Collage Candy

Vintage postcards with bluebirds

2012-02-27T09:14:00.000-05:00

I've always loved bluebird images... Over the weekend, I got a glimpse of a beautiful bluebird in my back yard, and it was a treat to find these bluebird postcards at a flea market the very same day!

Aren't the messages sweet?

Wishing you sunshine and happiness!

Bonnie

Illustrations from a vintage baby book

2012-02-21T11:42:00.000-05:00

Vintage toddler with pets

Today I'm sharing illustrations from a vintage baby book found at a local flea market. The 1930s illustrations are not signed, so the artist is unknown, but the style is very similar to watercolors by one of my favorite children's illustrator, Bessie Pease Gutmann. Ms. Gutmann was famous well before the '30s, so her work would have been signed. This artist obviously admired and emulated her artistic style and subject matter.

Vintage children at play

The baby whose life this book celebrated was born in January 1949 in Centuria, Wisconsin. A hospital invoice was tucked into the pages. The hospital room and care cost $5.50, and the operating room fee was $5.00. Additional charges were $3.00 for anaesthetic, and $.25 for medicines (a sedative). Total: $13.75.

I always feel sad when family keepsakes like this baby book are not cherished by family members, but at least we can all enjoy the charming illustrations today.

As always, right click an image to save it to your computer. Clicking a second time will give you the largest image size. Downloads are for personal use only. Please do not sell these images individually or in collections.

Vintage baby with toothbrush, toothpaste and puppy

Vintage children with birthday cake

Vintage baby with Christmas tree and toys

Vintage children with birthday kiss

Vintage children hand in hand

I hope you'll enjoy using these vintage images in your art projects. Please post in the Comments section about how you plan to use them. I'd love to hear about (and see!) your creations.

Bonnie

Valentine postcard

2012-02-19T17:25:00.004-05:00

I know... it's after Valentine's Day. But a friend just found this little treasure of a vintage Valentine postcard, so I had to share it even if it is no longer timely. Isn't he cute?

Hope your Valentine's Day was happy!

Bonnie

Scrappy ephemera houses

2012-01-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

Houses made from blank coasters, paper scraps and ephemera

Some ephemera has sentimental value, and we want to keep that in a safe, dry, preferably acid-free environment.

Other ephemera is plentiful or replaceable, and we enjoy using that in art projects. The coaster house projects above are fun to make, and the little houses are perfect ways to use small ephemera items. We decorated our houses with vintage tickets, coat check claims, old playing cards, stamps, airmail envelope stripes and lots and lots of scrapbook paper scraps!

I'm sure you can think of other ephemera that you could use in a project like this. Other ideas: old S&H Green Stamps, maps, vintage magazine pages; the list is endless!

My company, Bonnie's Best Art Tools, is exhibiting at the Lawrenceville (Georgia) Rubber Stamp and Paper Arts Festival, sponsored by Heirloom Productions, on February 4th and 5th. We'll have a large booth for demonstrating and selling our art products plus a smaller booth specifically for hosting a Make & Take project. Show attendees are invited to our Make & Take booth to make some of these scrappy little houses -- FREE!

If you will be in the Atlanta area the first weekend of February, we'd love to see you at the show. You can visit our Facebook page to see show details.

Happy creating!

Bonnie

Vintage 1950s beauty products

2011-10-22T12:12:00.001-04:00

Today's vintage ephemera includes more ladies' beauty products. The asterisk on the 1955 Gayla bobby pin packaging below fascinated me... What was simulated? Turns out these bobby pins have simulated rubber tips!

Gayla Hold-Bob Bobby Pins with Flexi-Grip and simulated rubber tips

I've posted hairnet packaging before. This Lovely Lady package is not as colorful as the others, but I like the image, and I love the company name: Sta-Rite Ginnie-Lou Inc. Hyphenation at its finest.

Notice how the blond woman on the Gayla package and the woman on the Lovely Lady package are both looking downward? Were the designers going for demure? Flirty? Subservient?

