It's no surprise that a supply that can be used in so many different techniques is popular. Paper ephemera - pages from textbooks, playbills, brochures, etc... - provide fodder for mixed media artists, t-shirt printers, decoupagers, scrapbookers, and paper crafters.

Vintage books and prints have always held a special appeal for me so I decided to go to one of Etsy's big ephemera suppliers to find out what it's all about!

Joanne, from Shaving Kit, explains that she started collecting ephemera because it was a way to surround herself with vintage items but do so inexpensively. She says, "Paper is just so easy to amass huge quantities of! I have lots of tickets, old letters, old posters, books by the hundreds, playing cards, bingo cards, stickers...it's ridiculous. Also, every time I would come across a very old book falling apart in a thrift shop or a library sale, I felt sorry for it and had to buy it."

Ephemera is easy to spot if you keep your eyes open. Joanne finds her pieces at flea markets, yard sales, trash bins, and thrift shops. She's also lucky enough to have some friends in the biz! She says, "I have a few relatives who do archival work and library and museum work, and they find goodies for me too!"

Because these items often have such personal stories behind their first use, they often are upcycled into items with even deeper personal meaning. Joanne told me about a customer who, "bought some teeth and jaw images and then used them to make the front and back covers of a handmade, coptic-bound journal she gave to the dentist she worked for." Brilliant!

Joanne explains that ephemera featuring anatomy is especially hot right now. "Old science and penmanship ephemera is always popular - everyone loves fonts, letters, words, typography. Also, people can't seem to get enough octopus, peacock, bat, and bird prints."