Solar System project:   we used a black display board and painted the milky way on it with glow in the dark paint, paired that with glow in the dark planets found at Michael's craft store, made a moon (for earth) with a tiny styroball painted with glow paint and I had to make a sun out of a hamster ball that lights up with some of my recycled mini Christmas tree lights.   Used Gel pens to write on the black display board and my 10 year old told me I did "good".   I just wanted to thank everybody for the suggestions and to express how much I enjoy this digest!

MsPBody

GLASS PAPERWEIGHTS: I am finally making mini glass paperweights again and once again have fish/aquarium paperweights available.  I want to move out my old stock to make way for the new paperweights, so I'm having a sale on the millefiori and swirls. I also have a group of packaged minis on sale. Please take a look if you are interested--my link is below:

ART BY JANE WALKER http://www.walkerillustration.com/~janewalker/mini.htm

Jane

Ideas for minis that you don’t want to sell but don’t have room for:

• Domestic abuse shelter:    The children that go to these shelter often come with nothing but the cloths on their backs.   A donation to a domestic abuse shelter, or similar.   If only for a decoration for the kids to ponder over, or for a fund raiser.   Even to loan a shelter of some sort would be a blessing to all who see.
• What about contacting a museum?   We have a children’s museum here, that often has seasonal displays, but nothing for the 'off' times.    In fact we have/had a doll museum in our down town mall.   See there is an idea.   You could start your own museum.   Oh wouldn't that be neat.
• Maybe you just need to add on to your 'big' house!   Create your own little world with in your new addition.   I can picture a room with shelves and tables, full of 'babies' just to walk around and admire.  
• I like the idea of the library.   We are homeschoolers here and are always on the look out for new art mediums, and special activities.   A lot of his groups meet in churches and schools.   They also let us display our things sometimes.   Schools often have big enclosed display areas.
• It appears that you do not want to get rid of your babies just need help on where to store them.   Maybe a manager of a book store would allow you to display your babies-would be a win-win situation for both of you.
• Nursing homes also are a neat idea, include into that idea assisted living, and retirement communities.   We have several of them in our area, all have several meeting area type places.
• You could also try hospitals-they too have display areas.

Theresa

Feathers: For excellent feathers of all sizes and colors, contact.....

This Bird Feather,  Sharon Webb
1750 Thuja
Anchorage, AK 99507
907-344-6147
WWebb10299@aol.com
http://hometown.aol.com/wwebb10299/myhomepage/index.html

I've had some of these feathers and they are great. Check out the website for pictures of some of them.

Grace Shaw,  Millers, MD

Feathers in the UK: I have bought small feathers in single colour packs from Fred Aldous.   They sell wholesale and retail craft products, a fun site too and often  have projects. I was lucky to visit their shop in Manchester last year.  An Aladdin's cave ! You often see their goods in other craft stores. http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/aboutus.htm

Pauline, UK

Sea glass: I was intrigued by the description of the house with all the sea glass - being a sea glass nut myself, I had to do a google search - this is the least   expensive site I found: http://crystalrivergems.com/products/glass/beachseaglass/frames/FrameSet.htm  I found sites charging as much as $16 per lb.!

Sue in NC

Scents: I personally love the idea of adding scent and sound to the projects to make them come alive and scent in particular is a very emotionally evocative scent. People can be transported back in time to a very vivid memory by scents.

If someone wanted to add scents to their mini scene, they should check out essential oils which are used by candle makers and potpourri people to add scent to their crafts. You would only need to add a drop to apiece of cardboard or paper and hide it in the area where you want the scent to be. If I were doing it I would put one scent in this area and another one in that, rather than putting them all together. That way as a person moves from area to area as they look at your mini they will get a different scent - pumpkin pie in the kitchen, peppermint by the stockings, evergreen by the tree.

Susanna in Indiana

Scent: for those who want to add scent to their dollhouses how about making Jello molds out of the scented gel candles. I'm pretty sure the instructions are in the archives. I've one in just about each house. They are in the kitchen waiting on the counter or in the icebox or fridge. Another is on the sideboard in a dining room or on the table. It makes the doll house smell so homelike and looks pretty too

Patsy

Insulating Foam: Insulating foam is one of the handiest things to have in your workshop. It's very inexpensive and if you see someone who's doing any building, and using sheets of pink or blue stuff, you can probably get them to save you good sized scraps of it for nothing. They throw them away. I use the 1" thick pink kind (under 10 US dollars for a 4' x 8' sheet).

