vintage recycling: wrapping

not exactly a novel idea, however,

still a fun and easy project!

the thing I like about making tags from

vintage greeting cards

are the wonderful details,

such as the embossed textures and colorful illustrations.

it's pretty hard to go wrong~ when you start with a beautiful old card...you will end up with something beautiful!

of course, tags can be cut by hand,

but there are so many great punches available,

it's even quicker and easier

to punch out a set!

since all the tags are cut from the same card,
they're all slightly different, yet
already perfectly
coordinated for a project,
such as a scrapbook

I punch the string holes using

a plain circle hole punch, however you
can use a little star or heart or..or...

Also, sometimes I will stamp

"to" and "from"

on the backsides; it adds a nice
finishing touch.

some tags in this set have shaved felt embellishment

line up your punch carefully to catch some pretty text ~
top middle: "Wish" bottom right "Just for You"

this pretty set, from a 1940s card, has wonderful
embossing, reminds me of barkcloth curtains

I choose to recycle cards that have damage ~ like scrapbook glue
makes me feel better about cutting them up!
I also, prefer to rip the card along the natural fold lines to make more manageable pieces to work with.

No matter which shape
you choose to punch-out,

the results are charming!

for example, these little "flower bees"with their fancy embossing and golden details,
can be used in art projects
or added to plain confetti for
a special nostalgic touch.

when you flip the punch over you
can see to line up the design however you like.

the punch designs available

are seemingly endless...
so, "bee" creative!
sorry, had to say it haha

And thennnnnn..... JUST when you think you have punched all that is punchable...

PUNCH MORE!
grab an even smaller design...
in this case a swirl...
and in every case use a regular hole punch
to gather up as many coordinating dots you can!

Don't forget to check~out
VINTAGERECYCLINGSTUDIO

https://www.bonanza.com/booths/vintagerecycling

Mom and I went junk'n recently......
junk'n with my mother is not for the faint-at-heart! Her combined energy and knowledge makes for an EPIC and INFORMATIVE day! Mom has been dealing antiques all my life and pretty much all of hers, too! We covered 4 counties, hitting 9 of our favorite thrift shops! so FUN!

like all good "JUNK BRATS" it is not uncommon to find me digging through boxes, crawling around in dusty~musty places and rescuing discarded treasures.....

here is one of my FINDS from our day of hunting.........

circa 1980s Hallmark Gold Crown wrapping paper!

The Hallmark Gold Crown is, of course, recognized worldwide and symbolizes the "very best"!
in 1949 Hallmark began using the five-point gold crown

soooo.... I was inspired to pull some more Hallmark wrapping paper examples from my ~~piles~~ collection :)

too adorable... what a Birthday cake! Happy Birthday "A Hallmark Wrapping"...original price 25 ¢

Hallmark used strips of the same printed paper to make their label and wrap around the sheets for packaging

"Brides Lace" 2 sheets 25 ¢

The Hall Brothers essentially fell into "inventing" what we think of as modern day gift wrap. In the early 1900s solid color tissue papers were used to "dress" packages. As the story goes..... the Hall Brothers ran out of this gift paper during the busy 1917 Christmas season and resorted to selling sheets of pretty decorative French envelope lining papers, which were well received by their customers and sold out quickly! The Brothers began printing their own sheets of decorative wrapping papers.