Vines: If you can lay hands on a pair of deckle-edge craft scissors (I like McGill's best, but Fiskars is fine) you can make up a heap of leaves fairly fast - they're not really suitable for small vines, but work pretty well as thick mats of greenery. What you do is:

1. Crumple up some quarter-sheets of paper that you've slapped green paint onto and then smooth them out again (so they won't end up totally flat).

2. Use deckle scissors to trim off three edges of the paper; hold it by the fourth edge and cut it into a deckled fringe.

3. Now hold scissors so they're diagonal to the fringe, and make a series of diagonal cuts. You end up with pieces that are roughly diamond-shape, with wavy edges.

4. Gluing onto backing is something I'm still fiddling with - definitive solution, anybody? So far, I've spray-painted irregular pieces of used laundry softener sheets (simply because they're thin, flexible and strong - other stuff would undoubtedly do - scrim? netting? lightweight screening?), then sprayed these with adhesive, dumped on some leaves and tapped them all over to adhere as many leaves as possible without flattening them out. Shake off loose ones, use tweezers to pick up others, touch them into glue and then down onto the sheet, again trying not to flatten the whole thing too much.

5. Save back some of the shapeliest leaves to use on edges where the stems will be seen growing out.

Mary

Ivy Leaves: What I did was buy some box hedge. When you pull it apart, each bit has about 12 leaves (sort of heart shaped) on a stem with a small ring shape in the bottom. I then threaded these onto florist wire, making vines about 8" long. They were very easy to place on the wire, as you could twist the wire through the ring. If necessary, you would then join the 8" pieces together, but I found it easier to work with keeping them this size. You can then twist the wire around any support you have (lattice for example)

I then bought little tiny dried flowers (sort of like baby's breath) which were dyed a deep red and put some of these through the ring bits as well, in clumps of 1, 2 or 3. It now looks sort of like a rambling rose.

Debby

Ageing Planter Pots: There are several ways to make your pots look old. The easiest is just to use some dark stain. Put it on with a rag and wipe it off quickly. You will see different shades and it will look weathered. Stain it a second or third time for deeper colors, but one usually is enough to begin the "aged" look.

The second method is to use green and brown acrylic paint. Just dab it here and there and blend the colors. This gives a mossy look to the pot. And the third is to put dirt from your garden on the out side of the pot, rub it in and wipe it off. You can get good results from all three methods.

Leslie

Mini dandelions: I bought a kit to make some from Sue Anne Thwaite, LadyBug. They turn out just great! Nice and "weedy"! http://www.ladybug-fairies.com

Tere Perry

Quilling: You can get a catalog from Quill-It, P.O. Box 1304, Elmhurst, IL60126

AnaMae

Maple leaves & Punches: Try Hanky Panky Designs, 215 No Galbraith, Box 6, Blue Earth, MN 56013 507-526-3110

AnaMae

Electrostatic Grass: Tip when using electrostatic grass.
1. Mix about 3 different shades together in some sort of a shaker container (they sell really nice ones at railroad hobby shops or even just a spice bottle with a shaker top).
2. Paint your surface a dark brown color.
3. When dry, apply a thinned-out coat of tacky glue.
4. Shake the container of "grass" and sprinkle onto your wet surface. To get the grass to "stand", the secret is in the shaking.
It still doesn't look like real grass, but it's not bad.

Marlene

Wire grapevines: Yesterday I found wire grapevines - painted and tiny - at Michaels. They also had some other type of vine.

Penny

Grass: Sue Thwaite is the one to see. She carries the most wonderful grass mixture (cheap too!) and a grand way of applying it so that it "sticks up" like real grass. What you do is paint the surface brown (because the dirt under the grass is brown}, then you "squirt" the grass mixture onto the wet paint using a plastic bottle with a magnet in the top (Sue sells these too). You have to shake the stuff in the bottle to create static electricity. The fibres go on standing up! Leave them to dry and there you are.

Carrie

Grass: Terry cloth towels, turned wrong side up, make wonderful "grass" and are more natural looking than the plastic stuff or the fuzzy stuff. What's more, if they are glued down to your platform, you can even vacuum it if it gets dusty. Check your local bed & bath store for the shade of green you want. I've had mine down for over 15 years and it still looks good.

Anita Myers

Landscaping: Sources for basic landscaping supplies in all scales, including very small scales, I've found are http://www.ladybug-fairies.com/, http://www.woodlandscenics.com/

Cindy McDonald

Landscaping sites: Here are a few that I have found. www.lrdhcollectibles.com www.prettypetals.com
www.tmcollection.com
www.collectorsite.com www.hearthsong.com www.zyworld.com

Gene Ann

Squeezable landscaping: My tips for foam based hedges and bushes appeared in Doll House Miniature Magazine last year. I use a good quality upholstery foam to sculpt my own "boxwood" hedges and topiary. Most upholstery shops will give you scraps or sell them at a nominal cost. I use a pair of large old scissors to cut the shape I want. I've even managed round shapes. Even perfectly trimmed natural bushes do not have a perfectly smooth surface. Pinching out a few places actually looks better. I then spray the foam with dark brown or black paint. We usually use Krylon enamel, but the paint melts the foam a little, it won't matter. When dry, we then spread with craft glue and begin coating with commercially available colored shredded foam (a messy operation). Mixing different shades of the foam is essential for realism. The foam is available from several different manufacturers. Most miniature shops carry it. This technique was used for most of the gardens of the Georgian house on the DHM December 1997 cover. I have experimented with topiary animal sculptures and found that I could render a fairly realistic menagerie. All I lack is a compelling project to use them!

