More on vines...Here's the revision on the vine projects!!!  Buy steel wool available at hardware stores or even Wal Mart ---Outside, pull and stretch pieces to be used, then spray-paint with some cheap green spray paint. When dry, roll into the plastic plate with full strength Aileen's tacky glue (the gold bottle) Now roll it around in the green foam on another plate and place it on some wax paper to dry.  When completely dry, you can pull and stretch it to get it as thick or as thin as you want it.  Then apply to the surface you want covered, and add roses or other flowers....Good Luck!!    

Jan

Lichen. In the spring when the Lichen first start growing and is still soft, we gather a 40 gallon leaf bag full of lichen. We had a large cooking container and filled it almost full of water (gallon) and a pint of glycerin which we purchase at a drug store. We brought it to a boil and added the Lichen plus some light green food dye. Turned it off and let it cool. After it cooled, we took the Lichen out and dried it on newspapers. As it cools in the water, the Lichen absorbs the glycerin which makes it rubbery. Again, we brought to boiling and added a darker green dye. We also did some in tan and added darker colors to get brown and all the shades between. That was in 1976 and I still have a half bag but it's losing some of its rubbery feel. I plan to soften it up again in the future when I set up my trains and build scenery. In Upper Michigan, there were no weeds in the woods, just moss, blue berries, pine trees and Lichen as far as you can see. It's not hard to do, just like dying a "T" shirt.

Dan B

Fill-in greenery:  Just browse the aquarium section of your nearest pet store.   The plastic plants can be made more realistic by cutting up and spritzing with matte acrylic to dull the shine a bit.   Dollar store florals will also yield silk greenery that can be reshaped.   A few weeks ago I found a huge bouquet of plastic Queen Anne's lace at a yard sale for a nickel.   Repainted and sponged, the blooms make great mini azaleas, and the matte-sprayed, trimmed greenery will make perfect scale leaves for anemones and cosmos.

Loretta_Sniarowski

Garden wall: This week I sent instructions to Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine for passion flowers using punches. I sent them the old looking garden wall that I planted them on to photograph. I don't know when they will print the instructions and pictures but I hope fairly soon. I have been having so much fun with this garden wall that I have been doing.

I have about 15 of them made for the Lakeland show. I cut pieces of wood on my scroll saw 5 1/2 inches tall and wide and chipped a corner out. Then I cut pieces of the plaster casting to fit both sides and chipped off one corner. Then applied a lot of glue to the edges and covered the edges with old fashioned cat litter (not the new scoopable kind). The cat litter was an idea another artisan gave me. I wouldn't have thought of that one! But it is an inexpensive tiny gravel that works great! I have the wall sitting on a small wood base. Then I sprayed the wall with white primer and then painted it with gesso (base coat). Primer and base coat are things I have in the past skipped but on plaster which is so porous, it is a must. The class in Lakeland is going to then apply aging powder (from Micro Mark) with a tooth brush in various areas of the wall.Then they will apply color washes in earth tones frequently during the day. While their color washes are drying, we will be making flowers to plant around the wall. I have been using Marblex self hardening clay around the base to plant flowers and a few weeds around the edges. This clay doesn't stick by itself so I apply a lot of tacky glue to the base, push the clay into place then cover the clay with tacky glue and pour on model railroad dirt. Plant the flowers before the clay hardens. http://www.MaryKinloch.com

Mary from Clearwater, Florida

Brush Tote: A tip for traveling with brushes from my tole painting classes.   Get a woven place mat, slip the brushes between the strips, and roll it up.  This will protect them.  The one I have has fabric strips about 1/4 to 1/3 inch wide.

Quinn

Floor Boards: We can get a hardwood board edging here that is wonderful for hardwood flooring - and very cheap too. If you buy a faced board from somewhere like Home Depot, the cut edges will look like the chipboard that the board is made of. The edges can be disguised by gluing or ironing on a precut wood strip - like veneer, but already cut into widths about 1 inch wide. Some stores may do this for you - but it is available by the roll here.

I buy the 1 inch strip, and cut it into two or three strips lengthwise depending on how wide I want my boards to be. I always buy the pre-glued variety, as the little dried glue droplets help stabilize the board and stop the veneer from splitting or cracking. If you cut short lengths at a time it cuts quite easily - I use scissors. Then I take a sheet of thick cardstock the size I want the floor to be, and lay strips of double sided tape all over - especially around the edges. Then lay the boards in whatever pattern you like - you could easily cut small rectangles and lay as a parquet floor if that took your fancy.

When the floor is complete, I iron it for extra stability, then put it under a flat weight to cool. Then, you need to sand and sand and sand until the floor is smooth - a bit of wood filler might be needed if there are any cracks between the boards. Finally polish or varnish as desired.The results can be beautiful, cheap - and real hardwood.

Lesley, South Africa

Uses for scrub pads: I'm not sure exactly what kind she has, but I pull sections of loofah-like scrub pads to use in cleaning or sanding larger porcelain greenware pieces. I've always thought the stuff would make good foliage for little bushes, painted in variegated greens.

Paulette in IN

Uses for scrub pads: I've seen the green ones used as the base for shrubbery, chopped up and glued to gnarly grape vine stems as a substitute for moss to make bonsai, and have wrapped the other colors in felt or ticking as quickie mattresses if I didn't have fiberfill handy.

Loretta.Sniarowski

For Secretaries' Day, one of our suppliers gave me a carnation that had one of those vials containing water on the end of it. Most of these that I see are green with pointed ends but this was clear with a rounded end (about half inch in diameter). Cut off and placed on a small wooden base, it would make a wonderful dome to cover a mini clock or floral arrangement.

Maureen in St. Albert AB Cda

Sink: I have the plastic protector from inside a cover from a stick deodorant (smallish, oval) that I aim to make into a bathroom sink: I'm thinking a grommet in the bottom center, a counter built around it, some Realistic Water.

Kath