Funky Junque Chronicles Issue #1 : Vintage Pick O' the Week Crafty Ephemera by ShaneLilyRain

Being a "Retro Gal", I plan to report in every so often in a series called "Funky Junque Chronicles" where I will highlight cool vintage fings that may interest you. These items are high quality, and bargain priced.

I'm constantly surfing the web as a bargain shopper for all things vintage. Buying vintage is in itself IS a way of going green. Purchasing pre-owned items for display or use is a great way to recycle and keep items out of the landfill. There are also endless ways to repurpose or using vintage items for all types of arts and crafts. This is also a fun way to teach kids how to recycle, giving them craft projects made from old junque!

In my travels, I stumbled upon a shop on Etsy called ShaneLilyRain. She is out of Missouri, and her store is full of vintage items, ephemera, and craft supplies.

Here are a few of my favorite items that she offers:

1) VINTAGE BOOKS: ShaneLilyRain offers vintage books with great images. Some priced as low as $3, but most average $5-$6. For the DIY Retro Girl, these can be used to make greeting cards, gift tags, or collages . *I also love attaching a retro note or tag to cookies or that special baked item for your friends or family, oh so Martha!*

For this price you can save money by making your own items, and keep your kids busy for hours. If you have a button maker, kids could stay busy punching out retro images for buttons out of the old picture books. Nothing like a little "occupied play time".

2) VINTAGE EPHEMERA PACKS: If you don't have time to rip the pages out of old books, but need some cool paper ephemera in a jiffy, why not buy one of this seller's "PAPER PACKS" that already contain great images hand bundled and ready to go? With an average price of only $6 for 40 pieces, these bundles may contain assortments of black and white photos, flashcards, postage stamps, cards, maps, road atlas pages, dictionary pages, insect pages, tree guide pages, illustrations, magazine clippings from the 1930's to 1950's era, and postcards.

Additionally she sells assortments of playing/flash cards, magazine images, and bundles of old post cards too.

3) PRE-PUNCHED TAGS OR PAPER CUT-OUTS: Let's say you have no time to punch out tags or make paper cut ours of your ephemera packs...I understand. NO WORRIES! This seller once again has you covered. She has already repurposed the items for you. For an average of $3 a bundle, she offers all shape and sizes pre-punched paper tags and shaped to cover your every need. As of today, a 50 piece pre-punched dictionary tag set is available for a bargain price of only $2.75 per bundle.

She also features other punch outs and tags including maps, old children's book tags, round sheet music punchouts and heart shaped punch outs. If your comes with a hole, simply add string and voila, your tag is ready. Use these when giving cookies, handmade goodies, gift tags, or at the holidays. If you purchase an item without a hole, a quick press of the hole punch solves that problem.

4) VINTAGE FABRIC, FINDINGS, BUTTONS, ETC. This seller also offers a variety of all these items, including old plastic buttons. A great mish-mosh of coolness for the do it yourself-r.

NITTY GRITTY SUMMARY:

Items are all bargain priced, and new items are updated often. It's no wonder stock flies out of this store. It's no wonder that in only six months from the time her store opened, she had over 670 sales, that's a lot of paper punching. In addition to that, all customers gave her 100% happy feedback. WOW. Welcome to pleasantville.

With bargain prices and useful items, who wouldn't love this shop? Her profile mentions her husband also sells on Etsy, under RichterFineArt, whom offers art prints and original art in a variety of prices.

So, my vintage pick of the week, is ShaneLilyRain. Thanks for doing your part in keeping the world alive with vintage and repurposed goods.