Lovely Lady Hair Net package

Also notice that the woman on the Lovely Lady Hairnet package does NOT appear to be wearing a hairnet... whereas the ladies in the photograph below are rocking the hairnets!

Lunch ladies?

More vintage hairnet packaging is here, in case you missed it.

Vintage and ancient hand diagrams

2011-10-19T15:44:00.001-04:00

I've always loved hands, and I have a small collection of hand shaped items. Today I'm sharing hand ephemera, including palmistry diagrams and ancient illustrations of the hand.

Ancient frontispiece from book about metoposcopy (analyzing the lines of the forehead)

Napoleon's hand, in sepia

Napoleon's hand, in black and white

Diagram showing the position of Zodiac signs in the hand

Palmistry diagram by Holmes W. Merton

Hope some of these diagrams will come in handy for you. (oooh, that was bad. Sorry!)

Art Deco postcards by C.E. Shand

2011-10-16T11:44:00.000-04:00

More vintage postcards today. These lovely postcards feature Art Deco illustrations by C.E. Shand. I think her artwork is enchanting!

Butterflies

Sunflowers

Hollyhocks

Hope your Sunday is enchanting!

Vintage postcards: Girls with flower hats

2011-10-06T14:12:00.000-04:00

Four lovely girls with beautiful flower hats. I'm looking for information about the artist; will update this post when I find out more.

Enjoy!

More 1917 bird illustrations

2011-09-23T12:01:00.000-04:00

More vintage bird illustrations from The Nature Library, first published in 1917 with illustrations by R.E. Todhunter.

Cardinals
(female on left, male on right)

Tree Swallows
(male on branch, female flying)

Swallows

Cedar Waxwing

Coming soon: more birds, more vintage ladies, and some vintage butterfly illustrations.

1917 bird illustrations

2011-09-22T18:24:00.001-04:00

I love to support local libraries, so I always try to attend Friends of the Library sales. At the Fall sale this week, I found some treasures, including wonderful vintage books from a set called The Nature Library. My favorite is the volume on birds, with beautiful illustrations by R. E. Todhunter. Here are a few of the illustrations for you. (As always, personal use only, not for sale individually or in collections.)

Hummingbirds

Bluejay

Mockingbird

Barn owl

Click twice on the images to download the largest size.
If you like these, let me know and I'll post some more soon!

Lovely ladies

2011-09-19T11:40:00.005-04:00

Women's fashions from the early part of the last century were so enchanting. Although I would not enjoy wearing corsets and heavy petticoats -- especially in hot weather -- the romantic dresses, hats, jewelry and hairstyles are very appealing. After looking at these images, I'm thinking about wearing more feminine clothing and ditching the jeans-and-t-shirt look. (I usually LIVE in slacks, but I actually bought a skirt last week!)

Today's "Life Made Lovely Monday" downloads are vintage images of lovely ladies in their finery. Enjoy!

Beauty from a 1913 Valentine postcard

"Miss Vanity" from an undated Austrian postcard

Beatrice

The Beatrice image is from a German postcard made from a painting by Angelo Asti, a French artist who lived from 1847 to 1903.

Ruby

The Ruby image is from an undated German postcard. I haven't been able to find information about the artist, M. Marco. I'll update this post if I find out more about the painter.

Hope you like these as much as I do!

Using paper scraps

2011-09-17T12:11:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I find it hard to throw things away... that's one reason I have so much ephemera to share! But bits and pieces of scrapbook paper and ephemera can really pile up if you save them all, so I love projects that allow me to use those bits and pieces. Here are a few ideas for you if you, too, are a scrap saver.

Birthday card made with leftover strips of scrapbook paper

I have a Genesis Paper Trimmer, which makes perfect straight cuts, so I end up with many long straight strips of paper after making greeting cards and other projects. These thin, perfectly even strips are perfect for birthday candles, so this was a quick, simple card to make with my scraps.

