Vintage Graphics Image Bank
Searching for free images online can be time-consuming and daunting. The Graphics Fairy site has an image bank of over 5000 images, and is easily searchable by vintage graphics type and theme.
Available for free on The Graphics Fairy are vintage stock images, antique graphics, illustrations, and printables that are in the public domain.
You can search by themes such as children, advertising, wedding, flowers, postcards, travel, garden, animal, retro, maps, botanicals, natural history, and many more.
Hover your mouse over "Categories" in the top menu and you'll see a list of 78 different categories you can dive into.
Karen Watson, the brains and blogger behind The Graphics Fairy, is generous with her collection of goodies. Besides the graphics, she offers instructions for DIY/craft projects. Many of these projects involve transferring her site’s graphic images onto objects – glass jars, coffee mugs, fabric, and furniture.
Karen’s projects have the look and feel of classic pieces that you might find at high-end stores, and she shows you how to achieve the desired effects with clearly explained and photographed step-by-step instructions.
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Vintage Graphics Project Ideas
Some of my favorite projects from her site are: furniture painting techniques; how to age galvanized metal; how to print on fabric using an ink jet printer and freezer paper; and, transfer and decoupage projects.
Images available on The Graphics Fairy can be used to make transfers, and for decoupage, scrapbooking, DIY projects, craft tutorials, and home decorating.
And, as long as you follow Karen’s rules, you can use them as free printables for your own website.
If you need help getting started, you'll get a lot of ideas by visiting The Graphics Fairy's Transfer Printables page, followed up by checking out suggested transfer methods for DIY projects.
Image Transfer Method Instructions
After checking out Karen's My Top Tip for working with Transfers, you'll be ready to tackle some image transfer methods outlined by The Graphics Fairy and other DIY sites. Here are some quick links:
How to Transfer Typography onto Furniture
Transfer Method for Inkjet or Laser Prints
High Quality Image Transfers on Fabric
Chalk Paint Transfer Technique
Transfer a Simple Image onto Glass
· Don't miss: Crafting Resources, Museum Collection Images, Vintage Maps, and Free Paper Printables for Kids.
Terms for Graphics Reuse
Here are the generous terms for reuse for The Graphics Fairy:
“The Graphics Fairy is an Angel Company. You are free to use all clip art images in any of your projects created for resale or pleasure. Please do not use more than 6 of the graphic images within any one project, or within a single page of a blog or website. My images may not be used on free graphics sites (in other words if you own a “free graphics site”, do not post my images on your site to give away for free). You may sell my graphics, as collage sheets, or printables, if you desire, providing you follow the 6 image rule. A link to the Graphics Fairy is very much appreciated, when including the images on your blog or website. Thank you! © The Graphics Fairy 2007”
Please also check out her Disclaimer webpage outlining public domain and copyright issues with the reuse of images.
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