Covered button sets: From WalMart or a fabric store. They come in various sizes and styles. Some brands have smooth edges and others are toothed. The smooth ones work better if you can find them. If you leave off the backing, wiggle off the shank with needlenose pliers, and turn the top part upside down, you have what looks like a shallow stainless steel bowl to fill with food. The biggest ones make a great wok with (hook &) eye handles. The button backing can be used with beads as a canister lid. It also makes dandy stove burners if you build your own appliances. Glue a small washer-type bead between the backing and a black sunburst-design sequin.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Faux books: OK, here are some instructions for making effective closed fauxbooks:

You will need foam core board. Try your local framers. It is foam sandwiched between thin cards. A gold felt tipped pen, thicker rather than thinner. Various scraps of thin leather. Pieces of colored paper (sugar paper looks good for some reason). Black also works well. A sheet of gold Letraset (any letters).

Cut your foam core into various book-sized pieces. For thicker books, stick 2 pieces together. Look at a full sized book. There is a crack next to the spine that allows the book to open. To make these cracks, use an empty ball point pen to score a line on the front and back cover next to the spine. Colour in the edges of the foam core with the gold pen. Make sure you also colour in the edges of the card that sandwiches the foam. Cut leather or paper pieces big enough to wrap around the books and still be JUST larger than the foam core. Where the 'spine of the book will be, make decorative thin gold lines by using the gold letraset. Look carefully, you will see on each sheet of Letraset, thin gold lines under each letter. These are for spacing guides in real life. Use these for your gold decorative lines on the spines. Glue the front and back of the books 'cover'. Position a toothpick along the spine and now wrap the leather or paper around the foam core innards and the toothpick, so that it is JUST overlapping the foam core. Slide out the toothpick. Press the cover into the two cracks you have made. Voila, books! You can also cut out mini cover illustrations from book catalogues and stick these on the front. (Ask your local bookshop.)

Barbara B from South Africa

Wax for Candles: I used Birthday candles for this. I light what ever color I want to make and let it drip inside the straw add a tiny piece of thread or string and let harden. To make it quick I put in fridge. Then cut a slit on the straw to remove candle. I also add different colors as I go and make multi color ones a bit longer or shorter what ever you like. If you find that the wax gets stuck just spray some Pam into straw first.

Leilani

Quilts: I have made several quilts 1:12 scale. The easiest way is to use fabric tack cloth glue, cut your pieces and glue them onto the backing, but I did large Granny Squares, not a tiny pattern. That way you don't have to sew that small scale. I didn't pad mine as the scale is so small it wouldn't really be noticeable unless it was a double padded quilt and would stiffen it more than it is. Then I made pillows to match. :)

Pamela

Writing on cakes: I used a product called Scribbles 3-Dimensional Fabric Writer. It has a nice tiny opening & the bottles are small & easy to work with. Make sure the "frosting" has dried completely before you decorate. It comes in lots of colors.

Pam In St. Louis

Computer Desk: You asked about a computer desk. I make one that I also sell as a kit. Here is the link: http://www.miniature.net/sdkminiatures/compdesk.htm

Susan

Wing Back Chairs: I made wing back chairs using the instructions in How to Build Miniature Furniture and Room Settings by Judy Beals.

Chris W. in humid Minnesota

For aluminum, sometimes 'brass' covers, (or actually, you could get any finish with that metal finish Rub It, I think), use the buttons that are made to be covered with fabric. You can get them in all sizes, and the top piece is a bowl shape, and if you look for a punch that is used with leather, you can make neat teeny holes in the top part, and glue in lid ....what would you call them? Lid lifters? Or you can use them for bowls. You can even use the bottom parts of these buttons. Take a look at some.

