Project for child visitor to take home: How about creating a scene in a child's tin lunchbox? That would be highly portable, and she could even take it out and play with it on that long plane ride home. As for the insides, schoolrooms are somewhat universal and fun to create.

Geo. Held

Project for child visitor to take home: I don't know if you can sew but there have been several patterns over the years in the pattern books for folding dollhouses of fabric that would be very lightweight to carry back on a plane, including dolls, furniture, clothes etc.

Ana Gerard

Stain for Plastic Potty: I recently used Minwax Gel Stain with fairly good results. The package says it is good for painting on fiberglass. You just use 2 brushes to get the right finish. I tried it on a scrap of plastic, and seems to be OK...just a little tough to get a nice texture. It doesn't smell very strongly, but you will need to put a stinky sealer on top after the stain dries

Whui in SF

Cutting toothpicks: Made a new discovery. I cut some toothpicks out in the shop by rolling them under a razor blade, but the project I was working on was in the house. I grabbed up my cut toothpicks, and went to the kitchen with them. Found out they were a little too long. Of course I didn't want to run back out again. As luck would have it, my sister-in-law gave me a pair of toenail clippers for puppies, and of course they were on that jam packed kitchen table. So......I used them to cut one of the toothpicks. Works wonderful! They're super sharp, don't mash the toothpicks and much quicker than the old way.

Bonnie Lavish

Paper: I too have an obsession with paper. It started with Joann Swanson and her articles but went from there to what can I make from paper. So most my roomboxes and accessories are made from paper, foamcore, matboard and card stock. I do make sure that what I use is as acid free as I can get it. I even make tables from matboard and when I'm finished with them they look like wood. Only wood in them is the legs. The purpose is dual fold. It keeps the roomboxes very light and easy to hang, but it also is very satisfying to see the look on peoples faces when I tell them almost everything is made from paper. The last 3 boxes I've done have even amazed me.

Kathy in E. TN

Icebox Shelf: I made a wire grill for an outdoor grill and you should be able to use the same technique. Since I don't have soldering skills, I use zap-a-gap or other super glues. Using wire from the floral dept. of the hobby shop, cut the frame pieces. Lay them out on a bed of masking tape. Then cut all of the cross pieces and super glue them in place. When finished, just peel the masking tape off.

Fannye in TX

Crèche Scene: I think this is a lovely crèche .... http://www.crechemania.com/print/guggenberger/print.html

Theresa Thomas

Paper models: Try http://www.instantdurable.com or try searching for "paper models" I found a site after searching andsearching that had a loooonnnnnngggg list of free printables.

Ccwilsonolli

Card Models: This site has links to free card models from all over the world you can just print out and use. http://www.cardfaq.org/

Whui in SF

Chinese/Japanese: I've been reading with interest the discussion of Chinese/Japanese, and a solution to that problem, (for those who have both kinds of pieces which they want to use) would be to do an "Oriental Arts Shop".

Alice Zinn