Dental Office: My grandfather had such a glass jar in each dental chair area. Besides the required bathroom in his office, he also had a small nook where ladies could check their makeup, before going out into the waiting room. This nook contained an ornate mirror and console, a chair, and tissues. His waiting room always had "Highlights" magazines for kids, several copies of a nearby high school's year book (I never could figure that one out!), besides the normal outdated magazines. There was a corn plant, that despite my "Papaw"'s wonderful gardening talent, always seemed rather sun deprived, and scrawny, like other dentists' offices.

You could also put tiny sunglasses in the chair areas for children to wear while being examined, like some dentists do now. A box could be placed behind the receptionist's desk with tiny prizes for good children.

Beabe Thompson

Australian minis?

- A boomerang?A mini akubra hat or drizabone coat?(good luck on these -- our own wonderful Trace ended up making these for me). . .

- Some of the mini furniture is different -- a miner's couch

- How about an Australian flag? These are easy and cheap to find -- mini toothpicks with flags used for HDs.

- A mini bucket with billy tea? Mini lamington cakes?Parakeets or budgies, a koala or platypus?

Kathy in TX

Cigar Box Ideas: can you see a running theme on the outside of your boxes? such as Old fashioned adds, or pictures of "old salts type faces"?

1) If so, you could make a series of old-fashioned store fronts, inside the boxes, with maybe just a wee window cut in the outside of the box with a lead to the inside. (Hope this is clear enough!)

2) You could create (mod podge decoupage or large copy of favorite print) garden backdrops for your carved people, with a bit of dry stuff and mini flowers for added texture.

3) You could create book ends mirror "scenes" with or without your people, with the box top slightly open so you could peek in the inside as a teaser, but make sure the "door" opens wider for full view.

4) I am not much on whimsical stuff (yet) but I thing size wise, cigar boxes could be lovely homes for 1/4 scale people and for fairies etc. Diana, there is just no limit to what can be done!! I can just see a series a those boxes lining up the top of a shelf (eye level of course), telling a story in stages .

Diane from Guelph

Cigar Boxes: I have used the cigar boxes to give as a gift for an "over-the-hill" birthday. I make a scene inside table, rocker, cake, balloons, presents, flowers, any anything personal to the recipient. Everything is BLACK. I just tie a black ribbon around the cigar box and leave the outside as is.

Fannye in TX

Cigar Boxes: You have a wonderful source for whole houses in a cigar box! I remember a old issue of Nutshell News featuring a club that did these. . . each member did whatever house they wanted to, and created a whole town, in quarter inch scale I see that you don't want to cut the 'good' wooden ones up, creating windows and doors and such. . . but, the old Dutch cabinet dolls houses were of beautiful wood, looked just like furniture, and when opened, showed a second door that did have the windows and doors, as if it were a real house. Perhaps you could do something like that.

Here is Pam Scott's Little Enough News URL. She puts out a newsletter once a month on quarter scale, and has a site with tips and kits and such, plus links to other quarter scale sites. . . At least this might give you some ideas to get you started:

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

Kaye in LA

Cigar Boxes: Turn them "end up", put in shelves and display your tiny dolls in them! Or make a 1'4" scale apt building. or mall of shops, including, of course, a tobacco shop!

Years ago I pulled the lid off of a cigar box and made a 1/4 scale Japanese restaurant in it!

Alice Zinn

Cigar Boxes:those cigar boxes sound perfect for vignettes, especially since you make "people. "A "granny" knitting in her rocking chair by the fire--a couple of old guys playing checkers, a little boy or girl, playing with his/her pet; a couple of naughty Dalmatians joyously wreaking havoc in the library while their owner is lost in a book--. (I could go on all day and will, in my mind. )

SUSAN AT THE WRH

Cigar Boxes: What would I do with a cigar box? Make a cigar shop or maybe a little corner store that sells soda, candy bars, cigars and cigarettes. Picture a counter and a man standing behind it, with the counter covered in stacks of newspapers, and a girl in a school jumper, coat and mittens hanging from a string (or maybe held in one hand), and she is on tiptoe getting a chocolate bar (Hershey's?). The shop would be small and cramped and maybe a bit dirty and dingy, worn linoleum, walls covered in posters and merchandise, a broom and dustpan on a wall, the wall behind the counter filled with cigarette cases (though I dislike smoking and I'll bet it ruins miniatures; stains and the smell) and a clock with Marlboro or something on it. . . The possibilities and accessories are endless!

