Walnut shells: I have made cradles with walnut shells. And Sammy Smith has tiny porcelain "wee" baby fairies that fit in them for $12.00.

You can see my walnut shell fairy cradle here:

http://gerdesdesign.com/northwest.htm

Sammy's site is

http://home.ici.net/~sams/happiness

Anne Gerdes

Wedding Cake Columns: I instantly thought of my wedding when you mentioned your columns. Our "floral designer" brought in four very tall columns to the chapel at Johnson Ferry Baptist church in Marietta, GA. She put beautiful greenery on top of each one with feathery fern-like greenery cascading downward. This delicate greenery was repeated at the top corners of each window which she had draped in sheer white swags. So, I guess my idea would be to do a miniature wedding scene...seems appropriate since the columns originated on your wedding cake. Let us know how it goes! No matter what you choose to do with them, it will be fun and I'm sure it will be beautiful.

Paige

Wedding Cake Columns: You do not need to use the wedding cake columns in a scale smaller than one inch! They can be gilded to display artwork or plants, used to support a wonderful shelf full of sculpture, or even cut down and made into a garden bench!

Alice Zinn

Wedding Cake Columns: don't let the pillar size stop you. I've adjusted the height on them by gluing them to a wood block and then using fleckstone on the whole thing to meld them together; used this to kit-bash porch supports for a Tiffani kit so it looked more 30s bungalow, and also used them topped with a grid made out of chopsticks to create a garden pergola; makes a nice change from the usual gazebo.

Loretta.Sniarowski

50's Condiment Ideas: we're working on a 50s style drive-in came up with some ideas that look reasonable for salt & pepper shakers and ketchup and mustard things. I took the clear plastic tube from a very small (real life size) bottle of perfume and cut it into 1/8" lengths. Then with a tiny liner brush painted white inside some of the lengths and black inside the others. Then glued a small silver bead to one end. These will be glued to the tables so no need to figure out how to make a bottom on the shakers. For the ketchup & mustard I did the same thing with a slightly larger diameter of the tube - think that one was from land lotion. Painted inside of the tube sections with red and then the others with yellow. Made a little cone shape of Fimo for the top and baked those then painted the cones.

They do look reasonable for the use of being used on the tables. We also wanted to have some pies for the drive in and finally tried using the bottom piece of 1/2" metal button sets - the kind you cover with your own fabric for garments or whatever. Had to cut off the shank part which left two holes in the bottom of the "pie tin" but being these are also going to be glued down, just filed them smooth and left it at that. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas for the Fimo french fries -- I have them made and they look ok. When I get the plates made will glue some to the plate and add a blob of red paint for ketchup. Anyone have ideas of how to handle the fries for the trays that will be on the cars? I tried making little paper cones to hold them, but somehow it doesn't look just right and it's really difficult to make the cones so small.

Ronni

Western Resource: There's an amazing on-line catalogue of western items at http://www.miniworld.com/cgbin/catalog-h.cgi Click on "Frontier" It's pricey stuff and most of it is along the lines of furniture and high-end decorative items.

Chryssa Sharp

1/4 Scale Teapot Walls: There are three options I'd suggest for your teapot walls. One is to snip thin wedges out of the paper to help it conform to the teapot curves, something like the way tiny 'v'-cuts are made in fabric to help ease it around a curve. The second is to cut walls from matboard and fit those in place rather than leaving the interior curved. I think I'd paint the curved walls, then if you want a print you can either paint dots or flowers on them or cut little bitty designs from paper or fabric and glue them in place.

Pam

Musical Teapot: I did the decoupage finish on my teapot and under the lid there was room for a musical button. I put it in with a blob of Stickum wax. Take off the lid and push the button. It plays the length of the chip.

      They are getting better with those songs. Find the buttons at craft stores. If I were a miniature shop, I would stock songs like Tea for Two, It's a Small World and A Few of My Favorite Things.

Laurie

Teddy Bear Picnic- I made one after creating a great picnic table at one of our mini club workshops. The picnic basket was also a club project- it was made using material from a woven placemat. I let the table and basket sit around for years because I didn't have any outdoor scenes to use it in. After acquiring a few small bears the whole thing pulled together... It is small and simple but looks good.

I donated it to our show as a raffle prize in October. Unfortunately, I wasn't there when they drew for the winner, so I don't know who my mini scene now lives with.

Bonnie Gibson - Tucson, Arizona

French house: I've been visiting southern France quite a few times in the past few years since I've been "adopted" by a French family from a small village near Bordeaux. In the village I stay in a 300 year old house with amazingly thick walls which are, yes, stone covered with stucco, which has broken away in spots to show the stone, which is made up of all different sizes. The roofs for the most part there are red tile, and there are tons of wrought iron - on the doors, windows, the hardware, the little hand door knocker, etc. And flowers everywhere. In the wine country roses are rampant. Don't know about northern France, but I've just decided I really must make a mini of this house! Maybe two, one as "was" and one as "is." Wow.

Patricia LeBeau

French Houses: I've found some really great books at Borders Books in the art section. Here are some sample titles; In the heart of France, Three rivers of France, The most beautiful Villages in France, Old English farmhouses and the Most beautiful Villages in England. These have a myriad of photos of the older style cottages and in answer to your question, yes it was common to plaster over brick and plaster and yes due to the nature of the plaster used it did crack and spall off so your idea is perfectly fine and should look great.

Rik Pierce

Mary Engelbreit (ME) Sites:

http://www.giftsinc.com/mary_engelbreit.htm

http://www.mbol.com/me.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/2049/engelbreit.html

Maria in MD

Pumpkin tree: I made something neat and had to share.... I covered a mini planter pot with orange Fimo and scored it like a pumpkin then "planted" some of those beautiful grapevine tendrils off our wild grapevines to look like curly crooked branches, then made some tiny pumpkins out of more orange Fimo, and after baking drew little jack-o-lantern faces on them to hang on my tree. It turned out really cool!!

Natasha

Teddy Bear Picnic: I am in the process of getting things together for this scene too for my brother. I decided to go with the words to the song and build on That . For every bear that ever there was, Will gather there for certain because...

I'm going to have a group of bears at the picnic ,everyone from Winnie the Pooh and Paddington - Rupert and Smokey. Boyds makes some tiny mohair ones that look like the original long nose bears so am going to use one of those for the guest of honor at my picnic. Am also going to use a music box of the song in the base of it so that it will turn as the song plays.

Phyllis, Coast of Maine

Lighthouse: My most recent copy of Sunset had an article on B & Bs, and one of them is a haunted lighthouse in Oregon. It is the Heceta Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast and the address is www.hecetalighthouse.com. Their ghost is named Rue, but it doesn't say how old she might be. If it's the wrong ghost, maybe they are up on other haunted lighthouses, since they live in one?

Jeanne

Titanic Dolls: If you are interested in the movie Titanic and would like to make the Boarding Dress for a doll to depict Rose; on my web site http://www.lonewolfminicreations.com are project pages including a large section proportioned off into various projects including Titanic items. I'm working on Rose's dinner dress page currently. Also I have the Unsinkable Molly Brown on my web site. She is a beauty.

Georgina H. Simmons