Dulling Varnish: When one uses many coats of gloss varnish, to make it appear less garish and more hand rubbed one can coat a piece of soft cotton with mineral oil and dab it on pumice for a final rub down and repeated until the finish you want to achieve has been accomplished. I think there are many ways to remove varnish. I just wanted to make people aware that there are other methods in mind also when using pumice and mineral oil. BTW I have to go to my dentist to get pumice.

Gary the Yank in NH in the US

White wallpaper: I would use fabric! I have also had success with, are you ready? Scraps from vertical blinds! They have a nice body to them and come in lots of colors (and white) with a slight texture to them. They are already in strips and go up like a dream! You can buy just a few strips if you aren't lucky enough to get scraps from places that do blinds. And they are quite reasonable in price!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Glue: Just wanted to share something with you. Until recently, when I needed a glue,  I have usually used a white tacky glue or super glue for dressing and accessorizing my miniatures. At a show, I purchased a glue called Magna-Tac 809 and this last week I have used it for everything from the mohair, moss and feathers on my faeries and to the ribbons, jewelry and petticoats on my dancing gypsy doll. It dries clear, (really clear!). and it is creates a bond that is unbelievably strong.

I haven't looked for it around town, but I am sure it can be purchased at craft and fabric stores. Also, here is the web site listed on the bottle: http://www.beacon1.com

Lyn Trenary

Stairs and Ceilings: I have baseboards and ceiling cornices in all the rooms of my dollhouse. What I have done, and it looks very nice, is to continue the ceiling cornices and baseboard along the "wall side" of the stairway hole. There will be a gap between them and I fill this with a plain piece of basswood. I glue the three pieces together, sand to remove lines between them and paint. Around the rest of the hole, I glue on additional pieces of basswood the same depth as the floor. When done, the opening has a finished look. The measuring can make you crazy but it really looks nice.

Cathy, Philadelphia

White wallpaper: see if you can find a roll of ceiling paper. It probably won't be plain white; it will have a texture of some sort, but will do the trick, I think. You may not find it in such places as K-Mart, but Home Depot and such ought to have it in bins.

Dani, in Bradshaw, MD

Stair holes: " The holes are 7" x3" and the stair bannisters are only 3" x2 5/16". Now I need to fill up the rest of the hole somehow."

I have done some filling of windows, doorways, etc. when I have wanted to change things. What I do is cut a piece of wood to fill the area I want to close. I put a couple of brads on each end and mark the points on the wall or floor.

Then I cut small slots for the brads to fit into and put wood glue all around the piece of wood. I insert it, making sure the piece is balanced in evenly and let the wood dry. I use wood filler for any spaces that might not be even, sand everything down and then use whatever I am choosing for wall or floor covering. I have had to do this many times since I was not happy with the layout of doorways or stair openings on the Houseworks plan Victorian I have been working on. For me, the most difficult part has been to cut the new hole - thank goodness for dremel saws!

Jacqui in Hilo

I found an easier way than I planned on for the arch top windows: Instead of cutting and laboriously shaping a piece of wood 5 mm thick   (the thickness of the window's grooved   side strips)   to fit, I'll just cut the arch top hole in the plywood 10 mm less in diameter and run the vertical window strips from the window sills to the edge of the drilled hole, so that when the strips and sill are in place, the visual line of the window strips will continue smoothly straight up into the arch top. That should work fine since the outside of the wood windows are 3 to 4" inset into the brick walls in real life, and that would make them flush with the face surface of the plywood backboard on my model.

The arch top will need to be grooved with one groove for the upper window   to fit in properly, but since I can't use the table saw for that as I did the side strips, I suppose a mini router bit with bottom bearing will do if I can find one.

The fun part comes later for windows, the 4 grooved strips holding the "glass" on those Houseworks windows are an amazingly minute 5/32" thick by 3/16" wide with a 1/16" groove for the "glass" to fit into.

I suppose I can mill some strips 5/32 thick by maybe 3/4" wide so I have something to hold onto.  I found a tiny 2" x 1/16" saw blade on a 1/4"  router shaft at work,  I guess I can try the table router with a new fence guide with a groove cut in it to allow the blade to stick out 1/16" and run the strips over it then rip the strips to the 3/16" width on the table saw. The REALLY fun part which I haven't figured out yet is cutting these strips for the arch top's upper "glass," now THAT should prove interesting! I might just fudge it since the tops won't be openable anyway, by just cutting some veneer out to fit the curve and gluing one on each side of the "glass."

Randall

Boop Mini's has tons of printables to share, a lot of work has gone into them & you can find just about anything you need! http://www.geocities.com/boopmini40/

Darlene/NJ

Window Trim: I have used Crayola felt tip marking pen in brown to do the trim on my windows that is the closest to the "glass".  It looks just like regular stain and is much easier to control so close to the glass.   I have used this pen to do other small things --  like hat stands.  I hate to open regular stain and do all that stirring.  This brown is a perfect match with cherry stain.  that's my favorite stain BTW. Your find sounds like it will do large items and I will neverhave to open another can of stain.

Elise in Va.

Making a trellis: I made a similar structure and it was a ball and simple. To make the trellis from scratch, you will need:

twine; cord, etc., depending on your scale.
Elmers white glue
A sharp blade or scissors
wax paper
a sheet of paper and draw your trellis to scale.

Procedure:

The trellis can be made as a woven structure, if you designed it that way. Lay the wax paper over the drawing. You should see you drawing thru the wax paper.

Cut the string, one at a time, to size from the drawing.

Wet the string thoroughly with the glue and place it in position according to your plan by laying it right on the wax paper using the lines of the drawing as a guide.

Using this cut/wet with glue and lay it on the wax paper method until you have completed the trellis.

Let it dry and then remove it from the wax paper.

Paint it to your liking.

Have fun and save money.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.