Thrifty Scissors: December 2013

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Quality Valentine Links!

More links will be added in February;
then the 100 will be restored.

Crafting Handmade Valentine Cards:

Valentine Clip Art:

Calligraphy for Valentines:

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Valentine Cards and more cards here and cookie!
Happy Valentine's Day Calligraphy - demonstration by Caitlin Dundon
Valentine's Day Lettering - the "flourishing Script"
Valentine Calligraphy by Xandra Zamora
Romantic Handmade Valentines
Letters by Martina Flor
Valentine by Teakster

The Heart Matters:

Learn more about vinegar Valentines here.

Scrappin' Your Valentines:

Milagro Valentines:

Craft Your Own Valentine Gift Boxes and Wraps:

How to make a petite gift box for your Valentine
love notes jar
Fabric valentine candy cones by Thimbleanna
"see through" Valentines
Piano Valentine Craft (printable & tutorial) from Joy Morin
DIY Candy Filled Heart Box for 18 Inch Dolls

Decorating For Valentine's Day:

Learn more about manufactured Valentines here.

Valentine Crafts and Gifts: Textiles, Beads, Needlepoint

Valentine Tree & Apron 101
Victorian Fan ala Flourishes
Craft Papier Mâché Heart Shaped Ornaments: step-by-step photos for shaping the heart!
hanky dress valentines
Silk'n Roses by Mánya
Fresh Start, Full Heart by Lisa
Vintage Envelope Tag Book
Stand Up and Cheer!
Cute little redwork hearts
Primitive Valentine Needlepoint
heart hand warmers

A Valentine for The Teacher:

Valentine Candy:

Valentine Cookies:

Valentine Deserts:

"When Cincinnati Children's asked kids to send in Valentine cards to spread a little love at the hospital for Valentine's Day, we thought we would get a few hundred responses. Instead, we received more than a few thousand. Packages arrived from schools, churches, scout troops and former patients. And the boxes just kept coming. We are sharing them here so you can get a glimpse at the smiles Valentines brought to patients and employees. It might just lift your spirits and remind you what this day is all about."

Visit my "Sweet On You Valentine Directory"
at Pinterest!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Vulgar Vinegar for Valentines Day?

Pin this image only please.

Vinegar valentines are greeting cards, or rather insult cards. They are decorated with a caricature, and below an insulting poem. Ostensibly given on Valentine's Day, the caricature and poem is about the "type" that the recipient belongs to--spinster, floozy, dude, scholar, etc.

These cynical, sarcastic, often mean-spirited greeting cards were first produced in America as early as the 1840s by a variety of printing companies, including Elton, Fisher, Strong and Turner. By the 1870s, other entrepreneurs such as New York printer, John McLoughlin, and his cartoonist, Charles Howard were creating their own lines of cards. While different European companies also produced the humorous cards in the early 19th century, one of the most prestigious firms to create them around 1900 was Raphael Tuck & Sons, "Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen of England."

Cheaply made, vinegar valentines were usually printed on one side of a single sheet of paper and cost only a penny. Novice collectors mistakenly call them penny dreadfuls, although that term in fact refers to a form of potboiler fiction. They often featured garish caricatures of men like the "Dude" or women like the "Floozy." One reason they rapidly became popular throughout America and Europe was because literacy rates were increasing at that time among the poor and working classes who rarely had much more than a penny to spend on such luxuries. But, according to noted valentine authority Nancy Rosin, vice-president of the National Valentine Collectors Association, their use wasn't restricted to the lower economic classes.

The unflattering cards reportedly created a stir throughout all social levels, sometimes provoking fistfights and arguments. Ironically, the receiver, not the sender, was responsible for the cost of postage up until the 1840s. A person in those days paid for the privilege of being insulted by an often anonymous "admirer." Millions of vinegar valentines, with verses that insulted a person's looks, intelligence, or occupation, were sold between the 19th and 20th centuries.

The cards are usually simply a sheet of thin, colored paper, about the size of a modern greeting card. They were later also produced in the form of postcards. They were usually sent anonymously. Postmasters sometimes confiscated these cards as unfit to be mailed and at the end of the 1940s and 50s, the cost of the Vinegar Valentines was five cents.

The cards were first produced in the late Victorian era and enjoyed their greatest popularity in that period and in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Vulgar Vinegar Valentines from 1910

Bow Legs: "You couldn't catch a pig, and it seems to me your legs were
warped during hot weather. But one thing, Mr. Wishbone, you need not fear
your knees will never knock together."

