Merry Christmas!

Make your own Vintage Custom Christmas Card - Free Printable

I have several personalized Christmas cards from the 1940's-1960's. I love seeing the pictures chosen and the old vintage illustrations, many often handmade. I'm guessing that people bought them from a local photography studio. Some, of course, have clip art and were bought as a template from the photo stores or mail order companies.

I thought it would be fun to make these available to you to use to make your own "vintage" custom Christmas card (these are all actually flats). You could print them and send them or you could just use it as a web post or ecard.

This first card is from 1951 and it has spots for three pictures. It could be a family or kids or pets or a trio of friends. I love how sweetly the boy in this photo is holding his orange cat.

The first thing to do is to download the template. Make sure you download the original size.

Then crop the images you need in a squarish size and fit in squares (the size is roughly 300x300 in 300 dpi).  Then change your images to black and white, add a little sepia and a little noise so it matches the card more. Or you could leave them without the changes, it's up to you. 

I did a couple of samples to see how it looks. The first TV show I thought of that had three people is the show Ben and Kate. It's a new show this fall and I like it a lot. It's about a sister and brother living together and raising her daughter. So I did one for them. Then I did one of just pets because they're cute.

                                

The next one I did was meant for an image of a house or family picture. I like the idea of having an image of a house (of course, I would). Especially if you're sending it to people who know and miss that house or if you recently moved.

This card was sent in 1958 and there was a long message on the back saying the house had been in the family since 1884.  This card has deckle edges. You might want to crop them out and reproduce them on the computer or with fancy edge scissors. As long as the image you use is covering the white square it'll look good. That image size is 823x835 300 dpi. But, of course it could be a bit bigger.

The original size image is here.

Here is a sample that I did with an image that a friend recently posted of their new home. I did all the adjustments to this as with the other one.

I spent probably too much time on this, but you know, sometimes you want to do something just to do it. I hope that some of you might find some use for it. If you use it, I'd love to see what you do. 

Happy Holiday Season!

Vintage Color Palettes - Happier Holidays

Isn't this just the dreamiest mid-century holiday scene. I love this beautiful little advertising brochure for the Taylor Wine Company. You can see more of it on my blog post at The Cedar Chest. Pink was a real popular color for Christmas in the late 50's and early 60's. 

The hex color codes are from top to bottom: e53e71, f687a3, 8db2c1, 803f63

Fat Positive Gifts and Cards - from Vintage Postcards

It's hard to find art and products that show illustrations or images of women who aren't thin. I've written about this before and how I think it's really important to seek out fat positive body images and display them in your space. I decided this year to add to the small amount of offerings of fat positive images and since I am no artist, I decided to use my collection of vintage fat postcards.

I've been collecting fat comic postcards from the 1900's to the 1950's for many years now. There are many that are negative (most of these I don't buy), but also there are many that I see as positive. Postcards with sexy fat ladies with pin-up looks or smiling happy fat folks with positive messages. Did they mean them positively? I choose to think that they did. Usually the fat people are happy and sexy and the people around them seem to enjoy their company. These all seem to point to a positive message.  And you know, even if the artists who drew these images were trying to be negative, I don't care -  I am claiming them with pride as fat positive messages from the past! I refuse to think that vintage postcards that talk about the virtues of having more of a large lady to love was meant as anything other than the truth.

I've created a small line of cards and gifts using these vintage images. You can get greeting cards, magnets or prints (matted or unmatted) in the shop now. You also have the option of choosing which cards or print you want.  I hope you enjoy this collection of vintage fat images and that they can give your day a little lift.

New Crafty Item in Shop - "You're so good lookin'"

I've had this project in mind for almost a year now and I finally did it. It was fun to break out the gocco printer again. If you're not clear on why these hankies have this saying on it, let me me explain.

In a Seinfeld episode called "The Good Samaritan" George gets in some trouble for saying "God bless you" to a married woman who sneezes. While they are discussing it, Jerry says 

"If you want to make a person feel better after they sneeze, you shouldn't say 'God bless you.' You should say 'You're so good looking!'"

So, with this episode in mind (Um, yeah, I watch a lot of old sitcoms) I did some printing on these vintage handkerchiefs. It's a great inside joke for any Seinfeld friend and just a nice compliment for anyone. They can keep in their pocket or hang on the wall. Many of the hankies are so pretty it's a shame to hide them. You can find them in the shop now.

I hope you all like them, too. It's been so long since I've made a craft to sell, I'm nervous about it! 

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Vintage Color Palettes - Sheridan Road

Sometimes when I'm doing some task I come across a postcard that overwhelms me with the colors and I have to do a vintage color palette right away. That's what just happened to me when I found this linen postcard from Sheridan Road, a road that goes through many towns along Lake Michigan.

