# Creating an indoor forest? HELP!



## ZombieRaider (May 18, 2008)

Everytime I have some money between projects, I buy camo netting....That gets expensive real quick but it's worth it to me.....Spirit sold those trees to the public but they were pretty expensive for cardboard....I think what made them look kind of cool is that they hung jute all around for growth.....If you were to take the jute away, the trees would have not looked good at all....I don't have room for trees inside my building so the camo netting works the best.....Hope that helps....ZR


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## ghostlyequestrian (Feb 13, 2010)

*Making a life size Halloween Tree*

I found this on another site - making a tree with chicken wire and paper mache - looks pretty good, hope this helps!
Life-Size Haunted Tree


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## Brother Grim (Oct 26, 2009)

Well I'm not the only one... bad thing is that I have a huge barn that I was going to do a forest in. The best way to do it is chicken wire and paper mache, however, the shear amount of work involved is making me think about changing my theme.


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## star_girl_mag (Aug 5, 2008)

Brother Grim, don't be discouraged YET. It's only May. I'll let you know if I come up with any awesome ideas. Oh, here's one I have, I'm renting a fountain from my local party rental store($25), in keeping with the fairy tale theme, then to the water I'm adding Atomic Glow($6), which makes the water fosforece (sp?) a bright green under black light. 

I loved the idea of camo netting zombie raider but I have to drape an entire dance hall so i quickly set out to find a similar material that might be cheaper and viola... erosion netting! (About $65 for 900 sq ft. maybe cheaper on ebay) I plan to take lengths of wire between 2 and 6 feet long and attach them randomly to the ceiling, then drape some erosion netting that I've tattered and shredded up over those length, creating a sort of cypress tree effect. Having a whole canopy of erosion netting should help. What do you think? 

I'm still trying to find a few trees that I can use here and there but I think that should REALLY help create a full look.


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## Brother Grim (Oct 26, 2009)

Erosion netting? You mean Jute? Where can I see this Erosion Netting you speak of?


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## ZombieRaider (May 18, 2008)

Yes, That's the stuff Spirit had hanging the way you described....Done right gives it a great forest effect.....Most of the jute is brown....Spirit's was green....I have a much smaller area to fill so the camo netting will work out for me even though it's expensive....I'm going to restretch it this year the way I did the year before...It took away all the "squareness" of the building and really made it feel like you were walking in a bunch of overgrowth.....Good Luck!....ZR


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## savagehaunter (Aug 22, 2009)

paper mache is the way to go


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## star_girl_mag (Aug 5, 2008)

This online fabric store has it for 1.90 a yard! Burlap Erosion Cloth - Jute Erosion Control Cloth Though I think I'll go with a greyish color. Spirit has it in 5 ft. sections for $15 which is spendy but it's green. Here are some photos online I found. 
http://hauntworld.com/safety/images/Picture-4.jpg 
http://www.studio33store.com/v/vspfiles/photos/Erosion cloth FR-2T.jpg
http://www.ghostsofhalloween.com/haunts/2001/full/18.jpg

Another name for it is "DORP." This person uses it heavily in his pro haunt and eve uses it in strips as curtain which looks REALLY cool and WAY cheaper than Camo Netting. http://www.terrorsyndicate.com/tsp_haunts2000.html

Good Luck Brother Grim!


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## LV Scott T (Aug 14, 2007)

I feel your pain. Our haunt this year will include about 45 fake trees! So far, we have 1 done. When I have more time, I will share how we plan on pulling this off. Gotta run.


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## Hollie H (Nov 15, 2009)

We have a "haunted tree" that we created from a metal frame (friend welded it for us) that we then covered in jute, painted and trimmed out with spanish moss. It looks fantastic!

Good luck!


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## halloweenbarb (Jun 9, 2008)

you have to do a think and drink thingy but only MAKE and drink. ask friends to come over for a few week ends and hammerer them out. 1st week end do the framing sencond wee end do some macheing etc.
p.s. try not to get hammered yourself, not too much will get done that way. lol


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## Junit (Sep 1, 2008)

I started to make a mache one a couple years ago but it's still unfinished in my basement  I like the one ghostly posted a link too, but I would put more branches at the top... If you wanted to make a whole forest I would suggest making panels with half trees instead of every tree individually or you will be spending every spare second on them. And then maybe a few individual trees to be out in the middle of your room or something.


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## Sublime Nightmare (Aug 2, 2009)

If you like the cardboard ones Spirit has, you can make them by getting refrigerator boxes from appliance stores for free. I'm always hittin up places like sears and best buy. Even the local mom & pop appliance stores will give you their boxes.