Old notebook covered with paper tape and decorative scraps

Before: Beat-up notebooks before "renovations"

I bought these dog-eared Neatbooks at a flea market for a quarter each. The covers were bent and frayed, but the inside pages were in like-new condition, which made these books perfect candidates for new covers! I use these in my purse and in my car for jotting down notes, ideas and "to do" lists.

Watch for more ideas for using scraps in a future post.

Vintage women's fashion

2011-09-06T10:03:00.000-04:00

Vintage magazine ads and vintage sewing patterns are great sources of information about fashion over the years. These images from the 1940s suggest that women wore hats and white gloves, dresses featured decorative trim and often had pockets, heels were high, and the ideal waist was tiny. These tiny waists are interesting because movie stars in that day had more ample figures, with a few exceptions such as Vivien Leigh. Was this the start of a shift towards today's unhealthy ideal of an ultra thin female body?

Women's fashions from the 1940s

1940s fashions

Vintage gameboard graphics

2011-08-31T11:29:00.002-04:00

Games are always fun as themes for collage and assemblage projects and greeting cards. Today's images are vintage game boards from a collection called 52 Variety Game Chest, which featured a game for every week in the year.

Click on the image twice to see the largest image file.

Put n' Take gameboard

Alphabetics game board

Fisherman's Catch game board

Enjoy!

Vintage Bingo cards and 10-cent tickets

2011-08-12T11:00:00.000-04:00

Game-related items are always fun to use. They're great for handmade greeting cards, scrapbook pages, altered books, assemblage art and collage projects. Here are a few vintage Bingo cards and tickets for you to download and use in your artwork.

Let the games begin!

1927 ad: Grandmother is still dancing!

2011-08-08T10:49:00.006-04:00

A 1927 issue of Pictorial Review featured this lovely illustration by Corinne Dillon in a full-page ad for... I'm going to give you a minute to guess.

I love the ladies' bobbed hairdos and Flapper dresses -- wonderful examples of 1920s fashions.

The ad title is "Grandmother is still dancing," and the ad copy begins like this:

Grandmother is no longer a bored spectator at the dance. No more does she decorate the side walls, wishing the party would end. No, indeed!

At the first note of the music she is right out on the floor. There she stays throughout the evening, doing the very latest steps. And she's just as reluctant as anyone else to hear the music of the last dance fading away.

Of course, there's a secret about her enduring vitality -- a simple secret she's perfectly willing to pass along.

Blog readers, can you guess the secret?

Her secret, it turns out, is Feen-a-Mint, the chewing laxative. And you thought something like arthritis medicine might be the secret to an evening of dancing!

Corinne Boyd Dillon, a Kentucky-born artist was a very busy illustrator in those days. Her artwork was in most of the national magazines of the day, as well as many children's books and novels. I wonder how she felt about creating this beautiful art for a laxative advertisement... I guess it helped pay the bills!

Feen-a-Mint, incidentally, resembled Chiclets and its box warns that it is "A medicine, not a confection."

Keep dancing!

Using vintage finds for storage and display

2011-07-21T12:28:00.004-04:00

Yesterday you saw vintage metal picnic tins, antique sugar jars and canisters, a vintage red toolbox and a gas station map case used for art supply storage. Here are more studio pictures with a few more ideas for using non-traditional and vintage items to store and display art supplies and collections.

Spice racks aren't just for spices. This one holds a collection of vintage office supplies. Spice racks can also display paints, rubber stamps or other art tools.

An old metal feed scoop and a vintage crock holds markers.

A metal grain scoop works well for displaying vintage wooden rulers.

Many artists buy thrift store Scrabble games for the letter tiles; here's another way to use the wooden racks. They're perfect for displaying small collections. (These vintage watercolor tins kept falling off the racks, so I put a dab of BluTac behind the tins to keep everything standing.) Scrabble boards can be cut down to make cute repurposed journal covers, too. ALL the contents of a Scrabble box can be used for art projects!

I'd love to hear your non-traditional storage and display ideas -- please share your ideas in the Comments!

