vintage paper

Hello and happy weekend – it's Jen here, with a little paper goodness for you this week! There's something extra special about the feel and the smell and the charm of old paper. Lay your eyes upon the loveliness...

gorgeous paper art by Sarah Morpeth

Kate Greenaway paper dress ...

... and wellingtons by Jennifer Collier

vintage paper butterflies...

heart strings...

and birds found here

and desktop wallpaper from Free People.

And now I'd like to introduce our most fantastic guest girl with the most fantastic vintage paper collection ever.

Jamaica Edgell. Her craftiness can be found at the Dares and also all over her blog, where you can check out her gorgeous quilts and pillows, paper projects, design and home decor ideas. The girl has style.

Included in her vast collection are vintage Pantone posters, flash cards, and a gorgeous variety of old ledger papers. The items above and below can be found in her Etsy shop. If you want to get your hands on some of the amazing papers from her personal stash, be sure to check out the Duly Noted notebooks she makes. They're truly awesome.

And here's Jamaica's stunning and totally inspiring project! (You won't believe your eyes – you may have to look twice...)

Jamaica says: "I hoard vintage paper but never, ever use it for fear of ruining it. I wanted to make a pillow with old ledger paper but never quite figured it out until now. All my favorite pieces – ledger paper, flash cards, seed labels, packaging and graph paper – were scanned in, carefully measured for my design and then printed on color inkjet fabric sheets.

Once I heat set and rinsed them for colorfastness they became stitchable pieces of vintage paper. Albeit slightly stiffer than regular fabric, they've allowed me to actually sew with my favorite papers. And, use them over and over again since the originals remain intact."

(AMAZING... say it with me... just brilliant! And beautiful.)

and here's my little paper projects...

I used sheets of notebook paper from these three old steno notebooks (that I found at Goodwill for 25 cents each) to make the inner pages for a small notebook that I will probably keep in my bag.

The cover is a cool old postcard that I picked up at a local antique shop. I bound it using glue and heavy cardstock. Then I used the same steno paper to cut (with an xacto) a few "hello's" to make some little notecards. Simple but nice to have on hand.

Hope this leaves you inspired to try something new with something old this weekend!
Maybe even sewing with paper. ;)
xo - jen