Landscaping: I think model railroad shops/departments are a good place to start. If you want a lawn they have those big grass mats and/or loose grass in different colors. They have little trees and bushes, not in the same scale but the trees can pass for bushes etc.

And, at Michael's or other types of stores depending on where you live, once the

Halloween stuff is in stock thru Christmas, they get these great trees in for the village scenes. They are kind of expensive (for me, for 1 tree) but the fall ones are nice and would work as a smaller tree. I also recently got some vine looking stuff on wire that I'm going to use as creeping vines up one side of my house where there are no windows. You can also find some nice fabric and ceramic flowers in the bridal/favors section.

"MiniKitz" http://www.minikitz.com They sell the cutest loose leaves, summer or fall colors, to scatter about.

Karyn Zabrouski

Large trees: I made one from electric wires, twisted together with most of the wires making up the trunk and then thinning out as you get higher in the tree. I subsequently saw the same technique used in an artist's scene in either Miniature Collector or Dollhouse Miniatures You can paint the wires so that they appear to be solid and add

foliage and flowers for a flowering tree_ after you have the framework done. The tree in the magazine was a fall tree, with beautifully coloured flowers.

Jackie in Ontario

Large trees: I used string-covered florist wire... then (after twisting the bottom together to make the trunk, and spreading out the top parts for branches) I "paint" it all with a fairly thick mixture of(I think it's called putty-plaster) or something like that. When dry, I gave it a wash of acrylic paint. It becomes a VERY realistic looking tree as the putty provides a bark-like appearance.

Viola

Large trees: A trick I learned in a workshop recently: Before painting the wire used to make the trunk and branches, cover the whole thing with a thin layer of glue. The glue sticks to the wire and the paint sticks to the glue.

Pat M, London, ON

Tree Trunks: I recently took a class from Mary Kinloch and the subject was a weeping hibiscus tree (from Gulf South Show) and learned her method of creating tree trunks. It works fantastically and thought since the subject came up I would share her knowledge. She started out with floral wire. (since these trees are small, the wire was small). Do not twist wire but glue to keep in place, pulling out branches as it is being twisted, let dry. Once the tree is together as you like it, you paint it with a mixture of gel medium and color of choice (brown, tan, black blended for color) no real recipe, just add color to your liking to the gel. You paint it on quite thick creating a more rounded trunk. You can paint up the branches as far as you like...but it is not necessary as most will be covered with leaves. Let dry for 24 hours. As it dries the gel medium will shrink and hug the wires...this makes for a more natural, life-like tree trunk. It is really an ingenious method, time consuming (because of drying), but well worth the effort. You can add baby powder for texture if you like and dry brush paint colors such as grays, browns, greens, (to your liking)to the trunk for that richness in color.

Rhonda in Fl

Trees...The only thing I would add to Rhonda's description is that while the gel medium is still wet, I sprinkle on texture material. Texture material is used in wall paint and is available at Home Depot. It would be like using sand. Some of the sand I have gotten dissolves. That is why I don't use it. The other good thing about gel medium is that when it dries you can still bend the branches or trunk and it won't crack. I once used a water putty (in a kit) for a tree trunk and once it dried it would crack very easy.

Mary Kinloch

Realistic looking trees: I've thought that many trees used with 1/12 scale dollhouses are too small to be realistic. In real life, most shade trees and evergreens tower over one and two story houses, but the trees sold for miniatures are usually no more than 10 inches high. That would be a pretty small real life tree. I have found a company, though, that makes beautiful realistic trees, and some are 18 or 24 inches high. If you're looking for large trees, check out this website http://members.aol.com/architrees/

Mary in Virginia

Mini fountains: Hi all, just wanted to share my victory over the mini fountain I wanted but couldn't find any where. I made two circles out of cardboard, cutting one smaller in diameter than the other. Then covered each with fimo kneading medium, fluting the edges to look like fountain bowls. I built up the bottom base by adding tiny balls of medium around the edge. I then took a dolphin finding I purchased at Michaels a while back, (they are jumping dolphins, flat on one side) cut off the loop on the top and sanded with my Dremel, then glued two together to form a complete dolphin. I centered this in the bottom bowl and anchored it in a ball of fimo with e6000. I then attached the top bowl to the head of the dolphin in the same manner. Bake this.

I then took a silver bell cap that has eight tear shaped holes and one in the center. I strung eight loops of stretch magic around a toothpick to make a top loop, put the ends down through the center hole bringing each end back up through the eight tear shaped holes and glued the top hole to hold the loop. I centered the bell cap w/strings into the top bowl, glued this down, cut each string end to fit and glued each end into the bottom bowl. This looks like strings of water falling from the top bowl to the bottom bowl when finished.

I then cut each top loop, curled each end down and anchored to the bell cap with glue. When dry, I drizzled blue tinted scenic water into each bowl and down the strings, then drizzled ultra glow over that when dry. I used cigarette ash to dabble onto the fimo kneading medium before baking so it looks like marble and "voila" a really cute, spouting dolphin fountain! I made two of these in three hours, the other one has a pewter coyote holding up the top bowl. They are going to look great in my gazebo and conservatory with white wire wicker furniture.

Judy in Oregon

Switching Battery lights to 12v: This is actually pretty easy to correct and it doesn't mean changing the lights either. All you need to do is go to your local Radio Shack or another similar store, such as an electronics surplus shop, and pick up an adapter (transformer) of the right voltage for your lights. This could be either a single voltage unit or what they call a universal adapter that has a switch to change the output voltage. They may also have a female connector to plug the adapter into, and this can be mounted on one side of the battery compartment and wired into the circuit. If the female connector is not available, you can cut the end off the wire and connect it directly. One advantage to using the female connector is that it can be wired in parallel with the battery connections and leave the option of using either power source.

David in Santiago

Front Door Light: Assuming that you're using tape wire, and the door opens outward using brass hinges, run tape through the hinges, which will give a good contact. I've done it this way, and it worked just fine.

Elizabeth