You've Got Mail!

Keeping with the World War II theme, I went to the US Postal Service for inspiration.  I love getting mail, the real kind with envelopes and stamps.  The kind you look at again and it makes you think of the sender who took the time to choose the paper, sit and compose their thoughts and send it off.  I love email too, it's immediate gratification.  When my son was deployed to the Middle East, I loved to see his name in my inbox and that email was worth more than gold.  But the mail I'm profiling is paper letters sent back and forth from a mother to her son, a wife to her husband, a sailor to his sweetheart, a Fly Boy to his family.

The forerunner to shrinking a document was Victory Mail known as V-Mail.  The letters were photographed and a tiny replica went back and forth across the continents carrying news of the battlefront and the home fires.

M:  using her Palmer Method best penmanship we know she is sending her love to that guy in the goggles, her Army Air Corps fighter pilot.

A:  His reply sent from afar; he learned in the Saturday Evening Post ad that writing would help him know "How to Understand a Woman."  He used his Parker 51 pen and his Watermans Ink.

I:  "The baby had a check up and he's growing so big!  Here's snapshot for you to put in your helmet, Honey!"  The Dennison Company urges her to send V-Mail and "Keep it Light."

L:  She's got mail!  A letter!  A letter!  She looks at his photo and prays for him to come home safe, and she cries a little bit...The envelope graphic shows a post mark of 1945, it won't be long.

Love ya, miss your face,
Mom

Saturday (Evening Post) Spinner!

The photo display spinner is something I eyed on the Creative Breathing blogspot.  Miss Elizabeth is the most artistically inspiring woman I have never met!  She's my imaginary friend as I stalk her blog and drool over the paper craft creations that I wouldn't have dreamed up in a million years.  Go visit the Creative Breathing blog for eye candy and craft tutorials galore.

Once again, my stash of 1943-44 Saturday Evening Post magazines are pulled into action.  I sorted through the ads this time in search of small graphics suitable for a cut and paste project.  Since this magazine was published long before the days of computers, cut and paste on this little artistic endeavor really used scissors and glue!   The photo spinner comes with index cards to mount your photos to  display a collection of relatives, travels or other photography subjects.  

My vision in creating my spinner was to top each card with coordinating scrapbook papers and mount the graphics from the ads in sections.  Women's interest products came first and includes ads for Pyrex bakeware, girdles, a new 'Coolerator' refrigerator, Palmolive soap (14 days to a lovelier complexion!) and Campbell's soups.  The men's section includes ads for ink pens, auto products and shaving tools and soda pop.  

Options

Setting the tone for my crafting I played Glenn Miller's big band tunes as I furiously cut tiny details from the advertisements one by one on the card stock.  Listening to "Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me,"  I thought of the women who had their sweethearts sent to Europe, North Africa or the Pacific.  I read the magazine pages and listened to the music they would have heard on their radios over the 15 hours or so I spent cutting and pasting.  Rosie the Riveter went to work day after day in a factory and dreamed of the time when her soldier would come home and they would start a family and probably, live happily ever after.

The woman saluting her husband had a note from her employer included in the ad, it said, "She's doing a great job, Boss!"  Oh my, see what 60 years has done for woman kind!?

Don't forget to ask for your FREE sample of Verithin!

I was intrigued by the advertisements.  There was a  war bond statement on almost every company's ad.  Rationing was another topic and I smiled reading the statement, "Due to the paper shortage we encourage you to pass your Post on when you have finished reading it."  The Verithin Colored Pencil ad gave a mailing address to send for a free sample of the colored lead you would like to try.  Little Lulu was spokeswoman for Kleenex tissues.  Fibber McGee and Molly had their photo on the Johnson's Wax ads.  

My history lesson includes 40 different advertisements, some for products that no longer exist.  I had so much fun I may decide to add more cards later.

So now I am signing off, 'bye bye and BUY BONDS!'

Pardon me, Boy!

"Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?!"

Our first home, a 1929 bungalow was a fixer upper.  We climbed into the attic to add insulation and found that a previous owner had already insulated it with newspapers and magazines from the 1940s! Bringing down the stacks of newspapers we were entertained for hours reading the war news.  The Saturday Evening Posts went into a box and I stored them for 29 years before finding the lost treasures again last winter.

Paging through the super sized magazines I was mesmerized with the adorable slogans, the bright colored advertisements and the clever product promotions.  I decided that the saving the magazines in the closet was not the way to really enjoy their charm.  I started dreaming up a little project that would focus on the fun I had hidden in a box for years...

First up:  a little railroad themed banner.  Most of these graphics came from railroad ads but there are a few garnishes from my paper crafting stash to add to the story depicted with each letter for the word TRAIN.

I cut the ads for several railroad lines and arranged the graphics to tell the story found on another advertisement that portrayed a young couple who met on the train.

Watch the couple and their romance as they share the bench seat on the train ride.

The plot thickens:

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the train another gal has a roomette, see what she missed!

Arriving at their destination it appears that the service man will have someone to take home to mother!

Don't you just love a happy ending?  Me too.