Freddie the Bat

Original Disney tombstone

Since we blame the Halloween obsession on The Haunted Mansion and Universal Monster movies, we thought we should try our and at a Disneyland tombstone.

We thought it would be fun to try Freddie the Bat.  So like we always do we printed out several photos of the tombstone and got to working.

Aimee designed the epitaph, which we carved out of white foam.  then we built up the edges around the outside to match the original (including the groove).

Davis Graveyard version

We looked at the texture of the bats and they looked more like metal, so we carved them out of pink foam from a template.  You notice that the top bat has feet that stick up and over the outside trim, so those were cut separately.  We tried to get the hammered metal look by using a ball peen hammer, but it just looked like we hit foam with a hammer and the foam cracked in certain places.  Plan B - we found a dremel bit online that was basically a divet sander - and viola, it worked perfectly.

The tombstone was painted black and then the Davis Graveyard gray pallet (using two shades of gray and a sponge).  We painted the bats separately with black and then dry brushed with the darker gray shade.

The bats were glued on first and then the feet for the hanging bat on the top.

We love it......and we have had several offers on it.  But I think we are going to keep it.