Where bloggers create -- a studio tour

2011-07-20T12:38:00.003-04:00

Vintage picnic tins and antique drawers in my studio

If you've been following my blog, which shares vintage images, you would guess that I like all kinds of vintage things, and you would be right! Today I thought I would share with you photos of some of the vintage items in my studio by participating in "Where Bloggers Create," a virtual studio tour sponsored by My Desert Cottage blog. I just heard about this project today, and it turns out the deadline was July 15 -- so my studio is not on the tour list after all... next year! I hope you will come in and look around anyway.

Above you see part of my collection of vintage picnic tins. These are just to the left of the stairs at the entrance to my studio, which is off our dining room. I just love these colorful tins for display and storage. I use a shipping tag tied with string to identify the contents of each tin.

The dark oak drawers were originally office filing cabinets, but I was thrilled to discover that the shallow drawers were perfect for holding rubber stamps. Old drawers are usually quite dirty and hard to clean, so I have lined these drawers first with paper, and then with plastic thrift store picture frames. The frames are handy because when I am doing a stamping project, I can pull the frame "tray" out and use it at my counter, which keeps like stamps together and makes them easy to put away.

Above the first stacks of picnic tins is a clown game poster from a vintage toys exhibit my husband and I saw in Paris in 1984. It adds more bright color to my studio and reminds me of a wonderful trip.

The only non-vintage furniture in the studio is kitchen cabinetry pieces purchased from a dismantled showroom. This counter, on the wall nearest the entrance, is where I do all my cutting with my lighted Genesis Paper Trimmer. The exposed brick was once the outside wall of our house before we added my studio.

To the right of the drawers and stacks of tins are two library card catalog cabinets which store embellishments and office supplies. I paid $2 for the shabby yellow chair at a thrift store. It's so sturdy, I can use it to reach high shelves. (I'm only 5'2" so it comes in quite handy!)

On top of the card catalog drawers are my red Smith Corona typewriter and vintage office supplies, which I love to collect.

Above the card catalog cabinets is a wall cabinet filled with vintage packaging. I love the colors, the images and the promises on vintage product packaging; all of these packages are inspiring to me and sooo much fun to collect.

To the right of the card catalogs, more shallow drawers hold specialty papers. On top of the drawers is my red toolbox and a display of vintage games.

A vintage armoire holds envelopes, more paper and other items that aren't as much fun to look at; then I have utilitarian white shelving that holds wood-mounted rubber stamps and punches. The tall oak office piece, once a postal cabinet according to postalhistory.com, has shallow storage space for more rubber stamps on trays. The postal cabinet has what looks like drawers, but are actually covers that slide upward and inward to reveal shelves.

This 42-drawer apothecary cabinet is hard to photograph because there is an island counter in the center of the room in front of it. An old store display case with sliding glass doors holds more rubber stamps, and the vintage jars on top hold game pieces for assemblage projects, plus balls of fibers.

This old gas station maps case was found in the trash -- one of my favorite freebies.

That's about half of my studio -- storage, inspiration and cutting station. I'll post photos of the remainder another day. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

More lovely ladies on bridge tallies

2011-07-15T15:36:00.002-04:00

These lovely ladies are from an undated bridge set published by Charles S. Clark Co. The larger images are from the diecut covers of bridge score pads, and the small round images are individual bridge tallies. The tallies had decorative fringed ties through the holes -- very fancy!

Text inside the scorepads refers to progressive auction bridge (which was originated in 1904), and mentions that "Some prefer to play by the new laws of progressive auction bridge," which may have changed in 1927 after the creation of the American Contract Bridge League. (If there are any bridge history experts out there, please correct me if this is not the case!)

I'm just enthralled with the artwork! I hope you like it, too.

As always, click on any image to enlarge it, then right click on the enlarged image to save it to your computer.

I'd love to see any projects that use the vintage images shared here. Please send pictures of your work if you've created something with these.

Working on art projects indoors is a good way to keep cool in this heat wave.
Happy creating!

