vintage valentine cards: the real thing

A couple of months ago, I received a lot of valentines in the mail. Not just any old valentines, but ones that had belonged to my husband's great grandfather and great-uncle. When my mother-in-law first asked me whether I wanted them, I said "Of course!" thinking I'd receive maybe a dozen or so, and they'd be the funny penny valentines you see from the 50s and 60s.

That wasn't the case.

I received a box packed full of cards, enough to fill two large freezer bags plus a big album my mother-in-law had finished. Many of them were made in Germany, and the papers and images they used are just beautiful...lovely colors and script and poems hearkening back to a gentler time. This is what a valentine should look like. Today's blaring colors and offhanded feeling somehow seem garish by comparison.

Quite a few of them are also really huge! Some cover the entire page of the 12" x 12" album, which is astonishing to see. I was also surprised to see how many of them used 3D type raised effects, as well as some interactive ones (moving legs and arms, etc).

Some of the Valentines are dated as early as 1902, and they all appear to be from the boys' mother or aunt. What I find really interesting is that most of them are just signed with no messages on them, but perhaps it's because the cards have such heartfelt sentiments printed on them already. It's also a little funny because there are so many valentines from their female relatives, but I can't find a single one that is marked as being from the boys to them or to/from any of their sweethearts. Still, these meant enough that they've been kept for generation after generation for over a hundred years, which is just amazing. I feel incredibly lucky to have these and am glad to be their guardian for the forseeable future.

I scanned in just a fraction of the cards that I received, but you get an idea of how gorgeous they are. If you'd like to use some of the cards in your crafting, you should be able to download a couple of the single images by clicking on the jpg to enlarge it;  just right click and save to your computer. I'd appreciate your linking back to this post if you use them. Please send me links and share anything you make from them, too!