Making easy grapes: I once saw several tubes of "holeless" glass beads at our Ben Franklin store. They were in the 70% off bin and at the price of a few cents off I bought them for the "someday" they may come in handy for something. These are little round glass beads used to glue on clothing (full size) as decoration for those who don't or can't, bead. Mine are red, purple, two shades of green and black. Not only have I used up all of the grape colors as grapes, but the reds are beautiful as cherries on pies and pastries with a clear glaze over them. They are translucent and the colors are deep and vibrant.

To make the grapes, form a small cone shape on the end of covered wire. You can make it from Poly clay, but if you don't have any, wrap thread around and around into a cone shape on the wire,(stem size wire). Smear a thin layer of tacky glue on the cone and roll it in the glass beads, shape with your fingers and let dry.

Before I had the glass beads, I used to make them from transparent Fimo with just a touch of whatever color I wanted the grapes to be. Blend together until they are the translucent color you want. Roll into tiny balls and bake. Make your cone and roll in the baked balls. To make the tendrils, I wound fine wire on a needle and cut little pieces to glue on the grape bunch. There a fairly cheap paper punches in the shape of oak or maple leaves that look very good as grape leaves.

No fimo? Use millet or bird seed (the round ones) and after they are on the cone and dry, paint with acrylic paints in colors needed.

One other thing I do: When I was young, my Grandmother had a bowl of wax fruit on her table for decoration. She had many grandchildren and there were many little teethmarks in that fruit! I was doing a memory box of her kitchen (in the late 40's) and I made Fimo fruit, baked it, then melted paraffin wax in a small can in a pot of boiling water and dunked the fruit in it. .Wonderful "wax" fruit!!

Norieta

Metal Miniatures: Debbie has quite a few metal miniatures for sale on her web site at http://miniatures.tripod.com/MiniatureAccessories.html

Baking Sheets: Many of the little 'pans' that makeup (blush, shadow, etc.) come in make great baking sheets.

Maureen in St. Albert

Bows: Joy's site has the bow making instructions with pictures. http://swallowhilldolls.com/bowmaker.htm

Karolyn (Plymouth Ma)

Animals for 1" Scale: There are some great mini animals out there for 1" scale. Here are a few links to get you started:

http://www.customcreationsbyrika.com/ and http://www.catworkz.com

Linda in GA

Chimps: Todd Kreuger is still in business and can be reached at T K Designs, 33 N Highpoint Court #160, Madison, WI 53717. He also makes wonderful dragons.

Pat Bauder

Trunks: Yesterday my friend and I tried making the metal trunks that Katherine Furqueron told us about some digests ago. They are really neat. I used the army trunk pattern from Jim's printables and hung the printout on the window so I could trace the pattern onto the brown paper. (My son came along just as I was finishing and asked why l hadn't taped the brown paper to the printout - save me trying to hold it in the right place all the time - DUH).

We found you really need to hold the paper onto the flame, but keep it moving so you don't get any holes burnt in it. Helen got quite a few, but I suggested to her that she paint them black and put nail polish over the paint and I think it will look quite good!! I got one hole.

Diana in New Zealand

Stain is stain. The green glass stain on wood is yummy. It too shows the wood grain, even when tiny. I used it on a maple cutout of a frog as an ornament for my other in-law, and the maple wood grain shows through.

Laurie Sisson

Candles: This is especially good if you want a thicker candle such as one in a centerpiece. I take a dowel of whatever size I want and paint it with acrylics. After a couple of coats, I then "scrape" the brush filled with paint at the top of the candle to simulate the effect a burned candle has. For a wick, you can drill a fine hole and put either thread or cut a piece of the plastic that comes with clothing tags and paint it black so it look burned. Those gizmos also make realistic straws for glasses of lemonade or other cool drinks.

