Gutters: you can make gutters from heavy card. See url below and check out the garden shed files. There are patterns for a gutter and downspout that might help you to design what you need. It is amazing what you can make out of cardboard.
http://printies.homestead.com

BarbaraD

Gutters: I just received a fascinating catalogue via my mother-in-law for the English company Sussex Crafts, Peter and Yvonne Warwick. They have a guttering and drainpipe kit which includes 3 x 11.5" gutters, 3 x 9 7/8" drainpipes, 7 brackets, 4 double ended pipe joints, 1 gutter "T" piece, 2 end caps, 1 end plate, spout, grating, and bend, together with instructions. The fittings are metal, guttering and pipes in easy to cut plastic. The total is 16.90 pounds sterling, plus shipping. The components can also be bought separately. They also sell pre-Victorian style lead look drainpipe and fittings.

The catalogue is full of information and all kinds of items. They make the servant's bells discussed recently, and a shop bell, plus a variety of taps/faucets and ceiling roses also as recently sought. All kinds of kitchen, scullery, bathroom and fireplace stuff, and individually named mice!

Wendy in Clinton, NJ

Eavetroughs: I made eavetroughs for one of my dolls-houses using thin gauge copper sheeting, the kind you can get at Michaels Craft Stores. It is thin enough to be cut with a utility scissors. I used a block of wood just three inches long and drilled a 5/16" hole into it and then cut it in half on the table saw so I had a channel in the wood. Now lay the sheet of copper over the wood block and place a 5/16" metal dowel on the copper sheet and tap with a hammer. This creates a uniform copper trough. You will have to move the copper down along the block until you have created a whole piece. The pieces can then be soldered together or lapped if you wish. You can change the dimension or dowel to achieve different size eaves. Be sure to use enough copper, at least 1", so you can place it up under the shingles.

Dan (Crabbyelf)

Coloring stucco: I used strong tea (w/o the ammonia) to color stucco. it came out great. i used fruit tea on the inside to stain the indoor stucco, and that came out so nice that i used it to stain my real fireplace in my real house that i live in. but stone is not quite as porous, and i had to add a little acrylic paint.

Judy London

Vinegar & Nails: As Helen posted, you DO NOT mix nails and vinegar in a CLOSED container. Use an open Pyrex glass bowl and set it outside to avoid the fumes. Since my husband restores antique firearms, another comment. This is the same solution used to "rust-blue" gun barrels which are then polished to a high shine and oiled. You are creating a rusting solution. Therefore any other metal objects you place near the part you have done can develop rust in time.

Ruth

Milk: Milk can be convincingly simulated by using white stained glass paint, resin tinted white, and probably, although I've never tried it, by mixing white glue with a bit of white acrylic paint. You might have to do this in layers, adding some as the previous layer dries. I believe Scenic Water has also come out with a milky white to go along with their clear product.

Alice Zinn

PIZZA - The long promised Pizza How-To is finally up at my Website. Health stuff had put me out of commission for the last 2 months. Anyway..... for those of you who have been compiling the Mary's Menus Cookbook, go to the second page of my website and click on Mary's Menus Projects. For all the newbies here at SmallStuff, you may be interested in the other projects there also. Feel free to print them out and build a "cookbook" of your own. http://www.pannikins.com

Mary (Eccher) Pannikins/Hudson River Miniatures

Chrysnbon kits: Model airplane glue or any other plastic model cement (Testors makes one) is perfect for these kits.

I, too, never knew what a "cleansing tissue" was, maybe I'll find out from someone else who posts an answer for you! But I've always found that if you apply the wood stain they give you with a foam brush in very thin, watered down layers it gives you a more transparent finish a la real wood.

Karyn Zabrouski

Cleansing tissues: They still sell cleansing tissues where they have the fabric paint in the writing tubes. The differences between Kleenex and cleansing tissues is that the cleansing tissues have a little more substance to them (they don't pull apart as easy as a Kleenex) and they have no little hairy fibers to stick in the paint (or under the roller balls) and mess up all your hard work. I don't know how they make a fiberless tissue, but that is exactly what it is supposed to be.

Peggy

Gluing Furniture: [ I'm trying to make my own furniture and the wood glue does not hold]
- Use Aileen's tacky glue. any excess you get on the wood can be wiped off with a damp rag, and the glue sets up fast. i never actually MADE furniture, just repaired it, and that is what i used.

Judy London