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## Halloween_Mom (Jun 29, 2008)

*real trees*

I have done this for VBS as well as Halloween. We live in a woods and we just went out at cut down some large "undergrowth". If you cut it at least 1 foot taller than you ceilings it works best. We did our bathroom that way a couple of Halloween parties back. Bring the limbs in and wedge them in place. The tall portion will fold over toward the center of the ceiling and will canopy over and wedge into place nicely so that it stands on its own. The only draw back is that the leaves will dry up within a couple of days, but it still looks really spooky especially with the correct lighting. We hid monsters in our trees as well as hung bats and spiders etc. I would recommend this way if you can get your hands on the undergrowth. I have pics somewhere. I will see if I can find them. 
HTH


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## MacEricG (May 26, 2009)

*Base + Tube + Tubing + Craft Leaves = Tree*

Last year I snatched up a bunch of brand new Christmas Tree stands from Goodwill in anticipation of just such a project. They are the honking big plastic ones that have a big reservoir for water.










My plan is to use the stands as weighted footers (possibly filled with sand) and get appropriately-sized concrete tubes secured to the bases to look like trunks. Thoughts were to apply texture (paper maché or something similar) and paint to both the bases and the tubes to look like bark. Depending on availability, I'll probably need to attach two together for each tree.










I am not 100% sure how I will be doing the limbs. My goal would be to make this all collapsable in a way like fake Christmas trees can be stored with removable/flexible limbs. Thoughts here centered on making branches from bendable tubing which would be covered with a flexible substance (Great Stuff foam?) making the limbs thickest where they will be connecting to the tops of the trees.










For the leaves I've got a great plan. I've found that Dollar Tree has a great supply of craft overstock. Part of that selection includes wired faux leaf bunches. Don't know how much I'll need total, but the price is right.










They also have Spanish Moss bagged year round, and at $1/bag, you can't do better.










Looking for feedback on this idea before I get too far. Anybody ever try something like this before?


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## Spats (Sep 21, 2006)

Treetrunks = carpet tubes with three brackets for feet/roots, cover with great foam spar insulation, paint brown, drybrush gray or tan.

We made these and had them along the walls, the tops were in a canopy of fake camo fabric slashed with pinking shears every few inches.


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## BevAnn (Aug 7, 2007)

Spats, you got any pics of those?? I'd love to try this!

I'd like to make 2 trees, in the corners of my dining room....do you just spray the foam insulation diretly onto the carpet tubes? And the "leaves" where just camo netting/fabric, stapled to the ceiling, and hanging down every so often?

Trying to get a mental image here...


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## LV Scott T (Aug 14, 2007)

If it helps, here is the one tree we have done. The structure is a plywood base supporting a 3" PVC trunk with several 45-degree fittings to allow for removable branches. Each branch is made up of a 3" cap with 1, 2, or 3 smaller PVC sticks attached. A handful of 45 & 90 degree fittings give the branches random angles.

Once the structure was finished, Fun Noodles were cut to an angle to meet the plywood base then run up the side of the trunk to give it proper thickness. Branches from artificial trees were added to give it leaves. Then, the entire tree was covered with my favorite skin: fabric saturated with equal parts red latex paint and white glue. Once dry, black paint was applied, but some red was allowed to show through.

Below is an attachment showing it during construction.

Our HomeHaunt this year will need about 40 small trees and 5 large ones, so they will not be as elaborate. Also, the trunks won't have any actual leaves on them. Instead, they'll be supporting a chicken wire and wood canopy which will be covered in fake and real greenery. Vines suspended from the chicken wire will add to the "density" of the trees. Each grouping of 2 to 6 trunks will be attached to a plywood base with twigs and debris glued to it, and the plywood bases will fit together to form the forest floor with a clear path through it.


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## The Archivist (Apr 7, 2010)

Have you seen the Wailing tree that Howloweenqueen did? Here's the link for it. http://www.howloweenqueen.com/wailingtree.htm IMAO, you gotta have at least ONE tree that has some "life" to it.


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## MHooch (Jun 15, 2007)

I found this link, hope it helps:

Creepy Halloween Tree | AranaMuerta.com


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## BevAnn (Aug 7, 2007)

Thanks for the link MHooch - that tree she made is AMAZING!!


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## katyr58 (Sep 22, 2009)

I used large carpet tubes (12 footers) covered in scrunched up brown paper lunch bags, added a little great stuff and brown spray paint here and there. Drill some holes in the sides staggered randomly (this cardboard tubes is tuff stuff) . I used a hand saw and cut different lengths. I then went to the mountains (I live rural Kentucky country) and cut some thin tree branches and placed them in the holes on the tubes Walla...A Tree. I made a T form stand out of 2 by's wood and the tubes just slide right over them, covered base with some netting The tubes are free from any carpet store (or they are in my area). I then put small strips of the creepy cloth or camo cloth to make like moss hanging from them. They turned out awesome. Here is some ideas. You can also use paper towel tubes or wrapping paper tubes to make branches I used this method one time to make palm trees .
.


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