Holeless Beads: I have used the miniature marbles from Michael's (holeless beads) to decorate Christmas Trees, Swags and Wreaths. I love them.

Fannye in TX

Lycopodium Trees: I learned how to make a Lycopodium Tree  -  must be 15 to 18 years ago from  Joe Hermes. The Kit consists of  a "Bottle brush tree"  which in Canada you can get for about $2.00 to  $4.00.  and a Bunch of Lycopodium. You break off pieces of 'branches' to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch longer than the width of the tree at the point you are going to glue them in. So you make little  stacks of different lengths to start out , then start gluing them into the Bottle brush tree, starting at the bottom, using tacky glue which will dry clear.   After you have filled in the tree then let it dry and go back and fill in any gaps you cant live with. NOW THE IMPORTANT INFO IS  THE PRUNING  TO SHAPE.   YOU MUST   N O T CUT THE BRANCHES OFF.  YOU MUST PINCH/PULL THE EXCESS OFF TO SHAPE THE TREE.  IF YOU CUT THE BITS OFF YOU WILL END UP WITH UGLY BROWN ENDS ON YOUR BRANCHES.

Paddy

Snowmen: Thought I would share an idea with you that I found at the last NAME National.

1" tall snowmen

Safety tip Q-tips
fine marker pens
tiny twigs
embroidery thread
round white cardboard circles

Cut the cotton tip from the Q-tip and glue to the round cardboard circle.  Using the fine pens make black dots for the eyes on the top part of the Q-tip and down the center of the bottom part for buttons. Red dots will make a nice smile beneath the eyes.  Cut embroidery thread - - your color choice - about 1" long to glue around the neck.  Cut tiny (1/4") twigs for the arms and glue to the top of the bottom portion of the cotton.  I also put tiny snowballs at the base.  These were from the stuffing from a bean bag chair. Styrofoam balls.  You could also make them from Fimo. I thought the idea very cute. Took me a while to find these Q-tips but most drug stores now have them.

Carol (jody)

Snow: I, too, like white silicone tub caulk for snow on my projects. I like that you can swirl and shape it, make snow drifts and even pull down icicles off the edge of the roof. I've done it only on smaller projects, though, and not a large l" scale roof. You'd have to work real fast on a big area as it skins over in about five minutes and will look lumpy if worked any more. I have learned the hard way not to use a cheap off-brand, as it will yellow in time. I use Dow Corning only and always have good luck with it.

My tip is to use white powder on top to give it a real snow look instead of glitter. I use either talcum powder, baby powder, anything that is nice and white (some are a bit gray). The "snow" looks real velvety. You need to sprinkle it on liberally while the caulk is still wet, let dry, then blow off the excess.

Marilyn - Wisconsin

Garlands Wreaths: I made some garlands and wreaths for a recent HBS project and it was really easy. I got these instructions from the "Craft Designs" book by Rebecca Zimpher (available from HBS) which has patterns for the shapes. I made my own patterns and used starched felt instead of green construction paper. First, cut the shapes out of starched green felt. Then, cut up lycopodium into tiny 1/4" pieces. Lycopodium is a dried plant that looks like mini douglas fir. It's available from HBS, of course, but you can also get it from Michael's, JoAnn's and similar craft stores. Coat small sections of the felt with white glue. Using tweezers, stick pieces of the lycopodium into the glue laying them up, down and straight out in the way pieces of fir would be on a garland or wreath. Continue in sections until you've covered the piece, then let dry. Adore with red satin bows or whatever and put in position with MiniHold. The book has instructions for making Christmas trees out of lycopodium, too.

Sally Cook-Thomas

Garlands: look at displays at your local craft or gift stores that carry the little Christmas village displays at this time of year. I've been able to purchase small accessories (which usually turn out to be l/2" scale), including a small roll of garland that was quite nice and would do for l" scale also.

