Speaking of Ephemera...

... I got some new loot!  My parents went to an auction yesterday and bought a cardboard flat FULL of old sheet music for me.  Their final bid?  A mere $5!

The flat held a four-inch-deep stack of sheet music of all types as well as many music instruction booklets and lesson sheets.  The oldest piece I found is from 1890; the newest piece is from 1971.  However, the majority of it appears to be from the first half of the 20th Century.  And a lot of it is in pretty bad shape (which is OK by me).

Who's that handsome guy in the top left corner?  Why, it's none other than Bing Crosby on a piece of sheet music from 1932.  Thanks to YouTube, you can hear Bing's version of Just an Echo in the Valley here.  Compare it to Alfalfa's version, and let me know which you like better.

These piano fingering charts will be fun to use in a collage somewhere, don't you think?

The only "modern" piece in the lot was this instruction booklet for the Tonette, Flutophone, or Recorder.  It's from 1971, which means I very well could have used this in elementary school music class.  I'm tempted to buy myself a recorder and learn a few songs!  A local music store has tons of recorders to choose from, and they are very reasonably priced.  But first, I need to figure out the best way to store this stuff.  The smaller pieces that are in better condition can go into a hanging file folder.  The larger items that are more fragile may have to stay in the flat; I think that will be the safest place for them.

I hope you're having a good weekend!  Thanks for dropping by.

Scrap Tag Cards

A couple of weeks ago I made several tags out of the scraps left on my craft table.  You can see the original posts about the tags here and here.  At the time I didn't have any specific plans for them, but today I used several on the fronts of some RAK cards I wanted to mail this month.

I started by selecting the card base.  Usually I make my own, but I've had these colorful square cards in my stash for several years now and decided it was time to use them.  (My mom and I are having a garage sale this weekend, so I've been cleaning out closets and drawers.  In the process I was reminded of all the art and craft supplies I have, and I've made a vow to get busy using them!)

I pulled some sheet music out of the scrap pile and then found a piece of patterned paper to coordinate with each tag and card base.  The final step was to die-cut the words and add ribbon to the tag.  I included instructions with each card that the tag can be removed and used as a bookmark, or the recipients can just leave the tag on the card.

I had so much outgoing happy mail today that I had to put it in a plastic bag and clip it to the mailbox!  Won't my mailman be thrilled?  I sometimes wonder what he thinks of all the artsy mail coming and going from this house.  I hope he enjoys it as much as I do.

Thanks for popping by!  Have a fabulous weekend.

Supplies:
5.5 x 5.5 cards by DCWV; vintage sheet music; miscellaneous patterned paper; die-cut words by Little Yellow Bicycle; black cardstock; miscellaneous ribbon and hem tape.  See links above to original posts for the supplies list for the tags.