The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe - I have a pair of old high top ladies' boots or shoes. I think it will need to be in 1/2" scale, to get a lot of children in it. But I do fully intend to do that scene one of these days. I'm going to mount the shoe on a piece of plywood, which will become the yard - and cut windows and door in the shoe and put frames around - and I'll have to have a roof with a chimney pipe. Wish I could work on it today, but I'm working on dolls for a July show coming up. Business first, fun later.

Paulette in IN

Right now, my local True Value hardware store is selling Stanley Cup keychains. They are $2.99. I don't have one in my shop yet, but I do have one. The Red Wings have a sales catalog, so I got on the mailing list. The catalog provided me with team photos and other photos I could use. Here are items I was able to make or buy: The catalog had pictures of post cards. I scanned the post cards and resized them. Then I saved the scan and cut and pasted it several times into my word program. This gave me a page full of postcards to use. I made a makeshift post card holder out of plastic, but you could probably do something better.

I traced a large Red Wing logo onto shrink plastic and baked it. I then set it inside a plastic report cover end piece and had an art object.
A smaller logo was shrink plasticked (is that a word? LOL) into a doorknob. Stanley Cup champion t-shirts were sold all over the place with a shiny round holographic sticker on them. I used that on the front door for a sign.

I had bought a roll of Red Wings gift wrap. I took a photo of it, scanned it, and then printed a bunch to roll into mini gift wrap. I rolled the paper over a toothpick and when done, pulled the toothpick out.

A picture of the original Red Wings arena was cut out of the catalog and glued onto a Formica sample from Home Depot. It made an impressive poster.

A large honey container became my TV. I painted it glossy black and then inserted a photo (I had taken pictures of my tv when the Championship parade was on.) I inserted the photo into the hollow of the container. There was enough edge to glue on 4 black beads for knobs.
- A shoe lace became my Red Wings border around the top of the shop.
- Two hockey player keychains became figures on the top of a shelf. I just removed the keychain part.
- A lapel pin became a sign.
- A championship ring that was sold at Little Caesar's became a shelf ornament.
- Another key chain became another sign.
- A picture in the sales catalog of a puck and player photo became a display. I cut out the tiny photo and the picture of the tiny puck and glued them onto a piece of clear plastic and bent back the bottom a bit for the stand.
- I took photos of the various magazines I could find with the Red Wings on them. When developed, I carefully cut them out and glued them around a piece of matboard. Gave me lots of mini hockey magazines to place around.
- Hockey sticks: I was able to cut out small hockey sticks from the catalog and glue them to posterboard. Colored the posterboard as needed and I had the little souvenir hockey sticks.
- Newspaper: I took photos of the newspapers that had the Championship all over them. These I printed on an off-white paper and then bundled them together with extra paper to make a "full" newspaper.
- Dustpan: (for the sweep!) bought a mini red dustpan and just glued a tiny logo on it.
- Waste Cans: Used small ovals of some sort and glued logos on the sides.
- T-shirts: Cut squares of red fabric and glued them to look like folded t-shirts for the shelf. The top one has a logo glued on.
- Hangers: took mini wooden hangers, painted them white, and added a tiny logo
- Found a hockey goalie mask charm to hang on the shelf.
- Used red pots and pans from the mini store and glued tiny logos on.
- I had window decals that I took pictures of the full sheet and then cut them out and blue tacked them one on top of the other on the wall to look like a bunch on a rack. I couldn't get anything to work at the time as a "hook" so I had to improvise.
- Also took pictures I could get of notepads, stickers, keychains, bumper stickers, etc and then reproduced them in scale to give the feeling of fullness and lots of souvenirs.
- I had pictures of posters to make glossy posters.
- I used red buttons to make clocks with the logos and clock faces cut from the sales catalog.
- I found a calendar on the net that showed the current months Red Wings schedule. I just saved and reproduced it.
- I also took pictures of tiny cupcake picks. These I was able to glue to a small piece of tin (from a lid of some sort) and I had a bunch of mini magnets.
- I painted a wooden train red and white and added a logo for the Red Wings train.
- I took white flocked bears (in abundance at craft stores) and added a logo to their stomach.
- I also found a kid-sized plush hockey puck to make into a "chair" in the shop.
- I painted the floor to look like a hockey rink.

