Jarbidge to the Oregon Trail

YES! I know it is early. And trust me, I have no intentions of decorating for Hallowe’en until the first of October rolls around. I promise I am not rushing the season – I want my hot, dry Indian Summer first. But hot & dry & summer = plenty of time to paint outside. And that equals the reason for this post.

I debated putting this on my Art blog, but I don’t think this really qualifies as serious art. This is just a simple craft project, no particular talent required, only patience while the layers of paint dry. In fact, the hardest part was researching funny epitaphs.

I bought these at a yard sale for $7. Then I bought four cans of faux stone spray paint, some glow-in-the dark paint, and a roll of blue painter’s tape. Everything else I had on hand: paint brushes; black, orange, and green craft paint; black permanent markers; and stencils.

T washed as much of the moss that had been hot-glued to the stands, and then I taped over the pumpkins and cats. Several coats of faux stone later, I removed the tape and painted the cats and pumpkins. To be specific: I gave the cats a fresh coat of black paint and used the same white face drawings. The pumpkins became orange with green stalks.

Today, I used a couple different black permanent markers and I drew the new pumpkin faces and added the funny epitaphs.

(click on photo for larger view)

I made up the names, but most of these are real epitaphs. I upgraded the jack o’lantern faces, too.

Then I painted specific parts with glow-in-the-dark paint. And, last, I coated it all with poly-urethane to protect the new paint job from the wonderful Oregon autumn weather.

Since I didn’t have to make the forms or screw them together, this was pretty much an “anyone can do this” sort of craft.

Note: the stencils I used are an old set I purchased at a Tupperware™ party back in the early 1980’s. I did all the lettering and the designs on the headstones with the stencils. The jack o’lantern faces were Internet downloads. As I said, the hardest part of this craft was researching the funny epitaphs I wanted to use and waiting for the layers of paint to dry.