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-03T09:09:00.000-04:00

Vintage patriotic image for July 4th

2011-06-20T10:59:00.002-04:00

I decided to post this patriotic illustration now instead of waiting until July 4th, in case any of you like to make Independence Day cards. This lovely image is from the Standard Bible Story Reader, Book One, published in 1925. This sweet little book credits two illustrators: O.A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland. I'm guessing this unsigned illustration is from Cleaveland, based on others that were signed by her, but I'm not positive.

Enjoy the holiday!

Vintage images for Father's Day

2011-06-14T12:23:00.002-04:00

Searching for masculine vintage images to use on Father's Day cards or projects, I was surprised to discover that most ads in my vintage magazines were directed at women. The bicycle, boat and electric train ads below were exceptions. My favorite "Father" images are these, from a 1937 reader called "At Work and Play."

Ads below are from an 1897 edition of The Cosmopolitan magazine.

If you make a Father's Day card using any of these images, please send us a link or a photo! Happy Father's Day.

Beauty advice booklets from the 1960s

2011-06-09T15:29:00.005-04:00

Women who wanted beauty advice in 1963 could choose from a huge catalog of 25-cent booklets published by the Bonomo Culture Institute. The creator of these handy pocket manuals was Joe Bonomo, a body-builder (Mr. Modern Apollo of 1921) and self-proclaimed "International Authority on Beauty, Health, Diet and the Self-Improvement of Face and Figure."

No. 13 in the Bonomo Pocket Manual series was a NEW! Bonomo Beauty Ritual: How to Beautify Your Bust Contour, featuring the home course techniques. This little 3"x5" book boasts 64 easy-to-follow pages completely illustrated with photographs, diagrams and charts. It includes 41 separate exercises for building your bust.

Bonomo Handy Pocket Manual #1 was "Make-up -- and LIVE!" which promised Beauty in 10 Easy Steps, including some very interesting facial exercises (scroll down).

The lovely woman who modeled these facial exercises may have developed some new wrinkles after this photo shoot.

An outfit called Happiness Books of Stanford, Connecticut, also published pocket-sized books with beauty hints. "Hairdo Secrets" cost 25 cents and had 64 pages, just like the Bonomo books. It's not clear who copied whom.

Some classic tips and llustrations from the Hairdos booklet:

The 1960s woman holding a sign might be fun to use on a greeting card or scrapbook layout. If you want edited versions of any of the other images, just let me know in the Comments.

Don't forget to splurge, ladies!

Advertising calendar from 1900

2011-06-01T18:14:00.003-04:00

Today's images from an amazing flea market find: a diecut triptych calendar from 1900. It's hard to believe something printed in 1899 could look so crisp and beautiful today. Only the creases are worn.

The lovely gold-embossed illustrations were from an unlikely source: a company that manufactured rubber boots! This calendar was compliments of Enterprise Rubber Company, 207 Congress Street, Boston. On the back of these lovely pictures are discussions of mortality statistics -- with emphasis on consumption and pneumonia -- and the importance of dry feet. And speaking of unlikely, one of the models in the triptych is a gold miner... a 111-year-old precursor to modern-day calendars featuring photos of hunky firemen?

My favorite quotes from this amazing calendar:

"The rubber shoe is almost the humblest article in the human wardrobe; and at the same time, it is one of the greatest life preservers of our modern civilization." Zion's Herald

"When Goodyear discovered how to make rubbers, human longevity took a great bound forward." Popular Science

Here are the images without the borders and dates.

Wishing you dry feet and a long, healthy life!

Vintage floral postcards from the early 1900s

2011-05-26T12:30:00.006-04:00

The vintage postcard is another form of ephemera that fascinates me. I love it that someone kept these small notes for so many years, usually a lifetime. I also love reading the messages. Sometimes they are poetic, but most of the time, they're pretty mundane. The price of postage is an indicator of a postcard's age, and it's always a bonus when the postmark is readable, so the exact age of the card is revealed.

This lovely embossed postcard was mailed on May 24, 1909, just over 102 years ago! Postage cost only one penny then, but the postcard itself was a beautifully printed and embossed work of art. The sender wrote his succinct note in pencil: "I wonder what you are doing now. I'm in the country. Tell E.P. hello."

