Display box Project: Now, a project for you all. Very simple and inexpensive. There were a bunch of gifts I got from people when I was in Japan that I wanted a special display box for. I had seen one in Michael's that I really loved, but it was expensive, $60, and even with a 40% off coupon, more than I wanted to pay. So my head began to whirl.

There are there Lucite frames, called 'box frames', a sort of shallow box made of clear plastic, with a white cardboard box inside them which is supposed to hold the picture in place. I got one on sale for about $3.00. Remove the cardboard box.

Bought a piece of foam core board, of course, you could use gator board or wood if you are so inclined. I constructed a box that was 4 inches deep, (you can make it any depth you like) and slipped the frame on the front. It came out so good I made a couple of more! Only took me about half and hour to do. In my bathroom, which is wallpapered in a sailboat motif, I had a bunch of nautical theme minis on top of a case that has miniature toys in it. They were always getting dusty. So I made THEM a box too!

Today I was in Wal-Mart, and saw some very inexpensive (less than $5 for a 16 in by 20 in) white plastic frames I'd bought a while ago for 'someday! loll Had another brainstorm! The frames have no 'glass' in them....so I picked up a cheap 16x20" frame ( $5.97) that has thin plastic, the hard kind, not the kind that covered your grandma's furniture.

With this frame, I didn't even need to cut a back for my box, as it came with a thick cardboard backing! I just made the sides, and covered the cardboard with some old wallpaper I had lying around!   Took the 'glass' out of the crappy frame, put it in the plastic frame and slid it on my new display case! So, only using about a half of a sheet of foamcore, this huge display case only cost me about $12!

You can use paint, fabric or paper to cover the outside if you like, or leave it white. One word of caution, when you cut the sides, make sure that you allow for the thickness of the overlapping side when you measure! You want the outside dimension of your box to be just less than the inside dimension of your frame!

And, before you ask, I put this all together with Tacky glue!

Also, any of you considering making the display   box project, I used 3 Xacto blades to cut the foam core for 4 boxes. We often tell you to change your blades often, as only a fresh blade cuts without shredding the edge. But we really never explain just HOW new they need to be!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Room by Room update:    Below is the company's response to my letter.

Absolutely we will be repeating the line for this year. As a matter of fact it will be on TV in the fall [2002] and should be even bigger than last year. Unfortunately many retailers are now sold out of most of the rooms and do not get more in until later this spring or summer. You can try TTGO.com to see if they still have some additional rooms left at this time. If not, KBtoys.com will be carrying all 12 rooms, but probably not until this summer. Toys R Us will be running a special Laura Ashley version of the house as well, but not until the summer.

Special thanks to Shirley in Bakersfield, CA for hooking me up with the website. http://www.ringsidesupplies.com .

Donna Baird of Indiana

Play with room box:   I made a room box for one of my granddaughters using a "Critter Home".   It is a clear plastic container with a lid and a carrying handle.   I got mine at a pet shop where they had a better selection of color for the tops, but I have also seen them at Wal-Mart and I believe K Mart.   They come in several different sizes.

Mary Lou in Portage, IN

Stiffening the inside of a Basketball: I think I'd try cutting one and then putting the soft carcass into a bowl. Line it with fabric dipped in that stiffener and then inflate a balloon inside to hold it in place. Let dry for a couple of days, then pop the balloon. This might stick the balloon to the inside as well, but that's not a problem. Just paint it.

I've seen deflated basketballs and footballs before, they're not exactly without form, but kinda tough - a bit of encouragement to hold their shape might be achieved even by stuffing a plastic grocery sack with stuffing of some kind against glue covered fabric, then unstuff in a couple of days to see what it does

Judie

Scene Inside a Basketball: My friend's son did a scene inside of a soccer ball. There was a picture of a scene inside a basketball in a Nutshell News several years ago. My friend called the lady who did it to see what her procedure was. She ended up coating the inside of the basketball with plaster of Paris to hold the shape.

Carolyn in MI

Basketball: Maybe the basketball could be cut deflated and made to hold its form with papier-mache, it would be heavier than stiffeners could hold up I would think, basketballs are pretty thick material, leather or plastic, perhaps straight craft glue would hold it up.

Teresa from Canada

Found the Basketball Article: Ha Ha! I found it, Kathy! It is in Dollhouse Miniatures, March 1998. It is a two-page article with a couple of pictures and just general directions. She does say that she puzzled over how to cut the ball for quite a while before it dawned on her to just let the air out. She then cut a hole in the ball and gave it to a fried who treated the inside with a hardening substance so the ball would permanently hold its shape and have a level floor.

Dayle in MD

Elaine in Herndon, VA

Child's Roombox: Our grandson is now 5 and loves the "house" we made for him - it isn't really a house at all, just a large room box with no ceiling.  It's rather like what we call over here a bedsit, with everything, except the bathroom, in one open space.

Maybe your grand daughter might like the idea, Rose.  That way you can put a bit of everything in it, bed, shelves, tiny kitchen and things like the Michael's hutches, with lots of opening doors and drawers.  Adam had three hutches in his, in various styles, and loves to put the mugs and plates and things away and out again.  He also loves to make the bed up, so we made lots of simple bedding, so he can choose.   Most of all, though, he likes the food and drink (like his Dad!)  I made a lot of pies, cakes, sandwiches and burgers, all from Fimo, with a couple of slices cut out, so he can share.  He loves to offer his Dad a can of beer or Coke when they play with it together!

