Krazy Deal Daze: Tutorial

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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

DIY Styrofoam Headstones

DIY Styrofoam Headstones | Spooktacular

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DIY Styrofoam Headstones

About 15 years ago I decided I wanted to add a graveyard to my Halloween display. However, money was extremely tight and we couldn't afford to buy any foam headstones.... Where my husband was working at the time, he had access to Styrofoam scraps which gave me the idea to try and make my own! So I asked him if he would be allowed to bring home some of the scrapped Styrofoam? Thankfully he was able to get me quite a bit of Styrofoam scraps! The rest of the materials I used we already had laying around our garage and shed so, in the end, I made 15 headstones and spent zero money!

To this day we still have all 15 of those headstones and I'm ready to add to our collection. So, I'm going to share with you how I made mine all those years ago. Unfortunately, this time they will not be completely free because I do have to buy the Styrofoam and the green camo paint. But they will still be much cheaper and more original than the store bought ones!!

You'll Need:
Styrofoam (Your Local Home Improvement Store)
Serrated knife
Ruler
Marker
Exacto knife
Gorilla Glue
Spray Bottle with water to activate the Gorilla Glue
Medium gauge wire fencing or tomato cage (I've used both)
Light Gray primer
Dark Gray primer
Green Camo Paint
Black craft paint

Optional:
Brown and green craft paint
Moss

First, we're going to need to decide on the size and shape of our headstone. Either by freehanding a design from your imagination or you can google headstone shapes to get some ideas.

You can use your maker to draw out your headstone onto your sheet of Styrofoam.

Then with the serrated knife, carefully cut it out.

Now, what's your headstone going to say? We had a lot of fun coming up with phases and saying for our headstones! You can also google funny headstone sayings for some great ideas as well. After you've decided what your headstone is going to say and how you want it to look, draw it out on your headstone.

Then using your Exacto knife carve out your design and writing.

On some of my headstones, I added bases using the extra Styrofoam I had left after cutting out all my shapes.

I cut the extra pieces to size and glued them to the bottom of my headstones using water-activated Gorilla glue and adding pieces of wire fencing or a tomato cage for extra support, this time around we had an old tomato cage we used.

We then took the tomato cage and cut out an "H". I then pushed the top part of the "H" into the bottom of the headstones all the way to the middle part of the "H" and then I pulled it back out. Next, I put some water-activated Gorilla glue into both the holes I just made and also ran a line of glue connecting the two holes, then I reinserted the "H" into the newly glued holes and set aside to dry.

After they are fully dried, I put the headstones into the ground by pushing the bottom part of the "H" into the ground so that each headstone was standing upright.

Then I started lightly spraying them with the first coat of gray primer.

I also used two different shades of gray primer and green camo paint to give an uneven color effect.

After the final coat of primer was dry I went in with my black craft paint and a paint brush and darkened all the carved out areas.

You can stop here and enjoy your new headstones or you can move on to the next optional step to add a bit more character to your headstones.

Last year while I was touching up the paint on my headstones (1st time needing to do this after like 15yrs!) I decided I wanted to add a little "something" to spruce them up a bit. So I gave some of them a little aged and dirty effect with some brown and green paint (think algae and runny dirt), I also got some moss from the dollar store and glued it on a few using Gorilla glue.

Have fun and let your creativity run wild!!

Check out our video tutorial on DIY Styrofoam Headstones

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our DIY Styrofoam Headstones Tutorial! What did you think about this project? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, we’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend or sharing it on Twitter and/or Facebook. Don't want to lose this? Pin it on Pinterest so you can get back to it later!

Have a great day!

Other Krazy Deal Daze Post You May Be Interested In:

· Halloween Haul

· October Shopping Guide 2018

· DIY Halloween Apothecary Tutorial

· Corpsing Dollar Tree Halloween Décor

· DIY Halloween Spell Books

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Corpsing Dollar Tree Halloween Décor

Corpsing Dollar Tree Halloween Décor | Spooktacular

This post contains paid affiliate links, please read our Advertising Disclosure Statemen t.

Corpsing Dollar Tree Halloween Décor

So recently I was at a local Halloween Shop and saw some skulls of various sizes that looked mummified. I immediately picked one up to see it's price and was taken aback… These skulls range in price from about $13 to about $20 depending on their size. As I was looking them over and examining them I thought to myself "you know I could probably make these for much cheaper." And that's how the idea to corpse some Dollar Tree Halloween decorations was born.

Items Needed:

Gift Tissue Paper - Dollar Tree

Craft Paints - Walmart

Titebond waterproof Wood Glue - Walmart

Plastic Skeleton Arms - Dollar Tree

Plastic Skull - Dollar Tree

Various Sized Paint Brushes - Walmart

Paint Tray

Water

Paper Towel

Styrofoam Block (Optional)

Plastic Skeleton Arms

First, we'll start off with the plastic skeleton arms and attaching the ground stake. After attaching the ground stake to the plastic skeleton arm, I took the tissue paper and tore it into strips. Next, I stuck the stake into the Styrofoam block using the Styrofoam block as a stand for the skeleton arm.

Next, I mixed my red craft paint with some of the wood glue and start painting the skeleton arm.

Then I took the tissue paper strips and crumpled them in my hands before placing them on the skeleton arm and pressing them into the painted/glued areas.

