O hallowed death,

Thine fetid stench,

Lies over these stones,

Of remberances past.

Being the non-obsessive type that I am, I decided to be realistic and only do one or two stones on my first attempt... Yah, right.  I spent so many nights carving these epitaphs that I had to push off my Trash Can Trauma to 2002.  These stones are made out of 2 layers of 1 1/2" pink insulation board. 

The epitaphs were laid out on the computer (Photoshop), printed out, and then using the print out as an overlay, the edges were carved into the foam board with an Exacto knife.  As if that were not enough work, I then went over the epitaphs and either carved them out with an Exacto knife, or melted them in with a wood carving tool set at 30% power.  (I used an X10 lamp module for the dimming, but you could also wire a dimmer in to a plug for the same effect).  30% seemed to be the best ratio, any more than that, and the melt area was hard to control, and any less left stringy bits of melted foam I had to scrape out later.  The shapes were roughed out with a hacksaw blade with tape around one end for the handle, then finished with a hot foam knife.

WARNING:  This foamboard was NOT made to be melted, and the fumes are extremely toxic.  Use in a well ventilated area only.  Despite the warnings of many on the list, I spent a very miserable day sick as a dog after a late night cutting session without adequate ventilation.

When everything was carved to my satisfaction (or I couldn't take anymore of the fumes), I painted a few layers of gray latex paint that I got off of the "oops" pile at home depot, and then finished off with American Accents stone texture spray.   For the Epitaphs, I started out with black paint and some small paintbrushes, but soon switched over to a "sharpie" marker.  If I do these again, I think I'll take a page from someone on the Halloween-L list, and go over the inscriptions first with black paint, then use a roller for the gray paint to cover the top.