Working pinball machine: I have a working one-inch scale pinball machine at http://www.tinyheirlooms.com Look under other furniture. I've also got working air hockey, foosball, and basketball shoot-out at the store. Email me if interested. customerservice@tinyheirlooms.com

Tammy in Virginia

Skivver leather: Al Chandronnait---famous---mini basket maker used to sell very, very thin leather. I hope he still does. Here's his addy: 19 Winnhaven Drive, Hudson, NH 03051. He usually has an ad in the Dollhouse Miniatures magazine every month. His ad mentions all the baskets available but he doesn't mention the leather. Another source would be the thrift stores for old gloves. Although I have never been so lucky to find old gloves or old silk ties. I think a shop in the vicinity of an old age home would be a good place to look. People into vintage clothes are snapping these things up quickly. You've got to go often and be fast.

Elise in Va

Newspaper wallpaper: Joe Hermes P.O. Box 4023 El Monte, CA 91734 Catalog $3.

He has the newspaper wallpaper and many others too. Also has 1/4 paper that looks like wood floors. As far as I know has no e-mail or WEB page. Nice man with nice wife.

Bobbie in Los Angeles

Wallpaper that looks like newspaper: J. Hermes makes it. We have it. Earth and Tree Miniatures http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com

Tom and Kari

Dainty Doll Newsletter: you can read more about my newsletter on my web site: http://daintydoll.tripod.com/DaintyDolls/ It's especially for people who make, dress, or collect miniature dolls. We give patterns with instructions, helpful hints, news, and artist features. We have more ideas than we have room for! Anyone can email me personally for more information. Daintydollnews@InsightBB.com

Paulette Stinson

Bunka: Heritage Miniatures from Goffstown, NH has a supply of bunka in all colors and at a reasonable price. They also have laces, trims, and fabrics. E-mail them at heritagemin@mindspring.com I am a bit behind in SSD so you may have already found some.

Bobbie Lacoy

Flickering Stove Bulb: HBS has a 12V red/orange colored bulb that flickers without causing other lights on the same transformer to flicker. A true wonder. Click link to see... http://www.miniatures.com/hbs/global/Index.owp?TOPCATEGORY=shopping&SUBCATEGORY=products&INNERPAGE=/hbs/global/shopping/ProductDetail.owp&PRODUCTSKU=2120

Sally Cook-Thomas

Wallpaper in America: Itsy Bitsy Minis sells some nice prints, and they have matching fabric too. They do ship internationally too. I just checked. http://www.itsybitsymini.com/index.htm

Kassy, Bristol, CT

Haunted House Plants: Check out the work of Beverly Gallerani at http://www.miniplants.com -who at my request developed some dead plants for my project and has since added a line of "Haunted Houseplants (tm)" to the amazing 'living' plants she already does. Her dead plants are fabulous and so real (for being dead).

Patricia Paul

Clay Tools: The clay tools you need for Fimo and other polymer clays can be found at http://www.clayfactory.net/kt.html    They are Kemper Pattern Cutters. I used these in another lifetime when I made bread dough (yes, that really ages me).   You can buy them in sets or individually.   I would buy them and then use needle nose pliers to reshape them .  You then have to level them off with a file because the reshaping distorts the tube.   Look at ceramic shops in your part of the world first.   However, they aren't heavy for shipping.

Diane Foster, The Colony TX

Punched Clay: Let's say you have a hand held (as opposed to those square plastic ones) maple leaf shaped paper punch. You want to make a maple leaf shaped candy dish, but out of polymer clay, not paper. (You can use the other punches too, and the method is basically the same.)

The first thing you have to do is remove that 'trap' on the back of your punch, meant for catching the cut outs.  Take a good size piece of polymer clay and dust it lightly with baby powder. Press part of your clay into the hole on the hole punch. Pull it out using the rest of the chunk of clay as your 'handle'. Using a NEW, sharp single edged razor blade, dusted with baby powder, slice the shaped part of the clay away from the backing.

Now you will have a chubby maple leaf shape. By gently squashing it, and curving the edges, you will have your maple leaf shaped candy dish! You can paint and give it a coat of gloss to make it look like ceramic, too!

