A Small Collection of Nostalgic Vintage Valentines
Celebrate romance with a timeless flair! Take a look at our small collection of carefully crafted vintage Valentines perfect for imparting nostalgia.
The best thing about Valentine's Day for me growing up was when we were able to decorate our mailboxes for the party! Some kids loved getting out of class for a party, others wanted to accumulate the most Valentine's, several enjoyed the party favors, you know the cupcakes, punch, and those yucky hearts with all of the sayings printed on them.... me?
When our teachers would make the announcement we would be decorating our own Valentine mailboxes I would think, "I want the largest shoe box I can find!" Not because I wanted as many Valentine's as I could cram into a box, but I wanted the largest so I had so much more surface space to decorate!
I'd run home from school and go straight to my father's closet since he had the largest shoe boxes in the house. One year in particular stands out to me since we covered my shoe box in foil. I loved that shiny surface and then we placed vintage card cut outs all over the box. It was equipped with a slit in the top of the box so Valentine's could easily be slipped inside.
That year I was in love with my Valentine box! Those vintage valentines covering the top and sides of my mailbox made me smile from ear to ear. My mother and I worked on it together, taking old Valentine cards and cutting them for decoration on top of the foil.
The foil wrapped around the box so easily, being sure not to tear it was the difficult part, but I carried that box into class ever so delicately. I recall some children throwing their boxes in the trash once the festivities were over, but not me. I wanted to keep that vintage valentine mailbox forever.
I remember it being in the top of my closet for years. Now where it ran off to, I could not tell you. I am sure my mother on one of her cleaning sprees thought, in the trash this will go. Bye, bye valentine mailbox, the bane of my decorating for this holiday forever.
Until recently that is... you see, I had cabin fever and we celebrated my mother's birthday by going to an antique mall. Can I tell you I was in heaven? I mean, for one, I was out of the house, and two, I was in my element... surrounded by so many vintage goodies.
Of course, I had to pick up a few items which I will be sharing with you soon, but I also decided a few vintage valentines were on my list of must have's.
Can I tell you the price of these goodies sure have gone up, I know, like everything else, but darn it! The valentines ranged from $2.50- $12.00! Can you believe it? I only picked up a few since I was not exactly sure they would stick around after the holiday, but then as I was taking some photos to share these lovely vintage valentine goodies, I had a thought. Uh oh, you know what that means... just a smallish project, but first let's share the spoils of our adventure.
I guess it would seem even Cupid sometimes has his tough days, thawing hearts so they can be filled with love...
I giggle now, but a comment was made during our trip, I am not so sure what I think of that valentine? I said well, let's see here... looks like Cupid is thawing a frozen heart so I actually quite like it! Appears his work is nearly finished.
When I looked at the back of our thawing heart valentine, I wondered if she decided to not send it? No postage or return address... did he change his ways? Did she move on? Were they just too far a part? Notice the post card valentine is from Germany, and this is addressed to Wooster, Ohio. Oh, I wish I knew their story. The romantic in me has a million ideas of what may have happened.
Do you suppose it is safe to say it is from the 1940's? Perhaps a WWII valentine? I searched and only found one like it, it sold on eBay and did not offer any more information than I already know about this special piece. I do love ephemera, to see others handwriting, their thoughts, photos from the past. I want to gobble it all up! If I had unlimited space, I would begin a new collection, but I need to scale back around here, so I will admire most of it from afar.
I also picked up this lovely postal scale. I have recently come to find I have an affinity for scales, no particular reason why, I just do. My husband saw this one first, and showed it to me, and I said oh... I like it and put it in my cart right away.
There was something about that chippy paint, knowing it had measured many pieces of mail, including many a valentine in it's day. I couldn't resist.
I like to think it looks perfect on our desk from my husband's family dairy farm. See, he sure knows the way to my heart.... just show me vintage, well loved pieces, and you have me there.
When I saw this one, I thought ohhh... what a stinker this little guy is! Doesn't he just look so perfectly up to something and very ornery? I thought so too, so away in the cart he went.
Poor Betty! Pining away for her valentine. I can just bet she found him too!
I think the reason I so love vintage items is because of the attention to detail in those perfect pieces. Valentine's of now have a picture on the front, then a To, From, on the back. Here we have so many popping colors on the front, a graphic on the inside, and a lovely sentiment.
Are the children on the inside not just adorable? How about the graphics on the outside of this card? She could be our Betty pining away... I got a big kick out of these vintage valentines and I hope you did too. I really enjoy stepping away from the day to day, and immersing myself into another time with wonder, and stories untold.
I thought I would leave our vintage valentines on our roll top desk with one of our wedding photos, but then that idea niggled at my brain as I sat down to write. You know me, the ever busy brain, never stops. I had an idea in the back of my mind, and it would seem it was going no where so I might as well indulge myself a bit and create more work ideas to share.
I seem to be the Queen of Making Pictures for our home, from towels, free art from the internet, many paint by numbers kits, using our Cricut, or even a coloring page with eye shadow which have all been very budget friendly ideas while creating art for our walls. Secretly, I think this is my superpower. Now how can I save the world by making pictures? I have no idea, but I sure do enjoy it, and I love sharing how you can create a home by filling it with the things you love too.
I thoroughly enjoy being able to share my ideas if it helps you find inspiration for your own home. I wasn't exactly sure how I would fill my days when I stopped working, after I began to feel better I decided continuing with our blog was how I would keep busy. I still have some days where I do not feel up to par, but then there are other days where I am ready to take on the world, but I sure do get a kick out of some of the projects I share with y'all.
I had a set of identical metal frames that I spray painted black and then pulled out my trusty rub-n-buff and went about with no rhyme or reason creating new frames for our vintage valentine's.
And here is what we ended up with.
I kept the background on both frames since it was leftover wallpaper from my bedroom closet, and I decided against pulling out gold wrapping paper for a background on these lovelies. I rather liked the contrast of the background with our valentine. You can barely see it on the one below.
I like to think they turned out and now they can stay out for much longer than Valentine's Day, plus now I know they will not get bent or damaged in any way since they are under glass. Our ornery kiddo is still out on the desk, but I will find a safe place for him when he is ready to be put away.
Happy Valentine's Day to you!
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Ciao,
Cara
