Tree: Get yourself a tree branch the size that you want your tree. Add foliage in one of the following ways:
Tiny pieces of sponge are commercially available to simulate foliage...or
get a maple of other hole punch and cut out leaves and glue them on...
or buy tiny silk leaves and glue, or find a dried material, like pepper grass, that simulates the kind of foliage you'd like!

Have patience and soon, a tree will grow in Iowa!

Alice Zinn

Really Big Tree: Gather some tree pieces/parts from the yard. Either bake in the oven or spray with bug spray several times and allow it to dry to kill bugs. Then strap together in a pleasing shape with masking tape. Use hot glue to add limbs here and there, wherever you want and cover the whole thing with either paper mache products, Durham Wood Putty or that material they make casts for broken body parts out of. Let it dry somewhat and paint to pleasing tree color. Then stretch steel wool, that you have spray painted green, very, very thinly over the limbs and glue the various shades of green landscaping foam over that. Then to add a little color I use some grass seeds, Bahaia I think it's called. Anyway, any grass seeds that look like tiny leaves would do. Just spray glue the tree and thinly sprinkle over the whole tree. Gives a little more reality. I guess you could bake these seeds to kill any idea of growing they may have, but with the spray glue and a nice coating of fixative after all has dried - well, I don't think they'd stand much of chance of any growth. (Although growth would be interesting, maybe.) Anyway you can use some really big limbs to make a really BIG tree to go by a really big doll house. Fun to do. Fill it up with all kinds of knot holes for many wonderful little birds and animals, fairies and elves, etc.

Jane Ratcliffe

Cherry Trees & Forsythia bushes: I used the Styrofoam that my computer was packed in this to make cherry trees in bud for my dh - the kind that breaks up into little pellets. I used an old coffee grinder to tear up the Styrofoam. I went and pruned the neighbors' lilac bush.I took the small pieces and put them together for trunks and branches, wrapping them in brown floral tape. Then I painted all this with Tacky glue and rolled them in the painted pink and tiny bits of green Styrofoam. Voila, cherry trees.

I also did this in bright yellow to make several forsythia bushes for the landscaping. I colored the Styrofoam by putting a few drops of acrylic paint in the grinder while breaking up the Styrofoam

Ginger in Springfield, IL

Rocks & Stones: Try making rocks and stones from Styrofoam from packaging. Just cut it into pieces and paint with several different colors of craft paints with some art sand mixed in. You will have stones for fireplaces etc. that you can't tell from real.

Barbara Del DUco

Rocks: Water Putty.  Making rocks from water putty is easy.  Mix up a batch to a fairly thick consistency, sort of like cookie dough.  Break this up into smaller lumps.  Place in a old plastic butter dish or Cool Whip-type container with additional dry powder.  Shake until fully coated.  If you need smaller pieces, just keep breaking up and reshaking in the dry powder.  When you are satisfied with your "rocks", just lay them on a flat surface to dry.  You can press them flat on one side if you want to glue them to something.  The putty can be tinted when you mix it or painted afterwards.  I like to paint the rocks with a very watered down paint using different colors for variety.

Bonnie Gibson

Planting flowers: I sliced up and placed pieces of the "desert oasis" found at the crafts and floral shops for dried flowers, on the foundation of my cottage.  Took a class from Sue Ann Thwaite on landscaping and got some greenery and stuff from her.  I used moss for the "lawn"...this is a cottage in the woods.  Then, I placed the mixed foam stuff I got from Sue Ann around the foundation of the cottage and around the pump (yes, real water flows from this pump.) I put in a pond...no not real stuff here but Sue Ann's polyseal stuff.  Then I really went nuts and got a "batch" of flowers (twice!) from Susan Karatjas to plant in the yard and garden.  So now...the cottage will look as great as my real garden.

Jan

Hanging plants: Make macramé or crochet hangers, or you can just take crochet thread #30. Take 4 lengths maybe 18", double, knot an overhand knot a small distance from the loop, then knot at the bottom end and insert your pot. Trim bottom ends.

Rhoda Conley

Hanging Wire Baskets: I just recently experimented trying to make wire baskets, and they turned out quite well, after a lot of trial and error. Cut 4 pieces of wire. Make an + with them and solder where the two wires meet. Then lay the other two wires on top to make an X and solder them. Now, put your bead in the center and draw up the wires around it. Because you are soldering, don't use a porcelain bead, and maybe not a marble, because they absorb the heat and the solder won't take. I used a wooden bead and it worked fine. Now you want to solder circles of wire going around the bead. When you've got it as big as you want it, solder another wire next to the top one so that you have a double ring. The leftover wire can now be twisted together and formed into a loop or hook at the top for hanging.

Make all your flowers first before you do this next step. To plant your "goodies", I first filled the basket with floral clay. I then chopped up some moss so that it was fine, and put glue on the outside of the basket, in between the little squares, and glued the moss to it. Then I poked my vines, flowers, etc. into the little squares, leaving some of the moss showing, and covered the top of the floral clay with used dried coffee and did my 'main' display of flowers.

