Happy Fourth of July!

Vintage patriotic image for July 4th

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

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

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

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

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!

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.