Mailed on September 15, 1910, this embossed floral postcard was addressed to someone with just the city and state. I guess the postman knew where everyone lived in the small town of Le Roy, Illinois. This sender also wrote in pencil, reporting that threshing was done and discussing a wheat crop. The handwritten message doesn't exactly fit with the "Love's Token" title on the card.

The most recent of today's postcards has a postmark of August 3, 1912. I love the white doves at the top and the faint image of a little church in the background. While the pair of doves would suggest romance, the sender is an aunt wishing the recipient "many happy returns of the day" on her birthday.

Here's the cover of a book I'm working on. I printed a copy of the Kind Greetings postcard on ivory card stock to use on the cover.

Kind greetings, everyone!

Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby!

2011-05-24T15:27:00.006-04:00

Vintage ephemera is my favorite material for making collages, adding interest to journal pages, and crafting unique greeting cards. For some projects, we are happy with scans we print ourselves, but sometimes only the genuine vintage item will do!

I am involved in a wonderful online journal class called "Remains of the Day," taught by Mary Ann Moss, who writes the Dispatch from LA blog (link in the sidebar). She encourages class members to use real vintage ephemera in our journals, and I've had my collection spread out everywhere while making my ROD journal.

An artist friend of mine saw my vintage goodies, and she has been ~~nagging~~ urging me to package some of my "real" vintage stuff for sale. I finally succumbed to the pressure. At Bonnie's Best, have a limited supply of the first ephemera pack, including the collage parts pictured above.

The ephemera package includes a collectible vintage Hershey's Syrup playing card, playing cards with bird images, Fostoria certificate from the 1930s, an unused Cherry Blossoms soda label, page from vintage FAA book of aircraft approach diagrams, lovely foreign text pages, music pages, pages from a 40-year-old postage stamp directory, Bingo card, tickets, oversized robin's egg blue and salmon shipping tags, a vintage practice target, printed inventory tag, plus a few newer items. Every piece is the real thing -- no scans or color copies. If you're interested, here's a link to purchase.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming --- there will be more freebies to download in my next post.

Bird images from vintage greeting cards

2011-05-05T11:25:00.003-04:00

By special request, I'm sharing more bird images today. If your mom loves birds as much as this mom, you may want to use a bird image on a handmade Mother's Day card. These birds come from vintage greeting cards. Some of the cards feature gold trim, vellum, embossing and fine glitter, yet the prices ranged from 15 to 25 cents!

I removed the text from most of the cards, but wanted you to see the "passion" message because the script is so lovely. Then I uploaded the same card front with the words removed so you can download it as a border, too.

Images of bluebirds holding ribbon always make me smile! Wishing you lots of smiles today!

Vintage packaging: 1950s ladies and their hairnets

2011-05-02T18:02:00.001-04:00

Hairnets were not just worn by the Lunch Ladies immortalized in Saturday Night Live skits. Many women of the 1940s and 1950s went to the beauty shop once a week to have their hair "done," then slept in hairnets every night to keep their "do" in place until the next visit. My grandmother did this, and my 81-year-old mother still does!

I just love packaging that features vintage drawings of women... the hair styles, the makeup, the clothing -- fascinating! The Barinet and Jac-o-net packaging uses glamorous women, and the Set Snug and Forma brands would seem to appeal to the girl-next-door type. Want to bet that the Barinet and Jac-o-net brands were more expensive?

Packaging has changed a lot over the years. Looks like there was a single package design for the brand, with the name of the color added in the upper left corner. (No matter that the Forma dark brown hairnet package showed a blond, and the grey Set Snug package shows a brunette and a redhead.) Only the woman on the Jac-o-net package image has the same color hair as the hairnet in the package! A modern-day hair color line might feature 20+ color choices, each with its own matching packaging -- and none of them would be aught dead using plain vanilla names such as "light brown" or "grey."

How do you use ephemera like this in your artwork? I like the trend that has straight-laced looking apron-clad moms making outrageous statements, such as "After a couple of Vodka Tonics, I just love to vacuum!" Those always make me laugh.

