Chrysnbon kits finishing: I hated the finish of these kits but loved the detail. What was suggested was to go ahead and use the water based "stain" that came with the kit. When dry, go over with some dark HOM stain (not water based - would eat the plastic so that's why the base coat). Wipe off some before it's dry and after it's dry - buff. I found a particular clear water based top coat that I liked very much but it's name escapes me. The results are fantastic - they indeed "fool the eye" which is my goal - since I need to use my creativity instead of a limitless budget:)

W. Marie

Staining Kits: I always stain all of the wood pieces of any kit or box that I am building first because if I glue them together, some glue usually seeps out from the joint will and act as a sealer that the stain will not penetrate.

Jeanette Zanio

Wood Floors: I learned from Brooke Tucker to glue my wood floors to heavy poster board. I use Quik Grab glue and weight it until it sets up (I leave overnight). Then use a palm electric sander and sand with the grain of the wood until very smooth and go ahead and finish. I usually stain ahead of time but have done it the other way also as you have no glue problems. Then Spray (or paint) a coat of deft semi gloss and "polish" with a fine steel wool. Usually repeat the deft thing about 3 times if I use spray and twice if I brush on (lightly).

A palm sander is about $20 and a terrific investment if you like hard wood floors. Then you can just tape these floors in.

Rooms in My Collection. Though that room is not quite complete yet the floor shows well. Again, I give credit to Brooke Tucker for this tip.

Anita MH

Hardwood Floors: I make my hardwood floors out of pre-glued hardwood veneer edging - you iron it onto cardboard. It always warps but I found that if you heated it up as high as you dare and then weight it whilst it is still hot it will lay flat eventually - two or three heatings may be necessary.

I was wondering if you could take one of your existing floors, heat with an iron and then put it into the book press. It might do something to reduce the moisture content ??

Lesley

Hardwood Floors: I laid a hardwood floor in my current project and I am so proud of it. It turned out beautifully. I used oak sheet wood that I purchased from a mini store. I have a table saw (mini) so I was able to rip my own strips to the size I chose. I cut them into differing lengths and laid them out first on a template of my floor over a double-faced tape grid to hold them in place. I would probably skip this step if I do it again, but I'm glad I did it for my novice attempt since I was learning as I went.

Once I had it all trimmed and laid out to suit me I picked the pieces up and glued them down to the actual floor one by one with regular yellow wood glue. I intended to stain my floor so I was very careful with the glue. I went fairly slowly and made sure that my strips were pressed firmly up against their neighbor with some little metal weights with straight edges and perfect 90 degree corners that I use for everything! I have no idea what they are in "real life".

Once it was all glued down I sanded and sanded and sanded and rubbed the sanding dust down into the spaces where the wood pieces came together to fill in any little spaces. Then I sealed with a thin coat of polyurethane and sanded and sanded and sanded and rubbed the sanding dust down into the spaces where the wood came together to fill in and sealed again :). Kept up this drill until I had a smooth as glass finish. I read somewhere when I was studying up for this project that you should be able to close your eyes and rub your fingers over it and feel one continuous surface.

I then stained to the color I wanted and then waxed with paste wax & buffed. Between all these coats I weighted it down under heavy weights to keep it flat. My only mistake that I can see is that I didn't use a thick enough piece of wood for my sub flooring (that I glued the wood strips to) and it did warp just a bit even with the weighting. I used sub flooring just to make it easier to manage and was able to correct the warping when I glued it into the house, so no harm done---but it could have been a problem, so do try to avoid that. It turned out beautifully. It was a good bit of work, but I think the result was well worth it.

Jane, Little Rock, Arkansas

Making shingles lighter: When I paint pictures, wood and cardstock, I go from light to dark. Meaning that I take a light color and begin to make shadows with medium and dark colors of the same hue. But the same idea will work in going from dark to light, it's just more tedious. If it were me, and the shingles were on the roof, I'd dry brush the shingles using an artist fan brush, or use a sea sponge, with medium and lighter shades of brown paint. And I'd use my fingers to blend the colors, either that or bits of paper towel, blending each stroke at a time. About the watered down paint, I've used this to lighten a dark painted area, and also used it to darken a lighter section of paint, so I've used this one both ways, but both ideas work fine.

Susan in VA

Hard Wood Floors: We use Bond 484 glue. Starting at the front of your house, spread glue on about the front 3" of the floor. Cut the first strip to length and lay in down, tight against the front wall. Take the remaining piece of that strip and lay it against the first strip, starting from either side wall. Cut a piece to finish the rest of that strip. Use the remaining piece to start the next wall. Continue in same manner. When you get close to the edge of the applied glue, spread another 3". Some people like more joints in their floors and make extra cuts, instead of laying such long pieces. Make sure the joints don't line up. Once the floor is covered, fill the room with books, bricks or blocks to weight the floor down over night while the glue finishes drying. It is a good idea to lay down wax paper over wood before the bricks, so they don't get glued down if any glue squeezes up between the strips. Next day, remove books. Sand floor. Apply finish (we like Deft), 2 coats, sand with 300+ grit paper or 0000 steel wool to remove any dust specks.

Apply last coat. You'll never go back to coffee stirrers after using a nice hardwood for your floor.

Tom Berkner

Flooring: Our second method (when we do it outside of the house) is to lay it out and glue it down onto a manila file folder. Weight it down over night (or use book press if you happen to have one). Trim to size. Sand it smooth. Glue it done on dollhouse floor. THEN you can varnish, oil, paint or finish it in whatever manner suits your fancy. Do NOT apply any finish before you attach it to doll house.

