Sunday, October 6, 2013

Halloween Graveyard Mantel - St. BoneAdventure Cemetery

It's that creepy time of year again!  When all the spooky, scary things you can imagine come out of hiding to do their best to give us a fright!
This year I decided to turn my mantel into a Graveyard.

 Welcome to St. BoneAdventure Cemetery!
  Watch out for buzzards, bats and rats!
The name of my cemetery was inspired by a recent trip to Savannah GA where the Bonaventure Cemetery resides, not to be confused with St. Bonaventure Cemetery in Allegany, NY.
And definitely not to be confused with the St. Bone Adventure Cemetery that lurks in my mind and now on my Mantel!
Of course I get these ideas and then find out why I haven't seen too many people do this, transform their mantel into a cemetery - right?! I would have thought that I was not the only one wanting to do this- but there must not be that much call for it - because I had a really hard time finding things at the right scale for this project.  I ended up making many of the pieces myself.  
The gate pillars are styrofoam, along with two of my grave stones.  If you have ever worked with cutting styrofoam - you will know - it is not real easy to get fine details and it makes a mess.  So I stuck with kind of simple shapes.  Then I sprayed them with Krylon Make It Stone spray paint.  I used a Sharpie Marker to add the bricks, names and details, then spayed them again with just a very light spray of black just to add some shading.


 I cut the Cemetery arched sign out of a thin foam core poster board I had left over from another project. I found a large oval tray to trace around the side to find my shape and then free handed the lettering in and used an Xacto knife to cut away the parts between the letters.  This took me a while -the cutting actually took me the whole Ohio State vs Northwestern game. It truly got a little scary during that game when Ohio State wasn't doing very well and I had an sharp instrument in my hand!  But both the game and the sign turned out as I had hoped!  Yeah!
I hope you enjoyed your visit!  Many here at the St. BoneAdventure Cemetery have so much fun that they have decided to stay for a while!
As kids, our neighborhood went all out for Halloween - so I have always had fond memories of spooky fun.  I hope I didn't creep you out too much!  

A special Thanks to all three of my kids who encourage me to keep going!
Thanks Allie, Shawn, and T.R.! and my Son-in-Law, Casey too!


Click on link to revisit Last Year's Halloween Fun:
2012 Halloween Mantel
2012 Halloween Tablescape

I am linked up to the following parties:
The Sunday Showcase @by Stephanie Lynn- Under the Table and Dreaming
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life
The Scoop @Confessions of A Plate Addict
Thursdays are Your Days @52 Mantels
Tablescape Thursday@Between Naps on the Porch
Seasonal Sundays@The Tablescaper
Ann @ Corner of Plaid and Paisley
Ann @ Corner of Plaid and Paisley

In the past few years my interests have grown from fabric to paper and now to dishes too! I just love prints, polkadots, plaids and paisleys- hence the blog name.

17 comments:

  1. I love all your little graveyard scenes, they are so fun and scary, I love them all and they look like they would be fun to create...Thanks for sharing it all...Phyllis

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  2. Amazing! Your Halloween mantel is fabulous! You said you made some of the stuff, you must have an incredible reserve of patience, where did you find the rest of the scene?

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  3. Amazing, fabulous, awesome!!! What a graveyard scene, I've never seen anything as fabulous as this, ever!
    Congrats, you are very talented, dear Ann! Havea great week.
    FABBY

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  4. Wow! Fantastic job! I will hence forth call you The Xacto Knife Queen! It looks wonderfully creepy and perfect for Halloween.

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  5. Very cute! I had considered a cemetery mantel this year, may have to try next year for sure! Hope you'll stop by and see my Halloween decorations too! I haven't posted this year's yet but you can see last year's on my sidebar. Following along now!
    Amber @junkaholicsunanimous

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  6. Ann your sign came out so cool!!! You really did a great job. I love the photos with the Sepia color gives it such a scary effect. Don't know if I should be looking at this so late at night.......... think I just heard a noise better go check it out.......................(insert blood curling scream)

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  7. LOL just got the tomb stone name joke ha ha ha

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  8. Hi there, just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
    http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/

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  9. How cute!! love it. I'm still laughing at "Myra Remains" ....

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  10. Cute idea. I love it. Thanks tons for linking to Inspire Me. Hugs, Marty

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  11. How creative you are. I love all of your attention to the details. Your mantle certainly says Halloween to me. So cute!! I did a Christmas village for many years and had to make so many of my accessories as I needed them. It was a lot of work. Great Job!

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  12. This is FABULOUS! Love all the details!

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  13. I love this! It's so cute! I've always wanted to decorate for Halloween as it's one of my favorite holidays, but i just never have. I make up for it with awesome Halloween makeup though. :)

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  14. Way cool idea to do this and you've executed it wonderfully! So many terrifi details and the fact that you had to make a lot of the pieces yourself speaks of your determination and creativity. Great job! It is my son's bday on Halloween (will be 25) and he would have loved it if I would have done something like this when he was growing up!

    DD

    DD

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  15. Ann, you are just so creative and I'm so impressed with your St. Bone Adventure mantle scape. What a fun, fabulous Halloween creation to enjoy. xo

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  16. Just wanted to let you know that your mantel is featured on my blog! Thanks so much for sharing at The Scoop! Hugs...Debbie
    http://confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com/2013/10/20-fun-halloween-ideas.html

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