Porridge/Oatmeal: I have made oatmeal by mixing cinnamon and a few drops of gallery glass with Model Magic.  Sounds weird, but it looks right. It's very easy to fit into any dish, it's soft so you can make it look properly lumpy, and you can embed bananas, etc. in it.

Celeste in Boston

Eclairs: I think someone was recently looking for instructions for mini eclairs. This site has that and needle point pillow and more. http://www.bulback.com/personal/kim/project2.html

Jane in Arkansas

Idea for Spice Bottles: As I was walking by a display of tiny Christmas lights yesterday, it occurred to me that they might work for spice bottles.  If you carefully cut away the base and tip you'd be left with a tiny glass cylinder.  Then the other hints, like some glue to close the base, could be used to finish them off.  They'd be clear so you could fill them part way with spices.  Another option, if you know someone who works in a lab, would be Pasteur Pipettes.  They are pretty delicate glass and could be cut into cylinders as well.

Lissa from Rutland, MA

Glass Stain - If you've ever used the regular acrylic glass stain, when you put it on a flat surface, it flattens out to a very thin layer, so it doesn't have any dimension to it. The Gallery Glass Window Color, is more of a gel and you can make an egg white, and after it sets, add a yolk, and when you look from the side, it's up to an eighth of an inch high, depending on how big you make the drops for the white and the yolk. Plaid also makes a "Funlites Suncatcher paint" which is the thinner glass stain. Now, no matter which one I am using, if I am putting skin on a turkey, or baked stuff on a roast, I let some glass stain set up on a ceramic tile, and scrap it off with a razor blade, and glue that on to the turkey, etc., with more of the same color glass stain. I get a really good roast/barbecue look.

Marsha Heeter in Oregon

Buttons: Last night I needed to make some yellow buttons (in miniature of course) for a project, and I accidentally learned how to make great looking Swiss cheese! So I thought I'd pass on the "technique" to all of you! I used a tool which is made for punching different size holes in leather. It looks like a big hole punch with a wheel of different size punches on the end (I believe both Tandy leather and MicroMark sells them) I took a yellow plastic lid, like the kind from a coffee can or peanut can, and started punching away. Before I knew it, I not only had a pile of buttons, but what was left sure looked like Swiss cheese! I find those flexible plastic lids great for lots of things!

Alice Zinn

Also added are new recipes for candy canes and peppermint sticks:

http://miniatures.about.com/library/clay/bl080600candy.htm

(unknown)

50's Condiment Ideas: we're working on a 50s style drive-in came up with some ideas that look reasonable for salt & pepper shakers and ketchup and mustard things. I took the clear plastic tube from a very small (real life size) bottle of perfume and cut it into 1/8" lengths. Then with a tiny liner brush painted white inside some of the lengths and black inside the others. Then glued a small silver bead to one end. These will be glued to the tables so no need to figure out how to make a bottom on the shakers. For the ketchup & mustard I did the same thing with a slightly larger diameter of the tube - think that one was from land lotion. Painted inside of the tube sections with red and then the others with yellow. Made a little cone shape of Fimo for the top and baked those then painted the cones.

They do look reasonable for the use of being used on the tables. We also wanted to have some pies for the drive in and finally tried using the bottom piece of 1/2" metal button sets - the kind you cover with your own fabric for garments or whatever. Had to cut off the shank part which left two holes in the bottom of the "pie tin" but being these are also going to be glued down, just filed them smooth and left it at that. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas for the Fimo french fries -- I have them made and they look ok. When I get the plates made will glue some to the plate and add a blob of red paint for ketchup. Anyone have ideas of how to handle the fries for the trays that will be on the cars? I tried making little paper cones to hold them, but somehow it doesn't look just right and it's really difficult to make the cones so small.

Ronni

Glass Stain - If you've ever used the regular acrylic glass stain, when you put it on a flat surface, it flattens out to a very thin layer, so it doesn't have any dimension to it. The Gallery Glass Window Color, is more of a gel and you can make an egg white, and after it sets, add a yolk, and when you look from the side, it's up to an eighth of an inch high, depending on how big you make the drops for the white and the yolk. Plaid also makes a "Funlites Suncatcher paint" which is the thinner glass stain. Now, no matter which one I am using, if I am putting skin on a turkey, or baked stuff on a roast, I let some glass stain set up on a ceramic tile, and scrap it off with a razor blade, and glue that on to the turkey, etc., with more of the same color glass stain. I get a really good roast/barbecue look.

Marsha Heeter in Oregon

Lite Brite pegs revisited:

For Jello salad cut a section off the larger, rounded end (green...lime... is my favorite for this).. Place it cut side down on a piece of lettuce, alongside a pear half. Add a dollop of caulking (mixed with a dab of buttermilk color acrylic paint) mayo.

For Jello dessert, cut a slightly larger section from the rounded end (I like red for this). Place on a small plate, cut side down. Add a dollop of caulking whipped cream. Top with a cherry.

