Scale Reduction on the Copy Machine: As not all copy machines have the same settings (particularly the older ones) - a simple way is to draw a pencil line 12" long (or 12cm) on the original - then just copy down until the line measures 1" for 1/12th Scale, 1/2" for 1/24th Scale.

Lesley, Johannesburg, South Africa

Scale Reduction of Images From Web:

1. Save the picture (instructions in Archives). Hopefully it goes into a download folder. In case you have same problem: it took me six months to learn this isn't same download folder as the one that AOL (I guess ) sets up to store text for offline reading.

2. Find the picture again and copy it to Clipboard. (Highlight/select it ; hold down Control, tap "C" key. You won't see a thing.)

3. Open a page in Word. Click your mouse on page; hold down Control, tap "V." If all goes well, the picture will appear there.

4. Hold cursor on picture. It'll be a four pointed arrow. Click mouse and squares will appear around picture's edge. Hold cursor on one of the corner squares until it changes to a two-pointed arrow. Now click and hold down mouse and drag that corner in or out to resize picture. You can use Word's rulers to help.

5. To move picture on page, click and hold down mouse and drag it.

6. For additional copies on same page, hold down Control key while doing

Mary in Oregon

Altoids tins: Judee Williamson often uses the Altoids boxes (small metal lidded box) for gifts. She lines the inside w/ fabric or paper and puts a display of some kind - depending on the recipient - inside. She recently made some masks and put them inside the boxes. Looked VERY nice - - and it makes a fine present. Might be a good club project!

Nicole

Altoids tins. Wonder if they could be covered with leather and a tiny handle attached, and there ya go.........a suitcase! They in come in two sizes occasionally at Wal-Mart here. The regular size which is about the same size as those old Sucrets tins and a half size one that is only around once in awhile. Look for them near the registers.

Linda Gibeault

Portable Workspace: Before I had a real place of my own to work on my minis, I worked out a system so I could do my work and then put it away and no one could see my mess. What I did was, I made a large work tray. You could use a piece of plywood or similar. Nail some trim around the edges to keep things from sliding off. Make it a good size. maybe 3' 2' or larger if you can or make two smaller ones even. Make one a work area and one to hold all your mini tools and stuff that you use all the time. On the front of the work space I put a tape measure and glued it on. Then I used thumbtacks or glue to make a row of cottage cheese or large yogurt containers, etc at the back edge. I stuck my tools in these containers. On the other tray you could put boxes and containers that are glued on to put just the things you are using to work on this project with. Now the good part. When I wanted to work on my minis, I brought out my tray or trays and put them on the coffee table in the living room. When it was time to stop I just took the trays and put them under my bed. This really did work. I really think I did more work then, than I do now with a whole studio just for my mini stuff.

Barbara Del Duco

Filling in Filigrees: I've just finishing solidifying the roof of an open-work plastic gazebo by lining the inside with masking tape, glue, and a couple of coats of gesso, and then poking lightweight spackle, thinned with acrylic medium, onto it from the topside.

This reminded me of those lattice-work cake columns. You can change these to solid Whatever by lining them with wedges of card. Same thing for other plastic filigree items from the cake-decorating aisle (e.g., baby-crib to fancy terra cotta planter), or jewelry findings.

Mary (Oregon)

Attaching Plexiglass: I have found those Velcro dots to be good for attaching plexi to a house so it can easily be removed.

Beth

Keeping beads from bouncing: A tip I forgot to mention was to folks who use beads on their minis..if you drop them they bounce under the table and disappear. . The beading books I have say to use a piece of chamois cloth that you can find in the automotive section with the car wash items. When beads bounce out of your hand they land on the cloth and stay put..hope this saves a few bending backs..

Stevenie Tremblay

Skeleton Leaves: Here is a 19th C recipe for making skeletal vegetable matter, so even those without gardens can achieve results. This comes from 'Enquire Within Upon Everything', dating from the 1850s. Simply pick leaves, pods etc. and leave in rain water, in an open vessel exposed to the air and sun. Water must occasionally be added to compensate loss by evaporation. The process requires a great deal of patience, as ample time must be given for the vegetable tissues to decay and separate.' There follows a 'speedy' method, which involves adding a 'tablespoon of chloride of lime, in a liquid state, to a quart of spring water' then soaking the leaves for 4 hours. But any 19th century recipe involving chemicals surely scares me, so me, I'd stick to the plain rainwater way.

Helen from York, England

Skeleton Leaves: As an old flower arranger this was one of my do-its. Use very firm leaves, fully developed, and Chinese lanterns. Add 2/3 cup detergent with bleach in it to 1&1/2 qt. water -- bring to boil in 3 qt. aluminum or enamel pot; simmer. 1 tsp. sugar Prick each lantern with a pin several times to allow solution to enter; add leaves or lanterns to solution, one at a time, enough to make one layer on the water. Keep material covered with solution by pressing down with a wooden spoon, GENTLY. Simmer 12 minutes. Remove to a pan of `warm' water and - Leaves- spray with warm water until green is washed out, use a FINE brush to finish; lay on paper towel to dry; place between towel sheets and press for 2-3 days. Leave natural, spray with color, curl around pencil for shaping. Lanterns - hold by stem and gently dab at it with a FINE brush; orange will flake off; gently squeeze seed sack out bottom point of lantern; lay on paper towel to dry. use stem or re-wire to stand in vase and cure; you can spray on color. If you really require white - bleach in 2 tablespoons household bleach to 1 qt. water for several hours between the brushing and towel drying. Do lots, because just as you finish brushing or picking up off towel -it's ruined.

