Grout: The mastic stuff is not as good as the pre-mixed grout. It's much sticker to work with and, after drying, it cracks so badly I've had to re-do whole sections.

Sally Cook-Thomas

<< How does one use joint compound on interior walls and ceilings and also to give a stucco effect on the exterior? >>

      If you're doing this to smooth the walls ...........I use a wall filler compound. Put it on and remove it right away with a putty knife.   For the ceilings I use a product called PERLIGHT.....Texture Additive For Paint. Home Depot carries it and a little goes a long way.

Sue

Flocked Finish - Canadian Tire carries various colours of suede paint. Pretty sure Home Depot has it too.

Debi in Quesnel

Basement: Is the "basement" outside made of wood? If so, you could cover it with creative paperclay. Rik Pierce of Frogmorton Studios wrote a great how-to article. It's in the May 2000 issue of Miniature Collector. The stuff is REALLY light, an most forgiving to work with.

Trish

Basement: I have used this for the foundations of some of my buildings, but to make it 11" high I would recommend using 2" thick cut to size and insert wooden dolls every 4-6" to support the weight of your house. I used a ball-point pen to groove out a stone or block design painted the whole thing light gray the used a darker gray to pain the grooves to look like mortar - you could finish it what ever color you would like.

Jo

Basement: There is a wonderful article on a "Haunted house" done on a "rock looking" hill, in the October 1992 issue of Nutshell News. Sounds like he covered Styrofoam with a thin layer of plaster that was textured by using crumpled tin foil! Looks very realistic too!

Linda

Painting Tip: I have a tip that I hope I wasn't the last person in the world to find out. I love Accent's Razzle Red, but it is a shear color and I've always hated that it took many coats to cover a project. We are doing a building that is old and for patriotic ''stuff''. I wanted the trim to look like it had many coats of paint and I just grabbed the first paint I saw on my work table to cover the trim first. It was Delta Ceramcoat's Wedgewood Green. When I painted the red over this--one coat covered it. So when painting red, paint with green first.

April Gill

Painting Fine Lines: What I usually do to paint really fine lines is to cut a piece of heavy paper into a fine point, or for longer lines just use the edge of the paper. This works really well, but you have to keep cutting the paper to get a fresh point after a few dips in the paint.

Tori

Sticky Paint: I use tons of wax paper when painting or gluing minis. It keeps your work surface clean and the things don't stick to it.

Marilyn

Sticky Paint: When I was building my shop, the pieces that made up the windows were so tiny! What I did was to stick a long pin CAREFULLY into the end of each one, held the pin while I painted, and then stuck the other end of the pin into a block of expanded polystyrene to dry. Worked very well. Just make sure you don't split the end of the wood where the pin goes in.

In fact I used this method for the bigger pieces too, then wound some wire around the head of the pin and suspended them from my clothes airer.

Jan

Paper doilies for architectural detail: When I built my first structure 20-some years ago, I enhanced the front by cutting out, then gluing in a stack, a full package worth of the same motif that I repeated 3 times on the front of the shop. Since then I've also used this technique to make "pressed-tin" ceilings and the effect is perfect. Much cheaper than the plaster ceilings you can buy, and you can adjust the sizes and details to fit any room.

Kate

Doilies for ceilings: I used the plastic doilies that are sometimes sold, to make fake plaster ceilings. I didn't even have to paint them. The ceiling was white and the doily fancy detail was picked out in blue and gold which fitted right in with my antique shop color scheme.

Roberta

Painting on Plastic: I have found that if I base plastics, metals, etc with a coat of Krylon primer (auto body gray is my favorite), I can even use nail polish on plastic with great results. There are two older articles in NSN (Dollhouse Miniatures) July 90, pg 50 is an article by Pat and Noel Thomas on using spray paints on Chrysnbon to get really realistic finishes. I tried it and have been very pleased with the results.

Nancy

Painting Plastic: There is a wonderful paint to cover plastic and anything else you might like to cover......I use the white paint to cover plastics and spray just a light coat and then use the color I want over it. It's called Kilnz.....and it's fantastic. Most hardware stores have it. It's a bit pricey but it will cover anything!

Georgina Hanford Simmons-Gagnon

Marquetry; When I paint in water colors and I want to prevent an area from getting "washed" I paint it first with plain rubber cement. The wash stops at the margin of the rubber cement. Then when the paint has dried I rub the rubber cement with my fingers and it comes off. Exposing the unpainted surface below it waiting for me to paint it.

Bob

Finishing Tips: If you use several different colors of wood stain and mark your pattern out on the wood you want to use you can make a very fancy floor with very little work (yeah sure) but it looks great. Use a stencil or mark it out with tape and then do the next part when that has dried. I have seen it done in full size and it really does look pretty.

If you make copies of the inside walls and ceilings before you assemble your house you can then cut the matte board or what every you are using, real easy and the pattern is easy to get that way. This is for putting your paper on so that you won't have bumps from your wiring and if you decide to redecorate it someday you can remove the sections and do it really easy.. This is also a good idea for your floor covering or carpet.

Charlean

Musical Teapot: I did the decoupage finish on my teapot and under the lid there was room for a musical button. I put it in with a blob of Stickum wax. Take off the lid and push the button. It plays the length of the chip. They are getting better with those songs. Find the buttons at craft stores. If I were a miniature shop, I would stock songs like Tea for Two, It's a Small World and A Few of My Favorite Things.

Laurie

Grout: The mastic stuff is not as good as the pre-mixed grout. It's much sticker to work with and, after drying, it cracks so badly I've had to re-do whole sections.

Sally Cook-Thomas

<< How does one use joint compound on interior walls and ceilings and also to give a stucco effect on the exterior? >>

      If you're doing this to smooth the walls ...........I use a wall filler  compound. Put it on and remove it right away with a putty knife.   For the  ceilings I use a product called PERLIGHT.....Texture Additive For Paint. Home Depot carries it and a little goes a long way.

Sue

1/4 Scale Teapot Walls: There are three options I'd suggest for your teapot walls.  One is to snip thin wedges out of the paper to help it conform to the teapot curves, something like the way tiny 'v'-cuts are made in fabric to help ease it around a curve.  The second is to cut walls from matboard and fit those in place rather than leaving the interior curved.  I think I'd paint the curved walls, then if you want a print you can either paint dots or flowers on them or cut little bitty designs from paper or fabric and glue them in place.

Pam