EASY TREES
I want trees and lots of them. I don’t however, have the patience to sit down and meticulously construct one tree at a time. I also don’t have the budget to buy box after box of Woodland Scenic’s ready mades. They needed to be cheap, quick and easy to make.
I experimented with three different alternatives…
Tree type #1
Mediterranean Garden - D03 328185
Some sort of manufactured floral accessory
Available at Michaels (an arts and crafts store)
Price - US $4.99 per bunch. Each bunch yields 30-50 trees.
Tree type #2
Candy Tuft, Natural - 402202
Appears to be dried, authentic weeds of some kind
Also available at Michaels (an arts and crafts store)
Price - US $4.99 per bunch. Yield will depend on how big you make your trees – 20-50 trees.
Tree type #3
Yarrow - a common weed in the northern hemisphere.
Make sure you use the dead, dried version.
As per Wikipedia,
A description… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrow
A picture in its natural environment… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Achillea_millefolium.jpg
Price - As my parents have a whole ranch of them, I can collect as many as I like seasonally for free.
A smaller version…
As the Mediterranean Garden plants have been manufactured, they come apart at the joints quite nicely leaving you with a perfect little tree. In the past, Nazgul and I have both tried painting them darker shades of green. I won’t be doing that this time.
The Candy Tuft appears to be a dried weed, simply look at the ends of each bunch to “break off” appropriately sized trees. You can make them as large or as small as you like (within reason).
Yarrow grows on long slender stalks up to 3’ tall. All I am interested in is the top 3” or so. Again, “break off” appropriately sized trees.
Now that you have a whole slew of trees ready for the next step, we can look at adhesive and foliage.
Adhesive…
Quite honestly, when I was looking for spray adhesives, I picked this can because it had a picture of a model railroad on the front. How appropriate is that?
Foliage…
Woodland Scenics. I used a green color but you cold use autumn colors if that was the season you were modeling.
Application…
Pour the Fine Turf / Green Grass into a paper plate. I mixed a little tan in with the green for variation. Protect your hand from the spray adhesive or you will end up with fuzzy green fingers (been there, done that). As I had no gloves, I stuck my hand inside of a sandwich baggy and held the trees that way. Apply a fairly heavy coat of adhesive to the new tree. Then, rub the tree around in the foliage until the coverage meets with your approval. Take your time here as you need to be careful not to get any of the foliage onto your branches or it will look like you have green fuzzy branches (as I did on one of them because I was in a hurry). You may need to sprinkle some additional foliage on the underside or other places you did not adequately cover. If the coverage is not sufficient, spray the tree again and add some more.
Mediterranean Garden...
Candy Tuft
Yarrow
Final results…
Mediterranean Garden
Candy Tuft
Yarrow
I also tried all different sizes of the Candy Tuft.
I want trees and lots of them. I don’t however, have the patience to sit down and meticulously construct one tree at a time. I also don’t have the budget to buy box after box of Woodland Scenic’s ready mades. They needed to be cheap, quick and easy to make.
I experimented with three different alternatives…
Tree type #1
Mediterranean Garden - D03 328185
Some sort of manufactured floral accessory
Available at Michaels (an arts and crafts store)
Price - US $4.99 per bunch. Each bunch yields 30-50 trees.
Tree type #2
Candy Tuft, Natural - 402202
Appears to be dried, authentic weeds of some kind
Also available at Michaels (an arts and crafts store)
Price - US $4.99 per bunch. Yield will depend on how big you make your trees – 20-50 trees.
Tree type #3
Yarrow - a common weed in the northern hemisphere.
Make sure you use the dead, dried version.
As per Wikipedia,
A description… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrow
A picture in its natural environment… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Achillea_millefolium.jpg
Price - As my parents have a whole ranch of them, I can collect as many as I like seasonally for free.
A smaller version…
As the Mediterranean Garden plants have been manufactured, they come apart at the joints quite nicely leaving you with a perfect little tree. In the past, Nazgul and I have both tried painting them darker shades of green. I won’t be doing that this time.
The Candy Tuft appears to be a dried weed, simply look at the ends of each bunch to “break off” appropriately sized trees. You can make them as large or as small as you like (within reason).
Yarrow grows on long slender stalks up to 3’ tall. All I am interested in is the top 3” or so. Again, “break off” appropriately sized trees.
Now that you have a whole slew of trees ready for the next step, we can look at adhesive and foliage.
Adhesive…
Quite honestly, when I was looking for spray adhesives, I picked this can because it had a picture of a model railroad on the front. How appropriate is that?
Foliage…
Woodland Scenics. I used a green color but you cold use autumn colors if that was the season you were modeling.
Application…
Pour the Fine Turf / Green Grass into a paper plate. I mixed a little tan in with the green for variation. Protect your hand from the spray adhesive or you will end up with fuzzy green fingers (been there, done that). As I had no gloves, I stuck my hand inside of a sandwich baggy and held the trees that way. Apply a fairly heavy coat of adhesive to the new tree. Then, rub the tree around in the foliage until the coverage meets with your approval. Take your time here as you need to be careful not to get any of the foliage onto your branches or it will look like you have green fuzzy branches (as I did on one of them because I was in a hurry). You may need to sprinkle some additional foliage on the underside or other places you did not adequately cover. If the coverage is not sufficient, spray the tree again and add some more.
Mediterranean Garden...
Candy Tuft
Yarrow
Final results…
Mediterranean Garden
Candy Tuft
Yarrow
I also tried all different sizes of the Candy Tuft.
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