Thinking about ephemera…

I don’t know about you, but I am an ephemera junkie. We go out to eat, I keep the kids menu, and often the receipt.  We go to the theatre, I keep the playbill, the ticket, and most times the coaster from the restaurant we had dinner at before the show.

However, there are often times that I seek out things to buy as ephemera, and use in my scrapbooking.  A great time to do this in when you are on vacation!  We recently took a trip to England, and I was on the look out for things I could use in my scrapbooking of the trip.  We started in London, and I found postcards and stamps!  Stamps that were little versions of the postcards they were selling in the gift shop!  And, buttons.  Well, buttons that you would pin on, but still…  I saw flair.LO: Prime Meridian

However, it is always a challenge to bring this ephemera home and make it into the perfect layout.  I mean really.  I came home with 4 small boxes full of paper.  Maps, post cards, buttons, receipts, books.  All things that could really help me describe my trip.  But honestly, it was overwhelming.

So, I started going through it all, and found some great, really graphic, ephemera pieces from the Prime Meridian.  I said to myself, this is a great place to start your book.  The post card really stuck out as the perfect title.  Really, it is awesome, and I had the matching pin (now with pin removed), and the admission ticket, also really graphic.  So, I found pictures of us straddling the Prime Meridian, and things just fell into place.  I just love that.

But sometimes, it’s not that easy.

LO: One Grand Adventure, ClosedOne of the things that I do when I’m traveling is write myself post cards.  That way, I have a perfect picture of the place we visited, and fresh journaling, that describes what was going on right then and there.  When I was on my last vacation, I sent 2 – 3 postcards daily.  (It’s so much fun getting all that mail as well!)

One of the best postcards I bought was from the London Monument for the 1666 fire of London.  It shows how big it really was when it was built, and really commemorates the intention of the monument.  I popped that sucker in the mail, talking about how I thought I was going to DIE as we walked up the 311 steps straight up that monument.  I didn’t want to lose that journaling, but I really wanted to use that post card.  So, I grabbed a 5×7 page protector, and the post card basically fit inside without trimming.

LO: One Grand Adventure, OpenI placed it where I thought I wanted it, and just worked around it, picking pictures that told how scared I was, and how high up we were.  Then, I put a picture of what the monument looks like today, UNDER where the post card would go.  I then secured the small page protector to hide the picture of the monument now with the post card of it then.  Now, I can flip that post card up, see my journaling, and what things look like now.  I thought it worked out perfectly!

I have so much more to show you about using ephemera.  I also can’t wait to hear about how you are using ephemera in your crafting!  Have a great weekend!

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