Wooden Fan Uses: I used some of the pieces for making a fretwork headboard and sofa backing. It breaks so easily, but will work. I just finished a bakery display case (one-inch scale) and joined two pieces together to form a design that I glued onto the back for a fancy effect. Actually, I think of it as the pauper's Bespaq technique. I've taken plain furniture and attached little pieces here and there. I don't work with quarter-inch scale but I would think it would make a great screen, also architectural molding if cut just right. I've probably ruined more than I've actually used but have saved most of the pieces. I wish I could find another one with butterflies 'cause they are so purdy!

Theresa Thomas

Here's an idea:  put your finished dollhouse on a turntable/lazy susan so that you can turn it to all angles without having to disrupt the contents inside or hassle with turning it on the table top.

Nursemini

Real Mole Skins: I needed to make a bear fur blanket for a sleigh. I found some great mole skins at out local fly tying shop. They come in several colors. They looked like real bear fur in miniature. I lined it with red silk and then edged it with a fine felt. The edges of the felt were usually pinked out I had to make mini pinking with my X-Acto knife. I recently went back to get more but the quality is not good. They now use a different method of tanning which makes them very stiff. The old ones were soft like rabbit fur.

**** Hint****
I needed even spacing for my pinking. Hears how I did it. Find an old wind up alarm clock and remove the gears. Try to keep the shafts on them. Take a piece of brass flat stock 1/8" X 1/16" x about six inches long. Center punch and drill holes at each end. The hole should be just large enough for the shaft of the gear to ride in it with out wobble. Find the middle of the brass stock and bend it in two. Spread out about an inch of each end to straddle the gear and place the gear in the now formed fork. Adjust it until the gear runs smoothly with out wobbling. Wrap the handle with tape. Make several of these from different size gears and you have an assortment of pounce wheels. For pinking I run it along the edge of the felt so it left a row or little dots. I used these dots as a guide to cut my pinking points. For stitching on leather straps in miniature. Moisten your leather a bit. Lay a ruler as a guide where you want to simulate stitching and run the finest wheel along that line. It will give you an embossed line with little dots that look like stitching.
As a pounce wheel: They can be used to trace over patterns, punching little holes in the paper. Lay the pattern over, what ever, and dust with powder. Remove carefully and you have a powder outline of your pattern. You can now paint or draw the pattern on, what ever. For those of you who wish to tan your own I do have hide-tanning instructions in one of my Mountain Man books.

Bill Hudson

Fans: We use the wooden fans to copy fine fretwork or ironwork on minis. Decorate panels of cupboards, make an oil stove, chair backs, tiny cradle, waste paper bin, will send you some photos Roz as can't post photos on the list. Could use to decorate small windows. They have a lot of uses but you have to try them several ways sometimes because every type of fan is different in design.

Roberta Pijper

Bear Pins:  I am finished my hat that represents "My Inner Child" for the Quilter's Getaway weekend coming up.  I got letters at the craft store, and painted them.  I used a straw hat, and put on the crown "Play All Day".  Up there with those words is a red chair, and a coffee pot and mug sitting on it.  Then, around the brim, are the words: Sew, Quilt,Dollhouses, Read Books, Knit, and Bears.  I ran out of A's, so there is a little Bear for the A in Bears, and books (the plain old ones that Tom sells for 25 cents each) that make the A in Read Books.  There are bolts of fabric, baskets of knitting, lots of books, 2 plastic Dollhouses, a sewing machine, and more all glued to the words, and tiny quilt blocks.  It's fun, I bet some of the 70 quilters who will be present have never seen minis before, and don't realize there are quilter's "things" in mini.   Better yet, I had to make a nametag and a party favor.  The clothespin thing didn't work, but I found bears, about 3 inches tall and jointed, at the craft store.   I sewed jewelry pins on the back, glued Fimo quilt blocks to one hand, and one has the tiniest pincushion and scissors I could find at Earth and Tree in his other hand, and a measuring tape around his neck.  The other has the quilt block in one hand, a rotary cutter and ruler in the other, and a chatelaine with scissors around his neck.   It occurs to me that these are super cute, and one of you vendor types could probably make a $1/2 million or so on these as pins with all kinds of things in their hands.  For the nametag, I quilted her name on fabric, then pinned one of the teddy's to the left of the name. 

