Painting without brush marks:

First- did you prime your wood? Wood is dry and sucks the water out of your paint. Seal it with gesso and a little water or shellac. Either method is fine.

Second- did little fuzz bits pop up? Gesso is sandable, just give it a light touch up, dust it off and you are ready to paint. I like the white gesso behind my colors because then you get the true colors. Gesso is found with painting supplies at a craft store.

Third- I think the primer will give you the best result. You should always prime even before wallpapering. Wood may seem just fine but continue to drink up even wallpaper paste until it starts to pop off.

Laurie Sisson

Brush lines in paint: I have done a lot of painting with acrylics, and I would be very happy if I could be of help.  I need to know more about your situation.

My first thought is about the temperature where you are painting.  I   have my usual lair for painting in my attic.   Sometimes it gets very hot   up there.  In that case it is impossible for me to paint smoothly.   We  always cool off at night, but if that doesn't work for you, you can work  with the paint itself.

Each brand has a product that helps smooth the strokes.  I use Jo Sonja   "flow medium" with the Jo Sonja paints.   It thins the paint without   affecting the coverage the way water does.   However, water will help if   you have paint that has thickened.   If you put your blob of paint on a   wet paper towel, it won't thicken so fast.

Using the same brushes for varnish could present a problem.  I am not sure how serious it is, but I was warned not to use the same brushes for varnish and paint.   Maybe your brushes have been damaged by the varnish.  I have  large and small dedicated varnish brushes, and I use foam brushes when possible.

Are you preparing your wood?  You need to sand smooth, seal with sealer or paint, sand again.  On some surfaces I have to sand after the first and second coat of paint.  And don't even ask about MDF!  I put sealer and three coats of Titanium White on the last house before using Jo Sonja base coat and getting a really smooth effect.  (But I don't usually use acrylics on the house exterior, just needed this color.)

I have been teaching my friends how to paint (while working on my houses or their own), and I notice that they first tend to use too much paint.  You have to be patient and make thin coats.   The other thing they do is use a brush that is too small.  This makes more strokes necessary.  It also makes it impossible to keep the paint out of the ferrule (the part where the hairs are clamped).  I obtained a set of cheaper brushes for this work and hid my art brushes.

After painting houses and trim, the brushes need a lot of work.  It does seem impossible to keep the paint on the tips.  I keep cleaning them in the palm of my hand with brush cleaner and water until I don't get any more paint coming out.

You ask if you are using the wrong type of paint.  Well, there are various levels of quality.  Delta and Decoart are very good in the U.S.  Don't know if you have them.  Jo Sonja base coat paint is often better than you need.  I haven't used latex paint for trim, woodwork, or furniture.  Even the small jars put up for miniaturists would be way out of sight for such tiny projects.  I just made a house with gingerbread in three tasteful colors, which wouldn't be practical without the inexpensive acrylics.

I know there are others who can add more, and I look forward to learning from them.

Bar in La Honda, CA

Streaking paint: Please use flow medium, soft bristle brushes, prime your surface, change the direction of  your strokes with each coat, rub each layer with brown paper sack to soften any marks and consider the type of paint you are using. Tube paint will be very thick and require a great deal of thinning. Craft paint works well out of the bottle but will require several coats. Most expensive is not always the best now that there are so many mediums and aides to go with the less expensive craft paints.

Becky Holliday

Paint Storage: I wanted to buy the white plastic covered wire paint carousel at Michael's but even on sale at $39.99 it felt a little too expensive for me to hold crafts that I've already spent too much on!! So I started saving my empty toilet paper rolls (cut in two) and empty paper towel holder rolls (cut in three pieces). Then making sure they sat flat on a surface, glued the sides all together until you have enough to fill a sturdy box (covered mine in contact paper). The bottles of craft paint stand up nicely in these and as suggested by SS'er) I put a little dab of the corresponding paint on the lid of each. Works great for me & I can see all the colors, too many :) at a glance!

Darlene/NJ-SP

Organizing hints: I am in the process of organizing yet again. Paper work, kit instructions, magazine cutouts, and business cards, etc., in three-ring binders in plastic pages. Label the books and I really try to keep them up-to-date. Not always successfully, of course.

