Old Paper Treasures: The Stories Hidden in Vintage Crate and Can Labels

 There is something about old paper that has always drawn me in.

Perhaps it is the faded color, the beautiful typography, or the little signs of age that remind us that a piece of paper has somehow survived while the world around it changed.

And sometimes, it is simply the surprise of discovering beautiful artwork in a place where no one really expected it to last.

Recently I came across a collection of original vintage and antique fruit crate and can labels. I began looking through them thinking I might choose just a few for Butterfly In The Attic.

That didn't quite happen.

I found butterflies and birds, fruit and flowers, old locomotives, California citrus groves, mountain landscapes—and even a mischievous apple dressed as a cowboy.

The more I looked, the more I realized these weren't simply old advertisements. They were tiny pieces of art.

Antique 1890s Butterfly Brand Squash Can Label – Original Victorian Ephemera

A Butterfly From the 1890s

Of course, one particular label immediately caught my attention.

An original 1890s Butterfly Brand Boston Marrow Squash can label features a large butterfly surrounded by wonderfully ornate Victorian lettering and decoration.

How could something called Butterfly Brand possibly stay out of Butterfly In The Attic?

But beyond the name, I love that something created to wrap an ordinary can of vegetables more than a century ago can still be appreciated for its artwork today.

Someone designed that butterfly. Someone chose those colors and letters. Somewhere, long ago, that label was meant to catch a shopper's eye on a store shelf.

And somehow, this one survived.

Antique 1910s–1920s Defy The World Tomato Can Label – Original Ephemera

Defy The World

Then there was the name I couldn't resist: Defy The World Tomatoes.

The original label dates to approximately the 1910s–1920s and features an enormous red tomato surrounded by elaborate lettering and a detailed farmhouse landscape.

I love the confidence of it.

Not merely Good Tomatoes. Not Excellent Tomatoes.

Defy The World.

There is something wonderfully optimistic about advertising from this period. Even a humble can of tomatoes could apparently take on the world.

Vintage 1950s Sky Ranch Apples Crate Label – Cowboy Apple Art

An Apple With a Cowboy Hat

Not every old treasure needs to be serious.

One of my favorites is a 1950s Sky Ranch Apples crate label from Yakima, Washington.

Its star is a bright red apple dressed as a cowboy, complete with hat, boots and lasso.

It is funny, colorful and unmistakably mid-century.

It also has that wonderful sense of nostalgia I look for when choosing things for the shop—the feeling that you've opened an old drawer or box and discovered something you haven't seen since childhood.

Those are often my favorite finds.

Vintage 1930s Evening Star Lemon Crate Label – California Citrus Art

California in a Piece of Paper

Some of the labels feel almost like miniature travel posters.

The 1930s Evening Star lemon crate label is one of them.

A tall palm rises over neat rows of citrus trees, with mountains in the distance and a mission-style building tucked into the landscape. The evening sky glows behind it all.

As someone who has spent so much of my life in California, I find these old agricultural labels especially fascinating.

They capture a particular vision of California—sunshine, orchards, mountains, abundance and possibility—and they preserve a little piece of the agricultural history that shaped so many communities here.

Old Paper for New Stories

What excites me most about these labels is that their stories don't necessarily have to end in a frame or collector's drawer.

For those of us who make junk journals, altered books, collage and mixed-media art, an original piece of vintage paper can become part of something new.

A large crate label might become the cover of a journal. A long can label could wrap around a handmade book, become a pocket or foldout, or be incorporated into a collage.

And because these are original vintage and antique pieces rather than reproductions, they bring something to a project that simply can't be printed from a computer: genuine age and history.

Of course, I also understand the temptation not to cut them at all.

Some treasures deserve a little time before we decide what they want to become.

Welcome to Old Paper Treasures

I've gathered my favorites into a new collection at Butterfly In The Attic called Old Paper Treasures.

I didn't want hundreds of labels simply because they were available. I chose the ones that made me stop and look—the animals, unusual characters, beautiful landscapes, wonderful typography and little pieces of history that felt as though they belonged here.

