A Hutch of Vintage Toys!

I've been hoarding a small collection of cast metal toys from Alpha Stamps for quite some time but hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them. Truthfully, I liked them because they are tiny and cute (and just flat out wanted them for no reason whatsoever). Then Leslie sent me a really sweet hutch where all my precious-es could be displayed, so I got to work painting them. There was plenty of room on the deep shelves to add tons of other wee toys, too.

I covered the shelves with holly paper from the Jingle 6 x 6 paper pad which is quickly becoming my favorite holiday paper. All of the prints work for miniatures and small projects. The vintage games, book cover, and other images are from collage sheets; the box of marbles on the bottom shelf is a miniature cigar box!

Painting the cast metal was fairly easy. I washed all of the pieces in dish soap and scrubbed them with a toothbrush then toweled them dry. It was nice to discover regular acrylic craft paint (in several layers) covered the metal. I only had one instance where the paint chipped off. It involved a snooping cat that, of all the toys on the table, sent Mother Goose to her demise after pawing her a bit too far. Mother Goose's tail feathers took the brunt of the fall, so all was well, and the cat looked pleased.

Confession time, folks. See the Kewpie doll? I painted that face, like, 42 times. Seriously. It was not coming out cute at all. It's a little scary.

Lots of times I forget about reference pictures, but not today!

Yes, that is the smallest one, so I'll show you another.

Yikes.

Hope Santa fills your stocking with all the tiny and cute things! Here is a LIST to get you started!