Vintage Ephemera: Old Trade Cards

So there I was, salivating all over the vintage ephemera over on Winterthur Digital Collections and pinning like a crazy woman when "it" happened!

Winterthur trade cards page 7

This is that moment when panic grips you, literally cutting off your air supply because you've just realize that all the images you so carefully selected to pin are bringing up a "page not found" error when clicked. *insert the sound bite to any scary movie theme here*

Winterthur trade cards page 5

"That sinking "oh shit" feeling slowly settles over you like nausea because you know you have to go back, page by page to find EVERY image all over again and figure out how to link them properly. You do this because unlike others, you're a conscientious pinner and like any reputable pinner, you care about others being able to get back to the original source. . . right?

Winterthur trade cards page 11

You go back to the source and find the URL info posted (in fine print) directly above the image. Great! This will be easy, time consuming, but easy . . . that is until you realize AFTER you've relinked everything that you still haven't learned your lesson about testing the first one before you move on to all the others.

Winterthur trade cards page 4

Yep! You guessed it. That was an exercise in futility because the new link still resulted in the same "page not found" error which is why I created this post. I can post and pin the images from here and keep the integrity of the original source.

Winterthur trade cards page 186

All that being said, feel free to grab the images by clicking and downloading them directly from Winterthur. This way I don't deprive you of the opportunity to see what other tasty morsels this site may have to offer you. Enjoy!

Note: The images posted here have the background edited out along with some size modifications otherwise the images themselves remain unaltered.

Botanical Prints and the Ephemeral Re-org

Ever find that your Pinterest boards end up taking on a life you never intended for them? How do you a browse and find a proper botanical print for your next collage project when you have to wade through a smorgasbord of 1,600 images of all things ephemera?

almond blossom botanical print

It's called a re-org which is short for reorganization. It's true, I'm a bit of a Pinterest junkie. The dangerous part of this equation is that I could be looking for a flower and see a really great image of an apple. Here's what happens next.

pink mushroom botanical print

When my first exposure to this image is a source that wants me to pay for it, obsession takes its grip. I've now made it my personal mission to find that image thereby raising the level of the desire-o-meter from mere "like it and want it" to "no way in hell will I live without it."

deutsche pomologie

Since I know that images dated in the 19th century or earlier are going to fall somewhere in the public domain, it then becomes a personal challenge for me to find a copy of it free of watermarks and in a respectably useable size.

lily of the valley

Much of the time I am successful however I don't recommend this method because it not only sucks up time like a Hoover but 400 pins and half a day later you now need a new board that you never imagined you'd need before today.

vintage rose ephemera

Does anyone else out there do this or is it a Virgo thing? Ha! At any rate, please enjoy the images and if you get a moment, stop by and visit my Botanical Ephemera and Prints board on Pinterest.

Vintage Baby Fun

Just to do something fun and different today I'm posting this vintage baby ephemera. I have no idea where it came from but it seems to be one of my more popular candidates for repinning on Pinterest.

vintage baby girl in pink illustration

Hope you will enjoy and if you know the original source, please let me know so that I might give proper credit here. Happy Tuesday!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I'm not Mexican nor does that heritage exist anywhere in my ancestry but who doesn't love a great reason to eat yummy food and drink tasty margaritas?

via GipsyParlour on Twitter

Here's hoping your celebrations are happy and fun. In keeping with the vintage theme, here's a bit of vintage Cinco de Mayo ephemera.

Vintage Script Tissue Paper

I'm currently in the process of designing a vintage style line of downloadable envelopes and cards which took my thought process down a path that seems to be fast becoming a lost art in the digital age, or is it? Who knew that old letters beautifully written in a calligraphic hand would become fodder for the digital and image transfer artist only decades later?

Miss Maggie's homemade script tissue paper

Maggie of Little Miss Maggie came up with this clever way of breathing a bit of creative life into the printed versions of your digital ephemera. Printing them on colored tissue paper is easier than you might think using your ink jet printer. It's been years since I have done this but all you need is a bit of tape to secure your tissue paper on to a piece of standard copy paper and voilà!

Vintage Ephemera Freebie

Speaking of public domain, I was recently introduced to Ackermann's Repository which was a British periodical published from 1809 to 1829. It contains beautiful illustrations some of which I hope to present to you in the near future.

vintage ephemera freebie - no collage sheets please
click to download at full size

In the meantime, this is a portion of text extracted from one of the volumes. I have cropped it, distressed the edges to give it an aged look, added text and changed the color. I'll be using this in a couple of projects later this week but feel free to grab a copy of it now.

page from Ackermann's Repository

The unaltered text as it originally appeared in the Ackermann's Repository appears above. This is yours to alter and do with as you please. Idea: text is great to cut your corset templates from or for adding layering effects in collage projects. Enjoy!