Take a 8x8 piece (or a size that you find comfortable to work with, I have all different sizes, if I'm doing a Bunka rug, I usually use a piece that's about an inch larger then the rug, all around) of insulating foam, lay a sheet of graph paper on top of it, stab a straight pin all the way in at each corner of the graph paper so it doesn't slip, wrap the whole thing like a meat package and after you have the top smooth and tight, secure with scotch tape on the back. This makes a wonderful gluing jig when you're doing a workshop that has to glue two pieces squarely together. I use push pins or t-pins to secure the item. with the graph paper under the saran wrap, you now it will be square. I use the same setup if I'm making a Bunka rug except instead of having graph paper under the saran wrap I put the pattern there.

I use these at home as well as when I'm taking a workshop where I know we'll be doing a piece of furniture or a rug. You can get a sheet of insulating foam for a ridiculously inexpensive amount and it has a ton of uses. I did a Bunka rug workshop for our club and as part of the kit gave everyone a 6x6 piece of this to work on.

- - Use it for landscaping
- - If you have things stick on the end of a pencil that you have just painted, you can stab the pencils into a slab of it til the item dries. I usually keep a scrap piece at the side of my worktable.
- - If you use T-pins (stuck in deep) you can make up a quick little loom.
- - Stick in a couple of needles about 3/8 inch apart and you have a bow-maker.
- - At Xmas, stick in a couple of finishing nails, wrap around with gold wire in a figure 8 all the way to the top, then with a pair of side cutters cut down one section just after the x. shape slightly with needle nose pliers and you have a bunch of ornament hooks.

If you don't want to get the insulating foam, you could always use a ceiling tile. I find the foam less messy. Plus, if I'm in a hurry, I can always run a cut down it with my X-Acto knife, slam it against the edge of a table and have another new work surface.

Jean in Maine

Kool-Aid Dyeing: Just to reassure the person who thought Kool-Aid dye would fade - I just received this from an email friend in the States "I'm happy to report that the orange Kool-Aid color in my husband's Broncos socks has not faded after several machine washings."

Here are some more sites that deal with it Kool-Aid dyeing
http://www.woolworks.org/dyeing.html
http://freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/weavers/dye.html
http://members.tripod.com/countrywool/dyeing.htm
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7212/koolaid.htm
http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/(this one has the color photo)

Roxanne

Model Train Scales:

1/2" is G scale or 1/24.
1/4" is O scale or 1/48
S scale, 1/64
HO scale 1/87,
N scale, 1/160,
Z scale is 1/220'

Emily

Trailer: I just saw three different types of Motor homes in one inch scale at a store called Camping World. They are online http://www.campingworld.com although I don't know weather they have them on the web site, I do know that they have them in their stores. If you write to them through the web site I'm sure they will have further information.

Marilyn, Mini-ing in RV

Brass to Brass: When I took a class, we glued the brass pieces together with super glue. The thinner the super glue, the better. However, the teacher did mention that you need to clean the brass using steel wool or sandpaper. Brass sometimes can have a coating on it that you need to remove. Also oils and tarnish can keep the glue from properly adhering too.

Trish in Sunnyvale, CA

Sharpening X-Acto Blades: My major reason for blade disposal is a broken tip. I also sharpen blades. One real cheap, but effective sharpener is the striker strip on a safety match book. I recently obtained a sharpener from Micro Mark that hold the blade at the correct angle. It works like a charm.

Dave

The Chopper: I have the Chopper. I believe the Chopper III is either the bigger one or the one you can use to cut multiple setting. I love mine. I compare it more to my X-Acto mitre box and an X-Acto knife. Since I work a lot in 144 scale, I actually use it to cut my furniture pieces, but it also work well in 1" scale to cut exact or duplicate sizes of trim, picture frames and I'm sure other things that you will come up with as you start using it. If you keep a fresh blade in it, it will also give you better cuts than you could make just using a regular X-Acto knife. I'm sure you got info with it, but the company also has a web site. www.NWSL.com (Okay, I just looked at my info. The Chopper III has a bigger work surface than mine). I also want to get the Duplicutter and the Bender as well. I think you will enjoy it once you start using it. You will find more uses for it than you originally think you will.

