Wallpapering Preparation: The necessary preparation for wallpapering depends on the substrate. If you have a porous plywood, (like luan - Greenleaf, Real Good Toys, Walmer, etc) you should seal the wall in some way before wallpapering. I find that shellac diluted 5 to 1 with alcohol does a great job of sealing, and dries very fast (5 minutes or so). For wallpaper paste, do not use anything containing a fungicide (mildewcide). Some of these will react with the copper in the wiring and create cupric oxide (a black corrosion) which doesn't have any great effect on the wire, but the black will show through many papers. Life is also easier, if you use a paste that will NOT cause the paper to stretch (cause then it shrinks when it dries). For these reasons, we use YES paste. Some people advise mixing water with the YES paste so it spreads more easily. DON'T DO IT. You have just defeated the nonstretch of the paste. The paste can be very easily and evenly spread using an old credit card. You want only enough paste left on the paper to make it look shiny.

If your house is built of a fine grained, reasonably dense plywood (such as birch), I have found no necessity of sealing the walls before papering (this is 25 years of experience).

I have never papered over MDF, but I expect it would be good to seal it first.

Some more tips? Assemble the house and then paper. Paper before you install, windows, door, baseboard, etc. Paper the ceilings first. If you aren't going to install crown moulding, paint the top of the walls and the edge of the ceiling the same color as the ceiling paper. Cut the paper to 1/8" shorter than the height of the wall. Always cut the bottom edge of the paper, because any unevenness will be hidden by the baseboard. Paper the front wall of the room first, bring the wallpaper around the corners onto both side walls. Then paper the side walls. This way, any shadow line from the overlap is not visible from the back. Butt the factory cut edge of the paper against the ceiling. A credit card (or one of those thingies - tech term - from the auto parts store that is used to spread body putty) works well to smooth the paper on the wall. After glue has dried, cut out window and door holes using craft knife - be careful to NOT cut any wiring.

Tom Berkner

Wallpaper: I like to wet the walls slightly with a foam brush first. It allows the paper to be positioned and moved and allows better adhesion. Also, should you have a problem, I use wallpaper premixed SEAM ADHESIVE instead of wallpaper glue and reinforce seams of prepasted wallpaper.

Sue Thwaite

Wallpaper: I have used prepasted as instructed (wet paper). Very successful for about 4 years and still looking good. I have used wallpaper that needs to be pasted also. I put the paste on the walls directly. Be sure you have the paper cut and ready to apply. I had better control of the paste this way and it didn't get all over the finished ceiling and floor. I applied this with my fingers and in the tight corners I used a scrap of thin wood to smear it around. Just put a thin even coat---no lumps. Plus the paper was easier to handle when it was not full of paste. I used the wallpaper paste sold by mini shops.

Elise

Cleaning Brushes in Vodka: 80 proof vodka is 40% alcohol; In the super market the isopropyl alcohol is 70%. I do not think that the the use of Vodka is cost effective. when iso. alcohol is about $0.79 per pint and Vodka is $5.00 for the least expensive 750 L. What you are looking for is the alcohol to remove the rubbish.

Dr. Bob

Ordinary isopropyl or "rubbing" alcohol can be used to clean acrylics from brushes: I swish mine in it and then condition them with the brush soap stuff that comes in a little round box and it seems to work fine.

SUSAN

Kemper Cutters: can be found at the about.com mini site they have a section on where to order clay supplies here is the URL http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/library/clay/blclaysources.htm

Natasha Petersen

Tip: Where do I put my gluey toothpick, you asked? I keep a piece of sheet Styrofoam on my desk. Stuck into it I keep my favorite scissors, paintbrushes (upside down, obviously), tweezers, various styluses (styli??? lol) and assorted other pointy stuff. like single edged razor blades and the odd straight pin. It's one of the smartest things I ever did! Keeps stuff handy and safe!

Alice Zinn

Glued toothpicks - I usually have a piece of wax paper around my work area for laying just painted pieces on and putting a blob of tacky on to use or Zap. I just lay the toothpick down and if it gets too yukky I get another one since I use the cheapies from the dollar store. It's one 'tool' I can't be without. Holds beads, applies glue, paints dots.

RTHigman

Cleaning Small Paint Brushes: I had taken a tole painting class and we used Murphy's oil soap. It works great and is less expensive than the brush cleaners they sell. I keep a small squeeze bottle under the sink and put just a dab into the palm of my hand and with some water on the brush, I really scrub the brush into my palm. Sometimes it needs to be repeated if there is more paint in the brush. After I rinse the brush, I then touch the top of the squeeze bottle so an ever so little bit of the soap is on my fingertip and then shape the brushes bristles back to how they should be. I've had my brushes for quite a long time and they all look great - o.k. most of them.

Rebecca Higman

Cleaning Paint Brushes: Someone said Vodka was very good for cleaning paint off of brushes. Haven't tried it yet myself but surely will soon.

Jane Ratcliffe

To the would-be quiller, for heaven's sake don't pay $7.00 for a tool. Any fine metal item will do. Have used T pins, cake testers, the fine needles used for doll making, etc. Then keep your eyes open at yard (garage, tag) sales for quilling kits. These show up a lot, also at Good Will stores too. There are almost never kits for mini flowers, more in the order of sequined belly button brush craft types, but they usually have the tool and the paper.