Okay to Copyright Public Domain Images?

If you're a collage artist using public domain images in your work, eventually you're bound to hear from the morality police if you blog long enough. These would be those gutless, anonymously commenting, cowards who have somehow made it their business to point out the error of your plagiaristic ways but is it plagiarism?

What does public domain mean? The below is extracted directly from Wikipedia, one of the largest online resources for public domain material. Further explanation can be found by reading the article Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States.

The public domain is generally defined (e.g. by the U.S. Copyright Office) as the sum of works that are not copyrighted, i.e.

• that were not eligible for copyright in the first place, or
• whose copyright has expired, or
• that were released into the public domain by the copyright holder

That said, what can you do with public domain works? Public domain means the work is 100% free for use, including private and commercial use. Let me tell you, writers do this all the time. Some of those self help books you're so fond of reading? Yep, altered public domain material. This also means that the average Jane can shamelessly slather unaltered, public domain images with a copyright or watermark and claim it as her own.

original, unaltered vintage ephemera

The perfume image above can currently be found on at least two blogs. Altered Artifacts claims full copyright to her image while Vintage Feedsacks offers this public domain image to us to use as we please. I guess that would include digital downloads of any kind. Hmmm . . . Which one should I choose? I've seen Etsy sellers offer collage sheets for sale that are filled with unaltered, public domain images that I've been able to find on Wikimedia. Guess what? Like it or not, it's legal!

From my observations, the internet is riddled with similar examples and all are considered legal in the United States although one could argue that the former example is considered plagiarism since it is unaltered and the original source is not cited.

Anywho, if others can can claim copyright and/or sell their unaltered public domain images, I'm certainly not going to suddenly get religion about altering public domain images and incorporating them into a nicely designed and yes, original piece of digital collage. It's not for anyone else to decide how they, you or I should use the public domain images so keep calm and collage with confidence my friends. :)

Your Jam Wants Digital Collage

Are your jams, preserves, Halloween potions and elixirs looking a little stodgy these days? Why not dress em up with labels in french, cottage chic style.  Who says Halloween has to be full of orange and black anyway? I'm not particularly fond of fall colors so it's gonna be spring all year here at Kell Belle Studio. Yeah!

digital collage vintage inspired french labels

Okay, I may create a Halloween style corset or maybe even something a little vampire-ish but that's it! That's where I draw the line! (tee hee :) That said, I've created these digital collage vintage inspired french labels because I just know that brocante home of yours can't get enough pretty into it. Enjoy!

Free Vintage Lavender Bouquet

Lavender bouquets make handy little pieces of ephemera to have around. I downloaded this vintage lavender graphic from the Graphics Fairy.

free vintage lavender image

Sometimes you just need a lavender bouquet ya know?!  I altered the original for use on a sachet packet I'm making for the corset diaries journal.

click free vintage lavender image to enlarge

Voilà! A pretty Lavender bouquet. You are free to use this image in your digital or mixed media art for sale however, due to the work I put into this, my terms of use apply.

Note: Terms of Use are located in the left sidebar toward the top of the page.

Pinterest Repin Etiquette

It has come to my attention that there are some who have embarked on a mass repinning of {my} (I have to use this term loosely) Pinterest finds. What I mean by heavily is 50 to 150 items at a time. Should I be offended by this? Haha! I'm afraid the jury is still out at the moment.

kell belle studio on pinterest

In the first place, most of these items/photos aren't even mine. I'm simply electronically hoarding photos of other people's great stuff so why then do I feel just a little bit robbed of my individuality? It's completely illogical because I should be thanking you and I am . . . kinda.

more Kell Belle Studio goodness on Pinterest

Here's the thing, I guess I wouldn't mind so much if the 150 items being repinned were actually MY items. This means items I have either offered for sale or for free. Really! My sidebar says I have great boards. I guess I wasn't kidding. :)

you've just got to visit Kell Belle on Pinterest

The screen shots are images of my most popular boards. So yes, here I am advertising that fact so I can get some more mass repinners. Am I a walking paradox of myself or what? What the hell, go crazy and pin away. You know you wanna so come check me out. (tee hee ;)