Etsy Treasure Tuesday: Julie Collings

Julie Collings's beautiful Etsy shop is full of things that make me very happy: vintage ephemera, pretty laces, silhouettes, pastel shades of pink and aqua, and gorgeous showcasing and photography to set them all off. I highly recommend a visit to her shop, where you'll find:

Wonderful little art kits (I believe she offers a different one each month), in which she tucks all kinds of amazing little trims and embellishments. I think it would be the most glorious fun to open it up every month and get to come up with projects for them all. (This is the June kit, which is already sold out, sadly.)

Absolutely gorgeous vintage paper lace, bound up with a sprig of vintage tinsel and a faux pearl teardrop. How much sweeter could she possibly make it?

Gorgeous tafetta seam bindings; these are actually vintage, but I use the new ones from Martha Stewart all the time in lots of my jewelry pieces.

Beautiful little wool-covered buttons in blue and green tweeds. I love the way that she's stiched the card and added baker's twine to finish off the presentation.

You must have a look at these incredibly detailed and intricate old German die-cut silhouettes. I couldn't resist, and bought them from Julie's shop several weeks ago. I plan to use them not only on handmade cards, but in the new Etsy banner I'm formulating, coming soon.

And by the way, when I received my highly-anticipated order from Julie, I opened the envelope up to find the most beautiful packaging you can imagine. The silhouettes, sandwiched between stiff cardboard for safe shipping, were enclosed in a large sheet of creamy, green-lined ledger paper, with a little scalloped oval of cream, sage, and gold vintage wallpaper as a seal, and wrapped in brown and white baker's twine. She made a long-time customer out of me right at that moment, because she not only sent me something beautiful, but evidently spent so much time on the presentation and packaging as well. That's something I really want to work on for my sales; I've got to get rid of the sad little recycled plastic baggies. Anyone have any ideas for me? ... In the meantime, though, please do check out Julie Collings. And I highly recommend the beautiful little silhouettes.

(All images linked to their sources. All photos by Julie Collings via her Etsy shop.)