Halloween Decorations with mpcnc

[orob]

Happy Halloween!!

EDIT: And today’s photo:

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

These look great. We made some out of plywood many years ago. Ours don’t look nearly as good and are starting to warp from sitting outside through the years.

I should show these to my wife so we can redo them.

[Bigburlybug]

What do you paint them with? I’m assuming most spray can paint will make them go melty (which could look cool I guess)

[orob]

Exterior latex enamel (used leftover paint from the recycle reuse center). Use a brush and slop it on for the carve first then let it dry and follow with a lightly coated foam roller for the raised part. Not terribly complicated. No spray was used.

[srcnet]

These look great.

I used Drylok when I painted mine. The paint has sand or some texture that makes it feel and look like stone.

Tombstone Halloween decoration

Here is a super easy project, right in time for Halloween. I’m using 2" foam from the big box. Get it in a 4’x8’ sheet and cut down to 16" x 24" so you can have 12 per sheet. [IMG_1911] About half the time the sticker comes off easy, other times it adds more wear to the stone. [IMG_1912] Spray the letters / engraving with spray paint. I used matte black [IMG_1913] Use a roller to paint the foam. I used Gray Drylok since it already has a sandy texture. [IMG_1914] I drill a hole in th…

[robertbu (Robert Bunney)]

I love who you’ve honored with your headstones. I’ve done a few headstone foam CNC carvings, but I never know what name/saying to put on them. Very nice work.

What do you paint them with?

A mixture of drywall joint compound and exterior latex paint works well to protect foam. The joint compound provides a bit of a shell to protect the foam. This mixture is sometimes called “monster mud.”

I’m assuming most spray can paint will make them go melty

A base layer of monster mud will protect the foam allowing spray paint to be used. If you want “melty” to make the foam look weathered, an interesting technique is to use a spray bottle of water to coat the foam in water beads, then hit the foam with a propane torch. I was amazed at how effective this technique is in making foam look weathered.

[Bigburlybug]

@orob

Not terribly complicated.

Easy process, beautiful results. Thanks for sharing!

[Bigburlybug]

@robertbu

an interesting technique is to use a spray bottle of water to coat the foam in water beads, then hit the foam with a propane torch

Dang, I never would have thought of that one lol Neat.

[orob]

I made a video on how to distress letters having never done it before I was surprised how easy and effective it turned out to be. Very subjective on your torch residence time and amount of water, but degree of difficulty is not bad at all.

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

I made a fireplace at work using foam blocks glued to plywood. I used spray paint to paint the ‘bricks’. The paint ate the foam, but made an awesome brick look.

The ‘fireplace’ was an old apple iMac running a continuous loop on youtube. The iMac put off enough heat to actually feel like a small fireplace

[robertbu (Robert Bunney)]

I did a quick search and found a video of someone using water and a heat gun to distress foam: https://youtu.be/vEpFd1oqwDA?t=500

[orob]

Here is my distressing video:

Halloween Arch Foam Letter Distressing Example

And this is the display a few hours ago:

[orob]

More Halloween stuff this year for my house:

Just sprayed with fluorescent paint from Walmart… held in with a stick and lit with a black light.

[orob]

Update: it rained and snowed yesterday before trick or treaters showed up. All but 1 of the fluorescent tombstones faces was blown off the stick it was adhered to. Had to screw them all in for the night… Next year will need to mount better. The full thickness ones held by rebar had no issues.