Then I painted over the tissue paper with wood glue. I repeated those last two steps until the parts of the arm that I wanted to be covered with the tissue paper were covered.

Then I started mixing my other chosen colors with the waterproof wood glue and started painting the tissue paper.

I'm using waterproof wood glue because I plan on using these outside and need them to hole up to the humidity here in Florida. To get the color effect for "rotting, mummified skin" I used burnt umber, flesh tint, dark green, and black. Then I put a final coat of wood glue over the entire tissue paper covered plastic skeleton arm to blend all the colors used and to seal it. Finally, I set it off to the side to dry overnight.

Plastic Skull

First I painted the eye holes and nose hole with my flat black craft paint.

I then used the black craft paint to fill in the crevices in and around the teeth and filled in some of the cracks throughout the skulls.

Then I mixed the burnt amber with a smidge of red and painted the area around the mouth the teeth and areas around the cracks that I had painted black. These areas I will not be adding tissue paper.

Once I was finished painting those areas I took a piece of paper towel and dabbed the paint before it dried to remove the brush strokes. Blotting with the paper towel really gave it an authentic effect. I then rubbed some of the paint of the raised parts of the teeth.

Next, I took torn up bits of tissue paper and crumpled them up. Then after painting on some wood glue I pressed and painted the tissue paper into the glued areas using a glue/paint mixture.

I repeated those last two steps until the parts of the Skull that I wanted to be covered with the tissue paper were covered. Then I put a final coat of wood glue over the entire skull to seal it. Finally, I set it off to the side to dry overnight.

Check out our video tutorial on Corpsing Dollar Tree Halloween Décor

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our Corpsing Dollar Tree Halloween Décor Tutorial! What did you think about this project? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Have a great day!

Other Krazy Deal Daze Post You May Be Interested In:

· Halloween Haul

· October Shopping Guide 2018

· DIY Halloween Apothecary Tutorial

· How to get your FREE PINCHme Subscription Box

· DIY Halloween Spell Books

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Garage to Man Cave Makeover Phase One

This post contains paid affiliate links, please read our Advertising Disclosure Statemen t.

In every home we have ever lived we have never used our garage as well, a garage... We have always utilized it as an additional living space and place to hang out. Our newest home features a 500 square foot garage that we have been using as storage while we were unpacking and settling in. Well, fast forward 2 years and we are still not 100% unpacked and our garage has turned into a cluttered mess... So we decided enough is enough! It's time to remodel the garage.

So first things first we have to get everything out of the garage so we can start cleaning and prepping the walls for new paint. To accomplish this we needed to rent a storage unit. Because of what we needed to store and how much we needed to store, we had to spend the extra money on a large climate controlled storage unit. Thankfully there were three of us in the family that was in need of a storage unit so we combined our stuff and split the cost three ways.

Once we got everything in storage, it was time to start prepping the walls to be painted. To do this we first removed all the outlet covers and switch plates. Then filled and patched all the holes that were in the walls. We used Silka Pro Select Stucco Patch and ProForm All Purpose Joint Compound and a putty knife to accomplish this. Dry time for the Stucco patches took at least 1-hour minimum for a partial cure, depending on temperature, humidity, and depth of repair. Full cure can be achieved in 72 hours. The Drywall patches took 24hrs to fully cure. Note that wet or damp conditions will slow the drying process. Subsequently, 24 hours dry time may not be sufficient. We also used Dap painters acrylic caulk to seal up a few things before painting. According to instructions, you should allow the caulk to dry 2 hours, longer in cool/humid conditions before painting.

While waiting for our patches and caulking to dry we moved on to the next item to be done before we started painting. We have an extra refrigerator that we use in our garage and where we wanted to move it to would have blocked the light switches and garage door opener. So we had an electrician move them over a few inches to accommodate where we wanted to relocate the refrigerator. Then we went over all the wall patches with Wall Texture by Homax in Orange peel, to match the texture of the rest of the walls. Once painted the patches should blend right in.

After everything is set and dry, it's time to paint. Here is a list of supplies we needed for this project:

Masking tape

First, we took the masking tape and taped off along areas we did not want to be painted whatever color we were using at the time. After taping off the baseboards and door trim we also hung plastic over the door. Although we are going to apply a new finish to the floors we still laid down a drop cloth to avoid having to potentially clean up a big mess in the event of an oops!

Now it's time to open the paint, this is where a paint key comes in handy, you can also use a screwdriver if you don't have a paint key. Although we had our paint premixed when we bought it, we still mixed our paint using a stir stick. We also punched drainage holes into the rim of the paint can with a screwdriver and hammer. This hack helps lessen the amount of paint that can accumulate around the rim and lid.

Using our small trim brush and trim guards we painted along the ceiling, baseboards, light switches, electrical sockets.., etc. We also were very careful when painting certain corners as the walls were going to be painted in different colors. Once all the trim painting was done we grabbed our paint roller and proceeded to paint the rest of the wall. We repeated this process for each wall color. Each wall took 2-3 coats of paint to reach the desired finish that we were happy with.

Please enjoy our video on Phase one of the Garage to Man Cave Makeover below

Because of the theme of this makeover, which will be revealed at a later date. We chose Behr's Crimson Red and Asphalt Gray as our wall colors. Next step will be cleaning and prepping the floors.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our Garage to Man Cave Makeover Phase One! Which Krazy Deal are you most excited about this month? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Have a great day!