Vintage postcards: more lovely ladies

Images of beautiful women have long been a favorite of portrait artists, advertising designers and postcard makers.  Today's ephemera downloads include some  lovely ladies from early 1900s postcards. Click twice to save the largest images.

Postmarked 1910, Newtonville, Mass.

Early 1900s Christmas postcard, printed in Germany

Postmarked 1908, Zanesville, Ohio.  Printed in Germany

Have a lovely day!

Bonnie

Vintage postcards with bluebirds

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

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

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

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

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

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!)