Hot Vintage Collectibles for Christmas

I don’t know if you have noticed but people go crazy at Christmas. I think they have help back from buying all year and now the year is coming to an end they feel they can let go of a bit of cash. Here’s what is selling like firecrackers going off on the 4th of July.

Anything with a truck and a Christmas tree. This includes signs, real vintage trucks, cloche with a truck inside, pillows, shirts and anything else you can create. Red trucks sell the best with turquoise right behind.

Along with the truck and tree goes anything buffalo plaid. Shirts, signs, pillows, ribbons, scarves, hats all sell with buffalo plaid.

Blow molds sell. If you follow my blog (sorry I haven't posted in a while) you know I love blow molds. Blow molds, for those that don't know, were those big, hard plastic Christmas yard decorations that were made in the 70's -90's. You know the ones you had when your kids were small. Or for the younger crowd, when you were a kid and as you grew older you were embarrassed for your friends to see them in your yard. I put two blow molds in the window at the store where I have my booths and in two days sold them both.

Vintage Christmas is in. Shiny Brite ornaments, plastic tree toppers, Putz houses and  plastic Santa's from the 60's all are in demand. Putz houses are cardboard houses made in the 50's and 60's that were gathered together to make a village. Kind of a pre Department 56 Christmas village. Most were made in Japan.

Another hot idem is shadow boxes and Christmas scenes filled with vintage Christmas trinkets, ornaments, original knee elves (not the guy that sits on the shelf and tells Santa on you), and Christmas cards. Aluminum trees from the fifties atomic age are really popular too. I've sold two already this month and it's not even December yet.

Another hard to find but fast to sell item is vintage Christmas ceramics.  Vintage ceramic Christmas trees sell to folks that recall the one their granny had. Santa punch bowls and cups also are great sellers.

I'm a lover of Vintage Christmas. When I go to estate sales the other dealers I see often call me the Christmas Lady. Gee I hope they aren't reading my blog. Remember, buy what you love.  Have a Merry Christmas season and enjoy all it offers. Go to the parades, the plays, the singing Christmas trees, go riding and see the lights, make those cookies, drink that egg nog and spend time with family.

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."

Tart Pans! 

Don't ask me why but I love tart pans! When I'm at an estate sale and I see a box or pile of old tart pans I just have to buy them. But what to do with them?

I've been searching Pinterest for the last six months seeking a neat way to upcycle them. I love the idea of making Christmas ornaments out of them, but I'm unsure of the success I will have selling them. Which, truth be know, I'm never really sure if something I created or recreate will sell in my antique and collectibles booths. 

But, this week I discovered the cutest little Christmas tree made out of tart tins. Here's the post from Thrity Rebel Vintage. Love it! Of course I will have to modify it because there's no way I would have enough sparkly jewelry to put on top of my tart trees for a star.   Tula from Thrifty Rebel Vintage used styrofoam balls between her tart tins. That just didn't work great for me. My first attempt was okay but not fabulous.

The foam balls melted with hot glue and wouldn't stay in place with the other glues. I couldn't get the tart pans to stay glued straight. I tried E6000, tacky glue and hot glue.  My second attempt was disastrous.Then I tried a combination of all three glues with no success. Styrofoam melts!

  

 

I switched to using a paper towel roll cut into small pieces instead of the foam balls and that worked a bit better on attempts three and four. But I still wasn't satisfied.

 I'm not one to give up easily so I thought about what I could use to go between the layers of tart pans. Then it hit me! Corks. So I sent out a call to my Facebook friend for some wine corks. Wow do my friends love wine. My sister-in-law came through first with a bag of beautiful intact corks.

So that's what I'm trying next. Check back and I'll update my progress. 

Besides my cork idea I also came up with an idea to add a drawer pull or knob (as we call them on the South) to the top. Of course a Christmas tree needs a star so I've ordered some 2 1/2 inch stars off of Facebook to add to the front of the knobs. I also added old wooden sewing spools (another find I can't resist) for a trunk. I'll post a pic of the finished tart pan trees in an update soon.

So folks the message here is again what I always say, "BUY WHAT YOU LOVE!" Keep researching and you will find a way to turn those finds into treasures.

Update: The corks work great. They are easy to cut as needed. I just sprayed them silver in case they show. The little arrived, and they are perfect. What a fun way to upcycle or repurpose tart pans.

FINISHED TREES....EXCUSE MY MESSY WORKSPACE

AREN'T THESE CUTE?