Easy Leaves for trees

[curufin]

All you need is a small pack of Rit powder dye (<$2) and a bag of cotton balls ($1) and you can make leaves for all your trees.  Just add the pack of dye to a bucket of water and dump the bag of cotton balls in.  Stir it up and let it set for an hour.  Dump out the water and rinse off the cotton balls.  Let dry (or use the dryer).  I just pick up a hand full and drape it over my wire trees.  It's great for that drooping Spanish moss effect.  You could hot glue it in place but I like to have the option to take it off for trees that are dead or if it is winter.  Imagine what you could do with a pack of orange dye and a pack of brown dye.  Alternative ideas/uses:  moss for dungeon tiles.  bushes/shrubbery.  

[dungeonmistress]

Oh, yes! Beautifully creepy trees! I will definitely give these a try. Thanks, curufin!

[adamantinedragon]

Are your tree trunks made by wrapping the wire with tape? I've made a lot of wire trees, and sometimes I leave the wire bare, and sometimes I use Sculpey clay to create bark to cover them.

For leaves I use lichen that you can get from floral supply stores for pennies. I have found damaged containers sold for next to nothing with enough lichen to last me for years.

I also got real lucky and found a pack of railroad modeling trees on sale for $5, they retail for like $25. So most of my trees are made from them.

I should post my bamboo skewer and foam sheet evergreens... They aren't realistic, but they still look great on the game table.

[dragon722]

Those are cool sir. On my to do list of forum trees to make. No forest is complete without its random looking trees lol

[DMScotty]

Nice idea, thanks for sharing.

[warswithtoys]

Great stuff!
One trick I learned for doing trees is using GAUZE TAPE to wrap the trunk and leaves. It already has a rough texture that dry brushes well.

[curufin]

Jun 25, 2014 17:41:31 GMT adamantinedragon said:

Are your tree trunks made by wrapping the wire with tape? I've made a lot of wire trees, and sometimes I leave the wire bare, and sometimes I use Sculpey clay to create bark to cover them.

Yes.  I wrap the wires with masking tape, spray paint them black and dry brush them.  These are 10 years old and seem to be holding up well.  I think going forward I would add some extra texture with hot glue.

[adamantinedragon]

I think the texture is great, that's what led me to ask the question.
Excellent work, and I say that as one who has boxes of trees and a few on display in my office.