# Faux carpet moss for tombstones



## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Step 5

Come back in a few hours, and mix a cup of watery sap green. Then and add a bit of yellow for a yellow tinged green color, and drizzle it onto the grits. Again, wait for it to absorb/dry. Seriously? More drying time? Yeah, get over it, it looks sweet when finished.  If it makes you feel any better at all, we are just to the halfway point. I'm sorry, I know that was evil. 











Step 6

Apply another layer watered down yellow green, then a layer of watery glue, and follow that up with another layer of grits. Tinting the glue is the goal we are after here. Remember, even coats of grits. If the layer is more than roughly one piece thick, the glue will not hold it in place. Thereby creating a whole new set of problems for yourself. *Sigh* Drying time. :/ Looks pretty nasty at this stage. Worry not, that will change very shortly!










Repeat as necessary to achieve the desired thickness.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Step 7 

That was the final layer of material, and from here on out...it's just paint, paint, and more paint. At this stage, drop a little sand into the low spots to simulate thin spots in the carpet moss. I vary the mixture heavily between layers. I think that I used somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 different shades that I mixed on the fly. Ranging from a blue green (mostly green ofc) to a yellow green. Finishing it out by dry brushing very a very light coat of sap green, and then lemon yellow for highlights. Anyway, let me shut up & let the pics do the talking. Here's the eye candy.




























When I finish it, it will be crawling up along the obelisk proper. But now, I have to get back to making the base plate for the stone. 

:


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Oops, edit misposted.


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## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 8, 2010)

Looks good. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.


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## The Halloween Lady (Jul 17, 2010)

Wow, that looks super! Nice job.


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## Nepboard (Sep 21, 2009)

Looks like the real thing! Thanks.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Amazing how authentic it looks! I think the effect you get is worth the time it took. Love the way it feathers out on the edges and the colors are perfect.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

If you didn't have the process pictures as evidence, I'd swear you just let some real moss grow up on your prop... beautiful and very detailed.


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## billman (May 1, 2006)

Wow that looks real!!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Saruman of Many Colours said:


> Looks good. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.


Your very welcome, and thanks!  



The Halloween Lady said:


> Wow, that looks super! Nice job.


Coming from talented individuals such as yourself, I am humbly grateful that you think it worthy of such praise.  Mayhap, a little of this crawling over the protruding roots of your spooky trees (which are freaking amazing btw!), might be an awesome application? 



Nepboard said:


> Looks like the real thing! Thanks.


*Bows deeply* Thank you kind sir 



Terra said:


> Amazing how authentic it looks! I think the effect you get is worth the time it took. Love the way it feathers out on the edges and the colors are perfect.


Thanks Terra! I couldn't agree more, although it is very time consuming. The end result is definitely worth the effort in my humble opinion.  A compliment from the paint master is humbling indeed! Thanks for the kind words. 



Frankie's Girl said:


> If you didn't have the process pictures as evidence, I'd swear you just let some real moss grow up on your prop... beautiful and very detailed.


*blushes, and abashedly shuffles feet* Awww, it's nothing special... I'm kidding, lol!  Thank you so much, I'm glad you like it!  *haz beeg grin nao*



billman said:


> Wow that looks real!!


Many thanks! I'm happy you all like it!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

There has been a slight change of plan for this stone over the last couple of days. I decided while imagineering the base, to extend it a bit (honestly, it looks pretty imposing at about 7' tall sitting on the table). Not quite 2', although I wish that I could. Albeit storage then becomes a serious issue. In considering that, I have come to the conclusion that it would be a great place to hide a power/sound/control center and a small subwoofer. In any case, I scrapped my earlier plans, and will be framing the interior with white pine to give it some much needed strength & weight to support everything.

Another idea under consideration is to extend the plywood on the base outwards away from the stone to tie the carpet moss into the lawn that it rests on. Lol! This project just keeps getting more complicated every time I even look in it's direction.


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## HallowSusieBoo (Aug 11, 2009)

*Uh oh --- sounds like the techno bug has bitten!! Wonderful idea to now let your mossy magic and the obelisk conceal all the woofers and wonderment of sound! If only this adaptation could be done in REAL graveyards! Might help make a visit to your dearly departed an enjoyable musical experience as well! Luv this build and thanks for the tute! BOO*


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Lol! Thanks! Yeah, the techno bug bit me a long while ago.  That would be awesome if someone adapted the built in sound to real tombstones, I think I may have to alter my will...


