Vintage Ephemera Wall Art

I’m at it again with the paper and books. I’ve got so many old ones lying around that I’m constantly trying to come up with new things to do with them. This time around I’ve used several old book covers as “frames” to hold old postcards as well as “collections” of clipped etchings from old encyclopedias and the like. Flipping through an old encyclopedia it occurred to me that it might be fun to group like etchings together. So I’ve done that with birds, insects, sea animals, etc… What emerges is a piece of art that seems to be an educational aid like you would find hanging in an old school house.

I’ve also used some great old postcards. I really like to come across the antique postcard books that are from a specific area, Italy is always fun, so is France. I found a set of 24 in a booklet from Versailles a while back and have used some of those for these items. There is even one of the Eiffel Tower.




The construction on these is pretty simple. It boils down to ripping the covers and backs off of old unused books. Personally I like using the good and abused books for this. The wear and tear on them adds great character as do the ink and water stains that appear on several of them. I like to layer them to give it more of a frame and matt kind of look. I just use wood glue to hold those together, I also use it to stick the postcard in place. If I’m doing a menagerie of etchings I like to use good ol’ Mod Podge.




Once I have them all glued together I like using the ends of old flatware bent into a “U” shape has clamps for the tops. I then run strips of fabric trimmings through them to use as a hanger. These look great on a wall or hanging off of a door knob. I would guess you could easily make them into OPEN and CLOSED signs for shops to hang in the window.




Please email me at cj@theupcycler.com if you have an interest in purchasing one of these. I can let you know what themes I have available and the sizes. I can also do custom hangings, all I need is a theme and size requirement.