Marilyn - Wisconsin

Christmas Tree Decorations: One of my favorite mini Christmas tree decorations is a miniature chain that I made one year out of the foil wrappers you get off holiday Hershey kisses in the red , green, and silver colors. It took a while to develop a technique that would hold together, but finally found one that worked. Here are the instructions for those of you that would like to try it. Collect the wrappers off holiday Hershey kisses. Encourage your family to overindulge, and bribe them to unwrap very carefully so you have complete untorn pieces. You'll need eight to ten lengths of that very thin floral wire which has paper coating. (I tried it without the coating, and had a hard time getting the foil to stick to the wire). Cut the foil squares into 1/4" strips. You need to run a VERY slight amount of glue on the floral wire, and start wrapping the strips of lengthwise foil down the length of the wire, keeping the thickness as thin as possible and still covering the wire. If it is a little lumpy, that is good...it gives more character to the finished result. Compress the foil tightly around the wire. Let dry....and cut the foil covered floral wire strips into 5/16" lengths. I use a pair of small needle nosed pliers that have two rounded ends, and it works best for making the chain links. Curl a length of wire around the tip end of your pliers once with just a little extended beyond the other end. You now have one link. start forming your links and proceed as if you are making a paper chain . Sorry about the detailed instructions for such a simple task. You can make the chain as long as you like. It makes a beautiful decoration for the tree or for a mantelpiece decoration.

Carol Wagner, Joshua Tree, CA

Candy Canes: When trying to make some candy canes for my Christmas scene; I used 32 gauge white floral wire, and size 10 red crochet cotton. I glue the one end of the crochet cotton to the wire, and started twisting it. So it looked like the spiral on a candy cane. I then cut the thread and glued it to the end of the wire, so it wouldn't untwist. I then used acrylic varnish to coat the cane. did this three times, letting it dry in between coats. I was really surprised how well these turned out. looked good enough to eat! I used white glue, to glue thread to wire on both ends. I had tried just thread to begin with ,but the little bend in the candy cane wouldn't stay.

Pat Thompson

Candy Canes: I made my candy canes out of white & red seed beads and head pins. I shaped the head pin into a cane, cut it to the size I wanted and then slipped the beads on it alternating colors, glued the bottom bead and that was it. Really easy!!!

Marsha, Newark, CA

CANDY CANES Why not use the striped paper clips and cut and curve. We have an old fashioned candy store in our town that puts out canes by the 10,000's. They shape them into baskets, hearts, swirls,...

Lisa Lynn

Candy Canes: Go to a hardware or Radio Shack, buy thin white wire with a red stripe. Cut into appropriate lengths and twist. Bingo!! Candy canes. Wire comes in some astonishing colors and color combinations. . . let your mind wander in delight... this stuff is cheap! Electronics stores also carry and amazing variety of colored wire. .

Judie - Daytona Beach, FL

Gift wrap: You can make satin paper ribbon thinner, by shredding it with a ribbon shredder, found at most craft stores or even in gift wrap dept. of stores like Target or Wal-Mart.

MAP in Puyallup

Christmas nail decals. Apparently people apply these to their finger nails for the holiday season. However, I think a much better use would be to cut an appropriate size of paper, white, red or other holiday color, place a decal on the front, fold in half, and you have an instant greeting card for you dollhouse mantle.

Cheryl Loaring

Keep an eye out for the "velvet" bows sold in the gift wrap department right now. Untie and iron them. They work beautifully for everything from masks to book covers. Pass up the red which can be found anytime and grab all the other colors you can find. These things are really inexpensive now and hard to find at other times of the year!

Marcie Cumberland

Bias tape village etc. A friend sent me this site and I thought I would pass it along. It is full of nifty craft ideas but what especially caught my attention was the Bias Tape Village (no sewing) complete with patterns...Victorian House, Toy Store, Bakery, etc. and what looks the best.....a 3-D Christmas Inn. There is also a removable roof house box.

Something interesting that may be worth investigating are the Special appliqués designed to be used on the Bias Tape Village Buildings. The windows are in 5 styles - with and without shutters, and come in 4 colors. The doors are in 4 styles and come in 3 colors. Look for these appliqués now in JO-ANN's Fabric Stores and JO-ANN's E.T.C. stores.

http://www.wrights.com/frame.htm

Go to Classroom/free patterns.

