Category Archives: Holidays

Vintage St. Patrick’s Day Postcards

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Antique St. Patrick's Day Postcard Vintage St. Patty's Day Postcard

I realized I didn’t have too much stuff for Saint Patrick’s Day.

I wanted to expand my pool of resources anyway and found myself sifting through the public domain collection from the New York State Public Library.

Glad I did because I found these super festive St. Patrick’s Day Postcards.

I made a few brightness and contrast adjustments with Pixlr, but you can also find the originals right here. 

These vintage St. Patty’s Day postcards were produced sometime between the 1930s and 40s. The NYPL thoroughly reviewed their copyright status and found that you are “free to use [them] in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that [apply] to your use.”

Enjoy!

 

Fun Facts About St. Patrick’s Day

Curious about the history of St. Patrick’s Day?

Me too! So I did a little research and compiled these fun facts for your flashcards, blogs, etc.

  • St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.
  • St. Patrick is credited with introducing Christianity to Ireland.
  • Scholars believe St. Patrick died in the year 461 on March 17th.
  • Shamrock connection: Legend says that St. Patrick would use shamrocks to describe the father, son, and the holy spirit.
  • Roughly 100 different St. Patrick’s Day parades on held in the U.S on March 17th.
  • The largest St. Patrick’s Day parades are in Boston and New York City.
  • The very first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in the United States, not Ireland, in 1962.
  • In 1962, Chicago dumped green dye into the Chicago River to trace and remove sewage. This started a tradition of Chicago dying their river green every St. Patrick’s Day.

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Free Religious Vintage Illustrations for Easter: Elaborate Victorian Crosses

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This is a free vintage Easter illustration of an antique pink floral cross from a vintage greeting card.

I was rummaging through my treasure trove of Victorian postcards at home and found some really elaborate embossed postcards from the turn of the century. These antique postcards feature lovely pastel floral designs, making them ideal crafting material for religious Easter gifts, Easter Sunday greeting cards, Bible study coloring books, and church programs. They also make charming antique graphics for blog posts, email newsletters, and social media posts!

 

I selected and edited these antique cross images from my own personal collection of vintage postcards. You may use these images for your own personal and commercial projects for free and without permission. A link back is only required if you use an image for online purposes.

A beautiful antique blue and gold floral cross
A lovely Purple, Silver, and Floral Cross!

Free Vintage Illustrations for Easter: Beatrix Potter’s Benjamin Bunny

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This is one of my favorite posts! Beatrix Potter was one of my favorite childhood authors and illustrators growing up, and I was absolutely thrilled to learn a while back that her original works entered the public domain in 2014. Her whimsical critters and rabbits have always been perfect for Easter.  One Easter Sunday, I remember receiving a miniature book collection of all her stories, from Peter Rabbit to Mr. Fisher. For this post, I brought back one of her classics, Benjamin Bunny. This book and its iconic illustrations were originally published in 1904. I selected and edited some of my favorites from a very early version of the book found in the public domain. Easter is the perfect time to bring out this classic story and create Beatrix Potter themed decor, blog images, parties, coloring books, and many more creative Easter projects. To help inspire some ideas, I included links to unique Beatrix Potter themed crafts at the end of the post!

 

Benjamin Bunny is an Easter Classic!
Vintage Benjamin Bunny – Beatrix Potter
Classic Benjamin Bunny
Benjamin Bunny – Perfect for Easter
Benjamin Bunny!
Benjamin Bunny is Perfect for Easter!
Free Easter Images
Benjamin Bunny for Easter!
Beatrix Potter’s Benjamin Bunny

Craft Projects & Gifts Inspired By Beatrix Potter!

Make this Easter a Beatrix Potter themed day! I gathered a list a really cool craft projects and gifts online inspired by the one and only Beatrix Potter. Her classic stories and illustrations are ideal for DIY Easter projects, plastic easter egg fillers, decor, and themed gift baskets. I hope you find the creative inspiration you need in this post to whip up some real Beatrix Potter magic this Easter!

Inspired Craft Projects

Beatrix Potter Preschool Activities         Beatrix Potter Inspired Baskets

Tiggy-Winkle Napkins                               Peter Rabbit Garden & Baby Shower Ideas

Beatrix Potter Nursery Theme                 Beatrix Potter Easter Egg Roll Party

Beatrix Potter Spring Garden Party         Beatrix Potter Glitter Ornaments

Beatrix Potter Gift Tags

Buy Beatrix Potter Gifts for Easter

Receiving Beatrix Potter gifts on Easter was one of my favorite childhood traditions. From her lovely illustrations to her whimsical woodland stories, it’s safe to say that Beatrix Potter is simply timeless! Yes, I’m an incurable Beatrix Potter nerd. I still have many of my past Beatrix Potter stuffed animals, book collections, and stationery from childhood. My mom would also stuff my plastic Easter eggs with Beatrix Potter stickers and other trinkets. Looking back, that’s was great alternative to candy!

