I've added a paint brush gallery to the section of the site on tools for miniatures. Some brushes just make some painting jobs a lot easier in miniature scales.

The angled brush shown here is my miniature stand in for a sash brush, for many of the same reasons. Working with miniatures you need good control of the edges of your paint, as well as the ability to spread the coat out evenly. Make sure you take a look at new style brush handles as well. Some of them come with soft grips, others you can hold like fine pens.

Photo copyright 2009 Lesley Shepherd, Licensed to About.com Inc.

Use a drawplate to make treenails, tiny dowels or wooden axles for doll house toys. A drawplate is a very old tool, still used to take wires and fine wooden dowels down to even smaller sizes, or in the case of wire, to different profiles as well. I used a drawplate to take a toothpick down to the dimensions I needed to make the axle for the Walking Penguin Toy in dolls house scale.

A drawplate is especially useful if you are working on wooden ship models, dollhouses with pegged floors, or miniature shaker furniture. Check the quality carefully before you buy. Drawplates are available in a very wide range of qualities and prices!

For the twelfth day of Christmas, the project is a trash to treasure laundry sink. Made from a take out dipping sauce container and some coffee stir sticks, this laundry sink is modelled on the classic galvanized metal laundry and parts sinks. This is one of those lucky examples where there is a piece of trash just designed to make an otherwise difficult shape.

If you've found a great miniature use for what would otherwise be trash, please submit a photo for the trash to treasure gallery. I know a lot of you have wonderful scratch built miniature items made from things people usually throw away. I hope you've enjoyed the Christmas projects. It's time to welcome the visit of the Kings and then take down the tree!

Photo copyright 2010 Lesley Shepherd, Licensed to About.com Inc.

It's day eleven of the twelve days of Christmas, time to turn miniatures back to regular food instead of celebration feasts. Today's project is bread and toast slices a technique you can use over and over again for sandwiches, breakfast scenes and picnics.

I've made bread slices by slicing loaves before, but I prefer making individual slices of polymer clay for sandwiches and toast, using the cookie cutter approach. It makes it much easier to texture the individual slices and I find I get better looking finished slices that stack well for tiny dolls house sandwiches. You can make these in several scales.