Tombstone Templates

A graveyard in the front yard is a Halloween essential, and these templates make building one straightforward. Each design prints at full size, traces onto cardboard or foam board, and stands on a PVC post dropped into a sleeve set flush with the grass.

What’s Included

• 6 tombstone designs in PDF and PNG formats
• Classic arched headstone with “RIP” and scrollwork
• Gothic pointed arch with winged skull motif
• Celtic cross tombstone with knotwork detail
• Weathered flat-top stone with cracked texture
• Ornate Victorian monument with draped urn
• Simple wooden cross grave marker
• Each template prints on one letter page; scale it up by projector or grid for yard size
• Dotted cutting guide around each stone
• Pre-written epitaphs on each design (with space for custom text)
• A mounting page with a diagram of the post-and-sleeve method

Design Details

The templates tile across standard letter-size pages with overlap marks so you can tape the pages together and trace the full outline onto your material. Each tombstone stands between 24 and 36 inches tall, scaled for realistic yard display. The epitaphs mix classic graveyard humor (“I Told You I Was Sick,” “Here Lies the Last Person Who Touched the Thermostat”) with atmospheric inscriptions (“Departed This Mortal Coil,” “Beyond the Veil”). The surface texture patterns help guide your paint job, showing where to add moss, cracks, and weathering.

For real colonial wording on period stone shapes, use the period epitaph tombstones, lettered from 1680 to 1831 New England stones.

Use foam insulation board (available at hardware stores) for the most realistic weight and texture. Cardboard works for sheltered displays. Paint with gray latex, then dry-brush black and green for aging. To stand it up, glue a length of PVC pipe or dowel into the base with a solvent-free foam glue and drop it into a PVC sleeve set flush with the grass, so nothing rigid is left standing if a stone blows over. Our front-yard graveyard guide has the full method. Our yard haunt basics guide covers the full graveyard setup including layout, lighting, and fog.

Pairs With

• Front-Yard Graveyard Guide for foam, foam-safe paint, weathering and period-accurate epitaphs
• Period Epitaph Tombstones for seven more stones lettered with real 17th to 19th century epitaphs
• Tombstone Workshop, a four-part masterclass on carving, coating and setting foam stones
• Yard Haunt Warning Signs for the surrounding graveyard
• Beware Signs for the approach
• Classic Horror Party Blueprint for the full yard haunt setup