Looking for Paper Ephemera

I am searching for vintage paper ephemera. I am having little to no luck finding any. Sure, there are a lot of sellers who sell ‘vintage’ receipts, letters, postcards, tickets, etc. that they have found and scanned to sell but printing off digitals does not feel 'authentic'.

Where do these junk journal makers find all this great stuff? Old hand written letters, postcards, tickets and vintage books are the kinds of things I'm looking for. I don't know of any antique shops in my area that might sell this. More importantly, I'm not sure how much is a reasonable price to pay for this kind of ephemera.

I wonder if estate sales might carry some of these things. I never thought of that before. The thrift stores will likely have vintage books but not the other items I'm looking for.

If anyone out there has this type of old paper ephemera that you are willing to part with, keep me in mind.

A Poem for My Son

I’m finding all sorts of goodies while sorting through old boxes of stuff. I came across a copy of a poem that I wrote for my oldest son many years ago now. He was in grade school, maybe 10 or 11 years old. He came home one day bemoaning the fact that he had to write a poem as his homework that evening.

He complained that there was no way he could write a poem. I assured him that he could if he tried. He looked me square in the eye and asked me if I could do it. I had to admit that I could and proceeded to start writing something down. I hate being backed into a corner like that by a child. Here is that poem…it started out slow but I picked up momentum by the end.

We both got a good chuckle out of it, and then he went to his room and started writing. I wish I still had a copy of the poem he wrote. It was about our cat, Jack. This cat had personality and was quite the character. His mother was a black and white long haired cat. His father was clearly a Siamese cat. And as you can see, he was quite mischievous.

The poem about Jack, as I remember, was equally as amusing as mine, and he received high praise from his teacher the next day. He also took a copy of the poem I wrote to school without me knowing. The teacher called me later that day so we could share a laugh together about it. Nice memory.

Random Craft Stuff

I found a video from ten years ago that explained how to do the string art scalloped circles so all the string does not meet in the middle. It is quite simple actually. The video was posted by a YouTube content creator who was quite popular with my craft friends at the time. It is likely where the person who sent me those ATCs nine years ago learned how to do it. This one was done last night with crochet cotton.

While sorting through old boxes, I found knitting pattern for a Barbie doll dress that I was clearly trying to adapt from an existing pattern. I am going to test is out this week. It should not take long to make. Once I confirm the accuracy of the pattern, I will type it up and save it. Page two is completely hand written right now.

Another video I watched the other day showed how to use nail polish to make marbled buttons from plain uninteresting ones. You add a couple of drops of three different colours to water, swirl them around with a toothpick, then dip in the button. I want to try this. You never know what you will get, they will all be unique. The will look similar to this stone that was created using the same basic technique.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of big plans for crafting in the near future. I will share as things are completed.

String Art

I was looking through some old ATC trades recently and came across these ones I received in 2016. Wow, was it that long ago? It must be as that is the date on the back of them. I was fascinated with the string art on them. I did try my hand at it when I first received them using a small scalloped circle punch I had but never pursued it after that.

A friend recently reminded me about the string art and suggested I try it again as I was looking for something new and different to do. So, I went searching on Amazon for some scalloped circle dies and found a set from a company I never heard of before. I ordered them. They were not overly expensive and I figured if they did not work, I was not losing much.

Turns out, they work fabulously! I cut a few out of card stock to experiment on. I actually glued two scalloped circles together to make them sturdier. I tried a couple of test pieces. For the yellow one, I used red sewing thread. On the black one, I used a fine yellow yarn. The middle is a bit dimensional on that one but workable. I'm going to try using crochet cotton and embroidery thread also. Metallic thread or yarn might be fun too.

I have to figure out how to wrap the thread or string so all the intersections are not in the middle. That will be my next step. I will share the results when I am done.

Getting Back on the Bandwagon

I really need to get back on the decluttering, organizing bandwagon. My brother, who was off work for six weeks due to medical reasons, kept himself busy going through and getting rid of a lot of accumulated stuff downstairs. I can’t even remember how many times I took him to the dump to get rid of things!

My progress has been slowed right down since my recent fall at work. Most of my injuries have healed but the knee is still very unhappy and bruised. I’m so afraid of falling again, that I have been extra careful. I was lucky that I did not get really injured this time. I don’t want a next time. I may not be so fortunate.

There is one box ready to drop off at the thrift store, mostly clothes that my granddaughter and I do not wear anymore. Hopefully, that gets me back on the bandwagon. My brother wants to have a yard sale this summer so some things will be set aside for that. A yard sale seems like a lot of work though. I hope it is worth it in the end. Anything of mine left will definitely be going to the second hand store. I will not bring it back in the house.

Autumn / Halloween Journal Cards

I found some free autumn images on a Facebook group I belong to. I copy and pasted four to a page in Word, to get four journal cards per page. I took the file to Staples to have printed on their colour toner printer. My printer at home is an inkjet and does not print colour pictures very well.

After tea/coffee tying the pages, the colours were toned down and muted a bit. This fit perfectly with a Halloween theme. The images were glued to black card stock next. I added teeny, tiny diecut bats on each of the cards.

Coffee dyed paper was added to the back of each one and I stamped a different image on each with archival ink. I love how they turned out!

Creating With Used Postage Stamps

Over the years, I’ve accumulated a lot of used postage stamps. The first thing I ever created with them was postage stamp mandala. What is a mandala, you ask? We often associate the word mandala with the circular designs that have repeating colors, shapes, and patterns radiating from the center. Mandalas can be precise, carefully measured, geometric, and perfectly symmetrical, or in contrast, free flowing, organic, and asymmetrical.

Here are some of the first ones I made with used postage stamps.

I was inspired to try this from a couple of ATCs that I received in a swap.

By using the same stamp design you can get a totally different look depending on the way you orient them.

I made a whole bunch of these ATCs for a group swap, one for each member.

Here are some other ways that used postage stamps can be utilized in projects much to the horror of some ardent stamp collectors. Let’s start with Christmas gift tags.

Artist trading cards.

Mini journal cards.

Dangles to hang on junk journals. (These were made by a friend.)

I have SO many used postage stamps, mostly hoarded over the years that I’ve decided to see how many other ways I can use them in my crafts this year. Just while writing this post, I've thought of a couple more ideas.

Digital Papers

Not only am I addicted to acquiring scrapbook paper pads, but also to collecting digital papers. Digital paper refers to electronic artwork files used as background patterns, often in image formats like JPG or PNG, and mimicking the look of traditional scrapbook paper

The real benefit of these is that they don’t take up much physical space to store. They are all on an external hard drive the size of a small notebook that holds two terabytes of data. I’ve only used 34 gigabytes so plenty of room left for more.

The range of themes is quite broad…Halloween, Gothic, Christmas, fairies, gnomes, vintage ephemera, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit, spring, winter, autumn, nature, flowers, etc. You get the idea. There are more themes than I can name. I’ve purchased them on Etsy or Kofi, and many of them are freebies from various digital artists.

I really need to start using more of them. If only there were more hours in a day and more energy in my body!