Sandra Olsen

Ocotillos: These plants have long, skinny, thorny, gray limbs covered with tiny gray-green leaves (no stems).   In extended dry spells, the leaves fall off and the plant appears dead until there's a bit of moisture, then the tiny leaves appear again.  It has a bright red-orange bloom at the tip that is sort of an opened-out v-shape like a pincer.  Here's a recipe for making an ocotillo for your southwestern scene using poppy seeds.

MATERIALS:
Poppy seeds, Florist wire, Small piece of paper painted red-orange, and/or mixture of railroad modeler's apples and oranges, Pale gray-green acrylic craft paint, (I usually use Seminole; the seeds give it a grayish cast,) Beige-brown craft paint, Piece of florist's foam (I use the light brown type for dried arrangements,)Tacky glue, Ordinary sand,(preferably containing a few tiny rocks,) 6-inch square of aluminum foil which has been folded into thirds and then creased into a v-shaped trough,(this holds your seeds,) Small squares of wax paper, Paper plates for your work surfaces, (you can just bend the plate into a funnel to pour any excess seeds back into your container.)

DIRECTIONS:
On a paper plate, place your foil v-shaped trough, pouring poppy seeds down its length. For limbs that are about 2-3 inches long, take an even number of 7-inch wires, grab all of them in the middle and bend them in half into a tight v-shape. Pull down one wire and wrap around the bend so that you have a bit of a root for planting in your foam.  This leaves you an uneven number of limbs for your plant, which looks better.  Leave the excess tail of wire to poke into foil while the plant dries.  Place a piece of waxed paper on a second plate and pour on a puddle of glue.

Pull down one wire from the bunch and, holding by plant's root and tail, drag the single wire through the puddle until it is covered with glue.   Lay the wire in the trough and turn to coat with seeds.  Remember, don't hold the plant over your glue plate, because you want to recapture any spilled seeds for another use.  Gently shake off excess into foil trough.  Add a touch of glue with a toothpick where needed and re-coat any bare spots.   Continue pulling down wires and repeating this process until all wires are coated with glue and seeds.  Dip tail/root into Tacky and poke plant into foam to dry.  Pour any excess seeds back in container.   When plant is thoroughly dry, leave in florist foam and paint with a slightly watered-down gray-green paint, dabbing gently with your brush.  Use the piece of florist foam as a handle.  Work over your paper plate to catch the seeds, which will inevitably fall off as you paint.  Don't try to coat completely; you don't want a totally solid look.  Don't worry if your plant looks a bit ragged; this is a rugged-looking plant, so some variation just makes it look more realistic.   Let dry.

BLOOMS; Fold red-orange paper and cut a small v-shaped piece.  Remember those flying v birds you drew as a child?  That shape.   Or, place a dab of glue on a toothpick, then poke into railroad apple-orange mixture.  Form into tiny clusters to indicate budding bloom.   Pull cluster off toothpick and glue your bloom onto tips of plant. When thoroughly dry, take tweezers and pull the limbs out from the central cluster, one by one, bending slightly here and there so that they stick out irregularly, some shorter than others. Using a serrated knife, gently shape foam to form a slight mounded sand dune, tapering to almost nothing where it will be glued into your scene, leaving base fairly broad.  Paint dune with mixture of Tacky and beige-brown paint, sort of glopping it around base of plant.   Working over another paper plate, pour sand over wet paint, pushing it against roots so that plant looks as if it's growing from the sand.   When you glue ocotillo to your scene, use more Tacky-paint and sand to make it blend imperceptibly into your ground.  If you make more than one, vary the lengths so they are shorter or longer than the first plant.  My philosophy is, never make just one of anything; make at least three.  By the third one you really know what you're doing, and you always have an extra to give as a gift.   A small owl or hawk or other bird found in a desert environment looks wonderful perched on the highest limb.  Otherwise, a butterfly adds an unexpected touch of romance on this rugged plant's red-orange bloom.

Wanna

Flower Bed Borders: I've used colored sand to make borders in flower beds. Works well for alyssum and verbena. Just put it on top of a thin bit of greenery.

Dottie

Fieldstone: Iif you have a gray paper egg carton, rip it up into odd shaped pieces and glue it on cardboard. You can grout it or not and then seal it and it really looks like fieldstone. Experiment a little and you'll see what I mean (quick and cheap.)

Cheryl

Rock Molds: If these are the Woodland Scenics rock molds, they are meant to be used with Hydrocal (plaster) and it works very well. I think the Hydrocal sets up a little stronger than plaster of Paris, but either can be used. I use dental plaster myself.

Mary Lou

Cats Whiskers: can be used for small scale flower-making - nice stems for tall flowers, such as hollyhocks.

Julia

Cactus: For the stickers in cactus - how about bristles from an old paint brush? Also an excellent idea to use up those spare cat whiskers lying around!

Trace

Cactus: For cactus spines, you could use chopped off toothbrush filaments, making some yellow for the cacti with yellow spines, or use chopped up white cat's whiskers. Some cacti are covered in a sort of white wool - use clean raw wool for that.

Helen