MINIROSES

Padded Hanger: You will need some pipecleaner, thicker rather than thin. A piece of gold or black wire, about 1" long and some satiny fabric. I used bathing suit fabric which was stretchy, it made this a bit easier. First coat the back of a piece of the fabric about 1" x 2" with tacky glue. Let dry. Cut a piece of pipe cleaner 1 1/2" long. Lay the pipe cleaner on the fabric, lengthwise. Cover the pipe cleaner with the fabric using Fabritac glue, sparingly. Fold over and tuck in the ends as you go.

Let dry. Slightly curve the fabric covered pipe cleaner. Bend the piece of gold or black wire into a hook shape with a slight extension at the bottom of the hook. Use an awl to make a hole in the center top of the fabric on the pipe cleaner. Glue the hook in the hole!

Alice Zinn

Vladimir Natusovsky- Silver: Vladimir's address is 32 Leroys Grant Dr., #904, Kingston, Ontario K7K 6W8 Canada. He made silver trays for the NAME Pasadena Regional Houseparty and they were really beautiful. He specializes in filigree, which kind of sets him apart from some of our other master silversmiths like Peter Acquisto--lucky for us, their styles are completely different.

Leilani and Roger, Warling Miniatures

Tiny Glass Animals: I just got an order of tiny glass dachshunds (my *thing* is collecting dachshunds) from "Sputniks". She has lots of tiny glass animals from Russia (many only 1/2" long) and takes credit cards. Her service was prompt and my doxies look just like they were pictured.

There are bears, cats, dogs, piggies, frogs, fish, rabbits, hedgehogs, etc. -- even some vegetables under "misc."

I think some of these could be used to embellish a baby's room lamp, or bookends. http://www.tsarinaonline.com/sputniks.html

Anne Gerdes

Miniature ceramic pieces: If you are interested in miniature plates, bowls, containers, etc., please have a look by selecting the "Ceramics" link: http://www.swallowhilldolls.com/

Joy in Midland, Ontario

Lantern Scene: Sharon asked for suggestions for making a scene in an antique lantern, 12 inches high by 8 square. Depending on your lantern's appearance, you could design a scene such as one I made in a Mexican tin lantern of somewhat smaller dimensions. This was a gift to a dear friend, who displays it near the front door of her Southwest-style home in New Mexico. It shows a statue of Mary outside the arched stained-glass window niche of an adobe church.

I painted the inside top of the lantern pale blue with very light swirls of white to suggest sky and clouds and painted the bottom of the lantern brown. I used graph paper pressed into the lantern and creased to make patterns for the gessoed and painted Styrofoam for the church window wall and the two partial side walls of the niche. My stained glass window was made from one section of a three-sided stained glass panel enclosing a votive candle, but you could also buy or make your own stained glass window, using suggestions from the SS Archives. I can't remember now whether I used black or a golden color of paper behind the window; I just remember having to experiment to make the colors show up better.

Two graduated stacked Styrofoam half-circles, gessoed and painted like the adobe church wall, were used against the wall underneath the window to make the raised platform/flower bed for the statue, one of those small inexpensive magnetized figures designed to go on dashboards. I painted her coppery green, with antiquing washes for an aged look.

Dried flowers and preserved greenery were used in the half-circle flower beds which formed her base. Off to one side was an octotillo (instructions for which are in the SS Archives, I believe) "planted" in a small mound of Styrofoam. A vine made of beige buttonhole twist threads, covered with glue and dragged through a mixture of shades of railroad foam greenery, was on the other side, extending up the wall and arcing over the curve of the window. I painted a thick coat of Tacky glue mixed with beige paint on the base, over the plant mounds and at the edge of the flower beds, sprinkled on sand to cover, shaking off the excess when it was dry.

