# How to make faux sea weed



## JustJ

That look great! What kind of paint did you use?


----------



## myke124

The dark colors are Rust-Oleum camo brown and green spray paint, the light green is actually Krylon yellow indoor/outdoor spray paint . When painting they blow around so easy its best to hold them at the top and spray them while holding then seprate each strand before they stick together.


----------



## mayleth

simple and cheap.
Love it!!


----------



## badgirl

Great idea! I may have to make some seaweed for our Haunted Tiki party


----------



## ollieee

That looks great Myke. I have been looking for some seaweed for my pirate haunt too. I think i'll give it a try. I want to to hang some in my cave set up. Thanks for the info.


----------



## JustWhisper

Wish I had known this before I spent a fortune on seaweed at Hobby Lobby. Even on sale it costs a small fortune. Thanks for this tip. I will still use it as I need more than what I have. Those look so real.


----------



## preeti22

Thanks for concept,
This is look simple but its too difficult to make it, after seeing these pictures i got some tricks.
Thanks again


----------



## mikieofthedead

Very cool! thanks for the idea


----------



## Terra

Brilliant!


----------



## pumpkinpie

Great idea...and tutorial...thanks so much for sharing


----------



## lilybones

That looks PERFECT. I figure you could use a clear gloss spray if you want 'em wet looking, too.. what a good solution!


----------



## myke124

Thanks for the replies everyone , i've used some ideas from this site and thought i'd share one of my own.


----------



## Ghost of Spookie

What a simple, cool effect. Cheap too! Pirates are a theme we have been planning for a while so something I will definitely remember and use.


----------



## Wolfbeard

*Brilliant!*

Thanks for a great tip! I'm doing Scary Tales and Mother Noose rhymes for next year's Boo Bash. This will be very useful for the "Little Mermaid" corpse scene!

Eric


----------



## Lynn

This is an awesome idea.. I can see putting this to use in many areas of the haunt!


----------



## Figtreejohn

So simple yet sublime (as the best tricks are!)


----------



## Lynn

OK here is something....... how could this be made with a fire retardant material?


----------



## hallowskeepcreations

love the seaweed..nice results!....

here is some pics of seaweed I made....3ft and 5ft regular paints and UV


----------



## JonnF3

Very cool. Thanks for the tip.


----------



## dawnski

Glad I found this post. I'm going to turn my bathroom into a Creature from the Black Lagoon room. This will go perfect in there!


----------



## bognosh

Does the color come off if handled too much? I'm doing a siren/mermaid costume this year, and I think it'd be cool to wear seaweed.


----------



## myke124

It is spray paint it could come off I suppose , never seen any clue of that after handeling it , but is that chance I would think.


----------



## Saki.Girl

this is so cool thanks for sharing


----------



## RCIAG

THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS PLACE!! BOOKMARKED, THANKED, LIKED!!

Simple, cheap, easy yet so VERY effective!!!


----------



## Tconahaunter

Excellent idea. I think I may use this as foliage on some creepy trees I'm making.


----------



## Tconahaunter

bognosh said:


> Does the color come off if handled too much? I'm doing a siren/mermaid costume this year, and I think it'd be cool to wear seaweed.


If you use the spray paint that is made for plastic and not the regular stuff, you should have no problems.


----------



## MummyOf5

Currently working on a pile of this. I've got one trash bag done and am starting to cut a second, still need to pick up some paint to finish it with tho. This is a great project to work on in front of the tv


----------



## frostytots

Those look great. I am thinking of doing a water/moat feature so I will have to keep this one in my memory warehouse.


----------



## Ghost Ninja

Way to go! Great tip, great idea and thanks for sharing.


----------



## ollieee

Those wondering if the paint will flake off ? I used regular enamel spray paint and and with no problems for the last two halloweens thanks again to MYKE124. halloween 2014 will be the third year. I'll see when it comes out of storage in the attic this year. It gets hot up there. I just stuff them into another trash bag then in a box to keep them from getting squished. Use a bright green paint if they will be in a dark setting, they show up better.


----------



## bobdigikbh

Great ideas!