Carolyn in MI

Psychic's Shop: I don't know yet if I'm going to do it in a particular period. I've got a crystal ball, mini tarot cards, an incense burner *remind me to tell you how I did the smoke*. I'm wondering if any of you have any particular knowledge of where to get mini printables of things like astrological charts and maybe a chart of the palmreading symbols. A dear mini friend gave me a kit of a beautiful brown-skinned doll, but I think I'll use her for some other project -- it would be too tempting to try to do a voodoo queen, and I know absolutely zilch about that. Any suggestions at all will be hugely appreciated.

Vicki Horiuchi

Needlework Shop Names:
One stitch At A Time………………………………………Diane in San Francisco Bay Area
The Magic Needle…………………………………………………..Marilyn, MI
Fabulous Fabritique, Little Patterns, Sew Small, The Thread of Life, Threading the Needle, Pins and Needles, Sew and Sew ………………………..Alice Zinn
Threaddy Bear………………………………………………………..Rhonda
The French Knot, The Eye of the Needle, Fiber Arts or the one I called mine, which is The Needle Nook…………………………………….………………Jeanette in Wisconsin
The Flying Needle, Needles 'n Pins, Art of the Stitch, Art of the Needle, Just Sew, Mrs. Stitches………………………………………………………………….Molly/StormBorn
And Sew to Thread.." (aka "And so to bed") for your shop? …….Susie, from Scotland
The Needle-Works, The Needle's Eye, Keeping in Stitches, The Stitchery Palace, The Flying Needle, Threads Galore & More………………………………Paulette in IN
Happy Stitching House, The Stitching Post. ………………………..Paulette in IN
SEWING MAGNET or you could spell it SEWING MAGNATE ……Dolly Kay
'Little Sew and Sew', 'Stitches', 'Snips', 'Fat Quarters' (could double as a name for a weight loss clinic!), 'Frivolous Fabrics', 'Fabric Fancies', 'Material Girl', 'Material Matters',
'The Fabric of Society' …………………………………………………..Trace
Following The Thread ……………………………………………Jacqui from Hampshire U.K
On Pins & Needles, The Pin is Mightier Than the Sword……………Graceanne
Sew What………………………………………………………………..ZanneFrannie

Needlework Shop Name:: I named my needlework shop "Just Needlin' and my Quilt shop "Under the Covers". I think I found the names in a stitchery magazine or something.

Roberta, Wisconsin

Needlework Shop Name: How bout "We're in Stitches" or "The Stitch Witch" (with logo). I saw a shop in Alaska called "The Knotty Shop," which sold large wooden animals made with the features coming from the knots in wood. Would work for thread knots, too, I suppose. A big joke, I guess, to say you went to "the naughty shop"
when you were in Alaska.

Lynette in WNC

Needlework Shop Name: For a name for the needlework shop, how about just, "Needleworks", with the letter l being a picture of a real needle that is threaded and having the thread draping over the rest of the word. I can see the sign in my minds eye now.

Gale S Kerkoski

Needlework Shop Name: My wife has a small (call it a mini) stuffed witch on a broom in the kitchen and it hangs by a string from one of the cabinet knobs and is called a "kitchen witch" it is cute with the conical hat and broom. Real whimsical face. Perhaps the shop can bear the name of "STITCH WITCH" and have little mini "stitch witches" hanging all over the place.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Naming a Shop: I've found the best source for ideas for names come from the Yellow Pages, especially a Metropolitan area. I can't imagine a conflict naming a miniature setting after a real store. We had a store in our area, which closed, called The Needle's Eye. Their logo was a needle with a long thread under the name. Or check shop names listed in any needlework magazine. I named mine Tiny Stitches. Copy it if you like, Rhonda.

Ruth, Grass Valley, CA

Toyshop Names:
Noodle Kadoodle, Zany Brainy, Gear for the Future, Play Pals Shop, Wee Folks Tools
Play While We May, Learning Tools for Little Folk………………….Marilyn, MI
Wee Play, The Toy Box, Play Time Toys……………………………Sloan
Frivolities…………………………………………………………………Mel K.
Child's Play, Kiddy Palace……………………………………………. Karin in Delaware
Small Stuff………………………………………………………………. MAP in Puyallup
Little World………………………………………………………………..Martha Simpson

Toyshop Names: I made a toy store and named it

Toyshop Names: I made a toy store and named it Toys for Tots. A number of friends have commented favorably on the name. You are welcome to use it. Used small wooden letters from Hobby Lobby.

Ruth Morey, Corpus Christi on Padre Island