Beetlejuice Tombstone

We're doing a Tim Burton theme for Halloween this year so I needed a Beetlejuice tombstone... and I wanted it to light up. I'm not the techiest prop builder, but once I figured out what to do it was actually pretty simple and cheap (by large lighted decoration standards, anyway)!

Three large sheets of styrofoam (roughly 18 by 48 inches)

Three small plastic skeletons

A small piece of chicken wire

Masking tape

Half a roll of thin packing foam

Duct tape

A string of outdoor LED rope lights

Wire

Three dowel rods

Three cans of spray foam

Monster mud (four parts joint compound mixed with one part outdoor latex paint)

Masonry sealer

Acrylic paint

Scrap plexiglass

Gorilla glue

Scrap wood (roughly 12 by 48 inches) and thin strip of wood trim for base/support

Spray paint/primer in gray and black

Tools: foam wire cutter, sharp knife, wire cutters

It always starts with a rough sketch and scrolling through pages of image search results. I looked at lots of stills from the movie but in the end the most useful pictures I found were from this crazily expensive model.

The foam sheets I found were narrower than what I wanted, but I'd have to make due. I drew out the letters on paper first to make sure they'd fit, then drew them onto the first sheet of foam using guide lines so they were mostly straight. I've seen more organized people print out letters and trace them onto their tombstones, but I figured it was okay if it looked a little rough so I just free-handed it.

At this point I also decided to use the spelling from the movie title rather than Betelgeuse because I thought more people would recognize it.

Next I used the hot wire foam cutting tool to cut out the letters (and arrow), being sure to save the insides of the e's and B, which I stuck back in place using small pieces of wire to connect them to the sides of the letter. I painted the insides of the letters with black acrylic paint for better contrast.

I also used the foam cutter to slice off the top corners of all three sheets of foam to make more of an uneven tombstone shape, and I saved those pieces to use later.

At this point I covered the whole front surface with an irregular layer of spray paint (flat gray primer) to partly melt the surface and make it look more like stone.

I reassembled my three small, cheap skeletons to fit the poses of the little imps on the tombstone -- which meant swapping out lower legs for lower arms in some cases, cutting down ribcages into more manageable sizes, and forcing not-very-flexible fingers to point. I extended the pointing fingers with a little wire to emphasize them more.

Once I got the skellies into the right poses I needed to beef them up a little, so I wrapped thin foam sheets around their limbs and taped them on with masking tape. For the winged guy on top I attached heavy wire along his shoulders and sculpted wings out of chicken wire. I added a layer of foam on top, but it probably wasn't necessary. I also made his ears out of duct tape.

Because I wanted them to be very weatherproof I wrapped them in duct tape (instead of my usual favorite material, papier mache) and mounted dowel rods under them to poke into the foam.

With the first sheet of foam lettered and painted, it was time to construct the rest of the tombstone. The back sheet stayed intact, but the middle needed a cavity where I could mount lights. I cut a large shape a little bit bigger than the lettering and arrow out of the middle piece using the foam cutter. Unfortunately I didn't get great pictures of this stage, so you'll just have to imagine a tombstone-shaped piece of foam with a big blob missing from the middle.

I used Gorilla Glue to attach the middle layer to the bottom, then painted the inside red with acrylic paint. Once it was dry I used little u-shaped pieces of wire to attach a cheap string of outdoor LED rope lights all the way around the inside of the cavity. I thought about gluing it but wanted to be able to rearrange the lights as I worked in case I messed something up. I didn't, but the wires seemed to hold pretty well. The rope light ended up wrapping three times around the inside of the cavity.

I also cut a small channel down from the cavity to the bottom of the tombstone and glued the power cord in place.

I added a layer of thin plastic behind the cut-outs for weather-proofing (so the cavity didn't fill up with rain water) and to protect the fragile foam letters. I happened to have some scrap plexiglass, so I Gorilla Glued that in place.

Because my tombstone was a little on the narrow side and I'd already had to really squeeze the letters to all fit, there wasn't much room on either side for the lights to be hidden by the front layer of foam. When I put the front piece of foam on top of the others I was able to see the lights behind the letters at the edges.

To make them a little less obvious, I sponged red acrylic paint on the back of the plexiglass before gluing the front sheet of foam to the other two.

Not only was the tombstone too skinny to look like Beetlejuice's, but there also wasn't enough foam to hold up the little demons.

I glued the styrofoam scraps I'd cut off the top corners of the tombstone to the bottom for a little more stability, then used a whole can of spray foam to bulk out the sides and give the demons somewhere to perch.

Once it was fully dry I used a sharp knife to cut it into the right shape, leaving the surface a little rough.

Meanwhile, I'd given the demons a coat of monster mud to make them a little more solid. Once they were ready I positioned them in their places around the tombstone and poked the dowel rods into the foam with a little glue to hold them in place.

Finally I used a little more spray foam around their bodies to make it look like they were emerging from the stone -- and to help them stay in place -- and then I carved the foam into rocky shapes around them.

At this point I realized that I was going to be extremely sad if this tombstone blew over in the inevitable high winds we always seem to get as soon as I put decorations out. I figured the demons would take a beating and I'd have to make repairs. To make the whole thing a bit more stable I decided to mount it on a scrap sheet of wood and cover the base in spray foam "dirt." I also found a long, thin scrap of wood trim and screwed it onto the base, then glued the whole thing together with more Gorilla Glue... and copious amounts of spray foam.

I added a coat of monster mud to all of the carved spray foam, the seams between elements and the whole back and base, just to be safe. I also carved some cracks into the surface of the styrofoam, so I monster-mudded those too.

Once that was dry I covered the whole thing with a coat of gray masonry sealer. The monster mud probably would have been enough to make it weatherproof, but I didn't want to take any chances -- and besides, the texture of the masonry sealer made it really look and feel like stone! Even knowing what it's made of, I'm surprised every time I pick it up by how light it is. (I think it's about 15-20 pounds but I haven't weighed it.)

This is always my favorite part of the process! I used gray and black spray paint to give the surface a mottled stone look and painted the dirt on the base solid black as a base coat.

Finally I dry-brushed black acrylic paint all over to emphasize the demons, the cracks along the sides and the uneven weathered stone surface. I painted several shades of brown over the dirt (hopefully it won't look like piles of poop!) and I dripped some paint water down the whole tombstone for extra weathering.