Plastic Plates: Many years ago Nutshell News had an article about a woman who used miniature wallpaper to decorate Chrysbon plastic dishes. If I remember correctly she coated the printed side of the wallpaper with white glue and let it dry thoroughly. She then cut out the pieces about the size she wanted including snippets to do the teacups, etc. Then she soaked the paper in water until she could gently rub the paper off the glue. What was left was a decal of the pattern.

Lee Ann

For decals for Chrysnbon plates I have had very good luck making my own. I coat with at least 5 coats my selected design with Super Sealer from J Hermes. Let design dry between each coat and let dry thoroughly. After 12 to 24 hours soak design covered with the sealer in warm water for 5 to 15 minutes. Remove from water and ever so gently with your fingers rub all the backing off. You may have to return to soak a few more minutes. Pat dry and using the super sealer glue it onto plate and seal again with a final coat of sealer. I have decorated dishes this way with designs cut from wall paper and from magazines. I recommend patience and gentleness. By the way Hobby Builders Supply has plastic dishes; cups, saucers and plates, both dinner and salad on page 48 of their Winter 2002 catalog.

Patsy

Dado, Groove or Rebate: Not that it matters, but since you asked; a dado goes across the grain, a groove is with the grain, a rebate is along an edge, so its open on one side.

Tom Berkner

Mini Metal yardstick: I’ve been mulling this over, and the only things I can think of, besides making a decal on the computer, are: Use the metal as you described, and rub on press type letters and numbers, available in art supply stores, then spray a clear coat over it to seal it....or...use metallic card stock or paper and print the ruler out on that, then glue that to the metal.

A tip: when using paper or cardstock for any application of this kind, it looks much better if you use markers   to color the thin edges to match the thing you are gluing it to.

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Adding Sounds: I know there has been some recent discussion about adding sounds to miniature settings. Thanks to Ron of Ron's Miniature Shop in Orlando, who used these in several settings, I found a neat idea online. They are sound chips which can be easily wired into your settings! Here's the link! http://www.ittcsoun deffects.com/puppies.wav   Have fun playing on this site, you can listen to sample sounds!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Sound in Miniature Settings: I borrowed tapes from a Bell Choir and picked out the opening bars of several of my favorite hymns. These were placed between recordings of birds chirping, squirrels chattering, wind blowing and other earth effects. This is on a repeating tape on a voice activated recorder hidden in the foundation of my chapel. The chapel sits in a garden complete with a lake and swans. The effect is enchanting....... I always build a foundation on my buildings that is attached to the landscape set. This has a channel for the actual structure to sit on that allows room below the building for lighting equipment, repair elements of wallpaper and molding, a recorder and other goodies I want to hide from site.

Becky Holliday

Removing a glued label from a magazine: Something I learned about getting labels off of stuff and undoing pictures or anything glued to something without ruining the object is using a product called UNDU  You can buy it in almost every craft store, Wal Mart, any store that carries scrapbooking supplies.   It comes in a plastic bottle with this plastic thing attached to use to lift the glued object from.   You just squeeze a few drops from the bottle, wait a bit and then gently use the plastic thing to get under the sticker or picture and gently lift it.   It will come up and the Undu will not stain or discolor.  I just love it and use it for everything.  It's about $5.00 or so, depending on the size

Michele

Packaging necklaces: I package necklaces and other small items in round foam backed plastic cases. You can buy them from a jewelry display company and they run about 50 cents each. They come in sizes about 1" wide to around 2" wide. They come in groups of 48 (I think it's 48). They also sell a display tray for these but I don't use that.

One trick I use with these is to turn them upside down. The top is not very deep and comes off easily. I reverse the foam (the "top" of the foam is nicer than the bottom), put the piece on the foam, and then put the bottom of the case on with the top on the bottom.

Carol - S P Miniatures

Credit Card vendor: I use Bright Star Promotions. I love them. They are nice, helpful, pay quickly, and their service is not complicated to use. Yes, they take a fee, and I have to call them long distance for card approvals (only for web and phone orders)--these costs are all deducted as business expenses on my taxes, of course. I get enough additional business that the small inconvenience and cost is certainly worth it.

Jane Walker

Pros/cons of charge card use? I use Bright Star Promotions for my credit cards. Valerie Rogers is the contact at 502-423-STAR. She is a delight to work with. You do not need the equipment and you write all the charges. You send the slips to her and she pays now twice a month. I've heard of using COSTCO but don't know anything about it. MIAA also has a setup but the machine is $300. Hope this helps.

Marcia Kerby