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Tips for Making Your Own Holiday Greetings for Valentine’s Day

Vintage Valentine Postcard

The winter holidays whizzed by and now many are contemplating what to do to get their loved ones for Valentine’s Day.  With so many online shop venues available, it’s getting a little easier to find vintage Valentine holiday greetings from the past or at least digital images you can download for your own projects.  You can also buy items that are handcrafted by others on sites such as Etsy for original Valentine greetings.

But maybe this year, you want to put a little extra time in making your own handcrafted Valentine greetings?  And why not? Doing it yourself can be such a sweet way of showing your thoughtfulness and there are many places you can get information or supply kits in order to shorten your production time.

As a matter of fact, usually popular women’s magazines such as Country Living and Martha Stewart’s Living are great resources for vintage handmade projects  that you can make for Valentine’s that include detailed product lists, supply sources as well as specific instructions.  They also provide quite a bit of ideas and templates in their online websites.  And of course, plenty of pictures to explain the step help as well.  The popular Pinterest is also another great resource for pictures and links to relevant  instructions on the original websites or blogs.

In addition, several do it yourself sites are popping up online with great information and tips for your own handcrafted projects, for example,  a great web resource to check out is Instructables.  Keep in mind though, at this site, you don’t have the high end photographers,Photoshopped photography and staging that you do at high end magazines but you do get quite a bit of great do it yourself ideas.  You can view most of the pictures and instructions online but you will need  to sign up for a membership in order to download their pdf instruction files.  In addition, you can also download  vintage digital images (as was done for this article) from sites like Flickr or Photobucket.  Many images that are made available on Flickr by individuals allow you to use the images for personal use and others include the copyright for personal and commercial use.

With these tips in mind  you will be well on your way to creating a very memorable project  that should bring a smile on your loved ones faces for Valentine’s Day.

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Author’s Note:  The following pic is an example from Pinterest of how you can mix vintage postcard images with modern home decor.

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What Is Ephemera? Paper By Another Name

vintage paper collectibles

 

Ephemera is a beautiful word for what some people( depending on who you ask) would call plain old paper.  According to Webster’s dictionary, ephemera is defined as “something of no lasting significance” or “collectibles (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) not intended to have lasting value”.

Since paper items are easily torn, mangled and susceptible to sun and humidity they don’t often survive the ravages of time.  Yet, exactly some of those authentic old papers are bringing in big prices on Ebay and other similar auction sites.

For example, Barnum & Bailey original posters  (you know the colorful posters that the company would post on fences and walls to let townspeople know that the circus was coming into town) a c.1898 Barnum & Bailey, Coney Island poster sold for $700.00 on Ebay.

 

Ephemera Examples

You can see samples of these vintage paper collectibles in the header image above, they are included in the list below.

  • garden catalogs
  • dictionary pages
  • vintage maps
  • pharmacy labels
  • greeting cards
  • vintage books
  • fashion ads
  • vintage sewing patterns

In my opinion, I would imagine as we consume more digital information and slowly transfer into a digital world, the value of these paper collectibles will rise.

sewing pattern

McCall Sewing Pattern

And  the word ephemera has extended itself to include all manner of paper items including:  postcards, vintage costume jewelry advertisements, fashion ads,  famous concert and opera tickets, sheet music and turn-of-the-century stock certificates which are all highly collectible.

A Clapsaddle Halloween postcard depicting a young African-american boy holding a pumpkin sold for $290.00 and seven 1946-1952 Miriam Haskell costume jewelry ads sold for $122.50 on Ebay.  Please note the prices will vary per year.

Where to Find Ephemera Sources

If you are interested in this type of collecting or you just need this type of material for your altered art or digital scrapbooking or other types of papercrafting projects, you  can search completed listings on Ebay for these items and find out the going current prices.  In fact, there are even greater valuations for paper items especially if you were related to some historical person or someone famous and can prove the provenance, the history of ownership of a valued object or work, of the item.

Etsy is a popular online shop for a variety of ephemera and other types of vintage paper.  However, the prices and offerings vary by seller.  Also, as mentioned previously, you can often find original source vintage paper in various categories on Ebay.

Television shows like “The Antique Roadshow” and others often feature great stories about people finding valuable paper treasures in a dumpster or at a garage sale for a few dollars.  While these stories are more the exception rather than the rule, it pays to think twice about throwing out those circa 1950s fashion magazines or any other paper item you might find when cleaning out the garage.

You will get better prices if the condition of the item is  in “mint” condition or “like new”.  Although some yellowing is acceptable or allowed a collector should strive for vintage paper in relatively good condition.

However, even greater damage, tears or spotting are acceptable to some altered art designers it just depends what the final use of the paper will be.

You could find a local dealer who might give you a fair price for the item or try selling it on Ebay yourself.  It just might be worth your while and put a little extra paper, the green kind, in your pocket!