Art Board: I came across this large art supply site on the net and found exactly what you would need, and maybe some others could use as well.
http://www.dickblick.com/categories/artboards/

They list many different of bristol board and illustration board as the heavier material is called. I cannot tell you if you would need a cold press or hot press illustration board, but someone at this site probably could help you.

David in Santiago

faux briquets: I made some mini coals for my barbeque in a very easy way. Strike a match, blow it out right away and when the hot end cools, cut off the "briquet". If you go through a book of matches, there'll be enough for a summer feast. Hope this helps.

Lee from Melville, NY

Coal for a coal scuttle: If you have access to hard, old Fimo clay, the grey or black crumbles into great looking coal, before it is primed. I would think you would simply bake it in its crumbly state, and put it right into the scuttle.

DeeDee in Carmel Valley

Coal: Maybe you could use a charcoal briquette for the coal. Just crumble it into small pieces and it should work.

Mary

Coal: I would get some artist's charcoal from an art supply store. It comes in different widths and colors but the basic is black. Break it into the size & shape you want.

Karyn

Coal: To simulate coal you can bake bits of black polymer clay, or if you are as wacky as I am, use the charcoal meant to sweeten the soil in potted plants! Just the right size...and it's real! P.S., I use it in my BBQs too!

Alice Zinn

The bucking Dremel (not a Western tale): Any rotating bit will buck when it is applied to a surface when it rotating at too high a speed. If you are going to use the rotating bit at a high speed to start with, then you must very slowly apply it to the surface it is going to work on. Occasionally I also will have a bit buck on me and I immediately move it off the surface it is bucking on and gently place it back on the surface I also may slow down the speed.

Sanding drums will hardly buck, the bits that mostly will buck are the ones that bite into the wood. The are the ones that work by removing very small chunks of the wood while a sanding wheel or drum abrades the wood. If you are using a side cutting bit and this is the one that is bucking or stuttering (that is the phrase used) sometimes you just have to hold the drill tighter and put more pressure onto the bit until it is removing those tiny chunks of wood. The wood that is being worked on has to be firmly held in place.   This loose wood will also cause the stuttering (sorry but it is also referred to as chattering. (both stuttering and chattering are very descriptive words for what we are discussing.)

The loose stock is also a good example of why the wood in a scroll saw has to be firmly held against the "table" of the saw. The teeth of the saw blade in the scroll saw must always face down so they are pulling the wood to be cut down against the "table". If the wood is not held firmly, it will be lifter up by the up stroke of the blade and slammed down on the down stroke, considering the speed of the scroll saw the wood chatters. Like every thing else; experience and hands on practice smooth out the problems attendant with any new procedure or tool experience.

Bob

Plastic price tag connectors: Quinn wrote about cutting off price tags: "I turned the plastic hook thingy upside down and realized it is a perfect tiny flower pot."

If you look at it closely, you will also see that it looks like a miniature scoop. For a laundry workshop I did with our mini club once I dipped them in glass stain and they looked like the clear green plastic scoop in detergent boxes. They make good scoops next to flour or sugar canisters, etc., too.

Wanna in El Paso

Grass Cloth Flooring: If you are searching for grass cloth for flooring purposes, try looking at grasscloth wallpaper. I have a wallpaper sample book titled "Strings and Grasses" that is just perfect for this purpose. I used a sheet of the "grasses" as matchstick blinds and they look wonderfully in scale.

Reva in Loveland, Ohio

Sea grass type of covering: I made a sea cottage once. I used section grass on the outside, so that it would look like it was mini bamboo, and for the floors, I used some rubberized stuff that I got in the hardware store. It comes in a fairly inexpensive roll, and is textured so that it looks like woven sea grass. I think its original purpose is as a shelf cover to keep china and glass from chipping in the cupboard. I painted it the green I liked (using the most mundane acrylic paints from the craft store, and just mixing them until I liked what I saw), and when it was finished, it was the best thing about the cottage. I hope this helps,

DeeDee in Carmel Valley