If you’re looking for a creative alternative to wicker Easter baskets, you can always use foldable Beatrix Potter themed gift boxes. These have that extra element of surprise so you can create fun Easter mystery boxes. Stuff your Beatrix Potter mystery box with Peter Rabbit stuffies, stickers, decorated eggs, craft supplies, sweets, and more trinkets.

Beatrix Potter has proven that Easter isn’t just for bunnies. Hedgehogs, frogs, and guinea pigs are also perfect critters for the season. Speaking of, I found these charming Beatrix Potter gift tags featuring guinea pigs working in the garden. These would make cute add-ons to easter baskets and presents wrapped in Beatrix Potter Gift wrap. You could really make a Beatrix extravaganza if you wanted to! My inner child sure wants to that’s for sure.

*While Beatrix Potter is in the public domain, due to licensing conflicts with a previous publisher, I strongly recommend just using these images for personal use. Learn more here: http://www.hbook.com/2013/05/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/peter-rabbit-and-the-tale-of-a-fierce-bad-publisher/

Free Vintage Illustrations from Antique Easter Postcards

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Wow! Easter is early this year. It totally snuck up on me. Just as I was wrapping up my Irish themed/St. Patrick’s Day posts, I have a brand new holiday to tackle. I love it and I cannot wait to show you the Free Easter illustrations that I have in store for today’s post and for the weeks ahead! I created the following images from my own collection of antique Easter postcards in the public domain. Two of the originals had more shimmering silver backgrounds, but after running them through Pixlr, I stumbled upon some cool purple and blue shades that were both unique and perfect for the season. I think these images would be great for Easter-themed blog posts, digital collage projects, Etsy Easter gifts, Pinterest boards, and a host of other creative projects.

Easter Chicken and Chicks

These images were scanned and edited from my personal collection of antique holiday postcards. You may use these images for FREE for your website, blog, online media, product, and online educational project provided that you include a link back to FreeVintageIllustrations.com.

 

Free Vintage Illustrations for St. Patrick’s Day: Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potatoes

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There’s another crafty holiday on the horizon! With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, I’m reminded of when my grandma would make corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes for dinner. I went on an epic search and found some great clippings from vintage catalogs, seed advertisements, antique trading cards, and magazines and cleaned them up a bit with Pixlr. Feel free to include them in your St. Patrick’s day blog posts, school projects, art projects, and Etsy gifts, or pair these illustrations with some of my previous posts about food to create a detailed collage. This post also got me thinking about the history of this traditional Irish meal, and I learned some things that I did not expect. Find out below!

Antique Cabbage Catalog
An antique can of corned beef
Antique Potato Advertisement
Antique Potatoes Magazine
Antique Corned Beef
Head of Cabbage
Antique Potato Seed Catalog Cover
Vintage Potato Produce Publication

Fun Facts about Corned Beef and Cabbage!

  • Pork was actually the meat of choice for Irish immigrants first immigrating to America, specifically smoked pork loin. It was cheap to get in Ireland, but not so much in the United States. Therefore, people got creative and started cooking beef. Irish immigrants were inspired to make corned beef after visiting the markets of Jewish Immigrants in New York City. Their corned beef had a similar taste and cured preparation to the popular Irish cut smoked pork back home.
  • The addition of cabbage was new. Irish families discovered that adding cabbage to a salty corned beef stew made a hearty and delicious meal that was also cost effective.
  • This meal eventually became a popular meal in American households across the country. In fact, it was even served at President Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration!

 

These images were curated and edited from archived vintage publications and advertisements in the public domain. You are free to use these images in your personal, commercial, and educational work without permission. A link back to FreeVintageIllustrations.com is required if you share these images anywhere online. 

 

 

Free Vintage Illustrations of Birds Nests with Eggs

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Birds nests and egg images are versatile and incorporate well into a variety of different holiday crafts.  Growing up, mom took her Christmas trees seriously, so we always had different themed trees.  One of my favorites was her nature tree filled with birds nests and eggs.  I was thinking about their versatility and how they would make a nice touch to this year’s Valentines Day crafts, so I fished out some of my favorite nest and egg images from my personal collection of antique illustrations and die cuts.  These free antique images are packed with color, flowers, and lush foliage.  While curating this post, I  also wondered about bird and egg symbolism in art.  If you’re curious too, check out the fun facts at the end of this post!

