Printers boxes/drawers---I love them! I must have 6. Receiving a printers box is what started me in my love of this hobby! Printers boxes make a wonderful "holding area" to hold those miniatures that don't have a spot in the dollhouse yet. A great place to find them is at antique stores/flea markets.

Nursemini

Kid's Projects/clubs: Here goes my 2 cents: I taught a grade 2 class for 3 months this term and I taught them how to create some furniture for their roomboxes. This was the culmination of a unit on mapping. We built their bedrooms (real or dream) in shoeboxes. I showed them how to make pillows, and beds out of boxes and material, dressers and desks, and other furniture made with boxes covered with non-drying modeling clay. This was a long lasting project...about 2 weeks, taking about 1/2 a day each day. They had to paint the boxes with 3 coats to get proper coverage and they were very patient. They knew that it would take time to see their results. Once they got the hang of the techniques for making the furniture and accessories and the techniques for making balls, balls, snakes, pancakes, and tubes with the modeling clay, they got very, very creative for 7 and 8 years olds. They made lots of accessories all on their own, like scooters, Nintendo, computers, chairs, phones, etc.

I was thrilled with the results and so were they. I took pics of each of them with their rooms, and then took the index picture card and cut them up and gave them each their real sized picture and their miniature picture along with a miniature diploma.

I wouldn't hesitate to do this again with this age group or older.

Roz Weitzman

Third garage bay: You may have joked when you said to a/c the porch or the garage. That is exactly what I have in mind. I am using the third garage of a three garage house. What do two retired old folks need a third garage for. Why my mini shop of course.

Dr Bob

Third garage bay: that's exactly what I'm doing with the third garage bay inour house! Make sure that when you have the heating installed in the third bay that it is rated for a garage or your insurance company won't insure your house. I am also insulating the overhead garage door with special insulation made just for this purpose so that it will still be operational should I want to have access to the outside.

Marilyn, MI

Faux books: OK, here are some instructions for making effective closed fauxbooks:

You will need foam core board. Try your local framers. It is foam sandwiched between thin cards. A gold felt tipped pen, thicker rather than thinner. Various scraps of thin leather. Pieces of colored paper (sugar paper looks good for some reason). Black also works well. A sheet of gold Letraset (any letters).

Cut your foam core into various book-sized pieces. For thicker books, stick 2 pieces together. Look at a full sized book. There is a crack next to the spine that allows the book to open. To make these cracks, use an empty ball point pen to score a line on the front and back cover next to the spine. Colour in the edges of the foam core with the gold pen. Make sure you also colour in the edges of the card that sandwiches the foam. Cut leather or paper pieces big enough to wrap around the books and still be JUST larger than the foam core. Where the 'spine of the book will be, make decorative thin gold lines by using the gold letraset. Look carefully, you will see on each sheet of Letraset, thin gold lines under each letter. These are for spacing guides in real life. Use these for your gold decorative lines on the spines. Glue the front and back of the books 'cover'. Position a toothpick along the spine and now wrap the leather or paper around the foam core innards and the toothpick, so that it is JUST overlapping the foam core. Slide out the toothpick. Press the cover into the two cracks you have made. Voila, books! You can also cut out mini cover illustrations from book catalogues and stick these on the front. (Ask your local bookshop.)

Barbara B from South Africa

Sugar paper and LetraSet: What we call Sugar paper is equal to construction paper in the States. It is the cheap craft paper that we use at school for kids craft projects. It is usually sold in multi colour packs and is usually square! It is NOT bright colors. It has a dull, slightly furry texture. Slightly! Maybe if you ask at a craft or paper supply shop they would know what I mean. Anyway, it is in no way crucial to the outcome of the books - it just has the right kind of booky colors! Any other teachers out there know what I'm talking about when I say sugar paper? Yes, LetraSet is the transfer lettering that we all thought so wonderful B.C. (Before Computers!) The kind you rub on with a stylus. That's the stuff.

Barbara B from a snowy Cape Town

Sugar Paper/construction paper: I think you are right about the Canadian/USA term of construction paper. It is a very useful colored paper that comes in many hues.

A word of caution. Some of the papers you get are not stable. In one of my architectural models, I used green construction paper to simulate the carpet on the floor of several rooms. After four years, the carpets are a mottled yucky yellow. There are no guarantees on dye life and some last a great deal longer than others. (Remember, the primary usage of this paper is for children to make wonderful stuff to take home and have stuck on the refrigerator door until replaced by the next one.)

My suggestion is to get the paper in arts & crafts stores rather than the local supermarket. It may cost more, but the quality of the paper can be expected to be better.

Dave

Wax for Candles: I used Birthday candles for this. I light what ever color I want to make and let it drip inside the straw add a tiny piece of thread or string and let harden. To make it quick I put in fridge. Then cut a slit on the straw to remove candle. I also add different colors as I go and make multi color ones a bit longer or shorter what ever you like. If you find that the wax gets stuck just spray some Pam into straw first.

Leilani

Pet shop: I once created a pet store in miniature and here are some of the ideas I came up with that I didn't buy ready made. Magazine and other advertising gives great mini sized labels for bottles, cans, etc., for feed, flea spray or whatever. I make the cans and bottles out of various materials, but Sculpy III is wonderful. After baking the cans and bottles, glue the labels on and they look very convincing. Then I made leashes, chain leads and collars from very fine necklace chains and leather, rawhide treats (from translucent Sculpy III) look so real whether rolls or bone shapes. Boxes can be built and labels attached for bird seed, etc.

I cut pieces of acetate and glued together an aquarium with silicon glue (bathtub type in clear) then filled most of the way with clear resin two part material for "water". Before it was fully set, I added tiny baked Sculpy III aquatic plants and colorful fish. I kept pushing them down with a wire or toothpick until the material was set enough that they wouldn't float up all the way. This was a terrific aquarium. Unfortunately over the years the resin has yellowed some.

Lastly I made small critters like mice or Guinea pigs with Sculpy III and placed them on tiny "shavings" with little feed bowls and bottles in cages I made from scratch. The cages were squared sticks of the right scale of bass wood from the hobby store cut to length and glued to make a rectangle frame with a hinged hatch type top opening with handle. Then the entire cage covered with a very fine window screen (nylon, not metal). Very, very cute. This was all for 1:10 to 1:12 scale.

Pamela in GA

Auction Additional Charges: I have been active on eBay for over a year. I have had many good experiences with it. Unfortunately, there are "not quite honest" folks there as anyplace else. I would suggest you contact the seller and tell her/him how you feel. The worst that can happen is they refuse your bids in future. No matter how well you like their items, if you feel you are being abused, it takes a lot of the fun out of it. Be very specific about such details as shipping. I save ALL email contact from buyers and sellers for future reference. It sounds like you did the electronic thing with your checking account. Everyone, be very careful about doing this. Not just on the Internet, but anywhere. Once you have given them permission to do that, they can do it anytime they want. I found this out the hard way with a book company. I thought it only applied to a particular purchase. Not so , replied my bank. Okay. Enough doom and gloom.

Joyce