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I recently had a memory flash of my High School art teacher. I remembered that she used to have what are called “source books.” A source book is a thin book that is filled with nothing but artistic clipart that can be copied and used in arts and crafts . . . usually royalty-free.

In school, I never thought much about them, because they usually had to be copied and enlarged using an inaccessible copy machine. Getting an image enlarged to the right size can be tricky. Plus, where on earth do you find these types of books? Nowadays, the images can be easily scanned at high resolution right from my computer.

Of course, many source books now come with the images on CD-ROM. I doubt that I will ever use the CD-ROMs, because I’d rather be original. But, the books alone are invaluable reference materials that can inspire.

I did a search for these lost treasures on Amazon.com (tons of products), and found a publisher that creates some very nice source books. What shocked me was how many are available, each with their own theme. To begin my collection, I bought Treasury of Victorian Designs and Emblems and Banners, Ribbons, and Scrolls, both by Dover Publications.

Inspired, I am already thinking of re-designing this website. Maybe. I’m thinking of an early Americana design.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links—as an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying products.

This past Saturday, I was dragged to an unofficial family reunion. Okay, I admit that I went freely. I love family gatherings; there’s always plenty of food, family, and love. Since I had not seen so many relatives since I was a kid, I decided to bring along two of my portfolios (one for artwork, and one for paper craft), and all of my business cards. I assumed that my portfolios would get a few glances, and only a few cards would be taken. Boy, was I wrong!

My portfolios were passed around like crazy with promotional help from a couple of my aunts. I received a lot of complements, and was referred to as the “famous artist.” The things that people couldn’t wrap their minds around were the paper models.

“What are these?”
“Paper models.”
“What are they made of?”
“Paper.”

It’s such a simple explanation, but they still were not quite sure what to make of them. Paper doesn’t have to be flat.

With yet more promotion by my aunts, my cards started flying out of the boxes. Most people took two or more cards, especially my brand-new cards from Moo, which have different art samples on one side of each card.

Me oh my, what a fruitful day.

I also want to give a shout-out to my Aunt Nellie, who attended her first Grammy Awards. Although she didn’t win anything that night, the Polka Family Band has been nominated for a Grammy on several occasions. I recorded the show just to try to find both her and my cousin Greg in the audience (fifth row from the front, I later discovered). We’re all very proud!