Rachel Bartgis

Cigar boxes: I see a brick wall in the background with 3 little boys sitting against it passing around a cigar. . . all looking a little "green around the gills". Maybe a window with an adult face peering out. (

I also seem to recall a picture somewhere of a cigar roombox showing some tough looking youngsters "smoking in the boys room". . . . graffiti on the walls.

Jude in ND

Cigar Boxes: Well Bizet's CARMEN does work in a Cigar factory. . . hmmmm. . how about a Carmen doll or scene?

John Medeiros

Cigar Boxes: If you want windows in your scene, but don't want to cut the box, Glue a "scene" behind your window , a curtain to the top of the window and glue the window inside your box. This will give the illusion you want, when the box is open.

Stand one cigar box on one of the short sides and open the lid. It projects out from the box. If you want more "space" than the depth of the box allows, make an extra floor like they do in break-away boxes. Attach a piece of cardboard to the front of the "floor" of the cigar box. Be sure it is the same thickness of the cigar box, to avoid a bump in your floor.

Attach this cardboard with a piece of fabric as a hinge. This will let the added floor bend up & sit on the edge of the existing floor, so you can close the lid of the box to put it away. When you display your box, the added floor will lay down and the lid of the box will be a wall alongside this floor. Carpeting the floor will hide the hinge & still be flexible for bending. Extra furniture can be moved out onto the added floor area for display.

Ann in AZ

Gas Station. I haven't done one, but I have created something similar. a maintenance area for a friend who maintained the FedEx vehicles. The best discovery I have found and have shared it with many mini folks is the *chainlink fence*. I bought all sort of things hoping to replicate chainlink since the area that held the hoses, pipes, fan belts, etc were locked up behind this 10ft high fencing. Much of the things, I thought would work, like painting plastic canvas just didn't look right. I came home one day and DH had changed the air filter on the car and the old one was sitting there. just sitting there! The mesh like material looks just like 1/12 chainlink. I have also used it to create fencing for my old neighborhood playground.

Pearl Jordan

Civil War Widow: I want to do an attic scene of an old woman looking through a trunk of mementos of her beloved husband. He was killed in the civil war and she never remarried. Each year on their anniversary she spends the evening going through this trunk, looking at his things, reading his letters which she keeps tied with a satin ribbon...frayed from so many years of reading and re-reading the letters. She will be in a chair in front of the trunk and parts of the mementos will have been dragged out in sight. A Confederate flag, frayed on the edges; his Confederate uniform...possibly with dark stains (blood; he was wearing it when killed) but don't know if that would be too gruesome for some people. Other things as I can find them. Tears are on her cheeks as she reads these letters. In the background behind her, but watching her is the ghost of her young husband seen in a cheval mirror. Hopefully I can find one with somewhat of a look of longing and love on his face. Have wondered if I printed the picture out on transparency (light ink) and attached it to the mirror, then maybe sprayed with a matte finish...would this work do you think? Maybe the mirror is in a corner of the attic with lots of spider webs (to help obscure the image of the husband-ghost). Any ideas about how I could do this?

Rita Pierce

Hairstylist scene: those heads (with hair) to practice on....could you use the head off of a Kelly (from the Barbie line) doll for the head? Sounds kind of morbid now.......oh well, it's an idea.

Sloan

Hairstylist scene: I taught in a high school and it was a really creepy sight to see those heads being carried around. Besides all the obvious beauty supplies and equipment for your shop, how about a small accessory counter, too? They sell jewelry, scarves, makeup, sun glasses, etc. in my beauty parlor. Also, in some really upscale salons, you will find small coffee counters and don't forget the manicure station.

