Please excuse the delay. I wanted the pictures to go with the instructions. I also have not been home much over the last week.
Supplies:
Several Varying Sized Paint Brushes (The cheaper the better because you will end up roughing them up a lot with the wood)
One good liner paint brush
Acrylic Paint (Black, Brown, White, Green)(I recommend getting the larger sized black and white because you will use a lot of it)
Stainable Wood Glue
Spray bottle full of water
Two rolls of paper towels
Alphabet Stencils
Old containers to mix the paint
Step one:
Adding adornments to your tombstone is as easy as going to Michaels and purchasing those wood accents you can get in the wood working section. They usually run about .50 to 2.00 depending on the size. You will just glue them down with the wood glue and put a weight on them over night. This will hold them. FYI, make sure the weight doesn’t get glue on it otherwise you will not be able to tear them apart.
Step Two:
After this is dry you will need to paint the front, back and sides with flat black acrylic paint. It may take two coats to cover it completely. Let this dry completely. It may take 30 min tops.
Step Three:
Begin with a wet paper towel crumpled up. Start adding a mixture of grey spots on the headstone. Use a brush to put a small dot and use the paper towel to blot it out and fade the harsh edges. The more wrinkles in the paper towel the more texture you will get. Also adding a little water to the paint mixture and/or spraying the tombstone surface with a light coating of water will change the texture effects.
Step Four:
Continue ragging layers of paint on alternating colors of white, grey and black. Leave high and low spots. Do this for as many layers as it takes for the desired effect. Wait about 5 to 10 minutes between coats.
Step Five:
Prop your dried tombstone against a wall. (This part gets really messy) Take the remaining greys and add some browns and greens and dilute with water till it’s like a thin ink. Dab this on parts of the headstone and use the spray bottle to spray over it. This with create the streaks in the stone. The more you spray the more blended the look the less you spray the more concentrated the color is. Again continue with several coats to get the aged look. Don’t overdo it because you will be doing more of this later.
Step Six:
Allow step five to dry over night. Now pick out an alphabet stencil and use a contrasting shade of paint. Depending on the tombstones color it can be dark or light.
To begin stenciling, stipple the color on the stencil. It’s easier if you hold the lettering around the edges so it won’t seep underneath. For this I have found the cheap card board stencils work fine and are reusable. You can even cut them out of card stock if you wanted. It is best to stipple most of the paint off before beginning to stencil because this will also reduce bleeding.
Step Seven:
Once mostly dry begin outlining the lettering with a contrasting color. I could be darker or lighter depending on what you want. This is also the time you will highlight the curves or corners of letters. This will give it the engraved look you want. The finer the brush the easier it is to outline.
Step Eight:
This is where you repeat step five. (Prop your dried tombstone against a wall. (This part gets really messy) Take the remaining greys and add some browns and greens and dilute with water till it’s like a thin ink. Dab this on parts of the headstone and use the spray bottle to spray over it. This with create the streaks in the stone. The more you spray the more blended the look the less you spray the more concentrated the color is. Again continue with several coats to get the aged look.)
Step Nine: Using a thin ink like black paint (watered down acrylic paint) you take a the same fine brush and paint on cracks and breaks. This will complete your tombstone.
