Working Fountain: For anyone interested in working fountains in a garden ......if you can wait my August NN/DM, DIY article has one.... and I will say that the tinkle tinkle of the water, coming out of the fountain, does add a new dimension to a miniature garden.

Joann Swanson

Shopping: For those of you who want to find mini stores in various cities, use the online yellow pages: http://www.yellowpages.com

Just type in the city and state, making sure you have the radius surrounding the city big enough to incorporate the suburbs, and you will not only find the stores listed, but often maps too!

Alice Zinn

Rubber Door Mat: here's another idea for a rubber mat: if there's a Fazoli's restaurant in your area, their salad containers have black plastic bottoms with a grid design. They make great 1:12 scale door mats and would also work as "foot-preserver" mats cut in a larger size.

Loretta Sniarowski

Dealing with Spills: three of the best tricks that I have found are: 1. use rubbing alcohol to take acrylic paint off clothes. I have just rejuvenated three sweat shirts that have had paint on them for years. they now look like new. 2. vinegar is great for dissolving glue. don't think it works on the polymer glues, but for Tackie and Sobo and wood glues it works great. 3. use a butler gum stimulator found in the dental aisle for removing excess glue. I use it all the time on the 144" scale houses that I am making.

Gracia in California

Bending Plexiglass: In my own case I did use my oven and ended up with 250 degrees F - 15 to 20 minutes and just kept watching till it seemed to sag. I had placed on sheet of alum. foil and removed wearing heavy cooking gloves, and bent over my form for 2 sided front on gift box display. My bend was a soft curve, which was what I was after. As plan on having the 2 box sides -glued together to box top, protect it when I want to store.

Regina, Wilmington, DE

Attaching House to Base: Just wanted to add my two cents to this subject: I secure mine by out lining the house on my base board; drilled little holes in several places (on the base board) next to my outline; then placed pegs alongside the house. This keeps the house from sliding (Or in my case) getting knocked off. The pegs can be covered with your landscaping. Then you can just slide your house on or off the board by removing the pegs on the back side of your house.

Joyce in Houston

Spilled Bead-Pins: A nylon stocking over the end of a vacuum works wonders for picking up spilled beads, etc. If what you spill is a whole box of straight pins sorted by size and type, into a carpet with high pile, as I once did, try a huge magnet!

Alice Zinn

Faux Porcelain: To make a white porcelain/china looking object I first make a block of plaster of Paris. The item I wish to make is simply locked inside that block of plaster. I file and sand and curette (gouge) until I have the item released from bondage. I then smooth it with very fine grit sandpaper and polish with talcum powder. To get a porcelain type of shine I follow with clear nail polish over white acrylic paint.

Dr. Bob

Shows: I wanted to pass on a tip to all of you show goers. Sometimes it is all so overwhelming, and it's hard to remember just what you need, want or what color it should be. This really gets bad during the on going process of "up-grading." Some people actually take pictures of each room in the house and include a swatch of the fabrics and paper when you can. It's totally amazing to find something that is perfect, but you didn't know you needed it, so aren't sure what color or size it should be. Out comes the Notebook-You now know if it really is perfect. You can also ask for help from a stranger. This is not my tip, it's from watching people from the dealer side of the table. Those people always impress me, and intimidate as well. If I had the notebook, it would be at home with the grocery list.

Jan Smith

Show Shopping: When going to a mini show, leave that big heavy purse locked in your suit case or car trunk. You only need a cr. card; few checks; ID and cash. A cloth tote bag for these items and your new purchases. Also, take a few small boxes to put the new minis in for safe traveling. Maybe one doll size. Your shoulders & back will thank you and so will the other shoppers and sellers. You will have a smile on your face instead of a grimace.

Elise

Covering Front of Printer’s Tray: What I did with my printers tray was to put Plexiglas on the front and close it with Velcro. It works great and has for a few years now.

Darlene Hubbell

Cobblestones: Cobblestones are easy to make using plaster of Paris or hydrocal. Just mix some up in a paper cup and drip onto a piece of waxed paper. Then let dry, peel them off, paint as you would like and pave your street with them.

