Folding Printables: I use an Exacto knife or razor blade to cut straight fine edges on wee little printables. I use a metal ruler for the straight edge to guide my blade (a wooden ruler with a metal edge will work). When designing a box I make my fold-in flaps a little bit longer where space allows. This gives a bit more sturdiness to the box and makes it easier to glue and adjust for evenness. If you are using someone else's printable with tiny flaps just cut the fold in flaps a bit longer. Of course the more exact on your cut, the more square it will be.

Brooke, WA

Folding Printables: I use a machinist ruler. I got it from Micro Mark, but you should be able to pick it up at any hardware store. It's thinner than the average ruler and is only 6 inches long. Also, be sure to score your boxes before you try to put your boxes together. That will make your bends sharp and straight. Use tiny scissors, embroidery or iris scissors to cut. I got my scissors from J. Hermes, but I think Micro Mark has them.

Pat Verdugo

For scoring cardstock or construction paper. Fiskar's has a very nice paper cutter that comes with a little scoring 'blade' as well as the cutting blade. This cutter is quite compact about 15" long by maybe 5" wide and about 1/2" thick. It has a clear ruler piece that holds the blades and 'clamps' the piece you are trying to cut or score. It also helps you line up the 'blades' so you can cut or score very precisely. The good news is the cutter sells for only about $12 so it is not terribly expensive. I think I got mine at a Michael's but I'm not sure you should also be able to find it at an Office Max or similar store.

Marsha Hedrick

Boxes: Two things can help make boxes neater. Place a ruler on a fold line, using the small ball end of a stylus, press gently several times across the fold line, this compresses the cardstock slightly, hold the ruler inside the box on the fold line and bend the seam, makes a neat fold. Before gluing, use scissors to trim the flap that goes inside on an angle so it is slightly smaller than the outside, when you glue you will get a nicer fit. I just finished making 150 costume boxes for my Halloween shop.

Gingerbread House: Someone asked about a gingerbread house.......there is a very nice one ready to print out at: http://www.janbrett.com/activities_pages_projects.htm

Use the artwork as shown for a mini one or click for full size for a Witch house (Hansel and Gretal) Adjust sizes if needed. Glue artwork to foamcore or matboard or wood. Use the art work as is or use as diagram/pattern and cover with Fimo candy etc.

There are darling printables at this site.

Joann Swanson

Jim Collins Printable Victorian Truck: I rubber-cemented the trunk printout onto one of those  "marbled" Kleenex boxes so that the marbling appears on the inside like lining. I left the fold over tabs free of cardboard because they don't fold over and glue well if too bulky. The hinge area is reinforced with masking tape which I later painted to match the interior. Scoring all the fold lines lightly on the back side with a craft knife makes assembly (with Aleene's glue) easy and neat. I gave the trunk a light wash with thinned brownish acrylic paint to give a slightly streaky look. Or, you could go for a more splotchy effect. I touched up edges as needed but tried to keep the appearance of age and use. Finally, I gave it two coats of shellac though it could probably use three. When dry, I rubbed lightly with an old, used piece of fine sandpaper, then buffed with a soft cloth.

Upon giving the whole thing more thought, this and many other printables could be further improved by adding embellishments like jewelery findings, sewing notions, etc.

Hyacinth

Free Printables: Many of you will already know of my "printable" web site where I offer free minis that you can print out for yourself. They include everything from calendars for any date to stain glass windows. I'm happy to say that I'm just getting started on a huge collection of Victorian items.

http://www.printmini.com

Jim Collins

Neat 'printables' source: I followed a link from Jim Collin's Printables page to Eileen's Printable Projects -- with hatboxes (adorable), Christmas wrap and boxes, food boxes and labels, quilts (lovely), wallpaper (beautiful!), and games. http://members.home.net/eileenmorgan/printables.html

Anne Gerdes

Printables sites: A wonderful collection of printables. Nearly all have links.

http://www.printmini.com/

http://www.toad.net/~raz/razprojects.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/hi/harmonia/DOLLHOUSE1.html

http://members.home.net/eileenmorgan/printables.html

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/ferndale/686/printables.html

http://www.littleaddictions.addr.com/freeg/freepaper.html

http://members.xoom.com/madison66/onthescene/projects.html shopping bags at the bottom

http://peanuts.arecool.net/

http://members.xoom.com/BluvW/project.htm sometimes difficult to open

http://members.aol.com/KRouse6798/PRINTABLES.htm

http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/library/weekly/topicsubprojects.htm wonderful selection

http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/library/wallpaper/blquilts.htm quilt patterns

http://millennium.fortunecity.com/quarrybank/354/cprojects.htm

http://www.vikimouse.com/print/index.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/wv/minipix/printables.html sheet music

http://members.tripod.com/~bobbie24tj/paperdolls.html paper doll site...not mini but excellent!