We've had lots of yellow and oranges this fall here in Portland, But, I haven't seen as many reds. Still it is, of course, beautiful. This color palette is the quintessential fall palette, the vintage part of it is the colors are a little dustier, a little different from what you would see now. If you're interested in the hex code numbers, they are from left to right: bb3610, d5c122, 8c2f2b, 455c2e

Vintage Color Palettes - Pilgrims

I was scanning this postcard to post for sale on The Cedar Chest and was overcome with the colors. I love these colors and love them together. You would see these color combos a lot in the 1940's bark-cloth fabrics (which is when this postcard was made) but you seldom see them anymore, especially together. I don't care that they're not popular anymore. I like them. I mean, really, don't we all need some nice rich maroon in our lives.

To find out more about this card and who thee pilgrims are, check out the listing on The Cedar Chest.

The hex color codes are from top to bottom: 843f3d, 9fa431, 415c67, ece3d9

October in the Railroad Earth

Stopped at the train tracks today on a golden October afternoon. I took pictures of the train and immediately thought of the Kerouac prose piece October in the Railroad Earth.

It's about his days working on the railroad in San Francisco, which he often calls Frisco (I think he was the last person allowed to call it Frisco). His time on the railroads didn't really last too long, like most of the stuff he did, but, like a good writer, he got lots of material out of it.

THERE WAS A LITTLE ALLEY IN SAN FRANCISCO back of the Southern Pacific station at Third and Townsend in redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons with everybody at work in offices in the air you feel the impending rush of their commuter frenzy as soon they'll be charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings on foot and in buses and all well-dressed thru workingman Frisco of Walkup ?? truck drivers and even the poor grime-bemarked Third Street of lost bums even Negroes so hopeless and long left East and meanings of responsibility and try that now all they do is stand there spit- ting in the broken glass sometimes fifty in one afternoon against one wall at Third and Howard and here's all these Millbrae and San Carlos neat-necktied producers and commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San Francisco Chronicles and green Call-Bulletins not even enough time to be disdainful, they've got to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above the following hotshot freight trains-it's all in California, it's all a sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my jeans with head on handkerchief on brakeman's lantern or (if not working) on book, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and have insane conversations with Negroes in several-story windows above and everything is pouring in, the switching moves of boxcars in that little alley which is so much like the alleys of Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine calling our mountains.

That's the first paragraph. 

I've had Kerouac and the Beats in my head because I am currently cleaning out my storage unit and I have boxes filled with many books on Kerouac and the Beat Generation writers. Most of them were bought in the Bay area in the 80's and 90's. I am selling some on The Cedar Chest shop right now and will probably list more soon.

I remember one night around 1995. I had been reading Carolyn Cassady's memoir of her time with Neal and Jack (It's called Off the Road and I remember it being one of the best books I'd read about that time) and one night I had a particularly vivid dream that I was there in that apartment hanging out all night with Jack, Carolyn and Neal, drinking, dancing and taking pictures. The one scene I remember the most was Jack sitting on the floor cross legged (I was standing up looking down at him) in a light blue-grey sweatshirt and he just wouldn't shut up. He was really obnoxious.

Vintage Color Palettes - Reveries

In the midst of the beginning of fall I am bringing you this pretty spring vintage postcard. Such a lovely image and the colors are awesome.  There's no date or writing on this postcard, but I would guess it is from around 1910.

If you're interested in the hex color codes for this they are from top to bottom: f99975, da4045, f9c7e0, a2bf63

the monster

There are a number of people or groups that I am and have always been interested in. Every couple of years my obsession will get rekindled and I will delve into it again. One of these deep interests is Mary Shelley, her family, friends, influences and of course, her book, Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelly was 16 when she met Percy Bysshe Shelley, an already married man of 21. They had an affair and then he left his wife for her.

At the age of 19 on a June night, Mary, Percy, John Polidori and Lord Byron were staying at a country estate and there was a terrific storm. Byron suggested they all write scary stories. That night Mary conceived of Frankenstein (and Polidori started the first book on Vampires).

Instead of reading Frankenstein again, which I do sometimes when the itch hits me, this year I'm reading a new to me book about "the curse" of Frankenstein and that night called The Monsters: Mary Shelly and the Curse of Frankenstein.

This book basically tells the story of all involved that night, including the back story of their parents and upbringing. Mary was the daughter of famous political writers, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Both parents believed in the full rights of women. They didn't believe in marriage and encouraged open relationships  Godwin also believed that women and men were not supposed to live together. He felt that each person's privacy and peace was more important.

It's been many, many years since I read the biography of Mary Shelley, and I'm sure I've forgotten most if it. I'm only still at the beginning of the books but so far I have already read some pretty crazy stuff.  For example: When Mary's mother was dying after she gave birth to her, they thought her milk was poisoning her and put puppies on her breasts to drain the milk. Um, what?

Frankenstein is about so much more than most people think and certainly much more political and deep than the movies show. I recently saw The Bride of Frankenstein and it always breaks my heart when the Doctor just walks away and despises his creation. This to me is the one of the big lessons of Frankenstein. Responsibility. Mary was writing in part about the Industrial Revolution and the fear that machines would take over the work of people. But, there is so much more to this novel.

My obsession right now with Frankenstein has, of course, also resulted in a Frankenstein Pinterest board, too. Some neat images are there. Check it out.