Hand Shaped Button

I am increasing my library of elements for mixed media.

Bad Postcards

Lon's personal collection.

Crafts

Vintage Mexican Embroidery Monograms

by Jose Guadalupe Posada
Illustrator of Mexican life 1852-1913
From the Library of Congress

Embroidery pattern book, loteria cards and other prints.

Printable Japanese Prints

Huge collection at the Library of Congress.
High resolution.
This one hangs in my bathroom.

Printable Grocery Store Price Signs

I love these sweet signs that are only one of the great printables and projects shared by Angie at Knick of Time.

Vintage Surf Printables

In the Library of Congress

Free Art Download: 8 Vintage Patent Designs

These guys are after my heart with these.  Read the comments for some how to tips.

 

Printables from iHanna

Swedish mixed media artist iHanna shares a variety of printables for us to use.

Free Stylish Printables

From Kristin at Yellow Bliss Road.

This Kitchen Set really caught my eye.
She displays her prints on clipboards.

Free Letterpress Designs from Briar Press

Just one of 778 designs generously shared by Briar Press.

Button Card

Postcards

The Boston Public Library has a huge collection shared on flickr

Images in the Harvard Collections

VIA is a catalog of visual resources at Harvard related to art, architecture, archeology, ethnography, and material culture. VIA includes information about slides, photographs, artwork, and artifacts in the University's libraries, museums, and archives.
I was interested in finding inspiration for chinoise style painted panels and searched for "Chinese illustration".

There are trade cards, daguerreotypes and Chinese rubbings in the collection.
I also found some very interesting designs with a search for "printed textiles"

Christmas Embroidery from Carla Hoag

These are just a small sampling of the vintage images.  

There is tons to see! 

Go visit Carla at Home 

click the pictures to see that page

Wallpaper Designs

Wallpaper Designs
From the Library of Congress

American Beauties Online Exhibition at the Library of Congress

American Beauties Online Exhibition at the Library of Congress

My favorite are the unique "Fadeaway Girl"

Then from the American Art Archives
Coles Phillips and the Fade Away Lady
By Norm Platonic

Guerilla Parenting Stencils

Guerilla Parenting Stencils from Eddie Bowen.
Use our stencils to decorate your neighborhood with
messages that will make your kids behave.
It's for their own good.

I laughed so much! Download your own stencils in EPS format
and don't forget to say thanks(link at the bottom of the page).

Free illustrations from Briar Press

The collection at Briar Press has grown (766) since I last visited. Their generosity in sharing these very high quality illustrations is remarkable.
Briar Press is bringing new life to old ornaments and cuts using the tools of the digital age. Now you can download and use these vintage images in your print, web, or even letterpress projects. No bitmapped scans are these:  postscript images will print crisply at any size.

Love the bird and the others will make lovely labels.
The collection has lots to offer for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Free Vintage Labels

This is a great gift from Worldlabel.com

Download these free fillable and spectacular Vintage labels with framed designs

in PDF templates in Mailing and Shipping Label sizes.
That they are available individually and also have the autofill feature makes the gift very special indeed.

Statue of Libery Patent Drawing

Wish I had found this in time for the Fourth. Isn't she beautiful?