I really wish people would come to see how easy decorating can be and how much more lively the neighborhood becomes because of it. Sadly, my neighborhood has usually about 5 houses decorated, and I mean
DECORATED, in a 10 block radius. For a well known "Art Town" I find that rather pathetic. Now, I'll give a passing nod and smile to most anyone who has more than a pumpkin on their porch because they at least give the image of trying to do something. Even if its more of a fall inspiration and not Halloween themed. I'm just as easily pleased with straw bales, scarecrows, leaves and jack-o-lanterns as I am if they completely cover their porch in webs and put up lights but to me that's a grand effort around here since there aren't any other haunted homes like ours. If people sat aside one day at the beginning of the month they wouldn't really have to worry about it until it was time to take them down much like Christmas decoration.
There is truly nothing easier to gussy up your front yard with during haunting season than Tomb/ Headstones( depends on your preferred term) and creating a cemetery walk. Whether it's your lawn fully decked out in a number of them and Tots (Trick- Or- Treaters) wondering up your side walk or if you do a fun winding path through them across your lawn lit with a fence of lights, it adds a wonderful air of fun and uniqueness to your home. To do this you have two very simple options. You can purchase premade ones from Walmart, Spirit Halloween, Halloween City or where ever else that look similar to the one below
All of these mass produced headstones do make wonderful props but there are down sides. There are so many of the same one. Now if you have a large cemetery (like we do) you can cover this up a little better by spreading them around. They are thin and light weight. For packing them away that's not a terrible thing but if you live any where that's not nice like California and Arizona and get a lot of weather and wind like here in Colorado they get damaged, broken and often times rip away from the flimsy little stakes designed to hold them into the ground. If you decide to go this route I recommend looking into a piece I did about reinforcing them which has helped us a lot!
Your next option if you want to go over the top of have fun customized tombstones is to do them yourself! At first I was a wee bit intimidated by what some people can do with the blue insulation foam sheets at home depot because man do they have pro status talent in creation. I stayed very basic (other than the complicated fonts on each that have made me want to smash my head into a wall).
To start you cut out the shape you want your tombstone to be. I am aware my foam is purple and not blue, they were out of blue and color doesn't matter.
Then from your computer you type up an Epitaph to go onto said tombstone. Most of the fonts need to be in the 100's size wise to be worked with but that will also depends on your tombstones size. Once you have it all typed out and printed up you have the fun of cutting it out and taping it down however you want as a template. Or if you prefer to hand draw them go for it!
The time consuming part of this comes after everything is placing and you get the grand pleasure of tracing around everything and pulling all the paper off. If you need to trace over your lines in pen so you can see them better
After the tracing is done the next round of meticulous comes knocking with either a drimmel or a soldering tool/ wood burner. You Have to cut out everything inside the outlines. This is where I recommend a very basic font to do your first practice.
I'm going end it here for the evening and continue the rest tomorrow. As much as we haunters love the dark it's hard to work and the neighbors don't like power tools late into the night.