They are treasures for collectors, certainly. But I hope they'll also find their way into the hands of artists and journal makers who will give some of this old paper another chapter.

After all, that may be the loveliest thing about an old piece of paper.

Its first story has already been written. What happens to it next is up to us.

🗝️ The Hidden Drawer

What else will you find in the Hidden Drawer?

Found Treasures: Vintage Finds from Our Utah Travels

Found Treasures: A Little Thrifting in Utah

Old paper, forgotten photographs, and a few wonderful things waiting to be found.

One of my favorite things about traveling is finding a little time to wander through a thrift store or antique shop. I never really know what I am looking for when I walk through the door—and I think that is part of the fun.

On this trip through Utah, I came home with a small collection of things that immediately caught my eye: an old patterned necktie, vintage books, family photographs, sweet old greeting cards, a cookbook, and several unusual little paper pieces.

Some will probably find their way into future journals or creative projects. Others may simply stay in my collection for a while, waiting until they tell me what they want to become.

A Few Finds from Goodwill in Orem

The first stop was Goodwill in Orem, Utah, where I found two things that were very different from one another but equally difficult to leave behind.

A wonderfully patterned vintage tie from Goodwill in Orem.

This tie was one of those pieces I noticed immediately. The warm gold and brown scrollwork has such a wonderful old-fashioned feel. Textiles like this are especially fun because they can become so many things—a fabric accent, a journal embellishment, a pocket, a trim, or simply inspiration for a future color palette.

The Fireside Book of Fun & Game Songs was another Goodwill find.

Then there was this wonderful old music book, The Fireside Book of Fun & Game Songs. I loved it before I even opened the cover, but the inside made it even better.

The pages are filled with sheet music and charming illustrations. It is exactly the sort of book I love finding because even a single page can inspire an entire journal spread. Music paper, old typography, and whimsical drawings all have such a natural place in collage and junk journaling.

A spiral-bound community-style cookbook filled with recipes and wonderfully nostalgic design.

The cookbook may be one of my favorite finds from the day.

It is titled Favorite Recipes from Our House to Yours, and between the spiral binding, illustrated section dividers, handwritten feel, and traditional recipes, it has exactly the sort of character that new books rarely have.

Old cookbooks are especially interesting creative resources. They contain typography, food illustrations, recipe language, page tabs, and everyday domestic history all in one place.

Treasure Hunting at Confetti Antiques & Books

My other finds came from Confetti Antiques & Books in Spanish Fork, Utah. This was the kind of place where I could happily spend a long time looking through small stacks, boxes, and forgotten bits of paper.

Old photographs and handwritten cards—small pieces of lives once carefully remembered.

I have always been drawn to old photographs. There is something quietly fascinating about photographs that have become separated from the families who once knew every name and every story.

These came with old handwritten identification cards, which makes them even more special. Names, dates, and little notes transform them from anonymous faces into fragments of real family history.

I may use copies of some of these in future artwork rather than altering the originals. Sometimes the history of a piece makes me want to preserve it exactly as I found it.

Sweet vintage Father's Day cards with wonderful illustration and shaped paper details.

And then I found these wonderful old Father's Day cards.

The illustrations, lettering, colors, and unusual shapes are exactly the sort of vintage paper pieces that stop me in my tracks. They have so much personality. Even the slightly sentimental sweetness of them feels like part of another era.

Pieces like these are wonderful references for color combinations, character design, paper engineering, and vintage-inspired journal pages.

The Best Part of Found Things

I think what I love most about found treasures is that they arrive with a history already attached to them.

A tie was once chosen to wear somewhere. Someone turned the pages of the songbook. Families kept those photographs. A child gave one of those cards to her father. Someone cooked from the recipes in that little book.

By the time these things reach us, we may not know every part of their story—but we get the chance to appreciate them, preserve them, and sometimes give them a new chapter.

I already have a few ideas for how some of these Utah finds might make their way onto my worktable.

And that may be my favorite part of treasure hunting: you never really know what one small forgotten object might inspire next.

~ Colleen