Beth

Mouse Skulls: For Doris and the other person in search of mouse skulls. My Brilliant Son suggests you go to the nearest zoo or Aviary and talk to the bird keeper. Owls eat mice, and ....how do I put this delicately... uh... deposit the tiny bones and other skeletal remains on the floor, in relatively whole condition. Shouldn't cost anything and heck we are all used to the strange looks by now!

Marcie Cumberland

Shopping: with multiple projects to be furnished!   I started a smallloose-leaf notebook with the house and what I still needed for it to bring to shows or in my case, as I am into 1/4" to order online.   When I get the structure furnished, I can just pull out the page and start one for another project.

Isabel Allen

Ghosts: Somebody mentioned etching metal for a little girl ghost for a lighthouse. You might try instead etching glass. It's really not very difficult and could be quite effective. You could check out Whittemore-Durgin Glass Company's web site at http://www.penrose.com/glass but their on-line catalog is woefully incomplete. It's probably best to order their catalog and when it arrives order etching cream before you become too engrossed in the catalog. It's the funniest/weirdest catalog I have ever seen and makes great bedtime reading. They also carry very unusual things that aren't available anywhere else that could be terrific for miniatures.

Kathy Watkins

My organization tip:  I take zip lock bags, from snack size on up, and put stuff in them.  Then I use pushpins I've decorated with buttons to tack them to the wall.  I can see what I have, it's dust free, and makes a neat collage.  I'm the out of site out of mind type, too.

Quinn

Fix the plexiglass - Scratches - Find a place that sells plastics or a fish store that sells plexiglass aquariums and they will have the buffing agent that you need to fix the scratches.

Charlean

Antiquing metal / Aging brass: I took some regular old antiquing glaze and painted everything. I let it set for a minute or so (it was oil based - water based would have to be worked with faster) and then wiped it off. Enough remained that gave the brass the old quality I was looking for. And, it stay on very well also.

W. Marie

Birch Bark: Here's how I make my faux birch: Make sure you use calligraphy parchment. It's sort of translucent and mottled and very sturdy for it's thin weight, and handles paint very nicely.

I paint the back a pinkish / peachy color. Grab a real piece of bark or do an image search on the web for some inspiration. I use Folk Art's acrylic #705, Almond Parfait. When this is dry, paint the front off white, or bright white, depending on how clean you want your trees to look. I usually use Ceramcoat Acrylic Oyster White. Paint these a thin coat, and try not to leave brush streaks.

Next mix your white with a little less then equal amt of the peach/beige you used on the back, and a tiny dab of dark gray (I use Ceramcoat charcoal). This will make a nice warm gray. I use my finger for this bit, but you could use a sponge. Barely put some paint on your finger (or sponge), dab most onto a towel, and then lightly tap some areas of your birch bark. When dry take the dark gray and a fine brush, and paint random lines.

If you go to my web site ( http://www.yeoldouthouse.com), click on the "my art work" icon in the outhouse. From there check out my miniatures page and my gallery page and you will see a bunch of examples. I use this for my birch bark canoes, baskets, etc. On the furniture I make I just paint directly onto twigs or basswood.

Beverly Michie

Bending bones: First; to clean the bones.(chicken). I put them in the ground for a week or so and let the little critters do their thing and the bones come back clean as a whistle when I dig them up. Bending; Soak the bones in plain vinegar for a few days and they become malleable; bendable. You can soak them until you can make a knot in them (that usually gets the conversation going). You can do all sorts of weird things when they are pliable.

Bob

Birch Bark Substitute: If you want to use a natural product, there are a number of trees that kindly exfoliate for your convenience. One of my favorites is the "Shagbark Maple." While I don't have any pieces left to give you, I used to pick up pieces while walking in my old neighborhood, to use in basket making. They were of a generous size, and when soaked for a short while, they can be cut into strips or other shapes.

Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Organization: The best way I've discovered is to create a box for every room in a dollhouse (i.e., kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, dining room, living room, garden, workshop, children's room/toys, etc.) and put the appropriate minis in their own categorized box. Then I have a large box for landscaping materials and also one for electrical supplies. There is another box that contains various pieces and scraps of wood.

Anita Myers

Organizing the minis: I've bought a lot of clear boxes and asked my DH to make an extra shelf in my working room. The boxes have tags on them like: Dolls, Christmas, Plants and flowers, Dinner service, Caps etc. The very small items like beads are put in drawer chests. There are also a few boxes with the name of the house(s) I am working on. And some future ideas are boxed as well. So every time when I find something neat for one of my projects I'll put it in the correct box. Other miniatures, like swaps and nice things I like to show my visitors are put in Ikea-room boxes and those wooden cases with compartments (I don't know the correct English name for them; they can be bought at flea markets and were used as containers for the upper and lower cases made of lead in the early printing business).

Boxes with projects like making dinner services or flower making are equipped with a list of tools. The tools are organized in a separate too section.

Paperwork, prints and other ideas are put in alphabetical order, and by subject into maps with show bags.

Marjon de Haas

Organizing: I really like those parts cabinets that have all the little drawers when organizing accessories. I organized my accessories by labeling the drawers 'stationery' 'baby', 'toys', 'food' 'dishes'' glassware', etc. Then I put all the drawers in alphabetical order so I could readily find what I was looking for. As for the furniture, labeled shoeboxes work well. I have one of those large plastic boxes for plant making stuff, electrical. The thing I found difficult at first to keep straight was the 'bits and pieces' one *might* use someday...so I have a box which says 'wood bits' and another saying 'plastic bits', 'metal', 'wire', etc. This is where you'd put the wheel, which fell off a kid's toy, plastic tags, etc. You only need a couple of each thing, you don't have to keep 1,000 bingo chips (although they do make great plates!).

Jonesy

Organization: I bought some of those office filing boxes, which are very sturdy. I labeled them according to my needs - wood, metal, landscaping, another for material (ribbon, yarn etc), another for baskets and shells.There were others for leather/ fur and for kits and for Christmas. I save EVERYTHING so now I have a way of categorizing it for future use. I wouldn't have been able to put together my vignettes without my stash of oddments.

I put tiny things in zip lock bags so they don't get lost and then put them in the appropriate box.

I also have clear shoeboxes for "collections" of vases or pictures or other groups of decor items I will use "someday".

I use a Costco office wastebasket filled with those tubes from wrapping paper for my "lumber" yard It also allows me to slide in small, narrow sheets of scrap foamcore.

W. Marie

Bones: I was, at one time, a Wildlife Biology major in college. Some of my work involved looking at the feeding habits of various animals. In that process, I was introduced to the wild and mysterious world of scatology.

Birds of prey, especially owls, eat a lot of mice. Their scat (read p-o-o-p) is relatively easy to find. If you soak it a bit and then rinse, You will find a regular treasure trove of well-cleaned tiny bones, including whole leg bones, teeth and even whole skulls. This is also true of coyotes, which tend to swallow their prey whole. Unfortunately, Coyotes eat all kinds of things, lots of fruit and stuff, so like Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

If you happen to live near the woods, and can find an owl's nest, look around for what looks like a dry, gray.  elongated hair ball about 1 1/2" long. You'll know you've hit pay dirt (so to speak) if you break it open and see all the bone fragments mixed with the hair.

I doubt if this tip is worth mounting an expedition, but if you spend any time outdoors, it's worth keeping your eyes open if you're in the market for really small bones.

Les

Storing / Organizing Stripwood: I store my stripwood vertically in a draftsman's cardboard box that I bought at a business store. it has about 25 compartments for standing maps in and is perfect for the job. I think that wood will eventually warp a bit even if it is stored lying down.

Roz