Carol Jones (Jonesy)

Hanging baskets: I made my hanging baskets out of Aida cloth. I just put cling wrap around some lids, spread glue on the Aida and molded it around the lids and let it dry and then I neatened them up. I then painted them green.

I also use chain to hang my baskets because you can count the links and get them even. I just put a jump ring where I wanted the chains and used another one to join the chains and hang the baskets.

Raeleyne, New Zealand

Hanging Pots: In some cases you may not need an actual pot at all, e.g., for a container covered in impatiens. Pick a form of the right size (bead; section of dowel, Sculpey, etc.) Color bottom, attach hanging threads, and hide the rest in greenery and blossoms. Suggestion: make sure there's enough weight to let the pot hang naturally.

Mary (Oregon)

Hanging Baskets: Have you tried to use the small wooden bowls you can pick up at Hobby Lobby? I think you could use a Dremel tool to drill out the holes for the wires. I would use silver metallic thread for the wire too, as it can be tied easier and doesn't kink up like wire does. Think I would add a small drop of thick glue to each knot so as not to come untied and spill dirt and lovely flowers all over the place. Then, again, it would resemble my botched trials (more like errors) of the real thing.

If you insist on using Fimo for the baskets, try something round that is bigger than a marble......hmm, I see a new topic clicking away in all mini minds! And by the way, who says it has to be round? There are so many unique and unusual shapes in gardening these days.

Or what about using toothpaste lids, water bottle lids, syrup lids,....well you get the idea, now let us know what your success story is!!

Lisa Lynn

Hanging Baskets: A while back, Jean posted about a hundred different things to make from those papier-mache egg cartons--I wondered if hanging baskets couldn't be done from them?

Susan at The White Rabbit's House

Hanging Baskets: I have used the small wooden bowls from Michael's for hanging baskets, but didn't drill holes in them for the hangers. I just used very fine wire and twisted the top of the wires together, bent a little hook in it and then attached the wire with Super Gel Glue.

Carol Pierce in TN

Hanging baskets: Instead of a marble, which doesn't give you the depth you need, try using a thimble or the end of a large magic marker as your form for the Fimo. Even simpler, buy the small wooden pots (like 30/pkg for 3.99) and paint them with terra cotta paint to look like clay. To get the wires the same length, form your hanger first so you know it's even, and then put it on the pot. Or make a simple macramé one.

Rose Stout in Hawaii

Hanging baskets; I have used the metal part from a champagne bottle; the part that prevents the lid from popping off. Sorry I don't have the exact name for it...but you know what I mean. And don't think you'll have to buy an expensive bottle of Moet Chandon: a cheap bottle of bubbly wine comes with the same type of lid. Anyway: you join the four iron ends together and bind them together with a piece if metal thread or, more sophisticated, try to join the four ends in a small ring (I did not make it.) Then,attach a piece of mini chain and fill it with whatever-you-want. This is how I made a basket years ago. This is an easy one for the beginner. Now I would prefer the more realistic looking ways. I loved the idea of just decorating a Styrofoam ball with green hanging stuff; it's true: the baskets are supposed to be invisible! The plants are the part that makes the show!

Hanging Plants: You could easily make those white wire baskets that are popular using that new craft wire (primarily sold for making wire jewelry now.) It comes in various thicknesses on small spools and I know I've seen it in white!

Wendy Roberts

I have made hanging planters from the small cream cups they give you at the cafes. I use embroidery yarn (small size) to make the hangers.

Mary K

Pots The hardware store has small coiled wire "objects" I guess, for want of a better description. They are used to cushion the side of cabinet doors so they don't mar the inside wood when you shut the door. They are perfect outdoor pots - they come very small to very large and are very reasonably priced. They can be painted or spray painted and then hung with thin wire, hooked at the top. A little inside moss, plop a plant on top and viola! They can be pulled or squished to size.

Kathy Ostrander

Feverfew: Jane mentioned drying this, for herbal use. This is probably already in Archives, but, have you also been using the dried heads for miniatures, after the petals fall off? Try them upside down, stuck on a sanded-down stamen (or pierced by a wire) and painted. They make sort of born-again chrysanthemums (that being their real-life family).

Mary (Oregon)

Flowers For your Flower Shop.....Have you ever tried "Quilling"? I created a flower shop from a quilling kit (first time I ever "quilled".) It came out beautiful! you can make any type of planter or hanging planter. I made hanging spider plants, etc. that came out great! I buy the supplies at any craft shop and you can get a "how to" book or just buy a small kit and you can make all the plants after that!

Darlene in New Jersey

New Green Spray Paint! Dunno about the rest of the world, but in the US there's not much choice in spray-on green paints for garden use and a new one's worth an exclamation point. A color named "Sprig" has been added to the Design Master group. My best shot at describing it would be: a vivid light/medium green that's not as yellow as their "Basil." New series, Home Decor Stain, costs a bit more and is not recommended for foam, I notice. (These spray paints are available at many craft stores, often displayed with the floral supplies.)

Mary (Oregon)