Anne Gerdes

Canvas for Mini Paintings: Stretch your cotton fabric as you would a regular canvas. Then PRIME with Gesso. Sand lightly for a fine finish as bumps would be out of scale. You can now paint in any medium you wish acrylic or oil. Gesso keeps your fabric from deteriorating. Paintings are meant to last longer than clothes.

Laurie Sisson

Canvas for Mini Paintings: I do my mini paintings like I do my full size paintings. The exception is that I use a cotton material instead of canvas so the mesh is more to scale. I build my stretchers from base wood cut to the sizes I want. I stretch the fabric tightly on the stretchers and use glue to fasten it instead of staples - even the smallest that I find are too large. Then I apply three coats of gesso, drying in between. Then I paint. I am currently using water soluble oils for the first time and I like them much better than regular oils. In my art class, the professor said that modern oils are not framed and that is the way I sell most of mine since I am not a big fan of Victorian and am never satisfied with the Victorian frames that I can buy. I do make modern frames for my watercolors and colored pencil art.

Mary Lou in Portage, IN

Canvas for Mini Paintings: I used 1/8 square balsa for the stretchers. Just as my Prof. suggested for full size, I use Elmer's wood glue. They are squared by any method that would be used for anything else, Legos, jigs, eyestimate. The hard part is getting the material to cover the stretcher without bulky corners. The corners that we learned in full size and are quite unnoticeable become screaming out of scale monsters in miniature. Instead of tucking the fabric in at the corners, I prefer to cut the corners out and let the glue keep it from fraying.

Mary Lou in Portage, IN

Canvas for Mini Paintings: I know that the thread has been about 'canvas' to paint on but no one has mentioned "ivorine". We had this conversation a while back on TT and I know ivorine changed its name when ivory became a dirty word, but many mini artists say that this is definitely the best medium on which to paint for fine detail. Apparently it is available at art supply stores so those of you who are intending to create a mini painting might like to see if you can source some.

Barbara B from South Africa

Home-Business: I would suggest that your first step be to contact your state tax commission, department of revenue, whatever it is called in North Carolina, to inquire about all the regulations regarding home-based businesses....there can be ALOT of things which may affect your decisions. For example, here in Oklahoma City, it is not legal to operate a 'true' retail storefront from your home....in other words, you cannot literally have a 'store' with signs, retail shopping hours, etc. Residential areas are just not zoned for this. However, you CAN operate other types of businesses from your home. So, it's truly in your best interests to check out the facts with your state's agencies. Please make good notes over the telephone...you could get different answers from different representatives - LOL! Better yet, call and try to arrange an appointment to actually talk to a person. Have a clear idea in mind of what you plan to do with your home based business...it will definitely make the process move along ..... i.e., do you plan to offer mail order, internet shopping, etc. Do you wish to be organized as a sole-proprietorship, partnership, or corporation? Your paperwork may differ, depending upon which you choose.....i.e., my husband and I were always a proprietorship....with the Federal and our State agencies. It's the easiest form (for us), much less paperwork (corporations require all sorts of statements, documentation, additional filings, and officers), and we had the added plus of being able to include all our business on our personal income tax filings. I would also suggest that you add another phone line and use it strictly for your business...easier to track all the related expenses, plus giving you some privacy on your personal phone number.

Laura in OKC

Smoke filled room: The cotton batting or poly-fiber fill used for quilts stuffed toys etc. peels apart very easily in layers. You can spread it out so it is very thin and almost transparent. Well smoke does rise. My suggestion is to spread a super thin layer just below the ceiling to represent a layer of smoke. possibly have a few thin strings here and there trailing up from a few lit cigarettes about the room. A bit of yellow tinge towards the top of the walls. Not to much unless you want a real seedy looking place. I would think the windows would need to be fairly clear so you can view the room easily. You can really get a nice transparent effect with spreading out the poly-fiber fill. I think we'd all be interested in seeing your final decision when finished

Brooke, Wa

Smoke filled room: At places like Home Base, they have some interesting 'fancy' layer paint techniques that could be used to make the roof/walls (furniture?) appear smoke stained--I saw an example of this in someone's home recently. The owner thought it looked great, I thought it looked awful! *sigh*

No thought for creating a smoky environment, short of those little 'thingies' that food photographers put into foods to make it look like steam is coming out---don't know what they're called or where to get 'em, but I know they exist<g> I think they would only produce 'vapors' for a few minutes, so...

JK in OR

Smoke filled room: I use smoke generators available through a model rail road shop. They cost about $15.00. Very small and run on 12 volt. They do put out a lot of smoke so you want to be extremely stingy with the smoke fuel.

Bill Hudson

Smoke filled room: I did a whimsical roombox in honor of the Y2K predicted fiasco. My computer in the scene had "smoke" coming from the back of it. The smoke was created from a cotton ball, pulled apart so that wisps of it curled upward like smoke. Perhaps the person looking to create smoke in their scene could try that. I think you could stiffen it a bit with Tacky glue.

Anita Myers

Mosaics. I have two ideas for you. The first, if you have a graphics program on your computer, you can scan in a picture, or use one which is on your hard drive, floppy, CD or click art. Using the "format" button in your graphics program, and "image", choose "mosaic" and there you are! If you print it out on a textured paper, for example, canvas paper, the results should the wonderful!

The second way is more time-consuming but also would work. Using well washed egg shells, break them into tiny pieces, color them, and create your picture. Or, you could glue them onto an existing picture, and color them appropriately to match it.

Alice Zinn