diff --git a/IPython/utils/traitlets.py b/IPython/utils/traitlets.py
index 84b16da..b4ff7a2 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/traitlets.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/traitlets.py
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
+from warnings import warn
+
+warn("IPython.utils.traitlets has moved to a top-level traitlets package.")
+
 from traitlets import *