Creator's Collections: Tiny Thrifted Miniatures Collection. Toy Food and Road Signs.

I love looking at and sharing the collections of creative people, or just collections in general. They say a lot about the people who have them. I'm going to creep around taking pictures of people's collections and sharing those of volunteers around the world, but I'm starting with a small one of my own. Often you can buy pre-made collections at flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores, and that's what I bought with my little minis collections.

If I didn't make it clear by Sampuru adoration, I like mini plastic representations of almost anything. I love the miniatures. They're fun for crafts and for styling editorial and product photos. A tiny prop can really help show scale and brand your website or online shop.

You'll notice the road signs have a little hole at the top, I turned these into jewelry pieces once! They were cute and quirk but I decided I'd like them better as props.

That way I could stage silly scenes with them.

Like this! I'm going to use the tiny car one for a write-up photo soon. It's metal and the lid lifts! It's my favorite.

But my favorite little collection is this mini food one. Some of the pieces are from my childhood doll house (and I have more of those to excavate from the attic one day, I always loved the little food way more than the dolls!) but most were purchased from a friend at a yard sale.

And to give you a scale on size, look how tiny! I forgot to take a picture of the adorable little metal shopping basket that goes with these perfectly. You can see a dinosaur holding it in this post. Speaking of which, where's the little mini singer sewing machine? I loved that thing!

What do you collect? If I see good minis, I'll nab them. Right now I only buy: low-cost stuff for my businesses, rare aromatherapy/herbalism books, unique retro-looking or retro clothes, and anything truly interesting/low-priced to decorate with.

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