V is for Vintage. And for Valentines.

or the past few days, I’ve been having fun taking pictures of some vintage papery items and ephemera that I’ve collected over the past several months, preparing some new listings for my Etsy shop. I’ve already sold a couple of these, which is amazing (first sales of 2010!), but I must admit that I’m a little sad to see some of these vintage cards go. Separation anxiety increases exponentially with vintage items, doesn’t it? One-of-a-kind, never to return again… I don’t even want to think of what I’ll be like when I have children that will eventually leave home. Hopefully they’ll return at some point, though. ANYWAY. Back to my new items. Here are some images for you, to show you why it’s so d@mn hard for me to let go.

{ Vintage Postcard Sets }

1. Five vintage large-letter linen city/state postcards from the 1940s and 50s { Etsy Listing HERE } :

2. Three Vintage Valentines from the 1920s-1940s { SOLD OUT } :

{ Valentine’s Day / Love-Themed Stuff }

1. Four Valentine’s To Do List Cards { Etsy Listing HERE } :
These aren’t vintage, but they are V for Valentines. 🙂 I’ve hand-stamped each card in red block letters;
just check them off once you’ve completed each task!
Red envelopes and some super top-secret prizes included.

2. Paper Pack ‘O Love { Etsy Listing HERE } :
As you will see on both my Etsy page and my Facebook page, I am admittedly not a big fan of Valentine’s Day.
That being said, I am a GINORMOUS fan of ephemera and vintage & modern papers and random doo-dads.
(Yes, even if they have hearts or references to Cupid and February 14th. 🙂
So, with that in mind, I couldn’t help but contribute some of the red/heart/love-themed items to a pack of their own.
I’m guessing there are about 40 pieces or so. And they’re awesome.

{ More Coming Soon… }

More vintage postcard sets { New Year’s and other holidays; humour cards; advertisements; nature; mixed },

Vintage international stamp packs { color-themed; location-themed; mixed },

Antique button sets { color-themed; mixed },

Small mixed ephemera packs.

Thank you for looking, and stay tuned!

Lucky #7

efore I left town for the holidays, I was busy doing lots of things like grading, applying for jobs (still doing that one), buying Christmas presents, and stalking Present Correct‘s listings of daily advent boxes. Only one awesome box of goodies per day. First come, first serve. My super stealth stalking methods paid off, and I rejoiced when I scored the #7 advent box. But then I went far far away to Ohio to spend the holidays with my family. And I amazingly forgot about lucky #7. But then I came back from far far away Ohio, and lucky #7 was awaiting me with open boxy arms!

Lookie what prizes I got!!!

{ Open me! And now! }

{ Holy…! }

{ An organized little sampling of goodies from the box, in case you’re OCD and need order in your life. }

{ Non-ordered samplings. For the rest of us. Beautiful either way, really. }

{ The whole collection. I am especially fond of the “L”s. It’s like they knew my name and stalking tendencies or something. }

I may or may not recycle some of these items for the “Mini Packs” I include as part of my Paper Packs on Etsy. Or hide little doo-dads in envelopes from my Paper Clips Journals. But I don’t know. I’m partial to hoarding everything for myself. You’ll see me on A&E soon enough, drowning in a see of vintage papery awesomeness, refusing to let even a Scrabble tile go.

Thank you to Present Correct for producing such brilliant collections of vintage greatness!

Visit Present Correct’s amazing shop HERE, and follow them on Twitter HERE.

Enamo(RED)

intage and modern typography designs that glorify the color red blanket me in holiday warmth. All drool-inducing images below have been graciously borrowed from the always fabulous WeLoveTypography.com, where you can search typographic images by color. Which is how I found these little gems.

(The Ohioan in me couldn’t resist this one)

Throwback Thursday: Vintage Christmas album covers

oping that all of you who celebrate have a holly jolly Christmas!

To keep it festive for this Christmas Eve edition of Throwback Thursday, I offer you some beautifully designed vintage holiday album covers, courtesy of Martin Klasch:

Letterpress New Year

wo recent letterpress posts over at Oh So Beautiful Paper made me swoon in a major way. So, just in case you missed them, I thought I’d revive them for you here.

The first was a post featuring this inexplicably beautiful letterpress mini-calendar from Wiley Valentine, which unfortunately sold out before I could nab one for myself:

Ridiculously gorgeous, right? The envelope ALONE has a significant Pavlovian effect on me.

And now check out these New Year’s Eve letterpress invites from Czar Press:

At the risk of placing you in a letterpress-induced coma, I offer you just a couple more images from Czar Press. Consider it my New Year’s gift to you:

OK, I can’t take anymore.

Follow Oh So Beautiful Paper on Twitter HERE.

Happy Wednesday!

(Initial “T” found HERE)

Pilgrimage.

(Card image created HERE)

Let’s go on an excursion!

oving these vintage Portuguese transportation ads — particularly the awesome lettering, which I found over at Dias que Voam, which you should visit PRONTO.

The majuscule letters (do we say that in English? for capital letters?) at the bottom of the first ad above kind of remind me of the style of lettering I used for lettering the names on my last round of family tree orders (finally shipped!):

Happy Hanukkah and FREE SHIPPING!

appy Hanukkah to all of my lovely Jewish readers! I hope the Festival of Lights is especially illuminating this year, and that your holiday is filled with loveliness. To celebrate, I’m offering 20% off of my 8 Nights of Hanukkah Journal, available in my Etsy shop HERE:

The journal is conveniently sized to 4″x6″ and features 8 numbered dividers to represent the 8 glorious nights of Hanukkah. Between the dividers, I’ve stashed a wonderful little mix of cards, vintage papers, usable holiday gift tags, envelopes, activity pages, and stickers, all with a Hanukkah theme (whether explicit or implicit)! You’ll find lots of blues, Stars of David, menorahs, even little history pages and activities for children pertaining to the origin of Hanukkah. 🙂 It’s a sweet little compilation, and it would make a great, unique gift for a loved one. And now it’s ON SALE! Oh, and did I mention the free shipping? FREE SHIPPING!!! For more images and to order, click over to my shop HERE.

Additionally, I am offering FREE SHIPPING ON ALL “HOLIDAYS” ITEMS IN MY SHOP! Lots of cute, hand-stamped and hand-sewn gift tags and also my Christmas journal will be shipped for free if you place your order prior to Wednesday, December 16th. (My shop will be closed from 12/16 – 1/02 for the holidays)

Some of my gift tag selections:

My Christmas journal:

For more info and images on all of my HOLIDAYS items, head on over to my shop HERE!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!!!

(*Initial “H” from HERE)