Then I use plastic shoe boxes for mini items which won't break easily. I label each box with a sticker, and it works for me. The hardest box is of course the "misc" box which also holds "stuff." But I also use larger plastic boxes for the furniture I have - by category, like "kitchen," "bathroom," or "dressers," "Beds." It works for quite a while, and then I find I may have been in a hurry and stuffed an item in the wrong box. Or I got a new supply of something and didn't file it at all. I have been collecting/saving minis for years and so I have, umm, lots.

But I find the plastic shoe boxes and larger boxes an excellent way to store - - on shelves and in stacks. Also, the divided boxes for teeny tiny items which might get lost or broken in the larger boxes. As for books, I am starting a data-base for all my dollhouse books and catalogs so I can find the one I want easily. Helpful, too, when I KNOW I have a book and it turns out I don't - I borrowed it from the library and returned it! God bless my senior moments!

Gail Green (no 'e')

Finishing

Inexpensive wallpaper: Saw the note about wallpaper/paint for finishing rooms and a   response saying most people wallpaper which is true.   Also said wallpaper really isn't expensive which is debatable depending on the state of your pocketbook! :)   At $2.50 per sheet retail and assuming you use three sheets per room so you don't have to do any piecing, that can add up if you're doing a house with 6 or 8 rooms.   Anyway, I just wanted to suggest that you think about very tiny print "real" wallpaper that you can buy closeouts on usually for $1.00 per roll.   But even better (cause you don't end up with 6 or 8 huge rolls of wallpaper when you're done) is looking at fabrics as wall coverings.   The colors, prints, etc., are limitless and it is very inexpensive to use.   If you your rooms have 8" high walls, you can buy a quarter of a yard (9") of a 36" or 44" wide fabric and have enough to do the entire room for just a dollar or two depending on the fabric you select.   When I paper with fabric, I use double sided carpet tape on poster board panels and then glue the panels to the walls but there are various other methods also.

Mary Lynne in Huntington, WV

Silvery Paint: Last week I sent a tip for those who might need a small quantity of silver-finish paint that didn't make it to SS.   In Wal-Mart’s cosmetics section, Sally Hansen nail polish currently includes bottles of chrome finish.   It doesn't dry into a true sparkling chrome finish, but creates a nice mellow polished silver look, better than what I've achieved with brush or spray acrylic metallics, with no brush mark streaks once dry.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Gutters and downspouts : you can cut ordinary drinking straws in half the long way for the gutters. For downspouts, use uncut drinking straws. For the part of the downspout that lies on the lawn, use the accordion-pleated part of drinking straws that can be bent. All pieces could be painted with silver craft paint to resemble metal. They could be attached to the house with small pieces of "tacky".

Mary in MS

Painting a sandstone effect: For starters undercoat with a semi gloss paint which is the base colour. Then a mix of (1/3s) turps, linseed oil, polyurethane paint and (1 to 10) either china clay or talcum powder. Once the base colour is COMPLETELY dry paint on the mix (keep stirring the mix all the time or the colours will be different) with an ordinary paintbrush. The mix has to be quite runny. (experiment on scrap wood until you get the colour you want). Leave for 3-5 minutes then with an artists round paintbrush facing straight onto the surface you are painting, use a quick jabbing motion and 'stipple' in lines across and down. Be quick as the paint will dry quite quickly. Use this method in sections so it flows in colour. Remember that sandstone is not even in colour, that is the joy of it. So aim for an effect that looks natural. The best effect is achieved by dabbing in a quick jabbing movement with the paintbrush in a straight line from the surface being painted. Hard on the wrist but beautiful on the eye when finished:)

This method can also be used to achieve a marble effect.

Kim

Speckles:To get speckles of black/brown and green in your shingles or anything else for that matter. I take an old tooth brush. Put some of the paint (one color at a time) I wish to spatter on the tooth brush and (this is hard to explain) holding the loaded tooth brush a few inches away from the area to be spattered run your finger (thumb) over the bristles of the tooth brush causing the paint to spatter onto your object. Give it a try. If finances are tight just rinse the paint out of the tooth brush and use it with your tooth paste again.

Drbob...Delray Beach, FL

Tin roof - get sheets of crimped metallic paper, cut it the length you need into wide strips that will over lap, paint to appear weathered and rusted. It mustn't be perfectly done or it won't look authentic unless you're doing a fancy log cabin, in which case I'd do cedar shake shingles, say that ten times fast!!!!!!!!!

