Landscaping: I also collect many things from my garden to use in miniature. First tip - Anything you bring in from outside should go in the freezer for 24 hrs. This kills any critters lurking inside. I gathered what I thought were small pinecones, dry mushrooms & bark. Within 2 days there were little piles of sawdust beneath them. Somebody was working inside!

My favorite dirt is better than tea or coffee grounds. I use a planting mix called Super Soil for my outside pots. Sift it through a piece of screening and you have what really looks like dirt. Also use a glue called Weld Bond for gluing all landscaping (even foam, which I don't care for.) It's used my the model railroaders as it dries flat, no shine where you don't want it. It can be diluted with water add a dash of liquid soap and sprayed on, over and over.

A good grass for miniature yards is made by Department 56 called Village Green. They make the Dickens Village and other ceramic houses. It comes on a sheet (about 18" by 24") with paper backing,and when cut to size, it glues down easily & smoothes with a brayer. It can even be vacuumed when dusty!

For some interesting trees, I've found the roots of bell pepper and marigold will dry to a perfect tree. Just add the leaves.

Ruth in Grass Valley, CA

DIRT: It's not a case of whether tea is better than coffee or store-bought stuff. Availability and price are usually factors, and so - definitely - is suitability. Experiment. A dry-country garden of cactus and succulents would look weird growing in the rich moist soil that coffee grounds imply. You need a paler dustier look. If you've an expendable coffee grinder (e.g., thrift-store buy) you can try grinding up outdated herbs lurking in kitchen cupboards, maybe mixing with dried tea. Small bits of real life barkdust can be made yet smaller, for the look of a seasoned mulch or paths. Give this a jolt in the microwave, though, to eliminate creatures. (Barkdust: in case that's not international, it's a name for chunks of bark stripped off logs and sold for these purposes.) Someone already mentioned that the model railroad places have lots of possibilities, right?

Mary in Oregon

Dirt: If you have access to a carpenter, or cabinet builder, ask them for the fine sawdust often found under their saws. The fine saw dust can be stained any color you want and used for dirt in your dh's. They also often have fine wood shavings which can be stained and used as mulch. My DH is a carpenter and we get tons of the stuff out from under his saws! No worry about little critters or bother to dry or bake!

Grace Shaw

Durham's Rocks: To make rocks, you mix your dry powder with water (and paint if you want it to be colored throughout) until you have a putty like consistency. Break off small chunks, and put them into a plastic container (such as an old butter dish) that has a lid. Add some more dry powder and shake. You can continue to break into smaller pieces and reshake if you want smaller rocks. Spread on a flat surface to dry. The rocks around the door and on the pathway are just globbed on and poked with a finger to shape, and then painted with some washes of different rock-like colors.

Bonnie Gibson

Carnations: I make my carnations from Kleenex just like the ones you make for decorating wedding cars! It is a bit fiddly but looks effective, especially en masse. Take a piece of Kleenex and cut it into squares approximately 2" x 2". (This is bigger than the flower will be but gives you some working room for fingers.) Pile 3 of these squares one on top of the other then accordion pleat them. With a fine piece of wire, loop around the middle of the 'fan' and then twist the wire to secure. Next, carefully separate the different layers of tissue and fluff it out. Now trim to the size you wish. If you very gently snip the edges of the tissue - sort of fringe it - the carnation will look very fluffy.

Patricia Yackison

Carnations: I would try crepe paper. If you cut out little petal shapes, you may be able to stretch it along the frilly edge and then sort of squish it back into a fine frill. Alternatively, you could use a paper tole shaping tool and a rubber mat to sort of emboss the frilly bit on.

Trace

Carnations: I have used tissue paper to make carnations and was very happy with the results - I think maybe they would hold up better over time than Kleenex. I sprayed them lightly with an acrylic matte spray to hold their shape. I was following the directions in the books from Hanky Panky Crafts.

Hedges: You may use a floral spray to color your foam or you may use acrylic paints of various shades of green. Neither will damage your foam. Use a thinned glue to cover the foam blocks and sprinkle on your landscaping material.

Pearl Jordan

Heart-leaf philodendron, one of the easiest leaves to make freehand. Get a real one to look at, or at least a leaf or two. Get a doll with at least one hand. Now: did you make valentine hearts in the fourth grade by folding a piece of paper and swooping away? You make leaves the same way: fold paper, cut a series of skinny wavery hearts. Use the doll to judge size; paper leaf is to doll's hand as real leaf is to your hand. If you want to, you can pencil a line adjacent to the fold as a guide for scissoring. You can glue leaves directly onto a wire or (my favorite) you can twist little loops in the wire, each with a tiny stemlet of one or two twists, and glue leaves onto those. (For this, use non-upholstered wire and paint it.)