The Jello dessert may also be made by gluing the rounded end of the cut peg to a punched round of clear plastic. This will add a base making it look like the Jello is in dessert/serving glass. Play with this idea a bit and you will find some interesting variations. like adding stems between the peg and base for stemware.

My article in the Aug. issue of NN/DM includes other lite brite peg projects... which you may find useful (the pictures do not show them well). There are soda pop bottles (could be beer bottles) which involve shaping by hand or moto tool and glasses of Kool-Aid.

Be on the lookout for other plastic shapes, translucent and opaque, that can be used for similar projects...cocktail picks and stir sticks are quite abundant. Square-sided, opaque white sticks can be cut into great looking S&P shakers with the addition of round punched silver tops.

Joann Swanson

Jars: For anyone wanting to make paint jars with lite brites (before you wind up chopping off your fingers trying to cut up the lite brites), pony beads in primary colors (or any color for that matter) make great little paint jars. They are convincing for finger paint and poster paint jars. You can even put a "paint brush" through the hole in the top and attach a label if you want. Other colors can also be used for jelly, jam, and preserves.

Anita Myers

Egg Nog:

Materials:

Polymer Compound Resin (2-part kit such as Envirotex-lite)

White Opaque Color

Yellow Transparent Dye

Ground Cinnamon (I know it should be nutmeg, but this is more to scale)

Paper Cup, Toothpicks, Stirring Sticks

Miniature Pitcher & Mugs or Glasses

OR Chrysnbon Punch Bowl Set (for Egg Nog Punch)

Pour appropriate amount of polymer compound - 1 part resin to 1 part catalyst into a paper cup. Add a touch of white opaque color and a touch of yellow transparent dye. Stir thoroughly. Carefully pour mixture into pitcher, glasses or mugs, OR ..into Punch Bowl and cups. Sprinkle with ground "nutmeg". Allow to harden undisturbed at least 12 hours.

Mary Eccher

Resin: Here in South Africa we make molds of old jewelry and metal decorative items using Vinamould and then duplicate them using resin. Also use resin for drinks and sauces and water. We use our molds to make decorative architectural items for our houses and also things like picture frames etc. We have very few mini items available here and have to innovate and duplicate.

Roberta Pijper

Laundry basket: I also made a laundry basket out of the badminton bird that someone gave a tip on--- love it and even snipped out handles each side. The pieces left over can make maybe a dog dish, or a pot and rubber tip a light in the ceiling, the mesh formed into a small garden fence or strawberry basket----etc.

Marlene

Cake plates

I just found this out by accident this morning, so I guess it was meant for you.  I have a lot of pill bottles, and the cats like to knock them over.  One lid got jammed crooked in the process, and when I pried it loose, a clear plastic dish with a lip sailed out.  This is the part that makes the things childproof.  It's thin, it comes in various sizes depending on the medication, and, uh... I'm not so sure that doesn't already a hole in the middle, but as I said, this only happened a few hours ago, and I'm away from home and can't confirm.

Melissa

Pickles: I "dot" my sculpey pickles with the kind of paint you paint tee shirts with. It gives the bumps dimension, then paint over it will a pickle green.

Alice Zinn

Wedding Cake Topper: The latest issue of Doll House Miniatures has a Joann Swanson project which includes a wedding cake topper. It is made by repainting some HO-scale train figures as a bride and groom; she also added a string-twist arbor arch which they are standing under. The article includes how-to instructions.

Loretta

Mary Eccher's Cookbook: To build your "cookbook", click on Workshop, 2nd page of Website

http://www.pannikins.com/

Mary Eccher

Plastic lids - dark brown ones from cocoa, etc. make great Oreo cookies. Use a round punch for the cookies, then a blob of frosting between two of them. This frosting is great for gingerbread houses too!

FROSTING:

Mix 2 T textural gel with 1/2 T each: regular Tacky glue and paint (colorant of the frosting). Textural gel can be found in the art supplies area of Michael's or an art supplies store.

Chris in Minnesota

Oreo cookies: I've made Oreo cookies using the craft foam and the stiffened black felt.

I use the hole punch on the foam for the "frosting". I use the thicker foam for the double stuff. Punch out the "cookie" from the black felt and glue them onto the frosting. You can leave one side of the cookie off, so it looks like someone took it apart.

You can get the craft foam at any craft shop and the stiffened felt is usually with the regular felt.

Sherrydon

Lite brite pegs for jars, etc. - I clipped off the narrow part with wire cutters, then filed that end flat on a metal file. I printed out some can labels (I think they were from Jim's printables site: http://www.printmini.com/ ) so they were about 1/4" high (small enough that they looked like they could be labels for jam instead of veggies), tacky-glued them on and added three layers of punched-out posterboard circles for a lid (one or two didn't seem thick enough). They came out so nice that I brought pegs and labels and tools to my mini meeting that night, and everyone went home with a dozen jelly jars! And ALL the colors looked great!

One club member also showed us how to turn them into perfume bottles, and another suggested using the clipped-off portion as mini Christmas lights.

Lee