(I'm sorry about the font/size change in the middle of this article. I've tried everything to fix it outside of retyping the entire thing.)
Ok, hear me out.
I know what you're saying.
"Why the f*** would I want an ephemera pack that is school themed?
I'll tell you why...its what you're already buying - except all in one place!
Lots of those vintage ephemera packs come with old report cards, flash cards, school work, etc. I know this as I have sold lots of those kits including those things!
This kit has a lot of the stuff I love to play with. It has blank school work pages, flashcards, report cards, game cards, textbook pages, library cards, attendance cards, grade records, etc. The only thing I forgot (I got a little carried away with all of this stuff!) was yearbook pages/images. I know, I know...how the hell did I forget that? Like I said...I got carried away. They'll be in the next round, I promise!
Flash Cards
I need to explain the flashcards...
There are a lot of vintage flashcards and there are newer ones. Some of the newer ones are ones I got on big sheets from the school. They were painted on laserjet so they will take dyes and stains pretty well. I didn't dye them because I figured the recipient could color them the way they'd like.
Some of the other non-vintage ones are phonics, money-counting, time-telling, etc. You might look at them and wonder what you will do with them so I thought I'd give you some help...
First thing you want to do is crinkle them up a bunch of times. Get some good creases in those bad boys.
Then ink all those creases with whatever inks you have - distress, regular black inks, etc. Ink those creases.
The crinkling/inking helps remove some of the gloss finish that remains on these newer cards and the ink masks the rest of the newness.
If you don't like the images on them, fold them into a pocket and embellish it. If nothing else, they are a good sturdy card that will work as a journal card (collaged) or pocket (folding one edge halfway up the card to create a library pocket-type thing).
Different Pages
I have dyed a lot of the pages - I did them a while ago and they came out really nice so I thought I'd share!
There are some sort of agenda/planner-type pages that are larger than the average piece of paper. There are also dyed school work pages from some sort of vintage elementary assessment book - so the style pages are unlike any school books I've ever seen. (pictured under the flash cards)
I've also included dyed and white library cards. So you can color the white ones however you want - or use them as they are!
There are grade book pages - no need to dye those! I included the folios so you can use them in a signature fairly easily. The pages are perforated on the ends, also, so there's a removable piece of each page.
And the arithmetic folios came out of a softcover vintage textbook that was very brittle and fragile due to the long life it lived with a soft cover! You can see those in the picture underneath the report card. I don't think any of the report cards are COMPLETE report cards but they are pretty awesome as they are.
So, after reading through what is included in these packs, I'm sure you are saying to yourself "oh, yeah, I see those in ephemera packs." Or, "oh yeah, I use those as journal pages." Seeee?! Now do you understand why I put them all in one place?
So, go check out my Collage Ephemera Collection here on my website and get you an awesome pack that I'm sure you will get good use out of!
https://thechadwickrose.com/collections/collage-ephemera
Thanks and Happy Crafting!
~M