Step #414: Ephemera

{originally posted in March 2010}

"Success, which is something
so simple in the end,
is made up of thousands of things,
we never fully know what."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke

a tag from the car repair shop

a ticket stub with an ad on the reverse, and a map underneath it all

typed lists

Ephemera is a word that art journalists use to describe the "stuff" they put in their art journals. Stuff that's technically not an art material per se. i.e., receipts, handwritten notes, photographs, fabric, beads, hand painted paper, thread, magazine/catalog images, pages from old books, maps, sheet music, newspaper, product packaging, ticket stubs, metro tickets, airline tickets, product packaging, graph paper, old dictionaries, lottery tickets, product instructions, fruit stickers, wine labels, office supplies, washi tape, masking tape, painter's tape, clips, leaves, ribbons, fabric scraps.... 

You get the idea.

A list of things I've used in my art journal.

A list of things I haven't used in my art journal {yet}.

Wikipedia has a great collection of Public Domain image links.

What is your ephemera-of-the-moment? I think I have a map addiction. 

Find more in the step-by-step art journaling series.

Comments

[Nicole]

I love finding ephemera on ebay. they have whole categories dedicated to postcards, antique photos, etc. :D

old book pages are a favorite of mine. i have a dictionary with a broken spine that's mostly falling apart with beautiful yellowing pages i like to use in my collages.

[someone]

i heart the following in colloges:
pressed flowers/plants
MAGAZINE CUTOUTS!!!!!!
paint chips.... all those great colors!
(confession time!)doodles cut from my church bulletin that i drew during service (blushes)
notes from friends
scrapbook paper (torn is best)
if theres a cool book with picture son sale at the little used book table at my library, they are usually cheap so i buy it! only 50 cents to a dollor. sometimes a quarter!
things ive colected from outside
flyers from places, national parks, amusment parks
maps
music lyrics printed from intenet
cool mysterious landscape images from bing. (bing search cool ocean, mysterious ocean, mysterious landscape, pretty ocean/jungle/field/forest. my faves are forest, ocean and meadow.)
postcards
envolope seals
STICKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
typed up pages of a report or random thing i typed on Word, like for school. or written copies of the like, painted or collaged over. i once used a supplies list for altered art and cologed over it.
junk mail has the most great sayings! But wait! Youve been invited! You Won! Buy now!
signatures of myself, friend, or autographs. i used a autograph i got from a favorite author.
in short... anything and everything. sorry for such a long post.
from ME! (a 13 year old art journaler to be!)

[LadySeishou]

Thanks for the links to your earlier posts! Very cool idea collecting everyone's lists - hope that you get a thousand things!

[Olivia]

We are all about getting rid of stuff in my house. Everything goes in the waste basket or recycling bin. That's where I fish out of a lot of things to make craft projects with. I like it because it keeps things unpredictable. Except, I have a secret... I've been saving/hoarding cool quotes and words from tea bags. I have about a dozen and a half of them. Slowly they are making their way onto cards to friends, but we drink a lot of tea so...

[Ellen]

Stamps
Markers
Water color pencils
Stickers, 3-d and flat
Pattern paper scraps
Postcards
Buttons
Ribbons
Fiber
Magazine cut outs
Wrapping paper
Mists
Ink
Speech bubbles
Bubble wrap
Paint
Sermon notes
Drawings
Embossings of my texture plates and leaves
Photographs
Coffee cup holders
Stuff copied out of cookbooks, not just recipes
Letter stickers
Handmade flowers
Prima flowers
Tags
Stickles
Tape (drywall, electrical and surgical, since I don't have any Washi)
Bread fastners
Nail polish
Eye shadow
Playing cards
Greeting card
Burlap
Punched items (I have a lot of punches, but the one I use the most in art journals is probably my trusty n0n-scrapbooking hole punch)
The bottom of a pine cone
Bling pieces
Paper frames
Junk mail
Sewing pattern
Straight pins
Doily
Drawing pencil
Printables (stuff you get off Internet for paper crafts)
Die cuts
newspaper clippings
brown paper bag
fabric leaves
brads
grocery store coupons
rubons
pieces from the end strips of pattern paper
Photocopies of pages from books