Perfume bottles and cakes & desserts: Just wanted to let everyone know that our own W. Marie Werth makes the nicest perfume bottles.

Also, if you are looking for any type of cake or dessert check out Sue Giordano's photosite.

Terri Correll

Making books: I found some book covers from an advertisement and found an easy way to make a book after a bit of struggle. I found a note pad, but the glued area was bulky with glue, so I ran a line of white glue down one of the sides and put it under a book to dry. This became the spine for the book. I then glued on the cover or I should say covers because I did several at a time, I then used my rotary cutter and a straight edge and cut cleanly through all those layers. I had tried some other things, but the rotary cutter worked best. I am using it a lot to cut wood, etc. It works much better than an x-acto.

Susan from St. Croix

Making books:.  I figured I'd share with this list as well in case anyone else is  interested.  First - thank you Maria Gallen who shared this idea with me.

- What you do is find some scrap cardboard, foam core, wood or whatever and cut it into little blocks the size of scale books (make a variety of sizes for paperbacks, hard backs, "coffee table" books etc)

- Look thru your junk mail and find words that would work as book titles and fit the books.

- Cut out the word/s from the junk mail along with enough paper to completely cover the front, back and spine of your "book" (maybe a bit more).

- Glue the paper to the book so that the word is correctly positioned on the spine.  Let dry then trim the excess paper.

Sometimes you may find the perfect words - so then cut your cardboard etc the right size for the words.  (Books do vary in size) This way you can relatively quickly fill up your shelves with realistic looking books.

      The best junk mail to use is book club adverts and catalogues for books as you can find lots of words on spines or covers of books and magazines that work as book titles but all sorts of words can be found in different places.

      You will need quite thick card board but you can glue together a couple of thinner sheets if you don't have any heavy stuff.

      I I now have shelves full of books with titles like "Gardening", "Herbs", "Plant Care", "Arts & Crafts", "Easy Guide to Sewing Skirts", "Ponds And Gardens", "Embroidery of North America", "Thesaurus", "Shoot the Sky", "Beautiful", "Cross Stitch", "Spirals", "Inspirations in colour", "Jewellery & Accessories", "Garden Design", "Teddy", "Bears", "The House", "Dollhouse" and "Dolls" - they read very like the titles on my full size bookshelves.

Sandra in Wellington, New Zealand

Leather bound Books: you could try making your own leather-bound books like I do.  My husband routered 4' lengths of molding w/the indentation where the pages show.  Then all I have to do when I want a book  is cut the length I want, paint the indented edge gold and cover w/leather.  Old glove leather works the best, as it is very thin.  Then you can add titles, trim, etc w/a gold marker.

Ninalu in CA

Books: I suppose this has been on before, but just in case....look at that legal pad you are using, or your checkbook for that matter.  After all the pages have been ripped out, what do you have.....a long thin book w/pages.  Just cut them to size for 1/4  1/2 or 1"

Dawn Weaver, Belleview, Florida

Valentine box: I would keep the lid, cut out the center, add a sheet of non-glare, thin plexi (frame dept.. of your hobby shop) - this will provide the much needed protector from dust, etc. as time goes by. I would consider a vignette rather than a shadowbox. Consider a child making valentines, a courting couple on a park bench-he is equipped with flowers, candy and possibly a ring? You might use a reproduction of a Victorian valentine to create a backdrop. There are endless possibilities. Even a sweet shop loaded with romantic edibles.

Becky

Valentine box: take cover off of box turn over and cover with rug, paper  whatever. Take top and decorate accordingly, paint, paper etc, Glue to one end of cover and make your scene.  You can put a shelf in top, or any thing you can think of.

Helen of NJ

Cans, bottles and jars:  Cans can be made from pencil tops. Cut off erasers then cut off metal top. Perfect can, just cut a paper punch and paint silver for tops.  Bottles are made inexpensively by lite brite pegs found in toy stores for that game. Wearing safety goggles etc, cut top of peg where ever you want, sand bottom or rounded side on end to make it stand. All different colors make various products.  Jars are done same way, with silver punch on top for cover.

Helen of NJ

Cans: You can make your own plain cans and it's inexpensive and real easy. Buy a length of doweling of the diameter you require. Chop it into pieces  of the right length and sand the tops and bottoms. Then paint with silver  or chrome paint. Voila - plain cans!

Elli