need advise on how to make your own convincing tree's and shrubs and such.  so far i have found cotton works if you dye it green. and make trees with wire and brown floral tape, but I need more range more diffrent kinds of foliage, so any help would be wonderful.

Why not use miniature stuff from train sets? If you go to a hobby shop, there should be packets of fake foliage, perfect for any miniature sets.

true, I would need to order it for we have non around here, there os a problem with some of those things as well, the fact that most of it is made from real moss and such and actually gives off an oder, that if your allergic to things is not good to be a round, I use to use floral moss, the stuff you can get in big bags, in the floral section of a craft store, and I had to get rid of it for it smelled so bad, like a musty basement.
but thank you for the idea, I shall look into it more, and see if theres any synthetic brands.

Oh, I didn't know it was real moss. I think I've seen some in Australia that was fake - but that doesn't help you much!

How about using bits of tissue paper?  You could cut it into small leaf shapes or just fine little bits. There is also synthetic grass that is used in Easter baskets. Check your craft store for flocking that is used in train sets and such. It is synthetic.

If you're going to the craft store anyway, check out the artificial flowers and plants there. There might not be any off-the-shelf solutions for you, but you may get some ideas looking through them.

Another thought is that you might not want to use a strictly realistic approach. I can think of a lot of animated films that use very stylized trees and plants in the backgrounds, almost abstractions. The style is different from the animated characters themselves, but the two styles blend and complement each other nicely.

Would flat, cartoony, painted cutouts work for your sets?

 

Ron G.

Thank you all for you advice and Ideas, I will look into them all, when I get to the store next.  also I have enclosed a picture of what I came up with so far. it's basically just aluminium wire with brown floral tape and dyed cotton balls hot glued on, with a matt painting I did of a sudo forest. for the back drop, It still needs more trees, and alot of foliage on the ground. it's definatly to clean right now.  I'm also thinking maybe i could use masking tape, fold a piece over on it self and paint it green and cut shapes out of it for plant leaves??  or maybe use dead pine needles painted green or what ever??
thanks again, and keep the ideas coming.

I really like what you have so far!  Have you tried using the cotton but in not so dense style? In other words pull the cotton apart some before you add it to the "trees".

Ooh, I like it! The colour and texture for the foliage is great!

No I have not tryed to pull it completly apart and fluff it up and such. Maybe I'm just being lazy. I'll give it a go next time I work on it and see what happens.