Embroidering with Vintage Emphemera

Vintage ephemera is so charming -- postcards, trade cards, adverts, magazines.  And I have a LOT of it.  It is interesting and fun to see what was popular 100 years ago.  But I sometimes think I should use my collection more in crafting, rather than just enjoying the colorful art and illustration.

I have a few sets of these sweet Arm & Hammer "Useful Birds of America" cards from a century ago.  This is Bullock's Oriole, a bird I have never seen (their range is West of the Mississippi).  But I thought it might make a colorful, embroidered brooch.

 

I scanned and printed several cards onto a Printed Treasures Printer Fabric Sheet by Prym Dritz.  (Note: these fabric sheets are a bit expensive, but you can also make fabric that will run through your printer using 8 1/2 x 11" freezer paper adhered to a fabric appropriate for crafting -- I have used this method with good results.  Click here for link.)  I used colored pencils to enhance some of the areas that wouldn't be over embroidered, such as the blue sky and the branch and leaves.

 

Because I wanted to save space and print several pictures onto the fabric, there isn't much space around each picture to hoop the fabric for embroidering.  So, I left the paper on the back of the printed fabric.  I lightly penciled an oval around the selected bird, the size of the pin I wanted to make.  Here is the embroidery started.  I used one strand of six-strand embroidery floss.  Most of the stitches I used were long & short, with a few French knots.

 



The penciled oval frame was embroidered with a small chain stitch.  The finished embroidery, front and back:

 

 

Cut the paper away outside the stitched oval.

 

Trim the fabric about 1/2" beyond the frame.  Run a doubled gathering thread 1/8 " from edge of trimmed fabric.  Cut two pieces of thin cardboard the shape of your oval pin. 

 

On one piece of cardboard lightly glue a small oval of thin batting.  On top of that lightly glue a second piece of thin batting, cut the size of the cardboard.

 

 

Insert batting-covered cardboard inside embroidery and pull up gathers tightly.

 

With Beacon FabricTac glue pinback to the second piece of cardboard.  Mark a small scrap of Ultrasuede where the hinge and hook will come through the Ultrasuede.  Cut two small slits where the marks were made.

 

Using Beacon FabricTac, cover cardboard and flat part of pinback.  Press Ultrasuede firmly onto the cardboard.

 

When glue is thoroughly dry, trim Ultrasuede.  I also like to color the edge of the cardboard oval.  This may be a little ocd tidy.

 

Place the embroidery face down on a towel.  Spread glue on back of the Ultrasuede oval.  Press it down really hard on the back of the embroidered piece.  Really hard.  You want the edges of both pieces to firmly adhere to each other.  That is why I use a towel, so the embroidery will not flatten under pressure. 

 

 

 

Here is the finished embroidery.  I think it came out fairly well, for a first attempt.   The pin measures 1 3/4" wide.

 

Some more birds from the set: 

 



 

Antique Valentines

I love old postcards, greeting cards, recipe booklets, and other ephemera. There is something very charming about finding a pretty, old postcard with writing on the back! It makes you think of a time when people wrote much more than we do now. I have some postcards that simply say "Hi" on the back, and others with affectionate and sometimes smart-alecky notes.

Lulu once gave me a little album of valentine cards she had found over in Stephentown, NY (I think). Here are two cards I recently found on a trip home, possibly at Nancy Dole Books & Ephemera in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. I love Nancy's second floor book shop -- small and cozy, lots of classic craft and knitting books that my sister and I race each other to, and a collection of well organized ephemera. I do wish I could go through the doors of that charming shop someday without a budget! Sigh.


This cute card has a mechanism that makes for a sweet surprise!

Vintage Valentine Crafts

Here is my handmade reproduction pop-up Valentine on the little shelf, and underneath is a cool picture frame I found at a large craft store chain. It holds six 4x6" photos and works well for changing out my collection of old postcards and trading cards with the seasons. The cards just slip right in and out.


Instructions for making a repro vintage Valentine. Take an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of scrap paper and fold in half down the middle (top to bottom) and once again along the lower third of the paper. Draw a swirly line on the right, from top to bottom. Cut out through both thicknesses and the left and right sides will match. This is your template.

Crush two pieces of decorative tissue paper (larger than your template) in a ball, then flatten them out again. Do this twice. With a glue stick, adhere the tissue to a piece of cardstock on both the front and the back. Let dry.

Trace around your template onto the tissue-covered card stock and cut out. Using a bone folder press along the line where the vertical and horizontal parts of your card will meet, about 1/3 from the bottom edge. Fold along the pressed line.

If you wish, attach a paper doily frame to the back of the card. I cut a hole from the center of the doily so the pretty tissue paper on the back side would be visible.

To attach the central photo, old postcard or trading card (photocopied, of course), you need to make a support for it. To do this, take a narrow strip of card stock and score along four lines, depending on how tall and how deep you want your support to be. This one, below, is about 4" tall by 1/2" deep (and 1" wide). Therefore, the original piece of cardstock was approx. 1"x 9".

Basically, you are making a box that does not have sides. The back of the box is glued to the vertical part of the card, and the bottom of the box is gluled to the horizontal part of the card. This enables the card to be folded flat, but the artwork will be raised off the card when the card is opened. A little hard to explain, but I hope the photo helps.

Belore I attached the trading card to the support I glued vintage lace around the four edges of the card.


Banners can be made in all shapes and sizes in Microsoft Word:


Glittered sticky letters are applied to the banner. I used a pin to apply them:
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A second banner, with more sticky letters applied, and photocopied Victorian scrap for the card:

The finished card, with various elements glued to the central pop-up support and elsewhere on the card. I used littly foam sticky dots to give the additional elements dimension.

The underside of the bottom flap contains a poem and more Victorian scrap.

My heart to you is given:

Oh, do give yours to me;
We'll lock them up together,
And throw away the key!
Frederick Saunders)

You can find lots of funny, tender and sweet poems on the internet. Copy and paste them into a Word document in a pretty font. Then tear them and attach to your card.

Come live in my heart and pay no rent. (Samuel Lover)

The back of the card features another poem.


Happy Valentine's Day!