to "three" -- what cloth setting is that? (On my iron, three is permanent press/polyester/cotton blends.) Looks great, can't wait to try it!
Not sure if this makes a HUGE difference, but I tried your technique and seemed to melt or puff out the foam. So I started out by wetting the paper until it clung to the foam, started with the steam on my iron, and when I began to get some transfer of letters switched to the dry setting and continued. Having the paper damp made it easy to remove the bits that stuck and seemed to actually transfer faster then doing it all dry. Could you give this a try and tell me if I'm just making a mess?
@lykaina1 There's all kinds of reasons why it might not have worked: Different kind of foam, my iron is old and the temp settings might be wonky, the photocopies I had weren't very dark, etc. I'd like to try your technique again on extruded foamboard, and see if that works better.
Yes, I used regular office paper. I have a laser printer which is a much hotter process than ink jet. If I use photo paper, it will bubble the surface. But there may be a coated stock that would work better. Not sure. Sometimes the problem is that the toner doesn't stick, and other times it sticks too much, so it's hard to say what kind of paper would work best.
@lykaina1, yes, I suspect your foam is a different material and can't handle the temperature. The foam I used is very dense, not pebbly. It's not packing or craft foam but rather made for insulation (R10 insulation value). Google "FOAMULAR 150 2in Rigid Foam Insulation" and you'll find it. Sorry it didn't work out for you!
I think you ca also transfer your letters using the same method that tattoo artists use, with transfer paper; just use a more glossy paper or even normal paper on an ordinary inkjet printer to print a mirror template, and then use alcohool or antiperspirant, deospray etc on the tombstone and apply the paper, it should transfer very easy; let it dry a couple of minutes after you tranfered the ink and you won't have paper stuck on the stone or heat dents in it. hope it works as it does on skin :D
does anyone know if the 1/8th inch Dremel bit is the smallest you can use? can you use anything smaller to do very small/fine areas and details? somet tombstones have the fancy writing with the curves and cursive sort of thing going on-
Devon TT yes, I just made my first tombstone. It wasn’t messy but the noxious fumes were bad. It wasn’t that precise for me but maybe I need practice. The iron was awesome for the cracks in the stone though! Thank you for your reply
Good question, James! As for sizes, that will be a matter of seeing how well the text fits on your tombstones. Start at about 80-100 points minimum for the smaller lines. The big names can be three or four times bigger--experiment and see what size looks best for the big name, then make the smaller text big enough to be readable. Be sure to make the text large enough to carve with a router, especially if the font style is intricate. Here are some of the fonts we used in our graveyard. Dominican Small Caps Trajax Visitation Warlock Willow Copperpot Gothic Steelfish Stowaway Scotford Uncial Ruffian Quasimodo Omnia Oktoberfest Newfoundland Morpheus Minion Black Kelmscot Knights Quest Kabel Clearface Isabella IndianaSolid Improv Impact Holy Empire Hammer Fat Helvetica Neue Frutiger Frankfurt Decotura Cosmos Caslon Antique Carnivale Campaign-Normal Busker Burweed Bujardet Buffied Bucephalus Blackoak BenFranklin Banff Avalon Quest Antique Olive Vespasian Valhalla Poseidon Chisel Wide Avatar Adventure Lower West Side Lower East Side Cauldron WindsorDemi Lightfoot Wide Lightfoot Narrow Herak
Great Job I do a Halloween night for special needs persons as I have 3 boy and 2 of them are autistic. Be doing this for about 10 years or so and although my tomb stone are made of wood now I can still do trhis and add to it with some of yours. Please look at our page on Facebook under T he Liik's family Nightmare before Christmas and like our page if you can and you'll see some of your tips this up coming year thanks Jim LIIk AKA JACK Skellington.
I used your technique. This is what I found. -I tried using wood for tombstones. Bad idea. Carving into wood without a C&C machine is a disaster. -I couldn't find the nice extruded foam you use in the desired thickness. Instead, I used that granular foam board. Your foam is easier to work with. -Granular foam boarsd DO NOT transfer letters with an iron like the extruded foam does. The iron just melts the board. -I will continue to use up the foam I have, but yours are better.
Strange custom to make fun of death and promote begging or worse - extortion, amongst our children. I just don't understand the whole focus on death in such a lighthearted way.
+Robert Evans I see, the comment just seemed out of place as it wasn't constructive criticism on the video or process, just the reason behind it, in which case I wouldn't know why it was being watched to begin with. Anyway, if you're interested in educating yourself on the long, complex history of Halloween, I would suggest checking out A Haunted History (by the History Channel). It's actually here in RU-vid! It may not be for everyone, but perhaps it'll help you understand what it's about and how it came to be. I personally find it to be fun, celebrating creativity, and yes, viewing the darker side of reality with some lightheartedness, which I don't view as a negative. 68 days to go!!!
I am married and have two children who were raised to respect the living and the dead. I am guessing that you think that children are disadvantaged if they don't get the whole 'make fun of death' thing and beg for candy thing, right? Did you know that the form of Halloween that you practice didn't exist 150 years ago? How disadvantaged were the children for the past 10000 years?