Below is a spread from my (under construction) "Remains of the Day" journal, a journal made with scraps and ephemera. I sewed a Barinet hairnet package into my ROD book as a pocket for journaling.

How are you using ephemera in your art projects? I'd love to hear from you in the Comments.

Enjoy!

Vintage travel ads: Railways of France, Steamship Sailings

2011-04-28T10:40:00.001-04:00

Travel-related ads from a 1931 Harper's Magazine. The Steamship Sailings page might be a nice background in a travel journal.

Bon voyage!

Vintage ad cards

2011-04-27T13:51:00.002-04:00

Vintage ad cards are fun ephemera finds. They're usually colorful and have interesting content that reflects the era in which they were published.

This ad for Quaker sugar (who knew Quaker produced sugar at one time?) reminds me of early readers that featured Dick and Jane and Spot, their dog. The "Dick and Jane" readers were first printed in the 1930s by textbook publisher Scott Foresman. The sugar packaging includes a copyright date of 1930, further evidence of the age of the ad. Despite torn corners and frayed edges, the colors on the original ad really are this bright; I didn't do any color enhancements. That means the ad card spent a long time tucked into a book before it appeared at my favorite flea market.

This Carter's Ink ad card also dates to the 1930s. In 1936, Carter's sold ink stands for the cube-shaped ink containers, so the containers of this shape had to have been produced prior to 1936. Earlier Carter's ink bottles were round and the earliest had cork stoppers, so these cubes were the height of modern at the time! A previous owner of this ad card was so proud of it, he wrote his name on it in ink. I left it instead of cloning it out; if anyone wants the ad without the signature, I'll be glad to edit it and send it to you.

The third vintage card advertises wagons made by Ballantine & Van Fleets, a carriage company in Somerville, NJ, in the late 1800s. The language is funny, isn't it? "Do you want a wagon of any kind -- If so --" I love the quaint school clothes the boy is wearing. How times have changed!

Hope you are enjoying these vintage goodies! I'd love to hear from you in the Comments.

Birds

2011-04-26T15:14:00.001-04:00

I am in so in love with birds, I was thrilled when my husband gave me a box of birdseed for Christmas. I love waking up to their song, watching them at our feeders and seeing them in flight. I wish I could draw them, but because I can't, I have to settle for printed images of birds. In case you like birds as much as I do, I've scanned some vintage bird images for you.

This bird, I'm told, is a long-tailed flycatcher. This gorgeous creature really should have a more beautiful name. This image was printed on one of those notepads people used to keep beside the telephone -- perhaps in a built-in telephone nook in a home's center hall. The picture has yellowed over time, but I think that adds to the charm.

Right-facing bluebird

Left-facing bluebird

These sweet bluebirds are from a vintage greeting card printed on vellum and glistening with glitter. The cover of the card folds inward. You have to open both sides to read the message. The images are beautiful when paired, but I separated them so they can be used alone or as a pair.

Coming soon: more birds, butterflies and borders.

Enjoy!

Vintage bridge tallies

2011-04-25T11:53:00.006-04:00

Bridge was a BIG part of my parents' social life when they were young. My 81-year-old mother still plays bridge at least once a week. I'm always on the lookout for bridge-related ephemera, and I recently found a wonderful collection of bridge tallies at my favorite flea market.

From the front, you'd think the diecut dog and cat below were vintage baby gift tags or children's birthday party invitations, but the backs show a tally of scores from a bridge game played (by adults, presumably) in 1929.

These next bridge items are quite different. Below are covers of bridge score books, this time with an Arabian Nights flavor. A popular new edition of Arabian Nights was published in 1932, so I'm thinking these score books may be from the 1930s.

If anyone would like the book covers cropped to remove the outer border, let me know. I figure most people have art programs they can use for cropping, but if not, I will be glad to post cropped versions.

As always, you can click on the images to enlarge them, then right-click to save them to your computer.

Enjoy!