Henpecked Husband: "The way you brag in the saloons you'd think
you were boss in the house, but at home you wash the dishes and
keep just as quiet as a mouse.

Miser: "You slave and save and starve yourself and I can't see
the reason why you've hoarded all those piles of money.
You can't take it with you when you die."

Saleslady: "As you wait upon the women with disgust upon your face,
the way you snap and bark at them, one would think you owned the place."

Singer Male: "Your voice has sufficient volume if mere noise is to be your goal.
I think you'd make a roaring hit on a wagon hollering "Coal"!"

The Manufactured Valentine

Manufactured Valentines.

In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called "mechanical valentines," and a reduction in postal rates in the next century ushered in the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines. That, in turn, made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.

Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century. The reinvention of Saint Valentine's Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh Eric Schmidt. As a writer in Graham's American Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day... is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday." Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection from the Manchester Metropolitan University gathers 450 Valentine's Day cards dating from the early nineteenth century, printed by the major publishers of the day. The collection is cataloged in Laura Seddon's bookVictorian Valentines (1996)

In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howland took her inspiration from an English Valentine she had received from a business associate of her father. Intrigued with the idea of making similar Valentines, Howland began her business by importing paper lace and floral decorations from England. The English practice of sending Valentine's cards was established enough to feature as a plot device in Elizabeth Gaskell's Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1851): "I burst in with my explanations: '"The valentine I know nothing about." '"It is in your handwriting", said he coldly. Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary."

Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. In the UK, just under half of the population spend money on their Valentines and around 1.3 billion pounds are spent yearly on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent. The mid-19th century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States to follow.

In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates packed in a red satin, heart-shaped box. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Half of those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife, usually to children. When you include the valentine-exchange cards made in school activities the figure goes up to 1 billion, and teachers become the people receiving the most valentines.

The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-card, love coupons or printable greeting cards. An estimated 15 million e-valentines were sent in 2010.
I've included below a few excellent examples of manufactured, Victorian Valentine postcards from the very early 1900s. Students may print them out to paste together their own collaged versions of Valentines to gift to their family, friends and sweethearts.

"Let Hearts and thoughts entwine," while this
Victorian cupid plays a romantic verse.

This Victorian postcard reads, "All that's fair, by Love's decree, has been made resembling thee!"

A stylized Victorian postcard of a paeonia and pink ribbon.

A Victorian postcard illustrating a marriage proposal.

A Victorian postcard illustrating a lovely lady, heart, and pansies.

An early embossed Victorian Valentine postcard depicting
a cupid or cherub seated on top of a large red heart.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Craft Valentine's Day Journals

Valentine's Day journals afford for teachers the perfect project opportunity to teach students about anthologies. Challenge your students to collect a variety of romantic poems and photographs, along with pinning a letter to their special someone within a few handwritten and illustrated journal pages.
The first set of Valentine journals were made by simply folding heavy, decorative papers measuring 8 1/2 by 11 in half. The inside pages were cut slightly smaller and then sewn into the cover. (see video)

Two simple Valentine journals made by my daughter to give as gifts. She left these blank so that others
could add sentiments of their own.

"This tutorial will show you how to use stitching/sewing to bind together paper and create a journal. I am creating a watercolor journal to carry with me, so the paper I am using is heavy/thick. This method can be used on regular weight paper." by Stampin' Dymonz

These journals, also made by one of my daughters, were assembled by stringing a lace ribbon
through corresponding holes punched into a small collection of pages. She layered decorative
papers and tiny decorative embellishments on top of her journal covers to create unique designs.

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts. In genre fiction anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, usually collected into a single volume for publication.

In the twentieth century, anthologies became an important part of poetry publishing for a number of reasons. For English poetry, the Georgian poetry series was trend-setting; it showed the potential success of publishing an identifiable group of younger poets marked out as a 'generation'. It was followed by numerous collections from the 'stable' of some literary editor, or collated from a given publication, or labelled in some fashion as 'poems of the year'. Academic publishing also followed suit, with the success of the Quiller-Couch Oxford Book of English Verse encouraging other collections not limited to modern poetry. In fact the concept of 'modern verse' was fostered by the appearance of the phrase in titles such as the Faber & Faber anthology by Michael Roberts, and the very different William Butler Yeats Oxford Book of Modern Verse.

