Wicks for Sculpey candles: I've never worked with Sculpey, but I should think that if you put a small needle through your candles before you bake them, then thread a bit of white cotton sewing thread through the hole and secure it with a bit of glue, that would work. You could also fray the end just a bit and rub charcoal or cigarette ash on it to make it look as if it had been snuffed out.

Molly/StormBorn

Microsoft Front Page: I have used Microsoft Front Page extensively and it is, in my opinion, THE best web editing tool on the market. I have also used Corel, Page Maker's version, and Quast and none even come close to FP. There are always a few HTML things that can be tweaked with any editing package, but all in all, FP makes a great product...easy to learn, easy to use, and very user friendly.

Sloan

photo/web site: For the person trying to link pictures to eBay: Some sites just do not allow remote hosting to other sites. Photopoint (pay site now) does, but the mirror free Epson site does not. I don't believe picture trail will accept remote hosting either.

I considered Picturetrail when I was thinking of switching photo sites, but I have decided I like other sites better. Frankly, the music option really bothers me. At least you can turn it off, on web sites where there is music and you can't turn it off immediately, I LEAVE. I find sites with all these extras to be annoying and they take too long to load.

I have been posting all three of my photosites on my signature to see which ones get viewed the most. So far, people still look at the photopoint site more than any of the others. I am fairly happy with Webshots, but have had several complaints about how Zing works - I may abandon that one. As far as Photopoint goes, Rose said she has trouble getting in and needs to use the owners email address. Has anyone ever had problems viewing my albums on photopoint? I wonder if I should be doing something different with my link to make it work for some of you? Let me know if you have had this problem with my link and I will try to fix it.

Bonnie Gibson - Tucson, Arizona

Reduction with scanner: What I would do to reduce a text is first I would scan it at regular size and keep it as a file. I would then import that file to any of my photo management programs. These programs permit one to increase (+) or decrease(-) the size of an image. In my Adobe Photodelux software when I elect to increase or decrease an image it gives me the percentage of increase or decrease from the original file.

DrBob

Reducing using scanner: It depends on your scanner or drawing program software. If the software allows you to scan in at a custom percentage, I'd use 8% (1 divided by 12 works out to 8.33 percent, but my scanner doesn't get that precise). It's probably under some kind of "advanced" or "custom" button or tab. The other thing you can do is acquire the scan through your graphics program, and then reduce the object to either 8.33%, or make the height be what you want (say, 1 inch for a 12 inch high letter) and be sure the reduction is proportional--that way the graphics program has to figure out the width.

Trish in Sunnyvale, CA

Shrinking a letter: I believe Lisa Volrath's miniature site on About.com had a tutorial on reducing and enlarging. Just click on the link below.
http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/c/ht/00/09/How_Scan_Reduce_Dollhouse0969764367.htm

Elizabeth

AOL Hometown Webpages: AOL Hometown can be viewed by anyone (even those not on AOL), and as far as I know, anyone can use AOL Hometown even if they are not an AOL member! There are two programs to create a page - 1-2-3-Publish - does not use any HTML, and Easy Designer which does have Advanced HTML options. AOL Press is not supported any longer - they encourage people to move to Netscape Composer.... Hometown is not designed to create multi page sites, but it is still very do-able. Have fun!

Noella

A lesson in online searching: I was a professional searcher for a number of years and also had the responsibility for training professional and non-professional searchers. Although my experience was in the hard sciences, many of the principles are the same when searching the web for dollhouse miniatures. The reason why I'm posting this is because I have a search engine on my website and I review the terms that people use for searches and people are making common mistakes. In addition, I have a program where I can determine how people got to my site, e.g. links from other sites or searches on search engines such as Google, Lycos etc and I see mistakes in searching on these search engines. I hope my brief lesson will help you find the particular items you are looking for on my site as well as the web in general.

1. Spelling counts
2. Use synonyms and alternate spellings. For example bunnies and rabbits and hare...., goose and geese, teaset and tea set, house and home, accessory, accessories, etc.
3. Use singular rather than plural except where there is a change in the word. For example if you search on bunny also search on bunnies but confine your search to rabbit rather than rabbits. Most search engines will find rabbits if you search on rabbit but may not pick up rabbit if you search on rabbits
4. Narrow your search if you are searching on all of the web. For example if you search on miniatures you will also get miniature horses, dogs etc Use the term dollhouse or scale along with miniatures if you bring up too many non-relevant sites.
5. Truncation. Means shortening the word. If you are looking for a staircase and don't find anything relevant try stair as many people may use the term stair rather than staircase
6. Read the tips on the search engines on how to search. Some search engines use quotation marks if you want to search on a phrase. For example "miniature silver" will bring up sites with miniature silver but the phrase miniature silver without quotes may bring up sites with miniatures and sites with silver resulting in a lot of "false hits". On some search engines there is an option you can select to search for the exact phrase.
7. Language. The British use dollshouse or dolls house and Americans use dollhouse. There are probably other examples.
8. Finally. The "top sites" listed on search engines are often assigned to sites that have paid to be listed as a "top site".

Carol

Dressing dolls: I've never done any doll dressing but here are a couple ofproject pages that might help & give you some ideas.
http://msatminidolls.minilists.com/projects.html
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1139518&a=11209329&f= Gina Bellous's album. She is one of the ultimate doll makers - check out the rest of her album. Also has tips for carving dolls from clay.)

Marty

Sculpting dolls: I've sculpted plenty of dolls, and I like Super Sculpey. Start with a ball for a head, stuck on a dowel end so you can work on it easier. You can add a chest plate or torso later. You'll need some little sculpting tools: one I use the most is the size of a smooth wooden pencil, and sharpened on one end, but to a dull rounded edge, not a point. You can use this to kind of roll features in, or make eye socket-shapes, hollows under cheekbones, indentation of chin, etc. It really is hard to describe, but I'm sure you'll do great. Be sure to bake in oven for just the amount of time required or less, because if you overbake, outer features will turn brown. There are great videos and books out there on sculpting dolls, but I never did use any. I think if you have the basic talent, you'll be able to do it, and I'm sure with all the wonderful things you've done thru the years, you've got the talent! You can email me privately if you get stuck on anything, and I'll do my best to tell you how to do it (or how I would do it)

Paulette Stinson