http://members.tripod.com/~DeeDee_Revia/printables.html Barbies

Gail

Printables: I also take care of Raz's website for him, where there are more printables: Raz's Dollhouse Page

http://www.toad.net/~raz Somebodeez Holiday Dollhouse and Miniatures

http://millennium.fortunecity.com/quarrybank/354/index.html

Pam

Printables:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/1832/

http://members.home.net/eileenmorgan/printables.html

http://www.tinytalk.org/projects.htm

http://www.miniature.net/smallstuff/gallery.htm

Anne Gerdes

Pam's great printables : http://www.toad.net/~raz/ and http://www.crosswinds.net/~somebodeez/
She has a gazillion links on her http://www.toad.net/~raz/ site -- I just found a FANTASTIC one I'd never seen before: http://www.mcguirezone.com/goodies/toys.html.

Anita Myers

Printable picnic basket: here is a link for a perfect picnic basket to print for minis .Please have a look if you would like to own a picnic basket with accessories and all.

First part of picnic basket : http://printies.homestead.com/page12.html

Second part of picnic basket : http://printies.homestead.com/page13.html

URL for printing a bible a rug: http://www.printies.homestead.com/

I made the rug for a bedroom printed it on cross stich canvas and glue it on a felt backing and it turn out very good .

Giselle Nadeau

Printable Fairy tale book: Someone was looking for the site that had a printable fairy tale book. I think this may it. http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/petrabr/printobjecten.htm This is a delightful site full of printables - it is in Dutch but they are so delightful it scarcely matters. Your dollhouse people can be fluent in another language or two. I have not been able to book mark this site. For some reason it is very elusive so I recommend copying the URL and keeping it in a safe place,

Patti

Everything about paper: I just happened on a site with all kinds of links to printables and sites related to endless paper products, boxmakers you name it. I saw links to wallpaper sites, paper doll sites, and some mini sites. You could really get lost here!

http://www.papershops.com/

Darlene Focazio

Printables - What's New at About.com

New this week are printable book covers, and lots of 'em!

http://miniatures.about.com/library/clipart/blsyd01.htm

http://miniatures.about.com/library/clipart/blsyd02.htm

http://miniatures.about.com/library/clipart/blsyd03.htm

http://miniatures.about.com/library/clipart/blsyd04.htm

http://miniatures.about.com/library/weekly/aa080600a.htm

http://miniatures.about.com/library/weekly/aa080600b.htm

Lite brite pegs for jars, etc. - I clipped off the narrow part with wire cutters, then filed that end flat on a metal file. I printed out some can labels (I think they were from Jim's printables site: http://www.printmini.com/ ) so they were about 1/4" high (small enough that they looked like they could be labels for jam instead of veggies), tacky-glued them on and added three layers of punched-out posterboard circles for a lid (one or two didn't seem thick enough). They came out so nice that I brought pegs and labels and tools to my mini meeting that night, and everyone went home with a dozen jelly jars! And ALL the colors looked great!

Lee

http://www.toad.net/~raz/litterbox.htm -- printables of a litterbox and a generic box of litter

Chryssa Sharp

Sealer for Printables: I found what appears to be a good sealer for the printables..tried it on some wallpaper last week and some other things as well, and works great....found it in the paint department at Wal Mart, sure other stores have it also....it is KRYLON brand spray acrylic protective clear coating, comes in both gloss and satin..says NON-Yellowing and has photography listed for one of the uses....used it today to make a SS badge to wear to the Greenville show this weekend....maybe will run into some other SS'ers...

Jo

1/4 Scale Printouts: there are some 1/4 scale printouts on my website, as well as several 1/4" scale freebie how-to's that you might enjoy. You'll also find lots of photos there of 1/4 scale items and roomboxes that were made by myself and by others. If you enjoy quarter scale you'll have fun looking around my site.

http://members.aol.com/daisy21/pam/index.html

Pamela Scott

Printables: Finally got my website redone and updated. It's prettier now. It's not totally completed, but there's a new section of tiles and wallpaper, free to print for your personal or club use. Also printable chairs in 1" and 1/2", paper dolls and project how-to's. http://www.lavish-miniatures.com

Bonnie Lavish

Printables: While doing a little web surfing I encountered this very interesting site. Check it out! www.thelabelman.com

Lloyd Cooper