Alice W

Cleaning brushes...have tried just about everything from the commercial brush cleaners to folk remedies but my current favorite is Purelle Anti-Bacterial Waterless Hand Cleaner or one of the generic look-alike ones, as long as they are alcohol based. Put a generous dollop in the palm of your hand and work the bristles of the brush into it, being sure to work it up into the ferrule (metal that holds the bristles to the handle). Watch the mucky old paint come out, particularly from the ferrule! Repeat several times until no more paint comes out. Dried up paint in ferrule ruins a brush more than anything else and the anti-bacterial waterless hand cleaners get it out. Be sure to rinse well after cleaning as alcohol will attack the glue that holds the bristles in the brush.

Sammy Smith

Drilling Glass: There are a few ways to do it. The best is to use a small diamond drill bit in a Dremel tool - preferably with a drill press but not absolutely necessary. The bit and the glass should be kept cool - I wet a sponge and just drop a tiny bit of water on the work while drilling. Another way is to use any other kind of bit - carbide, or even copper. Take some plasticine clay and make a tiny ring around where the hole is to be, put in a bit of silica grit with water, and move the drill up and down in the slurry. This time the drill press is more important to keep the hole straight. I would think it should be fairly easy to drill into the thin glass used for minis. I have usually drilled thick glass which takes longer and is more critical. There are other ways, but these are the two I have used. All it takes is a bit of patience.

Jacqui Marlin

Drilling Glass: To drill glass you do need a special drill bit -a diamond bit - ask at your stained glass shop. It also helps HEAPS to make an X out of masking tape over the area you want the hole drilled. It prevents the glass front splintering into tiny, weeny slivers and, more importantly, stops the drill bit from skittering around before finding purchase in the glass - avoids any scratching if the bit slides. Also take it slowly and you should be fine. Just as a precautionary measure - wear eye protection just in case you get carried away and shatter the object - had a friend who got glass in her eye whilst doing stained glass windows - she semi-detached a flap of eyeball which required immediate surgery - YUCK!! She never did tell me if you can see what is happening during eye surgery or whether, being out like a light, you didn't know what was going on!

Trace

Drilling Holes in Glass: Here's the salient info from Dremel's 1981 publication, Compact Power Tools: Wear eye protection (maybe even face protection), use a tungsten carbide drill, lubricate with water and touch the bit down on the glass intermittently, to help keep it cool. Don't use much pressure. If the glass is thick, the author recommends also making a collar of clay around the spot where you will drill, and keeping this filled with water.

When you barely break into the surface on one side, turn the glass over and drill from the reverse. Repeat process, continuing to avoid overheating, until you break clear through.

Tungsten carbide drills are harder than the ones you may use for wood, and a bit more expensive. Personally, I'd give myself some practice glass to experiment on. Probably this is one of those initially intimidating operations that eventually seems pretty routine, though finicky. Good luck!

Mary (Oregon)

Drilling glass: Yes, you can drill a hole in glass. You will need a Dremel diamond ball point drill.

Dremel # 7103 is 5/64"

" # 7105 is 11/64"

What you need to do is mark your hole with a dry marker on the bottom side and then put a small ring of blue tacky around it on the top side. Then, fill with water (keeps it cool and acts as a lubricant.) This is all done on a flat piece of wood. You can make the hole larger by working the bit around slowly. You may want to do a practice piece first to get the hang of it. It is not difficult, just takes a little time.

Ron

Drilling Glass: At last--something I know how to do! Sometimes I make tiny lamps filled with specimen seashells. To drill the clear glass urn for the electric wire, I use a small drill press (the cheap kind sold by Micro-Mark, as opposed to the "Cameron" that exists only in my dreams). I stabilize the urn with a rubber-lined vice and use a type of drill bit made for drilling holes in mirrors and ceramic bathroom tile. It's commonly available in hardware stores, costs about $8, and is shaped rather like a spear with a dull-edged point attached to the end. Also needed is a bottle cap or other small container filled with water.

I lower the handle, applying slight pressure, and grind patiently for about 30 seconds to a minute, just until I see a bit of white powder on the point that tells me the point has begun to penetrate the glass. At that point or when the bit becomes hot, I raise the handle, dip the blade in the water for a second, and listen to it sizzle. Blade cold, I begin the process again, apply slightly more pressure on the handle that lowers the drill bit, and repeat until I'm through the glass. Sometimes it takes only a minute or two. Other times it takes 5-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the glass. At first I broke 1 out of every 2 urns; now I can often do half a dozen without breaking one.

Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Drilling glass: I used to sell thin glass for dollhouses. I found the thin glass was more difficult to work than regular glass. When I had requests for holes in the thin glass, I took the precut glass to the local glass shop for them to drill, but the smallest hole they could drill was 1/4 inch. From speaking with others, I suspect living in a very small town is an advantage in this case--most glass shops are not that cooperative.

Dean Jenson

Acrylic Paint Brush Cleaner: I use rubbing alcohol. It is the main ingredient in the commercially available cleaners I have seen and is MUCH cheaper.

Jane

Waxes: Minwax, rubber cement and that new moveable glue all stain eventually. There is a product out now called Museum Wax (they also have it in Gel) that looks promising. You can find it in better gift shops. Not sure if the mini shops have gotten wind of this product yet or not.

Debi in Quesnel