I was so inspired by their work that it convinced me to make my own beds for the 70s sorority house I'm working on. Got out the strip wood and glue and made a set of bunkbeds and two platform beds. I covered household sponges with tie-dye flannel for groovy mattresses and now they are ready to dress. I stained the platform beds violet and painted the bunks white and decoupaged a heart pattern on them. I was really pleased with the results and it freed up mini money to let me splurge on the modern living room set I wanted from HBS. Here are some pics:
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sales/platform.jpg
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sales/bunks.jpg
Thanks to a lot of SS friends, this sorority house will have a number of "house mothers". The macramé hangers, beads for the curtains, fabric for bedspreads all came from the great gang on this list. Here is a photo of the macramé hangers from Jacquie with pots and plants I made. (Thanks to the recent plant making talk here. I also made the rolled bamboo window shades. I carefully cut the shades from large straw mats from the dollar store. I lightly dotted the edges with tacky glue to keep from fraying, then rolled and glued the bottoms to look like they were rolled up. Then I glued a piece of thin, stained stripwood at the top. I added brown thread to look like the cords. The plant hooks are the "hook" end of a hook & eye. I cemented it to the wall with Household GOOP and let set overnight before hanging:
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sorority/hang2.jpg
Here is one of the doorways with a beaded curtain I made from beads I got from several SSers. I used the idea someone mentioned here for the curtain rod - a slit plastic drinking straw, then just slide the lead bead of each strand into the "rod". I reinforced with some magnatack to keep the bead strands from pulling out. Let set overnight. Then I hung the rod in the doorway with contact cement.
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sorority/bead1.jpg

John Medeiros

Amazing Playscale designer chairs: I was browsing thru the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) online store the other day and I discovered these amazing little modern designer chairs:
http://www.momastore.org/ go in, click on Home Accents, and the link to them is there in the bottom row.
They are not my scale (I don't play with fashion dolls any more), and they are very, very pricey (on a par with life size designer chairs), but for those who have the money and are looking for an outstanding chair for their Barbie, these are great. For the rest of us, they are worth a look. Really amazing, and I wish they were 1:12 instead of 1:6. I bet those of us who are interested in modern-style minis could really use a tiny Eames chair!

Maura Bass

HUMMEL PLATES: Dolores who was looking for these earlier this week, go to www.tias.com and you'll find enough to stock a china shop. They even look like the right size to fit buttons or soda cap liners without manipulation, just printed right off the site.

Loretta Sniarowski

Ice Cream Parlour: I have the book Building Masterpiece Miniatures by Joseph Daniele (ISBN 0-8117-0306-1) published in 1980 and it has an entire chapter devoted to making an ice cream parlour, including the furniture, fixtures and apartment. Is this the book you meant? Maybe you can order it from one of the used book sources such as www. abebooks.com or www.bn.com. This is a great reference book and hope this info helps.

Cheryl

Contacting Corona: All the info you need on Corona's dollhouses is available from their website: http://www.corona-concepts.com/

Joy Perkins

Contacting Corona: 10 Depot Street, Schenevus, NY 12155, www.corona-concepts.com

Carol

The Heritage: To the person that is building the Heritage go to Jim's web site http://www.printmini.com/ of Jim's Printables fame. He built the Heritage and has step by step photos and talks about the mistakes he made along the way.

Elizabeth

Porch Ideas: Tom of Earth and Tree has a book called Porches Across America, which sounds like just what you need: http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com/index.html. If you go to books, and then to miscellaneous, you will see a picture of it.

Kaye in L.A.

Porch Ideas: Houseworks has a relatively inexpensive kit for making a front porch in both 1 and 1/2" sizes. There is also a booklet called Porches Across America by Nancy Van Horn that would give you some ideas.

Rose

The James Bay: The most wonderful thing about IBEC dollhouses is the wood, it's all cedar and you can paint and/or stain the exterior which is great in my books. I just ordered the 8 room cottage + extensions with bay windows and when I opened the box and saw the wood I was thrilled. It will make a most beautiful house. Take your US$ and convert that to CDN$, you've got a pretty good deal there! I would strongly suggest you give Pat Scott a call. She owns Upstairs-Downstairs in Victoria, BC and they carry all of IBEC's products. Both Pat and Amos, her husband, are more than familiar with the houses and can tell you everything about them...all of which are excellent reports. e-mail Upstairs-Downstairs at upstairs-downstairs@home.com or phone 250-598-0887