Florida Gill, Surrey, UK

ROOM BY ROOM - KB TOYS: !   Thanks for the advice from fellow miniers on the Room By Room  Boxes.   Picked up the Kitchen, Bath and Dining Rooms at K-B Toys for the $15 reduced prices today.   Would like the bedroom and living rooms, but   they were not in stock.

Great starter for the little ones, and kit-bashing possibilities for us older kids.  The dishes resemble the Chrysnbon ones, and am thinking of painting them.   The plain walls could use some pretty wallpaper. The curtains go into the trash box--would like to frame scenes over the window openings on the back of the boxes.

Had a little 4-yr. old here Sunday before I picked up the rooms.  I don't usually have dolls in my houses, but the first thing she asked was "where are the dolls".  Little ones love having dolls in houses, so when I got the boxes set up I hauled out my Fisher Price dolls to go into them. Even though not in perfect scale, they are great since they bend at so many joints, and the children won't notice the difference. Sure wish they were 12 v. lighting instead of batteries, but then you can't have everything.

Dolores

Link for Room Boxes at Kay-Bee Toys: here is the link for the Room by Room sets at KB toys. There are 13 of them. http://www.kbtoys.com/w/l/snb.html?ls=default&searchDropDown=entire&txt=room+by+room+&formInfo=H%7CsearchDropDown%7C0+T%7Ctxt%7C0%7C50&formMap=

Marcie Van Deren

Remove The Shine: Here's a suggestion for how to remove the shine from your slate roof: You might try the trick of using India ink mixed with rubbing alcohol. Whenever I've applied a light coating of this, it normally dulls the surface so it's not quite so shiny. Might want to try it on a piece of scrap to see if that works in a way you like.

George Held

Ceiling: You can use joint compound or you can use a fine grain sand ceiling texture, either one works good. The joint compound will give you a more smooth appearance while the ceiling texture more rough texture. Both can be painted.

Joni

Ceiling: I bought some white wall paper that had a small embossed (textured) design and glued that to my ceiling. The roll was on their "sale" table (probably the last of that line) and was not expensive. That worked well for me.

Viola

Paper Ceilings: Someone asked what could be used. I had some embossed white wallpaper (partial roll from a yard sale) , the kind that can be painted or left white. It's fairly durable and the pattern is swirley - you can pretend it's plaster. It took paint really well. I was able to cut the pattern out so that it was centered. I painted mine Buttermilk.

Theresa again, from MD

Ceilings: None of my ceilings is plain. I use all shapes and colors of picture mats over paper lace or textured paper to create interesting ceilings. Some are one with wood slats (like the ones we had in the house I grew up in). If there is a ceiling fixture, there is a medallion or centerpiece around it. Sometimes I use mirrors!

Karen

Ceilings: my favorite thing for plaster looking ceilings is paint mixed with Skid-Tex. Skid-Tex is the stuff used to make painted surfaces non-slippery. You can mix in as much as you want in your paint to get the look you want and it doesn't flake off.

Carole Pierce in TN

Ceilings: we usually put stucco on our ceilings and they look like the popcorn ceilings in so many houses today. We've even used it in old-style houses and it looks fine there, too. We like to do the ceilings before we start building the houses. If you try to do it after building, cut V's in the ends of a large cardboard carton, put the house in it upside down so you don't have to stand on your head to do the ceilings.

Dottie in Tucson

Glittery Ceiling: There is hairspray on the market that has a glitter in it. Maybe you can spray your ceiling with that.

Dorothée

Mission Tile House: I have posted some pictures so you can see what I have been talking about with my mission tile house... This is a scene made using a full sized mission roof tile as the main wall of the setting. The hardest part was cutting out the door and window openings on the tile. Because of the curve of the tile and where the openings were situated, I couldn't use my jewelry saws or the tile saws that fit into a hacksaw. I ended up using a tile drill, drilling holes all around the openings and then breaking the remainder out and filing smooth. Now that I am getting the hang of it, I will have to make more. I have included a close up of the tile roof and floor I made using the air dry terra cotta clay. I sponge painted the roof tiles a bit to make them look old and mossy. There is also a close up of the front door entryway. The interior has been coated with joint compound to add texture and then painted. I plan on adding a few chairs and tables, but this will mostly be a flower shop, so furnishings will be sparse. Not sure what to "store" in the small attic area... maybe buckets or cardboard boxes of vases...? I will also be adding plants to the window shelf, shutters and a window frame to the window opening and some other architectural details. I am also going to paint a flowery sign on the outside by the door. If you have any other great ideas for me, just let me know and I'll see what works.

Here is the link (first 4 pictures in the album)
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=345686&a=4165987&f=0

The best part of this project was the cost. The tiles were given to me, and I used scrap lumber, so the only thing I actually had to purchase was the air dry clay and some joint compound. I love inexpensive projects that use up my leftover stuff. And a great tip I discovered while I was doing some plants, the air dry clay makes great dirt to poke your plants into. Fill the pot with the clay, add a drop of white glue and top with some railroading dirt, poke your flowers in, and the clay will harden and hold your plants great.

MAP in Puyallup