Your Grandmother's Post Cards

I collect ephemera which is a fancy word for vintage paper and other bits and pieces that should not have survived the passing of time. Things that are ephemeral and fleeting. Things like photographs, ticket stubs, calling cards, old games and parts...which should logically have been tossed into the trash long ago, but thankfully and inexplicably have survived. I remember the first time I found a vintage magazine. It was hiding in a drawer in a house I was renting. Opening those pages, it was like being transported back to the 1940s. Truly magical.

I have a decent sized collection of turn of the century postcards from the US and Paris. Most of them are not of the highest condition quality, but that doesn't matter to me because I use the images for crafting. Yesterday I scanned a particularly charming Easter card and extracted the main image using a series of erasers and other tools in Photoshop. It is not a stellar job, but it worked for the card I was creating for a manufacturer. I added some cheeky text, which those of you who have been following so far are seeing as a theme. I'm a writer, I can't help myself!

I am suddenly seriously smitten with card making. It's such fun to take something old and marry it with new tools and papers and make something new. I don't know if anyone other than my family gets what I'm doing here, but that's okay. I trust my instincts. Making your own cards is a really fabulous way to recycle and to save money, have you seen how much cards cost? Good grief.

I have a free tutorial for making this image into a card over on my website today. Feel free to visit! If you'd like to play with this image, you may download it. FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. We're working hard behind the scenes on a new site with lots of fun goodies like this for you to buy and use in your creations! Stay tuned!

xoxo
Madge