Christmas in August?

Ok if you follow my blog you know I love Vintage Christmas. I dream of finding boxes of Shiny Brite Ornaments, Santa blow molds and aluminum trees. I buy lots of box lots of small Christmas items too. I'm always trying to create something new from something old which is my definition of upcycling. One thing I like to make is configuration boxes. That's a term from Tim Holtz Company that sells paper shadow boxes and other vintage looking accessories to go in them. I've used two of his boxes to create some of my own configuration or shadow boxes. But I like to find old shadow boxes and reuse them best. Here's the last one I made.

To make these I first use decide which of my collections I'm going to use. This can be a difficult task as I have a huge collection of vintage Christmas smalls. But I look for plastic deer, knee elves, Christmas light bulbs, glass ornaments and flocked Santas and snowmen. I recently went through all of my collection and sorted it into separate boxes. So it went from this (Ok and more) to nice organized boxes. 

After deciding which items I want to include I cover the inside of the shadow box with Christmas theme scrapbook paper or vintage Christmas wrapping paper. I use Christmas Washi tape to trim the edges. Then I glue using glue dots , if possible, the items into the scene. I like the glue dots because you can remove them at a later date. I found the "Joy" at a dollar store. I hope they have them again this year. Configuration boxes are lots of work,  but fun to make. 

I also have been collecting vintage tin cups to use to create a little Christmas scene. I used green floral foam to fill into the cup and covered it with snow and glitter. Then I placed a bottle brush tree with a flocked Santa.  I added an old plastic candy cane ornament, and I made a parchment paper sign with glitter on the edge. Then I spray painted an old plastic snowflake and a star and added them.  I really love how these turned out. 

So no matter what vintage items you buy at estate sales if you buy things you love you can always create something new from them. Remember "Buy what you love."