Joy in Pointe Claire

Clown Shop: What a great idea! I can see lots of colors...maybe with a vintage antique patina to everything. A room box could be covered with printouts of old Circus posters and illustrations...maybe decoupage some of the display cases with circus art...Perhaps brightly colored furniture, stools and barrels like one sees in the circus rings...this sounds like so much fun...you might even have a section of the ceiling covered or draped in a mini circus tent section.. .keep us posted! Here's a link with some great art to look at for inspiration:

http://circustuff.com/posters/

John Medeiros

Circus Accessories: There are great circus wagon and all sorts of circus stuff on the circus museum web page. The museum is in Baraboo, WI - and, they do reply to e-mails if you have specific questions about some circus stuff. http://www.circusworldmuseum.com

Kathy

Reducing Barbie Patterns to 1/12th scale: To make a pattern for an 11 1/2" doll into our size, you just have to reduce it by 50% on a photocopier!

Alice Zinn - Pt. St. Lucie - FL

Furniture finishing: Everyone that finishes furniture has their own way to do it. I have used a "Delta Ceramcoat" product called "Satin Interior Varnish" with good success. It comes in a 2 oz. bottle and is sold at craft stores & craft departments of larger stores. This won't break the budget & can be used over paint, too. Some of the varnishes sold where paint is sold are too heavy & "out of scale" for me.

Ann Bramlet

Finishing kits: Furniture finishing, full scale or in miniature, is a complicated and difficult craft to master. Lots of different situations. On your basswood kits try using a thinned clear (white) shellac as a sealer before staining. It evens out the color and keeps the end grain from getting too dark. Credit for this goes to Therese Bahl.

If you use the Minwax stains, don't stir them, but just use the dyed liquid that stays on the surface. The solid pigments at the bottom get in the pores of the wood and can make your finish look speckled. Buy a piece of 1/16" bass wood, cut it into little squares and test all your finishes for color. Try oil based artist colors to use as a paste stain. Rub on, then rub off immediately. If you label your samples with the type of wood, the stain and the topcoat, you can start your own reference library.

Shellac is the safest and easiest topcoat for beginners. Thin the clear (white) shellac in the can - 3 lb. with an equal quantity of denatured alcohol(1:1). This makes a 1.5 pound cut which is thin enough not to cause any problems. Brush it on. Wait four hours and rub down gently with 0000 steel wool. Make sure you get rid if all the steel filings before re-coating. Use three or more coats, "steelwooling" between coats. Use little pieces of new steel wool to get less filings to deal with. Cover with paste wax or even natural shoe polish. Clean your brush in denatured alcohol.

The shellac, stain, steel wool and paste wax are available at any hardware store or home center. I have lots of wood finishing experience but try new things and learn a little more every time I finish a new piece. If you test first you will save lots of heartaches

Pete Boorum

Victorian paint jobs: I believe the actual Victorians tended to use muted colors, and were also limited by what paints were available. Somewhere around the late 30's they were all painted white, and it wasn't until the 60's that people began to color them again. With the recent (now defunct) economic boom, lots of houses have been repainted and the city has never been so beautiful.

Christine Sulewski

Wood Stains: I use Carver Tripp Environmentally Responsible Super Poly in Gloss or Satin for a finish over the stain and on Miniature wood floors. I use the Carver Tripp Wood Stain for large and Miniature wood projects. It's all water clean up and very easy to use. I like this better then the Minwax.

Carol Desmond, MA

Paint Sealers: When I could only find the colors I wanted in a flat acrylic, I finished up with Anita's satin finish "poly". I bought it at Michael's. It comes in semi-gloss and gloss, but the satin leaves a glorious soft finish.

Fannye in TX

Paint Sealers: I have used Poly sealer on acrylic paint, but was not entirely happy with the results as it is very thick and looks out of scale. I might suggest a good spray sealer which is what I now use. The one I really like the best is called Design Master's Super Surface Sealer. It is non-yellowing and suitable for indoor or outdoor use. I use this on the outside of all my house surfaces - paint (always use water-based), brick work, trim, whatever. I apply 3-4 thin coats, letting it cure 24 hours between. It gives a very tough finish. However, it also has a very tough odor, not for use in an enclosed area. Take it to the garage!

Sloan

Paper flooring: Give it a nice, glossy look by covering it with Modge Podge or Super Sealer (available at mini shops).

Tom Berkner