Hanging Pictures: My mom's general crafts club do a lot of projects decorating sweatshirts, hats, aprons, etc., and sometimes use an Aleene product called Stick It Again & Again which lets you glue things together but then peel them apart without leaving residue. Maybe that would work better than tacky wax to hang dh pictures, which are pretty lightweight. I plan to borrow some from Mom over the holidays to experiment with.

Loretta Sniarowski

Hanging Pictures: I've found that I can get the marks caused by tacky wax on furniture and floorboards off with acetone (nail varnish remover), but it's important to check in a corner first, as acetone dissolves some varnishes. I like to put my pictures up with tiny nails (dressmaker's pins cut down work well, but get brass ones, or they rust after a while) and thread or fine chain. Sometimes they even go crooked, which is authenticity if you like!

Lynne Connolly

Hanging Pictures: I am a die hard fan of mounting putty. The only caution is that it will leave a slightly greasy spot if you don't seal your wallpaper. I use it to hold everything down - the furniture, the coasters, magazines, lamps, Kleenex boxes - everything. I like to change things around until I get them just right and I found it is good if you are going to transport your house or room. You only need a tiny amount of it so don't go overboard. I caution again that it would not be good on walls painted in flat paint

Rebecca

Removing Marks left by wax: I have had the same problem with the wax leaving a greasy mark. When I started in minis in 1980, I always felt if a little wax was good then a big glob would hold even better. So I had a big greasy mark. I used mineral spirits and the mark was cleaned. Do not soak the paper or rub hard, but this will work.

Carroll H. Elmer

Water Pump: Heike asked about a battery driven water pump (for the bears) and as luck would have it, I had just received the newest "Micro-Mark" catalog and had seen one and thought about how nice it would be to have a fountain with running water!  On page 27 there is a pump for $19.95.  You can call them at 1-800-225-1066 to get more information. I ordered several things over the holidays and was very pleased with the quality and prices.

Carter from Orange, CA

Hydrocal: Small quantities are available from MicroMark.  Larger quantities from "The Compleat Sculpture" http://www.sculpt.com

Tom Berkner

Removing Adhesives: Hit the nail on the head. To remove any adhesive from any surface ( hard surface) use any thing containing oils; From peanut butter to cooking oil ( any oil will work) and rub gently. It will remove those miserable adhesives used on bar code and price stickers.

Dr. Bob

Removing Adhesives: My husband uses WD-40 to get adhesive off almost anything, and I have used denatured alcohol, although WD-40 works faster. You might try a liquid vegetable oil, that might be similar in action to the WD-40.

Barb Jones

Removing Adhesives: I have had great success with eucalyptus spray. Will take the sticky off most things and even removes permanent marker/non washable felt pen from wallpaper and furniture. (I have two young girls so have tested it on all sorts of things) You should be able to get it a chemist as it can also be used as a room spray for anyone who has the flu or a bad cold. I bought a large can about a month ago for about NZD 12.00. You can use the pure oil that can be purchased at natural health food shops but this is a pretty expensive way to go and is only a tiny bottle.

Yvonne NZ

Removing Adhesives: Eucalyptus oil (if you can get your hands on some) removes many adhesives.

Olive oil works on some but is not as good as eucalyptus oil... Our pharmacist recommended this when I had a bad buildup of adhesive from surgical tape on my skin, but I have since used it for removing many labels.

Really badly stuck labels require my husband's degreaser stuff which smells terrible...

Charlene

Removing Adhesives: This always works for me. Use your hair dryer set on hot and heat up the label area. After a few minutes check to see if the label will peel off easily, if not heat it up some more and keep trying. On some really stubborn ones I have had to use the hair dryer and peel at the same time. It does work without too much effort.

Ronni

Removing Adhesives: I use regular cooking vegetable oil to remove adhesive. It takes a little rubbing and then soap and water to remove the oil. Hope this works for you. Some one told me you can also use 4 in 1 oil. I think you will find it in the a work shop. I never tried it.

Johanna

Removing Adhesives: You would have to purchase this item in a hardware store but it is not expensive and it is great. It's called GOO GONE and I swear by it. It will remove anything without scratching the surface. If the adhesive is particularly stubborn, I just pour some Goo Gone and let it stand and also rub it around. Before long, it has released the paper label.

Jeanette in Wauwatosa, WI

Removing Adhesives: I use a product called Goo Gone which is available from your local hardware store. I also use it to remove those sticky labels that Midwest puts on their wood products.

Jack, Uncle Ciggie's Miniatures

Removing Adhesives: Warning on GooGone: Saw with interest the different methods for removing adhesives left - was especially interested in the Eucalyptus oil - I had never heard of it but will definitely try it. One of the methods was GooGone, which, does remove the sticky stuff but on some plastics will also eat up the plastic. Had this happen on a piano I was putting new key covers on with contact cement. Some had gotten on the top so I whipped out the GooGone and GONE was the key top (had to be done again!) I ended up using rubbing alcohol which worked OK. Oil works too like vegetable oil . Anyway, the point here is try it on something else other than your project to see if it works.

Ana

Moleskin: Here is an answer for the one who wanted to know how to cure the little hides that the cat brings in. I would never recommend going out and deliberately killing any animal for this purpose but I see no harm in it if the critter is already passed on. You use Tannic acid. This can be found at Tandy's leather shop, most chemical supply shops, or any place that services leather. Just follow the instructions on the package. You would not need much for those tiny hides. This info comes courtesy of an uncle who was a trapper in the wilds of northern Canada in his youth.

Lorna

Painting with Gel pens: In case you don't haunt the "memory book" sections in craft stores, there's a new generation of markers called gel pens. Their special virtue seems to be that you can use a pale color on a dark background. For those of us who can't apply paint with anything smaller than a roller, these seem really nifty. Usually buck-and-a-half or less.

Mary

Cutting shapes from blister packaging: I first glue down a bit of string, cording, or whatever against the bump - the part that will become the top edge - I can use that as a guide to scissoring or knifing an incipient mini-planter out fairly neatly. Usually the string adds a necessary thickness and can be left on. Turn the plastic so the "bump" is uppermost; wrap the string around the flat part of the plastic.

Mary

Wallpaper Pasting: My first experience with prepasted wallpaper came with this advice from the owner of my now gone dh shop. Mix water and Elmer's glue til it looks like skim milk. Then paint it onto the back of the already trimmed paper. Let it settle a bit and you can apply to straight to unsealed wood. I did this, and my dollhouse, wallpaper and all, has survived the humidity left from 5 or 6 floods, and all is still intact.

Paula Isaacs

Pre-pasted Wallpaper: My personal experience with adding dollhouse wallpaper paste to a pre-pasted dollhouse wallpaper was a disaster. There was so much paste that I could NOT get the wrinkles out. The paper had huge lumps and oozed until it tore. I finally just pulled it off and used unpasted paper with paste.

I would recommend that if you do add paste to pre-pasted paper, that you go very lightly on it!

JJ