Mary in Oregon

Different Materials Available for Water: I guess I've used just about everything there is out there for water now and have had good results from it all. The "Easy Water" (the beads you melt) is really fun to use and because my water areas are supposed to be dark and murky (example river banks and such) it's fine if it discolors. Just be aware it's very hot and trying to stand a clay figure up in it can be a bit tricky because it will soften the already baked clay and he will collapse. I find it easier to mix more accurately doing the half and half bit with the Envirotex than adding a few drops of hardener to the resin. (I'm just a bit measuring impaired I guess) I've also used the wonderful stuff in a tube that Lady Bug has and for small areas (ponds/birdbaths) it is just absolutely the best. You can also have it drip as with fountains very easily.

Jane Ratcliffe

Small bit of water: When I needed a small amount of water for a small wall fountain, I remember someone saying to use nail polish on a sticky resin surface. I thought, aha, why not use polish for my water. I did and it looks great. I have been putting in little by little so it dries well and the last layer I intend to blow on, spray with that alcohol nail dryer for a "splashy" surface since it is a fountain.

Susan from St. Croix

Clear caulking; To avoid bubbles; examine each cartridge through the glass-like side of the cartridge. If there are any bubbles in the caulking pick another one. If you are going to use a caulking gun, squeeze slowly. I never made a waterfall from the stuff but Ahhh the ever present but... After I was finished using the caulking gun, I put it aside and the next day I noticed that a drip of about 2" was firmly hanging from the spout of the cartridge. So I say yes there are great possibilities for the waterfall.

Bob in Delray Beach FL

Flowers for Flower Boxes: You may have had something more detailed in mind, but what I did was cut a little strip of Styrofoam to fit on the window box (mine were solid, no room to stick things in the window box.) I coated the Styrofoam with tacky glue and sprinkled some colorful, crumbly "wild flower" mix that I bought from Sue Ann, the Lady Bug Lady at a miniature show. Then I glued the flower coated Styrofoam to the window box.

Kellie in Omaha

Bird Houses and Feeder Ideas: Wild Birds Unlimited catalog has LOTS of ideas for bird houses, feeders, butterfly house, squirrel feeders, bat house (would be great for the wizard to have). They have a web site at:

http://www.wbu.com/

MAP in Puyallup

Quilling: I have quilled flowers in the past, and now prefer to make them with punched paper, but I did learn a couple of things while I was quilling. First is that you can make quilling tools easily by cutting the top off the eye of a large tapestry needle, and inserting the pointed end into a small dowel. (Wear safety glasses when clipping the eye.) Also, you can make your own quilling paper by feeding painted paper through a paper shredder. Most shredders make 1/4 inch shreds, but the one at work makes 1/16th inch shreds.... of course my co-workers think I'm odd for shredding blank paper.

Michelle A. in Boston

Quilling: You can quill flowers, flower pots, dishware and even furniture. I have used quilling in the shadowbox dollhouse that I did for my daughter (tables, flower pots, and dishes) and it was a lot of fun.

Sherry

Quilling: You can quill flowers, flower pots, dishware and even furniture. I have used quilling in the shadowbox dollhouse that I did for my daughter (tables, flower pots, and dishes) and it was a lot of fun.

Sherry

I finished my fountain using clear nail polish for the water and it worked great. It did take a lot of polish, since it shrinks a lot as it dries. To get a rippled effect in the water, when it was about 2/3 full, I took a small piece of plastic wrap and put it slightly wrinkly on the slightly tacky polish. After it dried thoroughly I put more polish on the top and voila - a little splash in my fountain.

Susan from St. Croix

Flowers: I started doing flowers with kits and instructions from Ruth Hanke of Hanky Panky Crafts. Their web address is http://www.hankypankycrafts.com

Chris in Minnesota

Topiary: It would be easy to make your own topiary tree. Find a suitable base and fill it with florist clay or plaster with a dowel in the middle of the height you want your finished topiary. Spray the appropriate size and number or Styrofoam balls with green Design Master floral spray or use green acrylic paint. (Other paints may melt Styrofoam) Slide the balls onto the dowel and glue with tacky. When dry, coat balls with tacky and cover with textured ground foam (often found in train stores.) Add tiny Fimo fruits or tiny flowers to decorate. You could also substitute sprigs of lycopodium if you want the feathery look. You can make them in any size and shape; they look nice with 2 or 3 balls graduated from large on bottom to smallest on top.

Bonnie Gibson - Tucson, Arizona