This is a simple prop that adds chilling character to a yard or room. We have made tombstones using a few different materials. We have tried cardboard, wood, and Styrofoam. Which one you will want to use will depend on the amount of time and money you want to expend, and also where you will be using them. All the photos you see on this page were made using these techniques! Click on the smaller photos to see larger ones.

Cardboard Tombstones
The first year we had our haunted house, we used cardboard to make tombstones. While this was the simplest and cheapest method, they were only good for one season since we used them outside. If you want the tombstones for indoor decorations, this might be the best method for you to use.

We cut out a variety of headstone shapes, spray-painted them, and painted witty epitaphs on them. We used glay spray paint, then lightly sprayed black here and there. Don't forget to protect your paint job with a coat of clear acrylic sealer. To make these tombstones stay in place in our outside cemetery, we pounded a length of lathe into the ground and stapled the cardboard to the lathe.

Wooden Tombstones
The next year, we switched to wood for our tombstones. These are a lot more durable, but you need someone who can use a saw to cut out your headstone shapes. We used 1/2-inch plywood for the headstone and nailed a piece of 2 x 4 along the bottom edge for the base.

We spent a little extra money and painted our tombstones with marble-textured spray paint (use a gray primer on your wood first). The finishing touch was painting on the epitaphs with black paint and spraying them with a clear acrylic sealer.

We helped these tombstones stay in place outside by using rebar (metal rods available at most hardware/home improvement stores). We drilled two 1/2-inch holes on each end of the 2 x 4 base. We then stuck a piece of 12-inch piece of rebar into each hole and pounded them into the ground.

Styrofoam Tombstones
You can get thick Styrofoam (about 5 inches thick) from a hardware/home improvement store. One of the advantages of using Styrofoam over wood is the fact that it is much lighter and easier to store. It is also more realistic looking because of it's width and texture.

The trickiest part with using Styrofoam is cutting it without ripping it. Take your time and use a very sharp knife (this is obviously not a project for the kids). I have heard some people have had luck using a jigsaw, but I have never tried this method. Once you cut out your headstone shape, you can also round the top edges for a more stone-like appearance.

Note from Jeri: "I heated up a knife, using a candle, and it easily cut through the styrofoam just like butter!"

We painted our tombstones with a coat of gray primer. Once that was dry, we sponge painted them using gray, white, and black paint. We added the epitaphs and sprayed with a clear acrylic sealer.

Rebar works good to help these tombstones stay in place. Pound the rebar into the ground a few inches and stick the Styrofoam on it. You might want to drill a few holes in the appropriate spots on the tombstones to help get the rebar started. You can also use the lathe method we used with the cardboard tombstones above. If you use lathe, you should definitely make a hole in the bottom of your tombstone the width of the lathe. This will make it easy to slide the tombstone into place.

Epitaphs
Here are some epitaphs we have used on our tombstones: