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!)

Art Deco postcards by C.E. Shand

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!

More vintage postcards: Haughty ladies and naughty ladies

I have more vintage postcards to share with you today.  The first two feature ladies who are dressed to kill, and the second pair show ladies who are misbehaving.


An artist named Jan Marcos illustrated the two postcards below, ladies with hats and other finery. These postcards were printed in Italy. 

Dressed to the nines, brown eyes

Dressed to the nines, blue eyes

The postcards below show ladies who are up to something.  I'm thinking the image of the woman in her bathing costume at a creek was pretty risque in its day. The second image shows a beautifully dressed woman sitting on the back of a chair making martini glasses tinkle. Interesting image, isn't it? I imagine she had had a few martinis before she climbed up on the chair. Notice the faces on the martini glasses.

Barefoot beauty

Martini glass music maker

Behave this weekend!

Vintage postcards: Girls with flower hats

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

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.