Since publishers generally found anthology publication a more flexible medium than the collection of a single poet's work, and indeed rang innumerable changes on the idea as a way of marketing poetry, publication in an anthology (in the right company) became at times a sought-after form of recognition for poets. The self-definition of movements, dating back at least to Ezra Pound's efforts on behalf of Imagism, could be linked on one front to the production of an anthology of the like-minded. Also, whilst not connected with poetry, publishers have produced collective works of fiction from a number of authors and used the term anthology to describe the collective nature of the text.
Teachers can direct students to the Poetry Bookshelf of Romantic Collections at Gutenberg. If they find something here that they like, they may use it inside their journal.

More Romantic Valentine Journals:

Tereasa Pannell's Crafts - Albums/Journals

Friday, December 20, 2013

A Mother's Valentines

By George Cooper, 1906

Little ones met round the table

When the February snow,

With a silence all unbroken,

Glistened in the starry glow.

There were Bessie, Madge and Percy,

And the youngest, Baby Lou;

Glossy heads were bending over

Some hard task they had to do.

Busy pens were nimbly scratching;

Tiny finger-tips, once pink,

Had achieved a lavish coating

Of papa's forbidden ink.

Every sunny brow looked puzzled,

Each was quiet as could be;

There was something secret brew-

ing

That was very plain to see.

Smilingly their mother watched them

Till the clock ticked on to nine;

But their bright eyes ne'er grew

weary,

And of sleep they gave no sign.

"Come, my darlings," whispered

mother,

"Time for all to be in bed!"

And her gentle voice, like music,

Roused each pretty, drooping head.

When four snowy sheets of paper

Dimpled hand had folded tight,

Mother kissed her laughing darlings,

And they bade her sweet "good

night."

But she heard their whispered plot-

ting,

Till they sank to pleasant sleep;

And she prayed the Heavenly Father

All her little ones to keep.

When the morning's gold is glittering

On the ice-gems of the trees,

Four wee letters, neatly folded,

On the door-sill mother sees;

And she opens, and she reads them,

With a mother's pure delight;

Now she understands the meaning

Of the mystery last night.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

"When The Saints Go Marching In"

"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a Christian hymn, it is often played by jazz bands. The song is sometimes confused with a similarly titled composition "When the Saints are Marching In" from 1896 by Katharine Purvis (lyrics) and James Milton Black (music).

Luther G. Presley, who wrote the lyrics, and Virgil Oliver Stamps, who wrote the music, popularized the tune as a gospel song. A similar version was copyrighted by R.E. Winsett. Although the song is still heard as a slow spiritual number, since the mid 20th century it has been more commonly performed as a "hot" number. The tune is particularly associated with the city of New Orleans. A jazz standard, it has been recorded by a great many jazz and pop artists.

Both vocal and instrumental renditions of the song abound. Louis Armstrong was one of the first to make the tune into a nationally known pop tune in the 1930s. Armstrong wrote that his sister told him she thought the secular performance style of the traditional church tune was inappropriate and irreligious. Armstrong was in a New Orleans tradition of turning church numbers into brass band and dance numbers that went back at least to Buddy Bolden's band at the start of the 20th century.

In New Orleans, the song is traditionally used as a funeral march at "jazz funerals". While accompanying the coffin to the cemetery, a band plays the tune as a dirge. Returning from the interment, the band switches to the familiar upbeat "hot" or "Dixieland" style of play.

Louis Armstrong - live in australia - When The Saints Go Marching In

March, 1963, Sydney, Australia
Armstrong, Louis (Trumpet, Vocal)
Young, Trummy (Trombone)
Darensbourg, Joe (Clarinet)
Kyle, Billy (Piano)
Shaw, Arvell (Bass)
Barcelona, Danny (Drums)

Monday, December 9, 2013

"The Queen of Hearts" by Randolph Caldecott

The internet archive has a lovely little book, "The Queen of Hearts" by Randolph Caldecott. I thought that some of my readers might take a peek and upcycle some of these lovely old illustrations into Valentines this year.

Randolph Caldecott (22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honor. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognized by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced illustration of children's books during the nineteenth century. Two books illustrated by him, priced at a shilling each, were published every Christmas for eight years.

Caldecott's output, however, ranged wider than this: he illustrated novels and accounts of foreign travel, made humorous drawings depicting hunting and fashionable life, drew cartoons and he made sketches of the Houses of Parliament inside and out, and exhibited sculptures and paintings in oil and watercolour in the Royal Academy and galleries. Read more . . .

Online collections

Works by Randolph Caldecott at Internet Archive (color illustrated scanned books).
Works by Randolph Caldecott at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML illustrated)
Works by Randolph Caldecott at the University of Florida's "Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature" (color illustrated scanned books).

Miscellaneous

Pages