I have done this with many of my punches, and it has not seemed to adversely affected their original use!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Making Bricks: The pasta machine bricks, I believe are ours, and you can find them on our website. http://www.thomasopenhouse.com   Happy bricking.

Noel & Pat Thomas, IGMA Fellows, NAME AOH

Champagne Flutes: Mary Eccer makes filled champagne flutes complete with bubbles. Her web site is http://pannikins.com/

Lynn in Milan

Glass bottles: I just got my catalog from American Science and Surplus, and they have a slew of tiny, tiny glass bottles AND corks, like 20 for $2.00 or something like that. Website is http://www.sciplus.com

Sue Veeder in Madison,WI

MSAT MicroMinis 144th Scale List Info: Here is the link to sign up for the MSAT MicroMinis Group. There are options when you sign up if you want to receive individual mails, digest, or no mail. If you have problems, email me and I will try to help you get your mail...It is a WONDERFUL group, and 144th is super! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MSATMicroMinis/

Steff

WAC Uniforms-Buttons and Insigna:  I found two sites that may be helpful. http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/uniform.html and http://www.awm.lee.army.mil/index.html

Rusty in Ky

Paper punches for flowers and clay shapes: A site for "craft punches" is http://www.alpineimport.com/    they have quite a few manufacturers of the punches used by scrapbookers.  They have some inexpensive punches and several great leaf and nice petal punches. Lots of other neat stuff too.

That being said, there is an internet site http://www.carolinastamp.com/holepunch.htm    that still offers all of the standard dies and the catalog is on the net.  However, they are more expensive--I think $45--and they are quite heavy so shipping to Oz would cost a major fortune.  Check out Oz sources for "ticket punches" and your better office supply stores.

Diane Foster, The Colony TX

"non-mini" web pages: JenniferKY's list of mini-related web pages got me thinking about my favorite "non-mini" pages--which of course tend to be pretty useful for minis anyway!  I thought this might be a useful reference for someone out there.

REFERENCE & INSPIRATION: http://www.google.com  My FAVORITE site.   Arguably the best search engine out there,

with an image search function as well.If you don't have a clue where to start looking, START HERE. http://www.dwr.com  Great source of inspiration for very modern furniture--really cool catalog. http://www.costumes.org/pages/costhistpage.htm   invaluable if you're doing a period doll and need to know what the appropriate clothing looks like.  Has costumes from all time periods and all across the world--not just Western clothes. http://www.foodsubs.com   Fantastic as a reference for making mini foods; has photos of all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meat cuts, etc.

MATERIALS: http://www.sciplus.com   fantastic resource for materials (wire, basswood, beads, etc.), small plastic bags, motors, pumps, lenses, etc.

OTHER: http://www.x10.com/x10ads.htm   This has nothing to do with minis, but I find nothing breaks my inspiration more than those annoying (and I think sort of creepy) X-10 camera popup ads... this will let you turn them off for 30 days so you can do mini research and shopping unharrassed.

Maybe others can contribute their favorite "non-mini" sites?  I'm always looking for more inspiration, large or small...

Celeste in Boston

Paper for Flowers:   I use large rolls of a thin paper I get at a drafting store. It's thicker than tissue (which I also use) and thinner than most tracing paper, which you can use.  You must paint your papers.  I use Design Masters paint for everything but the leaf paper, and that is only because they don't make the shade green I want.  I buy custom mixed latex wall paint (I'm allergic to latex which is a major reason I've discontinued the kits) and I spray it on the paper with a large paint sprayer using an air compressor. You can use a foam roller for small projects and it won't create such a mess.  I go to Sherwin Williams for my paint.  I even paint the tissue paper.   I know you can get it in colors, but they fade.   Painting is a mess, my garage walls look like a modern art project gone wild.   When using these paints, ALWAYS wear a carbon mask filter rated for the paint, you're asking for serious lung troubles otherwise.

Diane Foster, The Colony TX

Mini quilt kits:  This one has a number of them, assorted scales and reasonably priced!  http://www.vickeysminis.com

Cathy Heimbauer