Molly Cromwell

Downspouts from straws: In a recent Bluette class we added downspouts by using a straw with a flexible neck, cut to fit the space, and then use the copper ageing kits, or just paint with copper paint, and when thoroughly dry, dry brush some burnt umber on it and wipe to the finish wanted, grungy or not. You can do the same for gutters, use a piece of wooden molding that is u shaped and glue on the roof but age first.

Molly

Corrugated Metal roofing: Last night I had one of Pizza Hut's P'Zone's. I noticed in the bottom of the box holding the sandwich a large rectangular piece of white corrugated cardboard. I would imagine that you could probably talk your local Pizza Hut out of some, or they may sell you a few pieces for a nominal amount. The scale looks about right for a tin roof.

Rusty in Ky

Pumice is a wonderful material used as a finishing agent and so is rottenstone. Both are a powder, very fine somewhat like powdered sugar. It is used with an oil as a lubricant and that oil can be just any kind, baby, mineral, motor, etc. I even used the nasty, crudey oil drained from my car on one occasion when I couldn't find anything else. Despite it being what it was, I obtained the best softly glowing appearance that closely resembled the patina of an antique on that piece of furniture. I used it to repair a somewhat less than perfect finish on an old piece of furniture with great success. Both pumice and rottenstone are gray, one lighter than the other and which to use depends on the finish you want. If you want a very low sheen, use rottenstone, but if you desire a soft shiny ( NOT that awful high shine) finish, use pumice. I am embarrassed to say I had never thought of using either on wood minis that have that horrible garish bumpy finish. I would think either would tone it down to a acceptable appearance. I have read that some furniture has been dipped or painted with glue for a finish. How true I don't know and I also don't know how one would remove that.

Mel - Mass., USA

Cinder block: use a wood base and paint it gray with sand in the paint and score lines for the cinder block edges. If you make butt joints where the wood meets wood at the corners, you can use the line between the wood as the line delineating the end of a cinder block run. Play with it.

Better yet use coarse grit sand paper and this permits you to go "around" corners. also paint this cinder block gray. The lines between courses and rows can be done with a fine brush and black or a dark gray paint. Stipple the "cinder block" with the black paint to give the impression of pits. We are talking illusion here. You are only limited by your imagination and the depth of your "pocket".

Dr Bob

Tin roof...when doing my log cabin, I found most of the "tin" roofing was in pieces to small for the expanse of roof I wanted to cover, finally went to a pack and ship shop and got a roll of corrugated packing material. FANTASTIC!!! I unrolled it, hung it on my fence and spray painted it with some chrome paint...because it absorbs the paint, it was a matt finish. I wanted mine to be rustic, so I used Instant Rust and weathered it after I glued it to the roof.

Annamarie

Coloring asphalt shingles: I have "custom-colored" the asphalt shingles and it is simple. Just roll them out on a drop cloth, weighting them down at the ends, and spray on the background color you want using an inexpensive spray paint in a matte finish. After that is dry, use the "granite" or other "flecked" type spray paint and give them a light spray to add the specks of varied color. It works like a charm.

Karen Golomb

Dulling Varnish: When one uses many coats of gloss varnish, to make it appear less garish and more hand rubbed one can coat a piece of soft cotton with mineral oil and dab it on pumice for a final rub down and repeated until the finish you want to achieve has been accomplished. I think there are many ways to remove varnish. I just wanted to make people aware that there are other methods in mind also when using pumice and mineral oil. BTW I have to go to my dentist to get pumice.

Gary the Yank in NH in the US

White wallpaper: I would use fabric! I have also had success with, are you ready? Scraps from vertical blinds! They have a nice body to them and come in lots of colors (and white) with a slight texture to them. They are already in strips and go up like a dream! You can buy just a few strips if you aren't lucky enough to get scraps from places that do blinds. And they are quite reasonable in price!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

White wallpaper: see if you can find a roll of ceiling paper. It probably won't be plain white; it will have a texture of some sort, but will do the trick, I think. You may not find it in such places as K-Mart, but Home Depot and such ought to have it in bins.

Dani, in Bradshaw, MD