Pat, Huntington, NY

Hairstylist scene: You know the sanitizer jars full of combs that are supposed to be on the counter, well how about using a clear glass jar, carve the combs from wood and paint, then fill with resin. Or, those carts on rollers that are used to hold all the perm rods....make one out of Q-tip sticks (remove the cotton) and those little jelly containers you get from restaurants. Use beads to look like the wheels. A hair dryer chair could be made from a basic chair kit (you know what style) and the dryer hood could be made from half of a small, plastic Easter egg. Don't forget the black rubber mat on the floor under the stylist chair (the one used to make standing all day a little easier on the old dogs). Use cardstock painted black and sealed with a matte finish.

Sloan

How about Sleeping Beauty's castle? Could use one of the Dickens Village/David Winter type small resin castles, perched on a "sodded" floral foam hill for false perspective. In the foreground go crazy landscaping with wild flowers and all the brambles that have grown up around the kingdom while everyone sleeps. Sleeping Beauty is also called Briar Rose, so you could use lots of blooming roses in the bramble patch. Make a path that ends abruptly at the brambles -- or maybe show a narrow passage chopped between the brambles. Leave a horseshoe on the path and torn fabric scraps stuck on the brambles beside the passage to indicate that a slightly disheveled Prince Charming is on his way.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Mother's day project: A lot of times I have taken a simple idea of what someone likes most, and built on that. What does your mother like to do? Is she a gardener, a needleworker, a golfer, avid outdoorist, tea drinker? My mom is insistent on grandchildren (married but childless couples here may know what kind of insistence I mean...) so I made her one in miniature.

I followed a very simple pattern (from an old Dollhouse Miniatures project) for a nursery made out of an embroidery hoop, a piece of foam core, lace, paint, some posterboard and some wallpaper I had left over. I added some furniture, tea and cookies, a dog (Chihuahua, model of her current dog) some greenery and a little dressed baby (all in a pink knitted outfit, used one of those anatomically correct dolls -- she even had a little blanket to carry around.

I believe I had dated it using a little needlework sampler. To see what I did, go to http://www.bulback.com/personal/kim and I think it is under "finished projects". I don't think this project took me more than a week and a half totaled to make, so it is relatively quick. It also won first prize at a fair last year, and my mom intends on taking it to others next year, so yes, she likes it and is quite proud of it;).

Kim From Canada

Mother's day project: Just sit down and think about what she likes -- favorite colors, music, pets, fancy cooking or baking (vs. every-day chore cooking), gardening, or any kind of needlework, bingo, or cards? What is she proudest of accomplishing in her life? What do you admire about her most? Does she have any unfulfilled dreams? How many children/grands/great-grands does she have? Once you've "interviewed" yourself and written down some of these ideas, you'll have a list to work from. Then use a few pieces of DIY or ready-made furniture (table and chair, maybe) and add accessories to remind her of the things that mean something special. Examples: Copy and reduce family pictures to frame and hang. Clip, frame and hang pictures if she likes art. Roll some balls of single-strand yarn, put in a basket, stick pins into one for knitting, etc. Also, once you get a list, use Dogpile or Google or another search engine, type in one of your categories (say, she likes Van Gogh -- type in Van Gogh) and see what kind of printables you come up with.

Loretta.Sniarowski

RGT Lighthouse: It wasn't as hard to build as I thought it might be and was a nice change from a regular house kit. I used black/gray/white speckle paint on the foundation and stairs. It can't be seen but I love the way the floors turned out. At the suggestion of another minilist, after staining the floors I drew lines across the floor from opposite corners with a fine point black marker. Then drew lines parallel to the outer edges in each wedge all the way to the middle. Looked like a spiderweb. Then did some lines connecting the parallel ones to make it look like lengths of wood. Even though I didn't push all that hard on the marker it left the slightest indentation that still showed after three coats of polyurethane! I was so tickled! Also half blind from drawing all those lines on three floors! lol Oh, ya. One frustrating mistake while putting it together. I painted all the railing pieces and then couldn't get them to stay together!! Drove me nuts til I realized the glue wasn't holding because of the glossiness of the paint. I sanded the contact points and, voila, it stayed together.

Lita