----------



## myke124

Still had no problems with paint comming off , using them again this year.


----------



## stormygirl84

Oh, this is perfect! Last year I used crumpled green crepe streamers, and they were passable... But this is brilliant!


----------



## aero4ever

Wow, those turned out great!


----------



## halloween nut

Awesome I think it will even work in my haunted black light forest the wind will add a great effect to it. Can't wait thanks


----------



## Starlight

Great idea. Not too sure which way I'll take my first skeleton, but was thinking of pirate. Thank you for sharing!


----------



## tdisraeli

*Amazing!!!*

I did this today for my son's dead scuba diver costume and they turned out amazing. I used the green camo paint.


----------



## Shannie-Boo

This is genius! I might do it to throw in the pool. I think if I don't paint it and keep it in big patches, it could make the pool look really swampy. Then maybe I can get some skeletons to sink... Thanks so much!


----------



## tdisraeli

*For the pool....*

Make sure you cut 4" wide strips if you're going to use them in the pool. You'll be totally fine not painting them since sections of the black bags turn much lighter when you stretch them sideways. Also, keep in mind that the length of each strip is reduced by about 40% when you after you make all the little stretches.


----------



## Sandyb

Hi Please can you tell me what kind of paint you used. Thanks


----------



## pumpkinpie

I used Krylon yellow spray paint when I did mine, works great...


----------



## Icepick

pumpkinpie said:


> I used Krylon yellow spray paint when I did mine, works great...
> View attachment 231300




I used krylon fusion yellow, as I had already had some around. It didn't even rub off the plastic. I tried it to see how well it would hold up. I think I'll have it for years before it will need " touching up".


----------



## Sandyb

Icepick said:


> I used krylon fusion yellow, as I had already had some around. It didn't even rub off the plastic. I tried it to see how well it would hold up. I think I'll have it for years before it will need " touching up".


Thank you. I need to make lots as it is for a scene in a pantomime. It will have to stand up to some rough treatment.


----------



## Sharonr3106

I have used this method before and made loads for my pirate party this year. To save time I didn't paint mine at all, I just mixed the darker coloured bin bags with the green garden bags which gave a good blend of colour


----------



## luizacarmo

thanks for the tip . I think I'm going to do some sea weed to put all over the house


----------



## Hilda

I'm resurrecting an old thread worthy of resurrection!
Thanks all for the inspiration. I made some garbage bag seaweed yesterday and I LOVE this! Uber cool trick.


----------



## dempup

Good thinking! So basic and easy to make


----------



## Danski

One of the best ideas I have used. You deserve a gold star for this one. Simple and so effective. I thank you very much for this.


----------



## Madprofessor

This is excellent! I'm planning to make a captain cutler costume (Scooby doo villain ) and he has kelp draped over him. This will work perfectly


----------



## myke124

Got my stuff out yesterday , the sea weed still looks the same as it did in the first post 4 years ago no paint problems at all .


----------



## Blade-of-the-Moon

I wonder if you achieve a similar result from strips of a heavy mil black plastic and a heat gun? thinking for for very large amounts...


----------



## talonrazor

Love this! Pirate theme for us next year for sure!

I started on making a pile. I'm using silver bags as that is what I have on hand right now...lol.









Another option I found is to cut the strips until about an inch or two from the top. This leaves the entire bag as a bunch instead of individual strips that you might need to tie back together. When you open the bag, there will be strips on either side of a center area that can also be stretched.


----------



## iteachculture

In all the photos, I'm noticing that each plastic strip seems to have a seam down the length of the finished strip. Am I missing part of the instructions?


----------



## PRO5OHHO

iteachculture said:


> In all the photos, I'm noticing that each plastic strip seems to have a seam down the length of the finished strip. Am I missing part of the instructions?


Since you're stretching the strip by grabbing the edges and pulling them away from each other (kind of), that leaves a more stretched out portion in the middle. When you let go of the strip and it hangs naturally, that stretched portion in the middle bunches up and looks like a line down the middle of the strip.


----------



## Hanzo_baseball

I used clear plastic dropcloth, it worked great. Thanks!


----------

