# Help making cheap headstones look good



## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

You know the saying "It takes a lot of sugar to make cookies out of dog ____?" Well, I need to make some cookies. Does anyone have a method of making crappy store bought (mainly Dollar Tree) headstones look good? I need to paint them, but I assume that spray paint would eat the foam, so if somebody could help out I would be STOKED!


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## morbidmike (Sep 11, 2009)

use out door paint do a base coat of a darker color then drybrush a lighter color on finish with gluing on some moss ...reg or spanish ...I like the spanish


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

What Mike said I'd pick up a can of gray or white exterior latex "oops" paint from Home Depot or Lowes and use it to put a base coat on the cheesy tombstones. Once that's dry, you can use any other aging method you wish.


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## deathstaste (Apr 20, 2007)

*subscribe and watch*


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

I have some good exterior latex, so that's a plus. Thanks for the suggestions. The cheap-o cheasball ones (the Dollar Tree black ones with the skulls in the bottom left hand side) will be toward the back of the graveyard, and even with a paint job and aging they will still look cheesy but hopefully better. I might try scraping the skulls off and carving new epithaphs into them. We'll see how that goes, and if it works out I will post some pics.


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## si-cotik (Aug 14, 2009)

you can also make it a small part of a bigger tombstone....in other words take some foam bigger than the cheap tombstone and glue them together or cut out the pieces of the cheapy that you really like and apply them to the other piece of foam. hope this makes sense


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## Pavitti (Aug 25, 2011)

Also, try adding sand or grit to your paint for a little texture. I paint mine grey then splat it with black and white, and a bit of green around the bottom.http://thelimehousegolem.tumblr.com/


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## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

It depends on your lighting too. When I first started doing the haunt I would set up my lighting (1st thing I did) then grabbed what paint I thought would work...kept doing it until I got what i wanted.
Other things you can do along with moss, vines...whatever you want is attaching (I'll call them Christmas ornaments...birds, bells, barbies...long list of items). Dimension is what you're looking for.


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