DIY Tombstone Decor Part III

One last update on how the Halloween tombstones are going.  Ok, that's a little lie.  The last one until I have them up outside my house, and looking awesome.  I finally got a stencil complete, and I spray painted one of the tombstones!  I started off by taping down the stencil, and some extra paper around the edges so there wouldn't be any overspray.  

Then using blue painters tape I traced, and cut out the inside pieces for the As and Rs.  

I carefully placed the little pieces inside the letters using the point of my razor knife.

Finally I was ready to spray paint.  I used white paint by Valspar.  

There was a little overspray around the letters, so I helped define the edges by going over the letters with white nail polish.  I did the last two words, 'at last' with a coat of nail polish.  

This is how the final product looks.  I'm pretty pleased.  I think the overspray under the nail polish helps make the letters look a bit aged, so it doesn't look quite like a brand new headstone.  

That's all for today, happy DIYing, chris!

Tombstone DIY Part 2

I worked more on my Tombstone DIY when I got home from work today.  I searched the internet for some good headstone epitaphs.  Then I found some decent gravestone type faces, and worked on the font sizes that would make for the best design.  Finally I printed them out on some card stock paper, and set to town xacto knifing the letters out.  

After an hour and a half I broke the tip off my blade, and only made it through four and a half of the seven words, on one of the tombstones.    I pressed the knife to hard into the plastic I was leaning on, and that's why it broke.  I have back up blades, but I didn't feel like digging them out.  Plus it's getting late, and I have another early work day tomorrow. 

This is the longest epitaph I found.  I hope I find the time to cut it out, because it would look great spray painted on there.  

Have a great night, and happy DIYing, chris

Tombstone DIY Halloween Decorations

With fall in the air, I'm ready for Halloween.  So while working on the house today we took a little break and did a fun project.  We made foe tombstones for outdoor decorations out of some leftover OSB.  We started off by sketching out a cross shape on the wood.  Then Aaron used a circular saw to cut the cross out.  

Next we used Valspar's Stone spray paint and sprayed the pieced of cut out wood.  This stuff does a fantastic job covering the wood.  We only needed one coat to get this nice thick grey color.  

Now we have to let the spray paint dry, and I'm going to work on what I would like to stencil on to the front with some black acrylic paint.  I'll have to share the final outcome whenever I'm able to finish them.  This week is going to be busy though, because we are going on a long trip up to the tippy top of Vermont for our good friends' wedding.  We will be leaving on Thursday, and I know I'll be extra busy with work from Monday to Wednesday.  I hope ya'll had a great weekend, and happy DIYing, chris!

Halloween Rats

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I know it's still more than two months off, but since this is the first halloween Aaron and I will get to spend in our house (hopefully!) I want to make a bunch of decorations.  When I got home from work today I went to work on google looking for some simple Halloween crafts that will  be easy to pack.  Of course I found a ton of cute crafts on Martha Stewart's website, and I decided to start cutting out some of her fun black rats. 

They are going to look amazing on our steps!  I need to cut out a few more rats to fill our staircase, but I have plenty of time.  :)  I used black construction paper, and was able to get six rats out of one sheet.  

Do you love halloween?  What is your favorite holiday?  Happy DIYing, chris!