Joann Swanson

Gold and Copper Wire - I found gold and copper extremely fine "WireMesh" distributed by Paragona. It is real woven metal fabric. I cut it into very narrow ribbons and shaped it on a Christmas tree just like ribbon but it keeps its shape, made bows and twisted it into a garland. Wonderful for smaller scales, cuts 1/16" wide without fraying. I tried baskets and cut out leaf shapes for Christmas. You can fray it, and the single strands of it have wonderful tiny kinks. Even made a tiny tassel. Makes great tiny angel dresses and wings. Some punches worked on it too, my small star one was great, and you can use it to shape under Fimo or as a wreath base to stick flowers in.

A walnut Christmas show case - a teeny snowman - You will need a fine fat walnut; teeny amount orange Fimo, carrot shaped, baked solid; teeny amount black Fimo, coal shaped, baked solid; white Model Magic; fake fir tree (bottle brush type) from model railway shop; 2 tiny twiggy bits.

First, choose the biggest walnut you can find. Check it for any cracks in the shell. Then see if you can get it to sit upright, free-standing and straight. From 4lbs of walnuts I have 10 perfect ones. Hold the horizontal walnut in a vice, and with a hacksaw, cut 2/3rds of the way down. Stop sawing when you reach the half way bit where the 2 halves join. Take out of vice and gently tap the top of the walnut. The sawn section should come away.

Carefully pry out all the walnut meat. Eat it to give you energy to carry on. Using a sharp implement, scrape away all the messy loose bits inside both bits of shell. Check sawn off bit fits neatly back onto other bigger bit to give impression of whole walnut. There is no need to do this last bit but I am very childish... Wash your hands to ensure 'snow' stays crispy white. With white model magic, fill , the lower part of the bigger portion of shell with model magic - this is to make the 'snow'. Make a snowman shape from 3 balls of Model magic - stick the twigs in the sides for the arms, the baked orange Fimo into the head for a nose, the baked black Fimo into the face for eyes and down the body for buttons.

Cut the top off the fir tree, to fit inside the walnut shell. Push down into the Model magic. Position snowman so you can put the 'front' of the walnut shell in place without damaging him. Leave to dry. Finished! I made this scene in about 15 minutes; one could do other scenes too - a teeny gingerbread house, a garden, a pool, a ....

Walnut shells: One of my favorite Christmas tree ornaments is a, painted white, walnut shell. It has a very thin rickrack around the edge, and over the top, making it look like a basket. In the basket is a flannel blanket, covering all but the face of a tiny mouse. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

MAP in Puyallup

Christmas Goodies: To make candy canes, just roll a snake of each color and then roll them together, cut and shape. I have been making Santa tea pots and a red cup with a very fine candy cane around the lip.

For cakes, cut a block of wood and cover with the Fimo. I cut rubbers since wood is hard to get here.

Plum puddings - cut finely, black for currants and red for cherries. Cook, then roll these in brown Fimo, cook again, then mix white paint, glue and a tinge of yellow to make it a cream color for brandy sauce. I also put two tiny bits of green foliage for the leaves and 2 tiny rolled and cooked red balls for the cherries on the top.

Karen from Dubai

Snow: I've got another way to put snow on a roof top or lay it in a landscape: I cut a piece of white felt fabric to fit the roof plus an additional inch all around. I lay it on sheets of wax paper. Working on one section at a time, I coat it with a watered down solution of SnowTex. Big, disposable sponge brushes are best for applying it. And, before the SnowTex dries, I liberally sprinkle on irridescent glitter and lightly pat it down. When you've done the whole sheet, let it dry for a couple of days. Then, peel off the wax paper and glue the "snow" to the roof. Trim around the side edges and fold the edges down. At the bottom edges, cut out hanging icicle shapes. Spread a little dab of white glue between your thumb and forefinger and gently pull down on the tips of your icicles to bring them to delicate points.

Sally Cook-Thomas