Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

Who new you needed a degree in physics to hold tombstones in place? I also don't want mine getting skin cancer from the UV rays. Halloween is downright dangerous.

OMG Godess Martha had tombstones as her Halloween idea of the day and I really like how her's came out.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/to ... y_recipe_b

First post here, thought I might be able to help on this one.

2 years ago I invested the time and energy in making about a dozen custom tombstones from 1" thick styrofoam sheets. Made each one different, hand painted epitaphs on them, etc.

But anchoring to the lawn was always a problem. Each day at about 3-4pm, we get mountain winds (East County, San Diego, CA) that come straight at the front of our house. Great for windchimes, bad for tombstones!

Last year I struggled with setting them back up each morning and evening, and it became really annoying.

This year I set out for a solution, and found an easy one, it started with an idea, and was confirmed with some reading from this board.

At the base of each tombstone, I used Gorilla Glue (crazy stuff, it foams up and drys as hard as concrete) to attach a 2"x2" (cut to the width of the tombstone) strip of wood to the back/bottom of each stone. Before attaching them, I drilled two 1/2" holes through the top of each piece of wood. Let the Gorilla Glue dry overnight, give a quick spray paint to hide the wood color, and then use two nice 10" or 12" spikes (Home Depot - 65 cents each) and tap them into the ground with a hammer. The Gorilla Glue holds the wood very well onto the stryofoam, and the spikes go through the wood into the ground for security without putting any stress on the stones.

They've been out front for 2 weeks now, and even with our wind problem, not one has fallen over. Total cost: About $2 per stone and about 1 hour total time to "upgrade" them. If there is enough interest, (or this doesn't make sense) I'll be happy to post pictures!

Please post the pics.

We're crazy to see other peoples work in here!

Include the 'finished' side too, please.

OnTheButton wrote:First post here, thought I might be able to help on this one.

2 years ago I invested the time and energy in making about a dozen custom tombstones from 1" thick styrofoam sheets. Made each one different, hand painted epitaphs on them, etc.

But anchoring to the lawn was always a problem. Each day at about 3-4pm, we get mountain winds (East County, San Diego, CA) that come straight at the front of our house. Great for windchimes, bad for tombstones!

Last year I struggled with setting them back up each morning and evening, and it became really annoying.

This year I set out for a solution, and found an easy one, it started with an idea, and was confirmed with some reading from this board.

At the base of each tombstone, I used Gorilla Glue (crazy stuff, it foams up and drys as hard as concrete) to attach a 2"x2" (cut to the width of the tombstone) strip of wood to the back/bottom of each stone. Before attaching them, I drilled two 1/2" holes through the top of each piece of wood. Let the Gorilla Glue dry overnight, give a quick spray paint to hide the wood color, and then use two nice 10" or 12" spikes (Home Depot - 65 cents each) and tap them into the ground with a hammer. The Gorilla Glue holds the wood very well onto the stryofoam, and the spikes go through the wood into the ground for security without putting any stress on the stones.

They've been out front for 2 weeks now, and even with our wind problem, not one has fallen over. Total cost: About $2 per stone and about 1 hour total time to "upgrade" them. If there is enough interest, (or this doesn't make sense) I'll be happy to post pictures!

Andybev01 wrote:Please post the pics.

We're crazy to see other peoples work in here!

Include the 'finished' side too, please.

OnTheButton wrote:First post here, thought I might be able to help on this one.

2 years ago I invested the time and energy in making about a dozen custom tombstones from 1" thick styrofoam sheets. Made each one different, hand painted epitaphs on them, etc.

But anchoring to the lawn was always a problem. Each day at about 3-4pm, we get mountain winds (East County, San Diego, CA) that come straight at the front of our house. Great for windchimes, bad for tombstones!

Last year I struggled with setting them back up each morning and evening, and it became really annoying.

This year I set out for a solution, and found an easy one, it started with an idea, and was confirmed with some reading from this board.

At the base of each tombstone, I used Gorilla Glue (crazy stuff, it foams up and drys as hard as concrete) to attach a 2"x2" (cut to the width of the tombstone) strip of wood to the back/bottom of each stone. Before attaching them, I drilled two 1/2" holes through the top of each piece of wood. Let the Gorilla Glue dry overnight, give a quick spray paint to hide the wood color, and then use two nice 10" or 12" spikes (Home Depot - 65 cents each) and tap them into the ground with a hammer. The Gorilla Glue holds the wood very well onto the stryofoam, and the spikes go through the wood into the ground for security without putting any stress on the stones.

They've been out front for 2 weeks now, and even with our wind problem, not one has fallen over. Total cost: About $2 per stone and about 1 hour total time to "upgrade" them. If there is enough interest, (or this doesn't make sense) I'll be happy to post pictures!

OK here are a couple of photos as of this morning. 2 show the overall front yard, and 2 show my Gorilla Glue and 2x2 with stakes anchoring solution. This is still a work in progress (struggling for Friday night, running out of time, so many details to add!!) The main front window on the house will also have a "Hallowindow" type of presentation on it, and I have rented some commercial DJ lighting and a 1700 watt fog machine for Friday. Today I get to spin cobwebbing on the stones when I get home from work. Any questions, feel free to ask!