Hat stands

Golf tees make great hat stands. Turn them on end and stick a wooden bead on top.
You can also make a Fimo sculpture instead of the bead. Paint to resemble wood.

Melody's Primrose Gingerbread House

Front of Gingerbread House

Made from a Primrose. The gingerbread is brown foam sheets. The icing is bathroom caulk. Most decorations are made from Fimo.

Inside the Gingerbread House

This is Santa's doll workshop.

Full inside of the Gingerbread House

Upstairs in the Gingerbread House


This is where Santa keeps his international doll collection. He sits in the red heart chair by Raine to check his list twice.
The row of dolls was little dolls off hair doodles. And the ballerina is a bead! The international dolls are off a Christmas garland I bought at a fundraiser of developing world "fair trade" crafts.

Beach House in Progress

Janice wrote:
I've added a few photos of my beach house. As you can see, it still
needs A LOT of work, but that's the fun of doing minis, isn't it?

Most of the furniture is from the clearance bins at AC Moore, it's
not what I had in mind for the house but for $3.00 and $4.00 it was
too good to pass up.  The bedroom furniture will at some point be
repainted to cover the rather scary looking cat faces but I liked
the shape of the furniture, including the dresser and nightstand
which both have nice opening drawers.  The light fixture currently
on the floor on the first floor is also a clearance bin find from AC
Moore.  The house still needs to be wired.  The floor is my first
attempt at a wood floor from skinny sticks.  I learned quite a bit
in making it, including not to pick up an open bag of sticks from
the wrong end.  As soon as I buy an easy cutter I'm going to redo
the floor since another important lesson learned was to check the
sticks for warping before gluing them.  The second floor will also
have a wood floor, as well as walls covered with more than just
primer.

With all the cold and snow we've been having it's nice to be able to
pretend one can feel the sun and warm breezes.
***********************
March - progress on the beach house. It now has lights, a new
floor on the first floor (have to redo the one on the 2nd floor) and
some new furniture. Still needs more work.
The wooden blinds are a window shade sample from Lowe's. I paid about
50 cents for it a couple of years ago. It's been quite some time since
I've been back to Lowe's, hopefully they still carry the samples.

The wicker furniture is a great find from a small mini show last weekend.
It's actually resin but looks so real.
I think it's from Town Square Miniatures but unfortunately
the packaging is now long gone.
I did make the mermaid.  She's crocheted from quilting
thread and a 0.4mm lace hook, as is the flamingo.
The swim flippers are purchased, part of a snorkel set "By Barb." I
bought them, got home and looked at the set with my first reaction
being "I paid ... for this?" I could have MADE it! but then reality set
in, they were cheap and I'd probably still have the rubber stuck to my
fingers.

















Love the bikini top hanging from the drawer knob.

















The palm tree is from a swap on Littleroomers.

Ball-ended Pins

Chris from Canada says:
After you use those handy ball-ended pins for eyeballs, cabinet knobs or whatever, save the cut off ends (if you can catch them as they fly across the room.) They make great swing hinges for small doors in furniture items where you don't want a visible hinge
in 1", work as door or cupboard hinges in HS and QS and when bent and baked into a Fimo cooking pot or mug and painted to match make a much more sturdy and realistic sized handle than using Fimo.

Yeah, I know these pins are fairly cheap to buy, but "waste not, want not" even if the waste seems miniscule.

Textured Wallpaper

Look for textured wallpaper in DIY stores to create a stucco look.
Much easier and not as messy as plaster or paper clay. Bonus if you find a roll at a garage sale!

Attic Ideas

Attic Set from TV show “Charmed”
http://rpgcharmed1.proboards76.com/index.cgi?board=attic&action=display&thread=69

Old paint cans
Boxes of 'junk'
• Books, diaries
• Wooden crate with rolls of wallpaper
• Newspapers, comics, magazines
• Holiday decorations
Old clothes, hats, shoes, rope with hangers and clothing draped over. Play area where a little girl can play dress up.
Discarded furniture
• Outmoded dresser, discoloured mirrors
• Bundled rugs
• Dress form, sewing machine
• Old pictures of ancestors, suitably stained/damaged
• Trunks with clothing spilling out
• Outmoded luggage
• Highchairs, playpen
• Room divider screen
• Headboards, footboards, cradles
• Lamps, shades, broken crockery
• Discarded birdcages.
Dust, bunnies - use some of that Halloween webbing for some 'cobwebs'
Water stains on ceiling, peeling wallpaper/newspaper