Wanna in El Paso

Lantern: I had considered making a lantern scene of "The Lamplighter" in the Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" Take a look at the children's book and see what you think. My own edition (1931) is illustrated in silhouette but some of the latter have color pictures of a boy watching out the window at old Leery with his ladder and light attending the lamp in front of the door. If the boy peeks through the drapes, no additional backdrop depth would be needed. You may need a shorter than normal gas lamp

David & Joyce Betts

Lantern Scene: Here's a project I actually finished! My brass lantern was actually an outdoor porch light at some point. It was 4 sided glass, electrified. I removed the electric, and put a chandelier hanging from the socket. I left the glass on the sides and front (along with the wire that faked leaded glass), but put a mural and wainscoting on Oaktag, then put that against the back wall. The mural is antique, and an Ed Norton chair and side table sitting on a floor cloth with a mariner's compass finish the scene. A tiny toy 'horse' sits on the floor cloth as well, picking up the theme of farm animals from the mural. Sits on my bedside table, and can actually act as a night light since the chandelier has 6 lights. The transformer sits quietly behind the lantern. The DH, by the way, says that the transformers are not quiet, he can hear them 'vibrate'! When the place is very quiet, he makes me go and unplug all 3 in the bedroom. I, on the other hand, don't wear my hearing aid to bed, so not an issue!! Be advised that if your lantern has glass that fits along the sides, putting anything in that adds depth (wainscoting and chair rail, for instance) makes the glass not fit back in. Ask me how I know... I had to cut the chair rail off about 1/8th of an inch at each side so the side wall glass could slip back in.

Beth in Maine

50's boy's bedroom: I was born in 1950 along with a twin brother, so I can tell you what he had in his bedroom in the 50's was mostly cowboy decor. Lamp with cowboy on horse silhouetted in sunset motif, cowboy hat on chair back, even had some homemade curtains with cowboys and Indians on them. Had colors in browns, orange, tans. Also had model planes hanging around, books because he liked to read, baseball glove and bat, etc.

Paulette in In

50's Boys room: I think of many ideas. First one comes to mind is a cowboy room like Roy Rodgers. Chenille Bedspread with Roy roping in the air on his horse Trigger. A covered wagon lamp setting on knotty pine furniture. Next The rocket to the Moon. With Stars and Moons with Rocket in middle bedspread. Then Rockets hanging from the ceiling and glow in the dark stars on the walls. Modular furniture in a light gray color. Next one of my favorite is Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier! Coonskin Caps, Betsy his rifle, leather fringe buckskin and moccasins. Wood furniture ;like twigs and skin lampshade. Bearskin rug. etc.

Sherri Deer Park, Texas

Yellow Rain Slicker: There is an easier way of making those little yellow rain slickers and without sewing! Use one finger of a yellow rubber glove to cut the slicker from and then use small black hooks and eyes glued down the front for the closures. Makes a very convincing slicker. Cut off the finger approximately 1 1/2" from the tip of the glove. About 5/16 of an inch down from the tip of the finger cut horizontally int the front of finger until almost all the way through the glove finger, leave a "hinge to act as the flap that connects the "hood" of the slicker. Next, cut vertically down the center of the coat to create the opening. Make two little tubes out of a piece of the left over original glove material to make the sleeves. Glue sleeves and hooks on to slicker and you have it.

Marilyn, MI

Styrofoam cups: The tops to a lot of glue bottles (Tacky comes to mind) look a bit like Styrofoam cups when you sit them on their closed ends.

Janet in Baltimore

Bottle Caps: plenty of ways to use bottled drink caps. They make good planters; different flavors are different colors so you can coordinate them to room decor and to the type of plant. Glue one to the top of the wire cage used to secure champagne corks for a tall planter. Painted white, their grooved sides they look like the classic Corning casserole or soufflé dishes, so they make good containers for Fimo food. Find a clear plastic shank button that fits across the top for a lid, glue bead feet on the bottom, a sequin and bead control, and you have a mini crock pot. Many people also use them as the base for cakes, frosting with spackle and adding Fimo frosting flowers; you can also spackle and insert a sequin confetti "Happy Birthday" or "Congratulations" standing up on top. A bunch of them glued together and stood on end would copy the stacks of tubing others use to store brushes, mini lumber, etc., if you wanted to do a mini workshop. Start saving those caps and more uses will come to you!

Loretta Sniarowski