The Paper Girl

Antique & Vintage Ephemera Since 2019

A Beautiful Victorian Calling Card

This week, as I was digging around on my external hard drive, I found something I knew you all would adore.

free victorian calling card graphic

When calling cards cross my desk, they’re usually in big batches—I have two little boxes FULL of them, for example—so I’m not sure how this one wound up separated from the pack!

Disembodied hands show up quite often in old calling cards, as do florals. Each card would be left somewhere to inform someone that they had a visitor, and designs ranged from the simple “signature on a rectangle of heavy paper” to “specialty printed graphic with shiny gold details” and everything in-between.

A deep dive into the world of the Victorian calling card is due, I think, but not today. For now, enjoy this transparent PNG—and if you’d like to download it at a much higher resolution (8″ x 4.5″ instead of 4″ x 2″) while supporting my work, you can find that file by clicking into my shop.

Thank you for joining me, I’ll be in touch again soon.

xoxo,

signed, missie

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6 Blank Postcards for Crafts & Collage

These 6 blank postcards are from my stash and are perfect for collaging. Download each, assemble as many as you want or need on a page, and print—or make digital collages. After all, mini-collages make great junk journal ephemera and are so easy to make.

a blank postcard from bamforth

The first piece in this batch was printed by Bamforth & Co., Ltd., in England. It came from a lot of postcards that were up for sale in an antique shop, at one point, hence the price in pencil. This format has a separated ‘address’ and ‘message’ area, though not labeled as such, and bears the Bamforth logo.

blank postcard by pc paris

P-C Paris is short for Papeteries de Levallois–Clichy, which was a postcard company that produced a variety of real photo postcards during the 1920s. I’m very weak for old postcards featuring pretty ladies, so, of course have a handful of their pin-ups in my collection. Their photography is gorgeous.

blank souvenir postcard

Age has faded the hell out of this Souvenir Post Card, but leaves us with more than enough to appreciate—like the decorative element under the title. Most of my postcards come from the 1920s, and that line is very typical of the era’s style.

Believe it or not, Toronto had a lot of postcard-makers and printing companies, many of which you won’t find information about unless you’re able to dig in places where I can’t.

PECO, a.k.a. The Photogelatine Engraving Co., started off in Ottawa, opened a Toronto office, and then moved all operations to Toronto starting in 1947. The company closed in 1954.

If you’re interested in the history of Canadian postcard companies, I suggest perusing the site for the Toronto Postcard Club… which I desperately need to sit down and scour.

The above card was also made in Canada and shows a lot of age. This format is used on a lot of RPPCs—most of my old Canadian postcards have this backing, I think.

vintage blank pe co postcard

Our last piece today is another from PECO, this time out of their Ottawa offices. Note the maple leaf logo! That’s how you know they’re Canadian. 😉

Thanks for joining me again! Stay tuned for more news and views from The Paper Girl.

signed, missie

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Vintage Happy Birthday Card for Mom

Today’s graphic is a vintage happy birthday card for mom, though it’s way more formal than that. Reading it makes me feel like a small Victorian-era child.

I have been a most agreeable child, Mother.

Why does presenting mom with a flower-filled water well feel a bit like a threat? Something might be wrong with me. It’s certainly pretty.

Since I’m not capable of leaving well enough alone, I knocked the center out and turned the teal bit into its own frame. Is this useful? No idea. You’re welcome.

The vintage wishing well graphic makes for a nice addition to a spring junk journal, if you’re so inclined! My favourite part of this greeting card is just how detailed this gold segment is—and that it’s all done by hand.

Since I haven’t done anything even a little bit creative in a while, I thought, “what the heck, why not” and set myself a time limit of 15 minutes, so I could show you all an example of how you can use these files. I chose the gold frame and a vintage photograph from my collection.

vintage photograph of a woman standing next to a car. This photo is set within a gold frame graphic from a greeting card.
Click to open at full size in a new tab.

I’m learning how to use Affinity and, so far, the learning curve isn’t too bad—a lot of the shortcuts are the same as Photoshop.

Stay tuned for more vintage graphics, and don’t forget to show me what you’ve made!

signed, missie

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