Faeries & Elves: I have a step by step how-to on making a sleeping baby fairy on my site. http://gerdesdesign.com/northwest.htm It was also in Dolls in Miniature a few years ago, and Viola may have a back issue available. I also made some elves following the basic methods of Maureen Carlson from her excellent book, recently mentioned here, "How to Make Clay Characters". Just made the ears pointy, skin green, and gave him an acorn top cap: no longer human, now an elf! There are pictures of my elves too, if you go to the URL above.

Anne

Polymer fairy instructions: Sue Heaser has a great little fairy to make step by step:
http://www0.delphi.com/polymerclay/PCC/suefairy.html

Marilyn, Mini-ing in RV

Grout for marble floor- I put one inch tile on the floor of my mini kitchen and bath. I used the tile adhesive to glue it down ( the real stuff) and mixed up real grout for it. Since the mini floor doesn't get wet, the grout stays white too.

Teresa from Canada

Marble tile grout: Get the lightweight spackling from the hardware store, and wear a rubber glove. Stir the spackling, dip your gloved finger in water then scoop up a bit of spackling and "smoosh" between the tiles. When you are done "smooshing" wipe the entire floor with a wet towel. Smooth over any disturbed grout lines with a wet gloved finger. If you used grey marble, the white spackling will do. For colored marble, tint a bit of grout with waterbased paint and stir very well (make more than enough for the job as you don't want to be trying to match the color halfway through) As your dolls will not be walking on the tiles and spreading dirt and germs, I wouldn't bother to seal the grout. Much less work than grouting a big floor!

Whui

Paper clay floor: I have used paper clay to tile the floor of my dh kitchen quite successfully. Roll it out quite thinly and apply to a base with glue. It doesn't have to go down in one piece; because it takes time to dry, you have lots of time to work with it flattening and pushing bits together. When the base is covered, press in tile indentations (I used a bamboo shishkabob skewer). When happy with the coverage and look, let it dry. When dry, I painted with a grey wash being sure to get a it in all the grout lines. After this has dried paint your desired colour remembering to vary it on different tiles. I made mine to look like terra cotta tiles. Finish with a varnish of your choice.

J. Strobel

Paper clay floor: it sounds like you did your paper clay floor in a very similar way to how I did the floor in the Three Bears Cottage. One thing I did differently was to add a bit of gray paint directly to the clay before spreading it since I was making a gray stone floor. It made it a bit more gooey and probably took a little longer to dry, but it gave a good base color to work with.

Christi Walton

Porch colors: let me share with you a problem I had with a life-size house. I wanted to redo our porch. So I started out by going out and on purpose paying attention to every porch I saw. I even looked around in the capitol city where I worked and thought I would come up with fertile ideas to copy. NOT! I discovered here in the heart of NH that either people are afraid to try something different or they are very conservative. The porches were either white or the same color as the house.

So I read a book on porches and found an idea I liked. All the trim and wood on a vertical plane, make a color close to the house--either lighter or darker and all the horizontal planes make another color contrasting color and make the door a punch-out color. Here is what I did. I make three quick sketches of the porch lightly in pencil and then tried three color schemes using colored pencils. I found this way a little time consuming, but the one to go with was very obvious. I asked each family member and there was consensus. IN the end I did the vertical pieces a deep yellow gold and the horizontal was a deep teal and the door was a deep red (not bright). That means that I did the floor the same deep teal. I liked the natural look of the ceiling ship lathing and stained it a golden oak. Now when we need to direct someone to our house, we tell them about the porch. And who said you could not make mutton taste like lamb or make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!!!!

Gary in NH

WITCH: directions on how to make a mini-crashing witch: Inspired by the real-sized crashing witches seen locally as Halloween decor, I made one in 1" scale. I am assuming that you want this to look like a witch outdoor decoration. If you want her to be a REAL witch, make her cape of cloth instead of plastic.

You need:
1 mini straw broom (or make one from a twig with raffia)
a bit of fluffy stuff for hair (unraveled Bunka, yarn, whatever)
mini-sized doll with moveable (or amputateable) arms & legs with feet with shoes (I used a small $1. plastic bendable witch from Meijier's and painted the hands a nasty greenish color. You could model them from Fimo instead or use a cheap small doll.)
Black plastic garbage bag or black cloth
mini witch hat
several inch piece of thin black ribbon or thread

Arrange the witch figure so that her arms are extended straight out to the sides from her shoulders. You may need to dismember and duct tape them back on. Only her hands and lower legs & feet will show. Arrange her feet & legs so they are extended as far apart straight out as possible. You can paint on striped hose if you want. Glue on fluffy hair, and glue on witch hat over hair.

Glue her sitting on the broom so that the broom straw is sticking out from her backside and the end of the broom handle is flush with the front of her crotch. You may need to cut off part of the broom handle so it is not too long. Cut out a cape with a stand-up collar from the garbage bag. ( Size depends on the figure. I cut out a 4" square, then notched in the top a bit for the collar. You want the cape to cover all but her hands and lower legs/feet. ) Tie the cape around her neck just below the collar, using a piece of thin black ribbon or thread. Cut jagged pieces from the sides & bottom of cape, so it looks ragged. Push up cape a bit in the middle so the broom straw sticks out. Glue cape in a few spots to hold in place. Voila! You can fun-tack (the plastic squishy adhesive stuff) her front flat to your house, building, etc. Or, wrap her arms & legs around a tree trunk. Her face should not show. You should be able to see only the back of her head, wearing the hat, plus the cape with her hands & feet sticking out in a X shape, like she crashed into the house in midair while distracted. I did a life-sized "Harry Potter" style crashing witch for my friends' excellent Murder Mystery Book Store and a popular little touch was the cell phone clutched in her cold, dead hand.

Terri Rowe

Halloween Plates: Go to printable http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/mbody.htmthey have all kinds of printable and i know they had the plates.

Pam In North Ga

Victorian Web Site: Just wanted to share a wonderful site I happened upon for any of you researching the Victorian era. Loaded with all kinds of wonderful information. www.victorianweb.org

Bobbie Schoonmaker - NY