Hi Susan,

Thanks - do you remember (approximately) the price you paid for the plastic stuff?  And thanks for the idea about building it up from other pieces!

:)

I'm pretty sure this link has been posted before on this forum, but it's certainly worth another look. Check out the amazing architectural details that can be accomplished using corrugated cardboard boxes.

http://www.geocities.com/cbking43/index.html

If you can find a local carpenter who is well equipped with good carpenter's tools, you can have him manufacture your moulding for you from the blue or pink insulation foam.  For a long, long time, one of our members - and his working friend (we used to call them Tim and AL - from Tim "the toolman" Taylor comedy on TV) had a decent table router and he used to cut the pink or blue foam into 5" or 6" WIDE strips and with the proper router bits was able to create all kings of mouldings for use on sets.  It was WAY WAY cheap to do it that way and created any kind of moulding he had router bits for - which were many.  HE DID say however, that cutting a LOT of foam like that was hard on router bits - but if you have good ones - carbide tipped bits - they last a lot longer.  AND they CAN be sharpened by someone who knows how to do that.

We use foam as well. Basically, you translate the molding profile into a series of stacked pieces at 1" or 2" thickness and cut them. We use Liquid Nails to hold them together, with 1/4" luan 6" x 6" plates ever 3 ft. or so on the back, which makes it easy to attach them solidly. The Liquid Nails dries overnight and once it's painted, it looks exactly like wood. The only caveat is that you need someone good to rip the blue foam on a table saw...someone who's careless will create a MESS and poorly cut pieces are impossible for anyone who's trying to apply a router for edging.