How to Find and Use Public Domain Vintage Images

Holiday cards, vintage images, and more are available free online

Old-fashioned postcards, greeting cards, and vintage public domain images are a great addition to your craft projects, holiday decorating, or scrapbooking supplies. Many online resources (linked at the bottom of this article) are available for downloading or printing these images, with only a few rules or requirements that won't limit your creativity.

Things You'll Need

• internet access
• a color printer (optional)
• a little time

Instructions

1. Browse the internet using key words like "public domain images", "free vintage images", "free vintage cards", and other slight variations on these phrases. Visit the links at the bottom of this article to see some of the high-quality, vintage public-domain images made available online.

2. Browse the images available on the websites. Vintage Crafts has them sorted by holiday and subject, as does Karen's Whimsy. Many of the images are cross-referenced, so they'll show up in more than one category.

3. Click the image you want to access the largest version. Save it to a file on your computer, a flash drive or disk, or print it directly from the website.

4. Follow the rules: some sites like Vintage Crafts requests that you display only a limited number (2) of the images on a web page at any time. Respect the rules and limit the number of images you share online at any given time.

5. Many sites like Wikimedia images post items which are copyright-free in the U.S., but may still be protected in other countries. Check to be sure the items are public domain overseas before using them in projects abroad.

6. Don't compile the images on a cd or in a folder to sell them -- the images are shared for free use only. Don't print and sell the unaltered images for scan and copy use: they are meant for craft projects, art projects, personal use, and altered art creations, so remember to share them "creatively" without exploiting the website's free gift.

Resources

• Wikimedia Images
• Karen's Whimsy Images
• Vintage Holiday Crafts