Mini Vehicles: I have seen people use the Franklin Mint 1/16 scale cars with 1/12 scale dolls and settings to good effect. Check out Connie Hanson's Model T with a doll http://www.pcdolls.com/

Anne Gerdes

Hospital Minis: Look at my web site ( http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com ) under Catalog>Rooms>Miscellaneous>Hospital

Tom Berkner

Hospital Minis: As always Sandy Dawson is a great resource for such items. You can find her items at: http://www.littleobsessions.com

nursemini

Chocolate Easter Bunnies: It is easier to get the plastic bunnies and just paint them brown for chocolate bunnies or white for white chocolate.  Dab a bit of yellow for eyes, with a dot of black or blue in center for eyes.  Make the mouth and nose pink.  A box to put it in is also nice. 

Penny

Hospital Minis: On hospital beds, etc., Dee's Delights offers a nice line of products by The Tin Shed. They make beds, IV stands, crutches, wheelchairs, and a few other things, I think. You can get bedpans made by Monkey Business through Dee's also, or plain, unpainted ones in pewter made by Metal Minis and/or Martha's Minis - both offer hundreds of pewter minis to paint yourself.

Laura in OKC

Mini teapots: I was at our local craft store and picked up a carded set of mini teapot ornaments that are shaped like vegetables. They were only $2.40 and are perfect scale. There are 18 to a card and are supposed to be used on the little trees that are so popular now but if you snip the string hanger they’ll look fine on a kitchen cupboard. They are made by Darice.

Lori

Tatami Mats: One thing I have seen used in place of tatami mats are the sushi roll mats. They are used to shape the sushi into rolls. Another option is to get a sample of the wallpaper that is made out of reeds.  I snagged a sheet of that out of last seasons wallpaper book, and I noticed it is in the new one.

Sudie

Dishes - Punch out a picture of a dish from a magazine. There are hole punches that are sold large enough to be used for dinner size and salad size plates in both 1" and ½" scale. Use wallpaper glue to adhere the punch out to a 1" scale paper plate. You may want to draw a gold line around the rim of the plate before gluing. Spray with Krylon Triple Thick Spray. Let dry for about 1 hour. Because the spray is so thick, it gives a nice depth to the plate design.

Briar

Hats: Sandy's Lace & Trim has a bonnet kit. Another great source is the Making & Dressing of Dolls' House Dolls and there's another book called Millinery Magic which Sandy's Lace & Trim also sells. I have a Victorian Hat Shop - if you'd like to take look it's at:

http://members.aol.com/muscka/hatshop/index.htm

Marsha in Newark, CA

Radio Flyer Wagon: This site http://www.playthingspast.com/rf01.html has a mini Radio Flyer on a keychain. They have a lot of other things that I am sure would be appropriate to use in a dollhouse.

Elizabeth Cooper

Japanese tatami mats:   Places like Pier One have placemats which have hollow reed-like sticks held together with threads.  Anyway, you can cut them up into pieces and have the mats running in concentric arrangements.  I believe these will be in good one inch scale.  I think you probably know thatthe mats were not all placed in the same direction like we installcarpeting.  They are usually in a natural color.  Possibly a store which deals in oriental imports would have these place mats also.

Jeanette in Wauwatosa, WI

Deer Antlers: I have deer antlers on a mount on my website: http://www.miniworld.com/house/

Barbara Syrcher

Bow Making: This is a method of making a bow that will not come undone and can be achieved in both full size and mini work. If you aren't good with wood or don't have a drill, you can make a temporary bow maker with two cocktail sticks (this is the English in me) or two round toothpicks stuck into a piece of Styrofoam taped to a work table. You can make the bow any size by moving the toothpicks closer together. The following sounds more complicated than it really is! The bows look best when using silk ribbon.

The sticks should be aligned facing you approximately one inch apart. As you practice you will put them closer together to make smaller bows. Take your silk ribbon from the left and bring it to the back of the first toothpick, then around the right hand toothpick making a loop. Pass it over the ribbon being held in the left hand and push it under and between the two sticks, keeping it under the ribbon already there. Then loop it straight back over the top between the two sticks and tie a single knot with the other end. You will find that you can wiggle the ribbon so as not to waste too much at the beginning. Then remove the sticks or slide the bow up and off them. Snip the ends to match and there you have a bow which will stay put. If you have large hands use tweezers to push the ribbon under and tie the knot.

Pat in Cheyenne, Wyoming

Blue Willow Pattern Plates: we make a willow pattern dinner plate and  meat plate: http://www.stokesayware.com/b&wplates.htm. We've been planning to extend this range for longer than I care to mention. In the meantime our chums at Avon Miniatures make a much fuller line: http://www.avonminiatures.com

Karen

Spice Jars: You could use tiny bugle beads or find some small cocktail straws that you could cut down. I don't think they make "clear" straws, they are usually colored. But you could repaint them with white glossy paint so they appear to be ceramic. I just don't know how you could make them look half-full because even the bugle beads are too thick, and that "thickness" would show up more if you filled the beads with something. Maybe your best bet would be to roll a piece of thin clear plastic into a tube. I guess you'd need to glue it closed with glue that is made specially for plastic. That at least would be clear enough to see through, and thin enough to be in scale. Pin-heads, of course, could be used for "stoppers."

Viola Williams

Spice Jars: Melinda was asking how she could make spice jars. I've been chewing over this very problem myself. The best method I could think of was to use a clear plastic tube. Over here we can buy it by the meter in plastic ware stores in several diameters. Chop it into pieces of the required size. Seal off the bottom with a splodge of clear glue. Fill with colored powders to represent spices and top with a clear or colored bead.

Elli in NZ

Wicker Basket Hinges: I've sold a few old wicker sewing stands and the "hinges" I've seen are just pieces of the wicker weaving material looped through the side of the top and the side of the bottom acting as a hinge. I've also seen stands with wooden frames around the inside top and inside bottom to which hinges are attached. Either should work.

Darlene on L.I.

Wicker Hinges: I'm thinking about making a wicker picnic basket for my garden scene, and will probably use large jump rings threaded through the weave as hinges. Once they're in place if the metal looks obtrusive, they can be painted to match the wicker.

Loretta Sniarowski

Wicker Hinges: My very great Aunt's wicker sewing basket lid was attached with the same wicker as the weaving (in two places). It's a great idea. I have made some wicker, but I use wood instead of wire. It limits me, but I love doing it.

Melinda

Plates: I made plates from a suggestion that I got right here off the digest! Forgive me for not remembering the name of the person, but she said that the little rings from the orange juice containers looked liked they could be made into plates, and she was absolutely right. I carefully removed the "plate" from the pulley thingie with a razor. I placed a small butterfly nail decal in the center of each and painted the edges in metallic gold powder mixed with gloss. I then applied the gloss over the entire plate, and voila! I had four very pretty plates.

Tonya