Birds Nest with Purple Eggs
Gorgeous Bird with Nest and Wildflowers
Parrot with Birds Nest
Birds Nest with Green Eggs
A Valentines Day Birds Nest
Vibrant Bird with Its Nest

Bird and Egg Symbolism in Art

  • Birds were particularly important in art from the Byzantine, Gothic, and early Renaissance time periods.
  • The Finch would often represent an angel going back to heaven.
  • The Phoenix and Peacock would symbolize resurrection and vigilance for early Christian knights.
  • Crows and ravens would often symbolize more negative themes like criminal or ill-meaning thoughts, dishonesty, and associates of the devil.
  • White doves have historically represented peace and love.
  • In art and culture, eggs have symbolized different themes, particularly health, luck, hope, and wealth.
  • Golden eggs in literature were often magical or associated with dragons.
  • Famous Greek mythological figure, Helen of Troy, was born out of an egg.
  • Eggs also represented hope and spring for Christmas and became the prevailing symbol of resurrection during Easter.

These images are copyright-free, and you are free to use them in your personal, commercial, and educational projects without permission. These images were scanned and uploaded from my own personal collection of antique materials. A link back to this site is required if you post or share these images on your blog, website, online store, social media pages, or any other web page. 

Free Vintage Valentines Day Illustrations For Your Lovely Crafts and Projects

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It’s 2016, whoo hoo! I know I’m a little late to the party but have tons vintage images to share for the new year. I recently went back to school for marketing, and I’m pretty excited about it, but getting back into the homework grind has been a serious time-sucking challenge. But without further ado, it’s time for us to celebrate the next great crafting holiday on the horizon, VALENTINE’S DAY.

Okay, I love Valentine’s Day. Not for the whole couple aspect because I get embarrassed easily by that stuff (TMI?), but for all the fun crafting projects honestly. Every year, I see a lot of unique and creative vintage-themed Valentines on Pinterest. This year, I kinda like the idea of blending more lush green tones with traditional pinks and reds. What do you think? The following collection of free vintage valentines day illustrations have been scanned and slightly edited from my own personal collection at home, so you can incorporate them into your own magnificent valentines this year for friends and family. You may also want to consider turning these images into your own coloring book, digitally printed napkins and placemats, postcards, invitations, blog post images, and more creative projects. Need some fascinating Valentine’s Day facts for your school lesson, projects, or book? Don’t forget to check out the fun facts below!

Valentine’s Day Angel with Fireplace bellows and hearts
Victorian Boy and Girl on Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day Swan with Cherub
Vintage Messenger Boy with Valentine
Valentine’s Day Cherubs
Valentines Day Cherub Holding Hearts
Vintage Valentine’s Day Dov

Fun Facts About Valentine’s Day

  • Roughly 150 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged a year, making Valentine’s Day the biggest greeting card holiday after Christmas
  • The Catholic Church has recognized three different saints over the years with the “Valentine” name – all of them were martyred
  • Some believe that “Valentine” (the main valentine that Valentine’s Day was inspired by) may have been a priest during Rome’s 3rd century. Then Emperor Claudius II made marriage illegal for single young men because it was believed that they would make much better soldiers than men who’re married with children. Valentine, in protest, still performed marriage ceremonies for young men who wished to marry. Once Valentine was caught, Claudius sentenced him to death, making Valentine an important martyr.
  • There are other stories that suggest Valentine wasn’t put to death for performing marriage ceremonies, but for helping Christians escape brutal Roman prisons. According to this version of Saint Valentine’s story, Valentine, who was imprisoned himself, was the first person to send a “valentine” after falling for the prison ward’s daughter. Legend tells that this first valentine contained the words, “From your Valentine.”
  • The legends surround Valentine made him an extremely popular saint, as he stood for such powerful and resonating themes as love and heroism. In fact, by the middle ages, he had already become the most popular saint in France and England. 

These images were scanned and edited from my own personal collection of vintage Valentine’s Day illustrations from home. You may use these images in your personal and commercial craft projects without permission. Please link back to this site is if you’re posting these images on your website or blog, social media, or any other web page.

This post is the first of a series of upcoming vintage valentine’s day images for you to use. I’m working on uploading and curating more, so stay tuned for more awesome antique finds!