Typography and children's invitations

2011-04-24T15:36:00.002-04:00

Title page from vintage German sheet music. I wonder if it is hand calligraphy or actual typography.

Adorable vintage party invitation with illustration by Florence Nosworthy (1872-1936). She was a prominent illustrator in the early 1900s.

Sweet vintage diecut greeting card from the early 1900s.

A hint about printing downloaded vintage ephemera: If you print ivory or other light colored paper instead of white, the copy looks more authentic.

More ephemera coming soon! I've been busy scanning.

Class photo

2011-03-31T10:58:00.003-04:00

Class photos are always fascinating... I love to study the clothes the children (and teachers) are wearing, the posture, the expressions on the faces.

I found this one at a California flea market, and it seems to be from the area. I'm guessing this is a class from the 1940s because of the teacher's coat, shoes and hairstyle.

At least 10 of the boys are wearing overalls, and at least one of them is barefoot. Some of the kids are in short or rolled-up sleeves, but the teacher wears what looks to be a very warm coat. Notice how the teacher stands at a bit of a distance from her pupils? I wonder if this says anything about her relationship with those students. Only a few of the children are smiling.

You can left click the photo to see and download a large version. If you use any of the ephemera shared here, I'd love to see photos of your projects!

Red Bird Notebook

2011-03-29T16:53:00.001-04:00

Today's ephemera download is the cover of The Red Bird pocket notebook from the 1930s. I love the typography, don't you?

This little notebook was well-used. The front pages were filled with math problems and geography homework, and back pages included grocery lists. I'm thinking the student married just after high school and continued using her school notebook for household tasks after schoolwork was behind her.

I'm old enough to remember Blue Horse school tablets, but Red Bird books were before my time.

When I posted this on my Flickr site, I got the most interesting comment:

"Thanks so much for posting this picture! I'm researching Eudora Welty for my Master's Thesis and she references "Redbird school tablets" in her short story "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies." I had little reference to what a school tablet from the 1930s looked like, much less a Redbird school tablet. Now I can see it so I know what Ms. Welty was referencing - I'm so glad I found your photo!"

Ephemera is not just fun to look at and nice to use in art projects; it can also give us a unique perspective on history!

Cold feet

2011-03-28T13:22:00.001-04:00

I've wanted to start a blog for a long time, but I've had cold feet. On this chilly, rainy Spring morning, I resolved to be brave and get on with it!

I've garnered a wonderful collection of ephemera over the years, and I hope this will be a good way to share some of my collection with collage and mixed media artists and other ephemera fans.

Today's free ephemera download is an ad from an early edition of The Cosmopolitan, founded in 1886. The Cosmopolitan offered one-year subscriptions for $1.00. I'll share more ads from this vintage treasure in future posts.

Below are three of my favorite books about using vintage ephemera in art projects. All of these books are full of eye candy and inspiring ideas.

Collage Candy

Vintage postcards with bluebirds

Illustrations from a vintage baby book

Valentine postcard

Scrappy ephemera houses

Vintage 1950s beauty products

Vintage and ancient hand diagrams

Art Deco postcards by C.E. Shand

More vintage postcards: Haughty ladies and naughty ladies

Vintage postcards: Girls with flower hats

More 1917 bird illustrations

1917 bird illustrations

Lovely ladies

Using paper scraps

Vintage women's fashion

Vintage gameboard graphics

Vintage Bingo cards and 10-cent tickets

1927 ad: Grandmother is still dancing!

Using vintage finds for storage and display

Where bloggers create -- a studio tour

More lovely ladies on bridge tallies

Happy Fourth of July!

Vintage patriotic image for July 4th

Vintage images for Father's Day

Beauty advice booklets from the 1960s

Advertising calendar from 1900

Vintage floral postcards from the early 1900s

Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby!

Bird images from vintage greeting cards

Vintage packaging: 1950s ladies and their hairnets

Vintage travel ads: Railways of France, Steamship Sailings

Vintage ad cards

Birds

Vintage bridge tallies

Typography and children's invitations

Class photo

Red Bird Notebook

Cold feet