Jeanette

Fimo Frames: You can make very effective frames from Fimo. You need Fimo, and anything that makes a pretty impression. Look through your box of buttons or jewelry findings or earrings or tools. You will also need some kind of gold buffing powder. I used Rub 'n Buff but any will do. Work on a tile that can go straight into the oven. Choose a brownish color Fimo. Make 3 long sausages of Fimo in 3 thicknesses from fat to thin. It must be longer than the perimeter of your painting. Lay them out just touching with the fattest at the top and thinnest at the bottom. Now make regular impressions along the length of the whole thing with the findings or earrings or whatever. The trick is to make the impressions overlap 2 or more sausages. That melds the whole together. When you are satisfied with the result (don't be too fussy) cut your miters for your corners and form it into a 4 sided frame to fit your picture. Allow for a different color mounting board or two to add to the effect. Knock it square. That is important. Bake. Cool. Now rub it all over with gold Rub 'n Buff. You will be really surprised how effective they look.

Barbara B, South Africa

I like to cut the decorative ends off decorative toothpicks and use them for hanging pegs for coat racks, etc.  They also make cool 1/4 scale furniture.  I use the cut off portions for making wood "nails" in my "log" furniture or for mixing epoxy.

Beverly Michie

Household Accessories from assorted Plumbing Supplies: For the flat circular metal filter: cut out a small square about ½" X ½". Wrap thin wire around the edge and glue. Leave an extra 1" to 1 1/4" length at the bottom. Twist both lengths together for a handle. You have a fly swatter. You can paint the handle if you like.

There is another filter that is shaped like a colander. Wrap wire around the rim of the "colander". Make the 3 legs out of bent wire. Fold the top edge of the filter over your wire and glue.

There are also various sized black stoppers that when turned upside down with a stick glued inside, look exactly like a plunger. A word of warning though. Don't try to hollow out the bottom for a more realistic plunger in case someone wants to look underneath. I used a Dremel and it makes a horrible black sticky mess which gets everywhere.

Annie

Plumbing Supplies: I was tickled to see the one about making a colander out of the mesh. I've been trying to come up with a way to make mini mesh tiered hanging baskets (the kind you hang from the ceiling in your kitchen to store onions, fruit, etc.). Instead of attaching feet as you did to make a colander, why couldn't one attach tiny chain to the rim, connect three of them (possible they come in different sizes?) and hang them from the ceiling for your mini onions, etc. I'm heading to the hardware store this afternoon.

Linda Roebke

Pillow tip: Be very careful about filling your pillows and cushions with flour, it absorbs humidity and becomes stiff and stained (I know!!!), plus it attracts JOJOS (South African word that describes any kind of insects). I found that the sand used for swimming pool filters is excellent, if not salt with a few grains of rice (to absorb humidity); the advantage is that it is not stiffening, making the article softer.

Mirta Fitzgerald

Pacifier & Baby Bottle Nipples: I thought it would be a hoot to do a pacifier that actually looked like one. Below are some approaches I thought might be worth trying:

• A brass wire dipped in resin (pre-tinted with tan resin coloring)(or painted with "glass" paint).
• A small tapestry needle dipped in clear caulking and then peeled back off the needle to create a hollow center (can caulking be tinted tan?) (can caulking be smoothed on or peeled back?).
• A cut-up latex glove, heated and stretched over a plastic/nylon filament (one of those price tag thingies that you stick in glue bottles...some of them have parts that are nipple shaped).
• The same filament as above but dipped in a champagne colored Gel-o candle (if I can still find one at Linens N Things).
• Elasticlay (I've never seen it; is there a "transparent" version, as in Fimo?).
• Transparent poly clay mixed with a bit of tan, supported by a sturdy wire.
• Shrinky Dinks - colored with tan pencils. I know I've got some somewhere.
• A Lucite rod (if they come that thin) dipped in that vinyl stuff they make to dip tool handles in.
• EZ Water (isn't that the one people said turned yellow and stayed lumpy? If so, it sounds perfect...), or
• Scenic Water - (can these products like this be molded? dipped? colored?).
• Sue Thwaite's Water (can't remember the name).

Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Towels: You can make your own towels.  I use an old thin-worn bathrobe or washcloth for bathroom towels and decorate them with a ribbon and a small flower or a bow after I've folded them.  For a kitchen towel I go through the quilt basket at Joann's for fat quarters (I think that's what they are called! I'm not a quilter:) ) that are gingham or use an old worn dish towel.

Marsha

aluminum flared glasses: There is a tool at the hardware store designed to flare the ends of copper tubing for water lines. It also works on aluminum and brass. Get a piece of 1/4" tubing, flare the end, use a tubing cutter to cut it off at 3/4" long, and put a bottom in with a dab of glue. You can have all the flared glasses you want, even colored with glass paint.

Rebecca in Texas

Picture Frames: I make and sell a lot of picture frames, at least 500 a year.  It is my experience that it is difficult for most people to make acceptable frames.  Some reasons:

1.  The picture frame molding that Northeast Scale Model makes is basswood, which is soft and easily compressed.  Be sure to use a sharp tool.
2.  You need a stop to make the frame sides accurate in length. Measuring alone is pretty difficult.  Use a clamp of some kind on the miter box fence.
3.  In order for the miter boxes to allow a blade to slide there is need for clearance.  That clearance, if only a few thousands of an inch, can tip the saw enough to change the angle.  Try and saw with a gentle easy motion.  Let the blade do the work. 
4.  You need a quick setting glue and a square guide to assemble the frames.  I use an Olfa cutting mat with a grid pattern.  Let the glue set a little bit before assembly so it sticks right away as you line up the frame against the grid.  Roo glue for wood works fine and so does Weldbond.

Because I make so many frames, I designed a special sliding table for my Preac saw with two fences, 90 degrees apart and a clamp stop. I bisect the angle with the saw. Go to http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~smallife/miter_table.jpeg for a picture of the set up.  If you have any table saw you could make a similar set up.

Pete Boorum

Dremels: My favorite "Dremel" is one I got from Sears during one of their many sales and at a much lower price than you can buy them for at a most other places. Their tools are Sears brand - supposedly made by Dremel but with the Craftsman name on it. It came in a nice carrying case with slots for accessories. All Dremel accessories fit the tool.

It has some great features. The one I find the most important to have is variable speeds. Woods, plastics, metals all should be cut at different speeds. The second feature (that is an-add on available for many Dremel models) is a keyless chuck. I used to get impatient switching from bit to bit and searching for the chuck key, the right sized collet, etc. Now it is a snap to switch from drill bit to cutter, etc.

I use my Dremel tool almost every day! I do multiple kinds of crafts and find this to be one of those "can't live without" tools. I use the high speed steel cutters to carve on gourds and wood, the grinding stones for working on metal, the sanders for anything wood, the cut off wheels for metal, buffing wheels for jewelry, plastic etc, etc. You are only limited by your imagination. The expression that office people use is "thinking outside the box" or something like that... (sort of like seeing minis in a button or other weird things.)

I also own a Foredom tool with a flexible shaft. The Foredom has lots more torque than a Dremel, so it seems to work better with a flexible shaft. (I don't use the flex shaft on my Dremel.) I use the Foredom for woodcarving and stone carving, working on things that require me to run the tool for multiple hours. It keeps your hand from getting cramped or overheated. It costs much more than a Dremel, so it isn't a tool for a casual user.

Bonnie Gibson

Glue for beads: When gluing your beads to make the jars for the lady's vanity tray, try using 527 glue. It is a glue for jewelry and will not cloud the beads as super glue will. You can use 527 on crystal beads for chandeliers; works great as long as you leave it exposed for a while. In other words, don't close it up in a box for at least 24 hours and you will not have any problem with cloudiness.

Nancye in Miami, FL