Home Made Grave Stones

If you ever went into a Halloween store to buy some head stones, you were probably shocked to see a $20 plus price tag for each! Well, you can make three of your own for under $20.

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Step 1: Materials and tools

Materials

1 4foot x 8foot sheet x 1inch of Styrofoam insulation.Home Depot and Lowe’s always has this for about $10.
1 can of flat white spray paint. I use enamel based
1 can flat black spray paint.
glue that won’t melt Styrofoam. I use the brown Gorilla glue.
bailing wire
cheap wood for steaks

For tools you will need

A hack saw blade
a hot knife with changeable tips. Check out Michael’s near the wood crafts.
pliers
respirator
tape measure
box cutter
drill and bits
drywall screws
paint brush

If you want to take your head stones to the next level you will also need

air brush
black and white water based airbrush paint. I use Createx found at Michael’s.
hollow plastic skulls for molds. Found at dollar stores and at Spirit.
something for mold release. I use tire cleaner
Great Stuff urethane gap foam
air compressor
hot glue gun with lots of glue sticks
blow gun for your compressor

Make4Fun says: Sep 11, 2012. 4:48 AM

WOW!!! IS REALISTIIIC O__O WOOOW!!

tobster9103 (author) in reply to Make4FunSep 11, 2012. 8:20 AM

Thank you! I'm glad you like them. I will be updating this in a week or so with a new method to create the stone texture more quickly!

mhussey says: Oct 16, 2011. 8:07 PM

Amazing!! Next year, I'm definitely doing this!

Some Dork says: Oct 15, 2011. 11:19 PM

Incredible, love them!

mrfoltz says: Oct 11, 2011. 2:14 PM

Excellent!!! I like your explanation to make spray foam skulls... I've been trying to figure ways of doing similar, as in sculptures/molds and what materials to use for this process....., but it can be very expensive to experiment!
What mold release did you use?
Thanks!

tobster9103 (author) in reply to mrfoltzOct 11, 2011. 9:45 PM

Thank you! For mold release I just use tire shine, in this case Zoopshine but anything that is slightly oily should work. I have never used a comercial mold release. I think that as long as you use a slick surface for your mold, the GreatStuff should not stick. As I said in the Instructable, do not use too much GreatStuff or you will end up with a melted side, you can always try to add more if you need to. The foam expands about an inch so it will fill really well but it does shrink up quite a bit when you pop it from the mold and it tends to get wrinkly and loose some detail, good for aged stone. This technique is usefull but has its limitatins. I hope this helps out and if I can help out further just give me a shout!