Cactus: What to use for needles in cactus. The Cactus Lady, who lives in California cuts bristles off brushes and uses those. She uses FIMO for her cacti and bakes them after the bristles are put in.

Marsha Heeter

Cactus: If you are using air drying clay, how about trying those plastic 'strings' stores use to attach price tags and such? I wouldn't use them in the oven, but they ought to do the trick for you. They also make good drinking straws for milk and soda.

Dani

Cactus: Couldn't you could cut bristles from an old toothbrush? I use dried weeds to make cactus -- teasel has prickly brown heads about 2" tall. Leave about a 1/2" stem for a handle and to "plant" in a pot of clay or floral foam. Spray gray-green, plant, then pull off fine fiber strands from a cotton ball and drape over the prickles to make a Hairy Old Man cactus. Same paint, no cotton, using several sizes of stubby round burdocd heads makes a cluster of fishhook cactus. They look pretty good and the paint seems to preserve them.

Mini Flower Wire: Paper covered floral wire, sizes 26, 30 and 33 is available in white, pale green and dark green. The 33 is probably too fine to hold its shape and is not available in the pale green. It cost £1.30 (nearly $2) per pack. If ordered in sufficient quantity, it can be supplied wholesale. It is available from: The Old Bakery, Kingston St Mary, Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8HW, tel/fax:(the code you need to dial to the UK, then) 01823 451205. The Old Bakery is organising a web site. Hours of opening, 9 a.m. onwards though please avoid phoning after 9 p.m. at night - they want their sleep!

Helen

Mini Floral Wire: Plain wire with silver or brass finish comes in assorted thicknesses. You may also find dark green enameled wire among floral supplies, and black-enameled wire in the bead section. Use a thumb and forefinger to paint it easily. Also in floral supplies are bundles of stamens or "pips," which are composition blobs connected with wire, stiffened string, or twisted paper, in various sizes. Pearlized versions are among the bridal stuff. Nip and sand one of these down as needed and paint it. It can serve as either a flower center, surrounded by petals or florets, or a calyx for a blossom glued on top. You can also stiffen regular thread for some stems. Look at natural materials, too. You can stick leaves and flowers onto dried stems of plants and weeds (including some sold in craft stores). And - especially for bigger plants growing in the garden - there are some surprisingly good plastic floral bits that can provide stems and leaves all in one. Finally, you can up-end pieces of pipecleaner-style material, such as the kind sold for making mini-evergreens, trim the shape as needed, and add blossoms to those too.

Mary

Mini Floral Wire: You can get wholesale fine guage paper covered floral wire from http://www.johnbead.com They are in Canada. You can get retail but still reasonable fine gauge paper covered floral wire from Mary Kinloch at http://www.marykinloch.com Click on the Do it Yourself link.

Anne Gerdes

Grass Paper: There is a really nice grass paper made in Germany called "Noch". It comes in two shades that I know of- Spring, which is a fairly bright green and another color that is a bit browner. Both have mixtures of different colors of grass, and it looks very realistic. I have used it in quarter scale, as well as half inch and one inch, and it always looks "right".

Dani

Static Grass: I recently ordered static grass from Micro-Mark, thinking it would be better than the ground landscape foam I usually buy. I bought three containers, each with a different shade of green, then mixed all three. I was not at all happy with the dull, green color that resulted and, after applying some of the static grass to a mini landscape, did not find it any better in appearance than the ground foam. The ground foam is also available from Micro-Mark or from any model railroad hobby shop.

Mary

Footprints in the sand: For the footprints in the sand, I would recommend coating the entire surface, a small workable area at a time, with Dap caulking in almond color. Spread out the surface and pour sand over it while the caulk is wet and then press the footprints into the sand covered caulk. The caulk will not show through the sand since it is close to the same color. If it oozes through in spots, just sprinkle it with a little more sand. When it is all done, turn it over and the loose sand will fall off. This is a good technique for sandboxes, too. You can imbed sand pails and other toys, or children in the sand.

Marilyn

Skeleton Leaves: Use very firm leaves, fully developed, and Chinese lanterns. Add 1 tsp. sugar to 2/3 cup detergent with bleach in it to 1-1/2 qts. water and bring to boil in 3 qt. aluminum or enamel pot; simmer. Prick each lantern with a pin several times to allow solution to enter; add leaves or lanterns to solution, one at a time, enough to make one layer on the water. Keep leaves covered with solution by pressing down *gently* with a wooden spoon. Simmer 12 minutes. Remove to a pan of warm water and:

Leaves: Spray with warm water until green is washed out. Use a *fine* brush to finish. Lay on paper towel to dry; place between towel sheets and press for 2-3 days. Leave natural, spray with color, or curl around pencil for shaping.

Lanterns: Hold by stem and gently dab at it with a *fine* brush; orange will flake off. Gently squeeze seed sack out bottom point of lantern; lay on paper towel to dry. Use stem or re-wire to stand in vase and cure; you can spray on color. If you really require white, soak in 2 tablespoons household bleach per 1 qt. water for several hours between the brushing and towel drying.

Make extra, because they are fragile and a percentage will not survive the process. I got this from TT years ago.

