Flower Punches: To order paper punches:http://www.punchpalace.com/mini_extension.htm

Marjon de Haas

Flower Punches: Control Concepts, Inc. (formerly P.J.Mieth), P.O.Box 205, North Branford, CT 06471-0205, phone 203-457-0557 for your punches. They should have a catalog showing you all the different punches.

Sir David

Pumpkin tree: I made something neat and had to share.... I covered a mini planter pot with orange Fimo and scored it like a pumpkin then "planted" some of those beautiful grapevine tendrils off our wild grapevines to look like curly crooked branches, then made some tiny pumpkins out of more orange Fimo, and after baking drew little jack-o-lantern faces on them to hang on my tree. It turned out really cool!!

Natasha

Matt Medium is sold with the acrylic paints. In flower making I use it like fabric stiffener. Also heard that is it the same as scenic cement (only watered down) that is sold in model train stores. Use it in landscaping. When I do a green grassy base, I put thick white glue on the base, sprinkle on the crushed foam, let it dry for a while then knock off the excess and spray with scenic cement or watered down Matt Medium.

Mary Kinloch

Grapevine Wreaths: I make grapevine wreaths by wrapping wire with the brown floral tape. The irregularities in the wrapping make it more realistic. After you cover about a foot or two of wire, wrap it around some sort of container to give it shape (film canister, pill bottle, etc.). After two or three wraps, remove from container and cut wire another foot or two. Finish wrapping wire with floral tape and then wrap in and out of the circle. I've even wrapped smaller wire around a pin and painted it brown to make the tendrils. This makes a beautiful wreath to decorate, but could also serve as a base for any other wreath material.

Martha South

Lycopodium: I have used lots of this and found that coating with a sealer is great; however some of them shrivel up the Lycopodium - Decoart Sealer will shrivel it. The one that I use that DOES NOT shrivel it is Patricia Nimock's Matte Spray Sealer by Plaid and I use it for sealing everything that I make!

Roz Weitzman

Poinsettias: I made some paper punched poinsettias a couple of years ago from a holly leaf punch. The leaves are almost the same shape as poinsettia petals. I used the tiny berry dots for the center. Or you could use no-hole beads. Little Goodies also makes a kit for poinsettias. Their address is PO Box 1004 Lewiston, TX 75067

Kristie

Poinsettias (Christmas flowers): Just caught up on requests back to last Thursday. I make poinsettias by first cutting little rectangles of red flocked ribbon, then turning them into parallelograms (those things with slanted 45 degree ends, Form a circle of covered wire about 1/8 inch, glue end of the pieces to the circle, and then fill the center with something yellow. Little bits of bunka are good. The same shape can be used for leaves, but more accurate ones are made from an oval leaf that you cut a half circle out if the middle. Leaves are usually about the length of the flower petals which really aren't the flower, but everyone thinks the red is the flower.

Alice, queen of trash in IN

Poinsettias: I have seen full size poinsettias made from ribbon in this way. If you used much smaller ribbon and infinitely more patience you might get good relults. Cut little strips of narrow ribbon to the length that you want to be the diameter of the finished flower. I would guess no longer than 1/2 inch. Cut the ends of the snippet of ribbon into points and perhaps touch the ends of the ribbon with fray check. Make six of these ribbons. Then gather them together in the middle and secure. The full size flower was fastened with wire, but maybe tacking or tying with thread would be better for the miniature. For the center you could hunt for the tiny glass marbles in a craft store and glue a few yellow ones in the center to cover the thread. Poinsettia leaves can be done the same way, only in green. This is pure theory on my part, I have not actually done it.

Kellie in Omaha

Poinsettias; Ruth Hanke sells flower kits, including poinsettias in 2 sizes. She also has other kits, and punches, and how-to books. Website is http://www.hankypankycrafts.com She's very helpful on the telephone, and ships to Canada with no problem.

Kay Gale

Black sand: My use for the black sand is this. In order to make a stone look like garden stone minis I shape the basic form from air dry clay or a block of plaster. When the form is dry I paint it with a pewter gray acrylic paint. When that is dry I paint it with Elmer's glue. Before that dries I sprinkle the black sand on to the form an it yields that rough gritty look of worked stone.

Bob

Making sand stay .. I did a beach house and used real sand.. Florida sand is the finest grain.. very tiny.. then I put it where I wanted it and mounded it up..etc. Then you mix Elmers Glue with water in a spray bottle (heavy on the glue). Spray the glue/water solution on the sand using index cards to act as deflectors around items you don't want the spray to get into. Spray well and then let it dry a few days. Your sand will never move. Small items embedded in sand will not be affected by the spray too much if you shield it with index card.

Stevenia Tremblay

Flagstone / Fieldstone: Use a vinyl tile, not ceramic. You discard the top layer of no-wax surface and pattern. This is very thin and peels off easily, start at the corner. It is the body of the tile you want. When you buy the tile, look at it sideways, you will see the surface pattern you will end up with, and it will be white. That's why you want a tile that's "white clear through". Some are striated like stone, some have small indentations, etc. After peeling, this is the surface you will end up working with. Again to cut, just score with an Xacto knife and it pops at the seam. To make small stones, cut in long strips the width you want and use the chopper to cut equal size pieces.

Ruth

Badminton Birdies: What style "birdies" do you have (we called them Shuttle cocks here). I used two sorts - real old fashioned ones which were made of shaped feathers stitched together. The head was made of cork and covered by thin leather. The other sort was made of plastic - more for kids use or practice, the ones I used had "feathers that was a rectangular grid.

The real ones could be pulled apart and their components used - I imagine mini track shoes out of the leather. The plastic ones could be cut up and used to make trellis for climbing roses.