Tom Berkner

Hardwood Flooring: Lee Valley Tools carries a lot of good woods and veneers... I bought cherry veneer strips in 3 widths to do flooring with. Came in tubes, about 300 or 400 strips to a tube. Now, it is veneer after all so would need to be mounted to something else but I am confident it will make gorgeous floors some day. I am an ardent Lee Valley Tools fan! They carry tons of things that we miniaturists can use, reasonable prices, excellent quality and best of all, CANADIAN. And they will mail order you can request a catalogue at their site. http://www.leevalley.com

Bob Francis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Deft: Yesterday I finished a couple of Mini Mundus furniture kits. I used Min Wax wood stain but for the first time I tried Deft sealer in a spray can. I think it was "our Tom" who suggested this a while back. I had never used a spray sealer before - I think I suffer from "Fear of Spray Can". I was totally amazed by the beautiful finish I got. I applied 3 light coatings as the can said, and then rubbed the final finish with very fine steel wool. Lovely.

P.S. - Every time I buy a Chrysnbon kit the wood stain that comes with the kit has dried up, so I don't know if it is any good or not. Today I tried an experiment. I tried Gel Stain on it. This does NOT work. It went on streaky and stayed sticky. Luckily I could wash off the plastic with soap and water and start again. This is a definite - do not try this.

Paula in NJ

Fabric for Wallpaper: Saw some instructions on applying fabric as wallpaper the other day. They suggested using carpet tape. Why don't you use the sticky backed foam board you mount needlework onto? Just cut it the size you want for the walls and paper it w/o being inside your dh. Don't forget to leave an overlap on the first wall so when you put the next one on, it will show joined and not showing a crack.

Lisa

CRACKLE

I finally got the hang of the fragile crackle thanks to Andrea Barham's directions in her latest book. It's really a four-step process.

1. Paint the color you want the cracks to show as.
2. Paint the Step 1 crackle and let it dry.
3. Paint the Step 2 crackle.
4. Paint the top coat while the Step 2 crackle is still tacky. Step 4 is the crucial one; really gooping on the Step 2 crackle is also important to be sure you get plenty of cracks in the finished product.

Loretta Sniarowski

Wallpapering with Scrapbook Papers: I have used regular miniature wallpaper as well as the papers from the scrapbook stores. I use YES glue exclusively. I do NOT thin. Put the glue on the paper with a spreader, credit card or stencil brush or cut of stiff 1" brush. Put it on thin to cover completely. Slide the paper into position and smooth it out with a credit card or plastic spreader. I've never had any wrinkle, bubble or look awful.

Fannye in TX

Wallpapering with Scrapbook Papers: I used "cloud" scrapbook paper for the sky in my "Secret Garden" with no trouble. I used dollhouse wallpaper paste with no sizing (that fake wallboard). It seems to bubble after pasting, but levels itself out when dry. I used a similar paper--brick pattern bought from my pet dollhouse store on "Rachel's Stable" on an old wooden box. It did the same thing--bubbled and then smoothed out.

Betty in Bellevue, Washington State

Wallpapering with Scrapbook Papers: I successfully used scrapbook paper by applying it (over primer) with Mod-Podge.

Susan

Wallpapering with Fabrics: I have used fabric for wallpaper quite successfully. I used Mod-Podge for applying the fabric over walls primed with acrylic. It worked very well. You need to prime really well. I used rather thin fabrics.

Susan

Shingle tips: I wanted to share a shingle tip that was told to me by Roger of My Doll's House in Torrance, CA. He uses hot glue for putting on shingles, that way if one becomes broken you only need warm it up to remove and replace it (also no warping and curling like you get with some glues).

He also either cuts a 1/16 x 1/16 length of wood (or cuts shingles into slivers) and places them at the very edge of the roof, then placing the first layer of shingles on top of it. That way they all look even.

Ami

Hot Glue for Dollhouse Shingles: If you do decide to use hot glue always use the hot melt, never low melt. And even then be very careful. A friend of mine consistently made crafts using low melt hot glue and when we did shows her glue melted and her products fell apart. You may not foresee a time when you will live in a place this hot or your house ends up in a hot attic, but you never know.

Laura in Tucson

Toning Down Shingle Color: Try an opposite color to tone a color. So green, thinned way down (wash) would be the one to dull your 'red' shingles. It works well. Try it on a couple first to see how you like them.

Mary Lou in Middleburg Hts., OH

Wallpaper? NO, PAINT!

For all of you out there who are having so many problems with wallpaper, didn't you ever think of painting? I've done several projects where I wanted the pattern in fabric and other things instead of on the walls and you can get a textured look on the walls without stucco. Just cut poster board to the size of your walls (I think the kind that is kind of glazed on one side works better because it doesn't absorb the paint). Then paint on a base coat and start sponging all over with different colors. One project I did started out with the walls painted a Pepto-Bismol pink. Then I sponged on burgundy, maroon, red, brown, etc. When it was finished it had depth and slightly resembled old leather. There wasn't even a hint of that pink peeking through, but all the different layers gave it the depth I wanted. Used it for the walls of a Victorian antique shop. Use the Ceramcoat or similar acrylic paints and a makeup sponge. Don't just sponge it here and there, but all over and overlapping a little. I think you could also get a stucco look using this same method and very light-colored paints. If you want a slight sheen, finish it off with some matte acrylic spray. And if you mess it up, just go over it with another coat of paint. It not only solves the wallpaper problem, but it's really fun to do!

Sandy