Anne Gerdes

Punching Material for Ivy Leaves: The best material I've ever found for punching ivy leaves is artificial onion grass. It's creased down the center so if you position your punch carefully, your ivy leaves will have a centered crease - this takes some practice and a lot of patience, however! The grass can usually be found wherever silk floral supplies are found, such as craft stores.

Bev Gallerani

Vines:

1. Using a food processor (I use the small one for spices), fine chop sphagnum moss and sift out the powder.

2. Spread the powder on wax paper and dole out a large glob of GRRRip glue to the side..

3. Take regular brown thread in pieces about 8" and, holding tight, drag the thread through the glue, end to end.

4. Then roll the thread in the powdered sphagnum, (sort of like making chicken cutlets).

5. Lay flat or hang over something to dry.

6. Using a fine-tipped glue bottle with more GRRRip glue, run a fine line on the wall surface in a "viney" pattern and lay on the sphagnum "vine".

Now if you're Type A like me, you will sit and punch out small grape leaves in two colors of green and small ivy leaves in the same colors and then glue them on the vine one at a time. For flowering vines, use green stuff instead of sphagnum like fine turf from Woodland Scenics. Then either make real flowers or use the coarse colored turffy stuff and glue on the vine.

Mary Kay

Basement: How about building up the ground with Styrofoam? Glue it to your base and trim it to the shape you want with a butcher or electric knife. You can use the bits you cut off "here" to build up over "there" and then cover it with whatever type grass or landscaping you wish. My own favorite is Noch, which is a German brand - pricey, but very, very realistic. Some mini stores and all railroad shops have it. You can finish off the back to resemble cinder-block - perhaps gray spackle, scored with an orange stick.

Dani

Shrubs: After purchasing some different products, I figured out how to make an inexpensive material for shrubs. I bought a bag of medium grade steel wool from Wal-Mart, took a pad, unfolded it, and then gently pulled it out of its shape. When in a sheet about 12"x12", I sprayed it with green spray paint, (found it too metallic looking in finished shrub if unpainted plus the paint made it easier to work with). Cutting off small pieces, I pulled them out of shape till the fibers were almost one layer (less is more in this case), then gently shaped with my hands into a ball shape, or long elliptical shape, or whatever shrub shape I was after. Made a small "tail" at one end that I could hold on to, thinned Aleene's Glue with water and dabbed it with a paint brush over the shaped steel wool and I sprinkled it heavily with fine turf blend from Woodland Scenics. Then, I held it upside down and tapped one of my hands against the other, lightly shaking the shrub to recover unglued turf and returned it to the turf container. I added foam flower color to some and planted. I am very pleased with the landscaping effect. Learned the technique from a video "Landscaping" from Mindspring.

Peggy

Floral Wire: This is the greatest wire ever made for flowers and green plants. It is a very thin 30 gauge wire with a green paper wrap. It makes to-scale stems and center veins in ferns etc. You can find it on the following web site:

Deb

Sand Castle: To add a sand castle to your sand box, sharpen some dowels, different sizes and lengths. Glue them together along with a flat top dowel or two. Paint with an almond color paint, cover the whole thing with glue and dip in the sand. Do this before you do the sandbox so you can imbed the castle in the sand.

Marilyn

Grass Cloth: What I have done to improve the look of it is to build up the *flat* surface with Styrofoam blobs or non-drying modeling clay first to create rolling hills. This creates dimension and takes away that blah look! Then I apply the grass cloth over the hills, cutting to fit over and I glue as I go. Then spray the grass with a coat of spray glue. Fill a shaker bottle with 2 different colors of green loose grass landscaping material. Shake it over the glue and then apply a final coat of Matte Spray Fixative. Build some flower beds on cardboard or other material with modeling clay and mini earth and then hide the cardboard edges with aquarium rocks, glued around the edges. Fill with greenery and flowers. Decide where you want flower beds and glue them in right on top of the grass.

Roz Weitzman

Shrubs: If you don't want to go to all that trouble with steel wool, either AMSI or Woodland Scenics sells it already painted green or brown. You can also use any spongy material, cut into the perfect shrub shape (that's even hard to type let alone say), spray on glue and apply coarse green foam stuff to cover. Or the new "squeeze me" shrubs and hedges from Model Builders Supply are wonderful. They sell the covering loose so you can match other landscaping with it. Of course, all is available at your local miniature shop.

Mary Kay

Spray foaming stuff: I think the foaming landscape stuff you are looking for is an insulation material. I use it for landscaping around my dh and roomboxes. It comes in a tube like caulking compound or liquid nails and you need a gun-type applicator to apply it. It goes on as a foam and hardens into a Styrofoam type material. You can then poke holes in it like they did for the wreath project on TV. It's actually used for insulation in areas like around pipes and in cracks, etc. It is available at any hardware store or a store like Walmart or K Mart.

Judi

Spray Styrofoam: The spray Styrofoam stuff is called "Great Stuff" here, although there may be other brands, and is sold in hardware stores as a sealer around drafty places, corners, switchboxes, etc. It's very messy and one of the stickiest substances known to man. Use outside only, both for the fumes and mess, and buy yourself a quart of acetone before you start, so you can remove it. Also find a few cracks in the house that you can seal, because sometimes the can won't stop spraying when you think you're through. A light spray is best, because it expands tremendously (and fast, too!). It is really good stuff though. I can well imagine the terrain you could build up with that stuff.

R. Roweblue