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## Bryan316 (Oct 18, 2009)

This truly shows the fine line between amateur haunting, and PROFESSIONAL prop building!

Once you expand the moss over the plywood on the ground, get some fake leaves, or hell, real leaves, and kinda glue them in place somewhat lying on the moss. Will help you to hide the edge of the plywood as it blends in with the lawn.

And never underestimate the usefulness of a few bags of topsoil! Heck, even save a small bucket of grass clippings, let it dry out and go yellow, and sprinkle that over the base as well.


It is so much fun overdoing things to get crazy-awesome results. So worth all the time and work.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Bryan316 said:


> This truly shows the fine line between amateur haunting, and PROFESSIONAL prop building!
> 
> Once you expand the moss over the plywood on the ground, get some fake leaves, or hell, real leaves, and kinda glue them in place somewhat lying on the moss. Will help you to hide the edge of the plywood as it blends in with the lawn.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the outstanding comment! What you mentioned about blending it into the landscape is exactly what I have planned. The frame & wiring are finished, & I already have silk grass & leaves waiting. Thanks for the tips  

I'm taking a little bit of a break on it for the moment because I actually had to order Foamular from an outside source. If you can believe...Home Depot and Lowes are no longer carrying XPS foam here. Unfortunately, it will come in with the regular stock order from a smaller commercial construction supplier in a couple of weeks, being that I don't want to pay separate shipping on 4x8 sheets. Not so happy about that tbh. That's ok though, I've got other projects to keep me busy in the meantime.


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2012)

Looks so good!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

hollow said:


> Looks so good!


Thanks!  

I've made a few revisions to the plan since I posted here last.  I decided to include a built in mp3 player (that I hacked), flush mounted into a control panel on the backside of the stone (working on this now, actually), which will be hidden by a removable panel. Which also contains the master on switch for the gfi protection system. The plan for using it for power distribution has been expanded to include not only AC power, but also a central power distribution for the LED spotlights I've been making. Also a couple of 5 volt, and extra 12 volt outputs just in case I run into anything in the future that I want to add. All distributed through a 24 pin ATX connector at the rear of the baseplate. I'm just about ready to skin the new lower extension with mashboard for reinforcing the foam so no one can "accidentally" put a foot through it w/o giving it some real effort. Just in case. 


One thing that I've not decided on yet, is whether or not to include LED's in the base itself to up light the stone. On one hand, I like the effect. On the other, I hate being able to see the LED's directly, and I have not been able to figure a way to obscure them from view effectively. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. 

I hadn't really thought of it, but if anyone would like to see...I can take a couple of quick pics tomorrow.


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## stick (Apr 2, 2009)

Love the look of this, very true to life. Will be trying this out.


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## Hilda (Jul 31, 2011)

Fantastic!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

stick said:


> Love the look of this, very true to life. Will be trying this out.


Thank you! I'd be very pleased to see someone give this a go, be sure to post pics for us! 



Hilda said:


> Fantastic!


Cheers, madame! *Tips hat, & bows deeply*


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## grimreaper1962 (Jan 11, 2012)

Great looking moss. I was thinking more on the lines of model railroad mossy texture but this looks more real I think. Again.... Great job! And great tutorial!!


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## TheHauntStore™ (Jun 4, 2010)

This is a Great Tutorial. Thanks for your hard work. Nature at its best! I wonder if this could be used as Mold too?


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

grimreaper1962 said:


> Great looking moss. I was thinking more on the lines of model railroad mossy texture but this looks more real I think. Again.... Great job! And great tutorial!!


Thanks!  I had thought the same w/ the model railroad electrostatic type grasses before I gave this a try. Except that this came out so well, I decided to stick with my creation instead. I believe it looks better too.  




TheHauntStore™ said:


> This is a Great Tutorial. Thanks for your hard work. Nature at its best! I wonder if this could be used as Mold too?



Many thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!  I would think so, but I'll concede that the original version by Dave of the Dead @ The Shadow Farm, would be more suitable as a technique for mold. You'll see what I mean in the pic below...


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## Dminor (Jul 21, 2006)

Any updates on the obelisk?


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Yeppers, plenty of them in my albums   here. I totally forgot to snap the finished pics before packing it into my storage a couple of months ago when making room for the column builds. Everyone will have to wait until I set up this year for the completed pics, because it's way in the back of the storage unit (one of the first things that went in...)  


I have a later picture or two when I was applying the moss around somewhere, if I can lay hands on the sd card that they're in. I'll see if I can find it this evening.


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