Sandra Monk

Flood Scene: you might try what I did awhile back for a fishing scene I made my father in a Chivas Regal box. Backdrop was a Sierra Club calendar sunset lake photo. The human element came from fishing equipment (patterns in Venus Dodge's needlework book), keychain Coleman lantern and cooler on the pebble jetty. Built the jetty out into the "lake" with plastic water sheeting for the surface (built half the jetty, inserted the water sheet, then piled more rock on top so the "water" came halfway up).

For the side view of the underwater area, I glued a section of pale-blue tinted transparent plastic file envelope against the cellophane window in the box up to the level of the water sheeting before the w.s. went in. Before the "water" went in, also landscaped the bottom with tacky-glued beach sand, tiny shells, and air fern seaweed; glued resin fish to clear plastic tabs of different heights on button bases disguised by sand/fern so the fish were "swimming" at different levels.

If you can't find the ready-made water sheeting, you could use the plastic file envelopes and make a rippled surface by tacky gluing wrinkly plastic wrap to one side of the file. This was one of those try-it-to-see-if-it-works projects, and the results were fairly pleasing.

For floodwater, you'd need a wash of nasty browny-green acrylic to give it that muddy look, debris piled in the corners (dirty twigs, dried coffee grounds, plastic bags, cans, lone shoes, and other nasties the water dragged in, and a darker browny-green line around the walls for the high-water mark. And don't forget the muddy, slimy carpeting).

Loretta Sniarowski

IBEC does have a site and all their wood is pre-cut and is all cedar and excellent kits.

IBEC http://www.ibecwoodproducts.com

They can be ordered from Upstairs/Downstairs here in Victoria, BC.

upstairs-downstairs@home.com

Brass Palm Leaves are available at:

Phoenix Model Developments from England have them (item AF23)

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/phoenix_models/Homepage.htm

 Also -

Verlinden Productions (811 Lone Star Drive, O'fallon MO 63366 USA) item 0058

http://www.verlinden-productions.com/

Verlinden's are 1:35 scale outdoor palms - but these work as indoor palms in 1:12 scale (Verlinden's longer leaves are the same length as Phoenix's but the fronds are more delicate). Shops that are into military modelling (tanks & things) will sell Verlinden, and any good miniature shop should stock Phoenix.

Sandra Monk in New Zealand

Egg Carton Uses: After you use up all those eggs for mosaics, the cartons are terrific for stones and planters. Coffee trays from Dunking Donuts also have great texture for stones and give you a nice variety.

Planters, Vases, Bowls, Wall Sconces, etc

DecoArt's Patina It 'Colonial Green' or 'Teal Green', Apple Barrel 'Pure Bronze', Aleene's 'Hunter Green'. You can use almost the whole egg carton. There's a part along the side that makes about 10 wall sconces. There's large planters, the part sticking up in between the eggs makes wonderful vases and bowls, and the top and anything that you aren't using for bowls makes stones.

Some of the shapes you cut out will have the pebbled surface on the inside, others will have it on the outside. Try to sand away any seams if you can. I put a basecoat of DecoArt's Patina It 'Teal Green' over the whole pot then with the flat part of the brush I hit the high spots on the textured/pebbled side with Apple Barrel 'Pure Bronze'. For the ones that I want to be able to leave empty for bowls, I put a thin coat of Aleene's 'Hunter green' over the Teal and when that is dried (it dries funny cause it settles). I put on about 6 heavy coats of clear nail polish (just on the smooth unbronzed side) to cover the smooth linenlike texture. On the flat dish that I'm going to use for a bonsai dish, the smooth side is on the outside.

Stones, White, Black, 1/2' wide flat brush (old Loew-Cornell 7300 size 12 was what I used) Use an old brush because if you're doing a lot of stones it will get ruined. Put out a good sized (half dollar size) puddle of white, a much smaller puddle(nickel size) of black. Pick up a lot of white and spread all over the stone, then with the same brush, pick up a tiny bit of black and put a smear or two on the stone and sort of blend them slightly, just pull the brush across a few times you can even do slight patterns by wiggling the brush. It's really simple - after you've done one or two it becomes easy.

Jean in Maine

Barbed Wire: Find some unpainted steel wire like they sell for florists- in a fairly thick gauge, maybe a 16-18 gauge or so. Cut some little one inch pieces for your barbs. Take a long piece and fold it in half (or 2 pieces if you are using precut lengths instead of a spool) It works best if you clamp one end in a vise to free up your hands. Twist a couple tight turns near the vise end, lay one of your 1 inch pieces next to the twist and twist the long wires again, continuing to add the short pieces every few twists. Try to twist evenly as you go. When you have the length you need, the short pieces can be crossed overtop of the long twisted wires to form a tight loop with ends protruding. Snip these ends so they are fairly close to the long twisted wire to create your barbs. For added realism, you can soak your wire to create rust and spray with a sealer to keep it from wiping off.

Bonnie Gibson in Tucson

More Glycerine Thoughts - That same mixture of glycerine and alcohol (1:3) is an amazing dust remover! Sue showed me you can spray this mixture on your uncovered, dusty landscaping (again, just get it wet, don't let it drip) and the dust disappears! It also refreshes the natural stuff like fine scale. Great stuff

Carrie

To the would-be quiller, for heaven's sake don't pay $7.00 for a tool. Any fine metal item will do. Have used T pins, cake testers, the fine needles used for doll making, etc. Then keep your eyes open at yard (garage, tag) sales for quilling kits. These show up a lot, also at Good Will stores too. There are almost never kits for mini flowers, more in the order of sequined belly button brush craft types, but they usually have the tool and the paper.

Alice W