Ephemera Packaging Ideas

06 April
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You may have heard me mention that I am planning to have an art section in one of my spaces at the antique mall for people who like to do altered art and paper crafts.

I've been collecting up every scrap and bit of this and that, every do-dad, and random pieces of brick-a-brack for this purpose. It's kind of fun digging through the bottoms of bins at thrift shops and boxes of junk at estate sales for those items that no one else wants.

You know the one's I'm talking about, items that do not hold much interest by themselves to the average person. But package them up together and you have fun art supplies!

Packaging ideas for selling vintage ephemera and artist supplies.

Let me show you what I've been working on.

These are some larger 8" x 10" kits of paper ephemera that I've done so far.

I try to make them color coordinated so you could open it and create a piece of art with all the coordinated supplies inside 😊

In these pictures, I am showing the front and the back of each packet so you can see what's inside!

This is the front of a pretty pink and blue themed packet.


They have things like old wallpaper, bingo cards, laces and buttons, cards, vintage product packaging, playing cards, book pages, ticket stubs, etc.

Here's the back view of that same packet.


The front of a red themed packet.


This is the back of the same packet.

Some of these include scrapbook pages I found amongst some music books at the thrift store. I got a whole stack of them for .50 cents! I left this one as is.


Here is another scrapbook page as I found it.


And the other side of the same packet of ephemera.


I will sell these larger packets for $8 - $10 each.

I am making smaller, 5" x 7" packets too.

These are in a blue theme.


And the backs of the same packets.


Green, red, and yellow themed packets.

I love the yellow packet with the somber looking girl, she's a page from a Reader's Digest book, wouldn't she be pretty with a crown and some earrings!?


And the back sides.


These will go for about $5 each.

I also worked on some packages of ribbon... vintage seam binding tape to be exact

Remember these that I found and shared a couple of Treasure Trove Tuesdays ago?


Well, they look really pretty when you wash and dry them, they get all wrinkly and soft and fluffy!


To package these up first I bundled each color up like so.


Cut a strip of music paper.


And rolled it up around the ribbon.


Held it with a clothespin while the glue dried.


Until I had a nice, colorful pile!


They will be pretty displayed on the table in a bowl and will be for sale for $1.50 each.

I also had this not so cute paint by number...


 That I thought would be perfect made into individual, smaller pieces to use so I cut it into fourths.


They are the perfect size for making artist trading cards.

I will probably price them at about .50 cents each.


And I made some little book page bows following {this} tutorial from Angie at Knick of Time.


I'm planning to have some things already made up, like these bows, to provide a bit of inspiration.


Aren't they cute?!

I'll probably sell them for .50 cents each.


I'm really having fun creating these little packages of goodies but you should see my craft studio, it's a mess!!

Here are links to the cellophane bags I'm using in case you are interested.


5" x 7"     and       8" x 10"




PS. I have included links to the products (or some like them) that I've used for your convenience. If you make a purchase from one of the links in this post I will earn a small commission but it will not cost you a penny more! Click here to see my full Disclosure Policy.

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  1. I love your little craft bag idea. I'm curious to see how well they sell.

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  2. I love this idea Tania! I have all kinds of bits and bob that I could sell in my etsy shop, but wasn't sure just how to do that. These are so pretty.Thanks for the inspiration!

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  3. I love the packages you've made up. What a great idea!! I wish I lived near your antique mall.

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  4. Vicky HuntApril 06, 2017

    What a fantastic idea! I imagine these will sell really well. I love the variety of items you are using. So cool!

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  5. Thanks Vicky! I sure hope they sell well! We shall see!

    Tania

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  6. Thank you Vikki! I'm excited to see how well these sell :o)

    Tania

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  7. Thanks Tuula, I'm glad you got some ideas!!

    Tania

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  8. Me too, ha ha!!

    Tania

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  9. Thrifty Mom In BoiseApril 08, 2017

    What a great idea. You are so clever. :)

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  10. Diana PetrilloApril 12, 2017

    Such a great idea, Tania--they look like pieces of artwork just the way you've packaged them :) Thanks so much for linking up with Vintage Charm!

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  11. Kerryanne @Shabby Art BoutiqueApril 13, 2017

    These packets are gorgeous Tania and would be such fun to create with.
    Thank you for sharing at Create, Bake, Grow and Gather this week.

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  12. Thank you Kerryanne!

    Tania

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  13. Just discovered your site. Lovely! Now that a few months have gone by since you started packaging your gorgeous ephemera/ art supplies, have you noticed that packaging them by color is the way to go? Do themes work as well - like gardening, or travel, or nature for instance? Trying to figure out how to best organize/package mine to sell.

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  14. Hi, I'm so glad you have discovered my site! Actually, not long after this post I ended up closing down my space at the antique mall where I was selling these so I really didn't have a chance to see which would be the best sellers and I have not tried selling them online yet. Do you have a physical space or an online shop?

    Tania

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  15. Yes, I am good with the decision to close up my space. I work a full time job and at that time I had two Etsy shops as well plus this blog. I was working at the antique mall one day a week to try and help pay the rent. All that along with trying to do projects on my own house was just too much and the antique mall space was starting to be a stress factor rather than something fun. I also streamlined my Etsy shops down to just one.

    I think you could do well on Etsy with that kind of thing for sure!

    Tania

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  16. Oh, my goodness! I'm sorry to hear about your closing. But, I'm sure there were very good reasons for doing so, and I hope you are at peace with the decision. I can see that you're very talented at displays. Your last, "Picnic in the Woods", has got to be the best I've ever seen. Perhaps you have a future (business) in helping others set up their displays? At this time, I have no physical space or online presence for this kind of thing. But, with the amount of ephemera I have - my head is spinning and I'd like to get that ball rolling.

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