• See tutorial on Greenleaf Forum

Discarded toys
• Hula Hoop, tricycle
• Rocking horse
• Little red wagon
• Broken kite
• Paddle and ball
• Yo-yo
• Xylophone
• Stuffed toys, rabbit
• Dollhouse, dolls. Teddy, skipping rope
• Old games – monopoly, darts, checkers
Sports
• Golf bag
• Ping-pong equipment
• Tennis racket, bowling ball
• Baseball, pennants, bat, glove, hat,
• Football, helmet, shoes, pads
• Hockey skates
Saddle shoes, old LP Records, record player. Old broken guitar, no strings
Electricals
• Vacuum
• Old radio
• Typewriter


http://www.mainepuzzles.com/Puzzles/Attic-Treasures-Jigsaw-Puzzle__6175.aspx

Cobwebs

From Chris in Canada:
Need cobwebs or spider webs for a scene? Check out your garage, shed or (blush) the pipes coming
into your basement laundry or furnace room.
Give them several mistings (3 or 4 should do it) of cheap extra hold hair spray. When dry,
remove the reinforced web carefully and lay flat on waxed paper until required.

Technically speaking they aren't trash, nor are they trash in the opinion of their creators,
but......... .

Fun Food

Acorn caps make nice individual salad dishes.  
Fill with snipped greens cut from plastic Christmas decorations, 
add tiny red bits for tomato and drizzle with clear nail polish 
to hold it together. 
Cut slices of a white straw for onions.

For potato chips -- dry the seeds from green peppers.

To make chip dip - mix white glue with baking soda till it holds
its shape in the bowl, swirl the top a bit and sprinkle with a 
bit of crushed dried parsley.

Small plates and bowls from tea light holders.

Chris in Canada writes:
Use a paper punch to cut shapes from the thin metal cups that tea lights come in.
Then use a ball stylus to indent the centre to form a plate or shallow bowl. (I put the piece on a cutting mat and just go round and round with the stylus until the it is the way I want it.
The harder you press, the deeper the indentation. Flip it over and smooth the rim from below if it has curved upwards due to the pressure of the stylus. Fluted rims can be made by indenting the flutes using the tip of a table knife BEFORE you work on the indentation.
Finish with gloss paint or nail polish for porcelain, or burnish with a medium metal stylus or round end of a metal crochet hook to make pewter plates.

Champagne Chairs

Design within Reach Champagne Chair Contest
http://www.dwr.com/display.do?ruleID=101077


Make a Little Chair out of a Champagne Cork Holder - More DIY How To Projects

Baby Trunk

http://jasminasnoussi.web-log.nl/

Bekka had a trunk just like this as a child, pink with silver trim, housing her favorite doll in it with all her dolly things. She plans to make a mini one just like it.
This will go in the little girl's room in Bekka's dollhouse. It will have a cradle, trunk, high chair, things a little girl would use to play house with her doll.

Tanya's minidoll blog has a kit and video tutorials for the trunk and the tinny doll to go in it..
http://taynasminidolls.blogspot.com/2008/08/miniature-doll-tutorial-part-1-2-3.html

http://taynasminidolls.blogspot.com/2008/07/vintage-trunk-tutorial-part-1.html

December Swap

The December " Stock the Kitchen" swap. More pictures are in the Little Roomers Group photo album. Barb, Dolores, Carolyn, Janice and Jaime made this swap a lot of fun! Thanks gals!

Pill Bottle Platters

Chris from Canada says:
I save prescription pill bottles for shipping, storing small items and keeping custom mixed paints fresh until I finish a project. I was about to toss one of those"childproof" bottles (the push down and turn style) that I had used for mixing and storing some textured paint,when I took a good look inside the lid. A quick slip and flip with the tip of my craft knife, and out popped a 1.25" diameter serving platter, just right for serving up a large ham (or a roast Head of Hag ) with veggies, or a big plate of Christmas cookies. I checked out my stash and came up with .75" and 1" sizes, as well as a whopping 2" one, which would be the perfect container for a shallow planter or small reflecting pool for a patio scene.

Interesting Finds

Chris from Canada was in Cuba and found this mini at one of the Artex stores.

She says: "It is a lovely hand-made representation one corner of the style of home one sees
in the Camaguey area of Cuba, complete with one of the clay jars they used to use to
collect rainwater before water began to be piped in to this arid region.
The maker is an older woman named Minerva whose husband makes wood items for the tourist trade, and she uses his
wood scraps as well as anything else she can scrounge to make her scenes. Does this
sound familiar to anyone? :-D"