Alice Zinn

Calculating Precise 1:12 Scale; Here's a simple way to get a precise measurement of your item converted without having to do any fancy math. (Or without trying to smuggle an Imperial ruler into the country. LOL)
Get a piece of drawing paper or better, something more durable such as a piece of Plexiglas or a sheet of metal. Make sure it's smooth, flat, has a straight edge, and is longer than one foot and approximately 6 inches wide (15 cm).
Draw a line that's exactly one foot long, 3.048m (or scratch it into the metal with the tip of a sharp knife). Draw the line so it's parallel with the side of the paper. Mark one end of the line with "0" and the other with "12." At the end of the line marked "12", draw a right angle making this line exactly one inch tall 2.54 cm. Now turn this into a triangle by connecting back to the "0" end. You'll have a low, long triangle.
To convert any measurement from full-scale to 1:12 scale, all you have to do is set the item on the base of the triangle always starting at the 0 end of the scale. Put a carpenter or machinist's square on the edge of your Plexiglas and push the straight edge against the end of the object you're measuring. The square blade will cross the 0-12 line vertically. At the point where the square intersects with the hypotenuse of the triangle,
you now have an exact 1/12th measurement of the object. You don't need to worry if the piece was originally 3 1/64 or 3 9/16. All you need to do is measure the width of the short leg of the triangle where your square is sitting, and you have the exact measurement without doing any math.
This is especially helpful when you're trying to do measured drawings of a piece of furniture. Using this method, I was able to build a miniature replica of a delicate secretary's desk that belonged to my grandmother.

George Held, Cedar Rapids

Hot Tub: I plan to put a hot tub on the redwood deck of the dh I am constructing. I found a black bowl....actually a "Rice Bowl" meal from the frozen food section. This bowl had "seats" around the bottom of the bowl and looks to be the perfect size to set in a wood frame for my hot tub. I can't beat the price either! It's a micro wave dish and using a hot ice pick and some rivets like "eyelet rivets for sewing", I can easily install the jets.

Katherine

Barrels: The hoops were not attached. There were just driven on until they were very tight - basically held by friction. This allowed the barrels to be unassembled if you wanted to ship them back empty.

Tom

Empty Bottles: Check with your local veterinarian.  When I take my dog in for her annual shots (distemper, etc.) I found the vaccine comes in tiny glass bottles.  They will remove the top with the rubber insert, wash them out and give them away.

Ruth, Grass Valley, CA

Barrels: If a barrel is made properly, it doesn't need any nails to hold the hoops on. They (the hoops) were usually put on hot, like a wagon tire, knocked down (put in place,) and cooled quickly by pouring water on them. Wine or liquor barrels do not want nails protruding into the wood as it will contaminate the wine. Even if the nail only penetrates three fourths of the way, the wine will soak into the wood and draw out the contaminate.

Hoop nails were used on shipping barrels and kegs (as used in shipping dishes and stuff by freight wagon or river boat.) These nails held the hoops in place during the rough handling of the shipping and travel. The nails had a one sided head somewhat like a railroad spike, only much smaller.

****HINT***To make little hoop nails, file three sides off a small brass nail and flatten the head a bit. Push it in so the one side of the head fits over the hoop. If using brass nails, blacken them with some sort of blacken. I find the stuff you get from a stained glass shop works quite well and in the long run much cheaper than the hobby or model RR stuff.

***HINT ***A nice touch.Make your barrel and install the hoops. Stain it, then remove one or two end hoops and shorten them or make them longer so they do not fit back in same place. This will show the unstained area which will look as if the hoops had been reset on the barrel. Some times if a barrel was not used for a while, it would dry out and a hoop would loosen up. To make the barrel useable again, the hoop needed to be reset. This was done by heating up the hoop and driving it back on.

Bill Hudson

Barrels: One end of the barrels or maybe both were round pieces of wood that were inserted into grooves cut into the slats/staves before the rims were hammered down. They were filled with liquid from the hole in the side that was plugged with a cork, then later used for the tap. I don't know about "lids" for barrels that were opened for dishes and stuff. I guess the nails wouldn't have been so much of a problem.

Peggy Bugg

Kupjack Rooms: There are 15 Kupjack rooms that are not that well known.....they are all bedrooms and were commissioned by the Serta mattress people.

These rooms can be seen at the High Point Discovery Center in High Point NC. This is also where the Angela Peterson Miniature Museum resides. So, if you are ever in the area, it is a side trip well worth the taking.

The rooms depict bedrooms from all periods, including a ship's captain's quarters. I had a hard time finding the site (couldn't remember if it was Serta or Sealy) but this will bring you into the area: http://www.furniturediscovery.org/visual.html

Dawnsminis

Scoring cardboard.; So as not to score to deep or in other words to control the depth of the cut. Remove the blade from its holder (as in Xacto) and clamp it in a small "C" clamp with just the amount protruding that will give the depth you want. Yields a controlled depth cut.

Bob...Delray Beach, FL