Peggy

Spools for thread: Someone was asking recently about what to use for spools for thread in a Sewing Room.   I think the best thing is the smaller sections of the #2000 Tiny Turnings.     I have a one inch scale "Quilt and Crosstitch Shop" in which I made 190 spools of thread in a cabinet. I wound embroidery floss of different colors on the pieces of Tiny Turnings then measured the thread cabinet at my local store and built one like it to hold the thread.  There are pictures of the scene on my website: http://www.mybizz.net/~wncoffey/

Jane Coffey

Mini Needlework/Fabric Shop: I have one in progress, almost finished except for all the really little details.  I made the usual fabric bolts until I realized that I could use mini wall paper wrapped around a bolt also.  I cut out pictures from the huge 800 page catalog of the wall paper samples and wrapped them around my bolt.   I make my bolts by folding index cards to size.   As the bolts are in a shelving unit it doesn't matter if the "fabric" wraps all the way around.   So I have tons of fabric bolts in lots of colors.

I made regular bolts of ribbon also.  But them I decided to make mini printed   ribbon on my computer.  I used clip art to make a line of little pumpkins and it worked.  I've made all kinds of printed ribbon.  The ribbon rack is an inexpensive hutch from the craft store.  I took off the doors, stained it with brown shoe polish, cut white cocktail straws to fit the shelves and wrapped the ribbons around the straws.   They fit right in the shelves (across).   I also did some solid colored ribbon with my computer.

I am using cuts outs from magazines for sewing and needle work books.   The book of the month type ads have just the right size.  I am also using catalog pictures downsized for the sewing notion packages. I also wrapped cocktail straws with fabric cut 4 1/2 inches wide to be the decorator fabric.   I made racks to hang on the wall.   I cut 2 strips of 1/4" wide x 1/8" wood to fit vertically on the wall.  I put in little eye screws evenly spaced in each and fit the "bolts" in the eye bolts.

Since I have two front windows and a glass door, I made signs on my computer with all the shop information:  name, proprietor, hours, etc.  I am going to print it out to fit the appropriate windows on over head transparency film made for ink jet printers.

I also made two large tables using little wooden spools found at the craft stores for the legs.   It seemed appropriate for a fabric store.   I made notion stands using the spools and wooden wheels.  I used large needle to make the holes to put wire in to hold the notions. I'm thinking about scanning real lace and reducing the pictures, though I do have some mini lace.  I am going to use dowels for thread, but I am not making individual spools.  I am going to build a rack similar to the ones in real fabric stores and fit the dowels across.   I am going to use paint pens to color them for the thread.

Lee Ann

Exercise Room: spa: Besides the Stockton's exercise machine, there were photo ads in Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine for about 12 months although not in the most recent issues that pictured all sorts of exercise equipment including dumb-bells, slant board, that waist machine with the belt, etc.  Maybe someone out there has back issues---I don't have any here.

Also, don't forget the Jacuzzi and lots of towels strewn about the floor and stall showers with those rubbery slip-proof mats.  I would include tennis shoes or running shoes, bathing suits, dirty socks, headbands, shorts, tennis rackets, gym bags, kickboards, sunlamp and massage tables too.  I have no idea how you could make those "Gripmaster" hand exercisers that all good spas and therapists have around to work on your grip----in real life they come in four different strengths.

GlobalSMB

Exercise Room: Anyone interested in exercise equipment or game   rooms,  http://www.miniaturesandmore.com    may have what you're looking for.

Janet in N.J.

Throwaway paintbrush - cut a pipe cleaner into half. bend it half again, grab the bent middle and twist the ends a few times. The size of the job is indicated by the size of the loop you make. It holds up well, is stiff enough to put some pressure on, holds paint well and can be tossed without much guilt. . . . A tiny loop in the end of a single wire also works pretty well for a tiny paint, glue, varnish applicator. You bend it so that the cut end fuzz won't come off in your wet stuff.

Judie - Daytona Beach, FL