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Finishing Rough Edges of House: I cover all my house edges with channel
molding and paint either to match the color of the siding on the house or the color of the baseboards in the rooms.
Mary Lynne in Huntington, WV
Mini pencil to pencil fence: All this talk of making pencils has me thinking of a photo in this month's Sunset magazine, which showed a full
size fence made to look like a stockade of #2 pencils! Very clever.
Mini-makers could use this idea for fencing at a playground,
preschool or mini daycare. Only in "our" world, you could use real #2 pencils for the fence.
Wendy ~~ Elk Grove, CA
Downspouts: Another idea using those "flexible" straws is for downspouts
off gutters. Again, the flexible part will curve and form the elbow off the gutter down to the drain.
Marjorie in CA
Wire Mesh: The aisle with the Wire Mesh was the one with the gold leaf, and I believe FIMO, etc. The wire mesh was available in different screen
sizes - mine was 80 mesh. The other sizes would be great for frames for lamps. If you cut it into strips, you could weave it and it would hold its
shape while you weave for a great woven basket. You could shape it into a modern chair, covered with foam and fabric or leather only. There's no end
to the wonderful lamp shades it would make. Single strands would be good on a 1/144" Christmas tree.
Jean Day
Matboard: Brooke Tucker always advises against using matboard because it
is not meant to have paint, glue or anything like that on it and it can separate into layers. Illustration board (poster board) comes in single
and in double thickness and is meant for these purposes.
June in London
Mat board: Seal it first with shellac or don't use water based paints to avoid separating.
Tom Berkner
Wood shavings tip: Take thin wood shavings, dunk them in water 'in and out' - no need to soak - and flatten them under weights for a week to make
sure they flatten, putting them between newspapers to absorb the water. Then peel off paper. Voila - the thinnest flat wood, which can be cut with
scissors like paper, to make flowers or anything for which you may ordinarily use thin card.
Helen from York, England
Shingling Angles: Don't know if you all are aware of this but we do something when we weave a valley when shingling a gable, etc. We cut a group of shingles diagonally, works best with rectangular as you can use both sides, and start from the inside. It makes the weave line up perfect and you can judge when you get close to the end whether you need to adjust a shingle or two towards the edge of the roof. We find this saves quite a bit of time. Hope someone finds this helpful, I know we like to do it this way.
Rick & Bonnie
Shingles: Water-based products and dollhouse shingles don't mix. To apply shingles, use a glue like QuickGrab. To stain shingles, use an oil-based
stain. Fun tip: get a large freezer bag, pour in a couple of ounces of stain, toss in handfuls of shingles, zip-lock the top of the bag and shake
until the shingles are evenly coated. Sprinkle the shingles out of the bag onto several thicknesses of newsprint and let dry.
Sally Cook-Thomas
Shingles: How To's/Hints: Cutting and staining: Some years ago I found a pair of hand-held shrubbery shears at my Home Depot, for about .95. They are the tool I have used to cut shingles. Mark your shingle with a dark pencil line, and use a quick or fast cutting motion. Once you have got the
first perfect one, mark it as your pattern, on both sides so you don't glue it on the roof by mistake (can you tell I have done that before?)
I use any stain from the local home improvement store or hardware store to stain shingles. How to stain shingles: Start with an empty plastic gallon
milk jug. Cut off the top portion with the handle. Poor in all of your stain. Now put in a handful of shingles and stir, remove and lay out on
newspaper to dry. The drying takes about 24 to 48 hours, and then you are ready to start your shingle installation. You can also dunk a few shingles
in the stain can prior, and let them set in the stain for 15 to 20 seconds to test the color. I do this 4 to 5 times, with different lengths of time.
The longer they are in the stain, the darker the shingle will become. Be sure to write down the time you used in your test, let the shingle dry and choose the color you prefer.
Andy
Applying and staining shingles: On my log house, I glued the wood shingles down with carpenters glue. After it dried for a few days decided to stain
them as the color matched the logs too closely. At Michaels I purchased a color stain in regency red made by "Anitas." I used a small 1/2" brush and carefully started at top of ridge of the roof. Had no problem with runs and love how it turned out. Doing it this way the shingles didn't warp from wetness as they were tightly glued down.
Alice Prosky
Lattice: plastic needlepoint canvas can be used for lattice. Get it in white and cut diagonally to get the criss-cross design. I have also seen it 'straight up and down' on older houses.
Martha Simpson Nock
Free Wood: I have found a great supply of "free" beech wood. I wanted something for my porch floor that would like 1x12 planking lumber, and
discovered that painter's stir sticks work just great for that. My porch is beautifully warped looking as each stick was not "perfect" to the next,but it's the look I want. I have also used them to make shelves and other small items. They take paint beautifully and as long as the back can't be seen, the advertising printed on one side doesn't matter. Maybe your local paint store doesn't have printing on them, if so, so much the better. The best things in life sometimes ARE free!
Sharon Begle
Hardwood floor: Go to a building supply like Home Depot and get samples of hardwood flooring. They come in about 6" square pieces and the pieces
each have seven slats of flooring joined together with little metal strips underneath. Pull these strips out and you now have lumber to build your
floor. I glued the strips to heavy cardboard and set it into the room. Looks great.
Sandy
Bending Plexiglass: You do need heat to bend Plexiglass. I like to use Lexan, which looks like Plexiglass except you can put it on a table edge
and just bend it without any problem - no heat necessary. As well as using it for room boxes, you can get a 'thinner thickness' to make stacking
tables.
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