Santa Claus Coloring Page

So I really have been not trying to find more Santa's, but I keep finding them everywhere. However I just haven't been uploading any because I am being lazy about this blog, as usual. However, I just found this really cute and simple one of Santa carrying a bag of toys and waving...and I just had to get it put up as soon as possible. It looks like it came from a page of a coloring book (it came from a newspaper published in 1911 though actually). So this is a perfect Santa Claus coloring page. Or it could be used for so many other things. I saved it as png with a transparent background. So you can do so many things with this public domain image.

If you want a version of it that is a vector image in svg format you can get that here at openclipart.org.



This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Make Images with Transparent Backgrounds Online with LunaPic

Many of the Public Domain images I upload here are black and white, but some people may want or need them to have the white area be transparent. I've been thinking I need to either find a tutorial or write my own, explaining how I make the white area transparent with GIMP. (There is more than one way though.)

However I then thought it would be nice for people to have a way of doing this without downloading any new program if they don't want to. So I looked and found this quick and easy way to to do same sort of thing with a website called LunaPic. I am not sure if the resulting quality is as good as what I get from GIMP, but it is quick and easy.

1. Choose an image from this blog and right click on it. A dialogue box should open and depending on your browser you should see an opton that says something like, "Copy Image URL" or "Copy Image Location"...click on that.
   
2. Go to http://www180.lunapic.com/editor and find where it says, "Open from URL:" and paste the url there and click on the "Go" button.
   
3. In the new page that has opened move the mouse cursor over the tab that says, "Edit" and then choose "Transparent" from the list that comes up.
   
4. The page should now say, "Make image background color transparent. Click on the image color you would like to make transparent." Just follow those instructions and simply click on any of the white areas on the image. The white areas should now be transparent (showing a grey checked background where the white area was). It now will say, "Optional, adjust transparency threshold." You can play with that if you want, but I think in most cases you won't need to.
   
5. Now on the left of the screen are a bunch of icons. Look for the one that looks like a floppy disk (hopefully you know what that looks like even though we don't use them much anymore). Click on that to save the image. It will open a new page giving you many options. Click on where it says, "Save as PNG." It will automatically start downloading and the file name seems to start with the words "imageedit..." You can always rename this file later.
   Where it saves the file depends on your browser's settings, but it will usually be a folder called Downloads. 

I hope that helps. I will try to get something up for how I do this with GIMP sometime.

Old Victorian Rocking Horse Illustration

Isn't this a lovely rocking horse? This illustration comes from an ad for a store in an 1892 newspaper. The horse has skin that looks like it is painted in what would be called a "dappled" pattern and it has a mane and tail that I presume would be from real horse hair. It has a saddle, bridle, reins and stirrups.




This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Santa Claus with Holly

This is a nice, simple and clean, black and white image of a profile view of Santa Claus's face and a corner border of holly leaves and berries behind him.

It comes from a newspaper published in 1910.

If you would like a vector version in svg format you can get it here https://openclipart.org/detail/205534.





This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Mischievous Santa

This old illustration of Santa Claus with a sack of toys looks somewhat mischievous to me. He probably knows you've been up to no good. ;)

He comes from a newspaper ad from the year 1911.



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Santa Claus, Reindeer and Sleigh

This is an old Christmas illustration from an 1892 newspaper of Santa Claus with a sleigh full of toys with his reindeer pulling the sleigh across the sky up above the trees and a large house.



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Santa Flying an Antique Airplane

This whimsical Santa from a newspaper printed in 1909 is flying a very old fashioned style glider like airplane, perhaps somewhat like the kind the Wright Brothers flew. The wings are decorated with wreaths and bows and filled with toys (a few of which seem to be falling off of the wings). 

It could be used to make a fun Christmas greeting card.

This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Vintage Santa with Candy Cane

This vintage black and white illustration of Santa Claus from the year 1909 is holding a candy cane as large as he is and a basket on the other arm. He is surrounded by boxes and one of them is open and full of what might be cookies or some other sweets.




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Thanksgiving Turkeys Wishbone

It's almost Thanksgiving...I wish you and your loved ones a day of gratitude.

Here's a funny illustration for the holiday of a wishbone with two turkey heads on both sides of the wishbone. The center could be filled with text such as for an invitation or a menu or a greeting.




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Pretty Art Nouveau Floral Border

Here is a pretty floral border in an art nouveau style. The flowers themselves look kind of like morning glories to me, but the leaves and branches with thorns seem more like roses, so I am guessing that they are stylistic roses. The image in the original was mirrored on the other side of some text. It could be rotated so that it was on top or bottom, rather than the side (which I think might look nice because of that arch area in the center). In fact, I should have done that, but didn't think about it until I started writing this. If rotated this would be nice as a header for an invitation, letterhead, announcement, etc.




This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Roses Frame Public Domain Image

I found this really cool frame with roses around it tonight and quickly cleaned it up so I could publish it on this blog. It comes from a newspaper from the year 1914. So it's sort of an early art deco style I think?

I love how crisp and bold the lines are.

I made this a png image with the center of the circle frame transparent and the parts around and between the leaves transparent too, while the leaves and the roses themselves are white. This could be left as is, or colored in so many ways.




This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Weird Wednesday: Periscope Hat

I like to call this the Vixen Starlet Steampunk Periscope Top Hat--because the way she is drawn reminds me of a silent film star, and the star on the periscope makes me think Hollywood glamour "star" too. But of course the periscope and the top hat makes me think of "steampunk."

This wacky fashion statement comes from a 1915 newspaper. The article claims appearances of this fancy hat had been made in New York and Chicago. It explains the style and its use this way, "A tiny mirror is tucked at an attractive and innocent angle in the bonnet so it reflects the actions of pedestrians behind the wearer." And would be used to avoid unwanted male attention, should some chap come up behind the lady looking like he wanted to flirt. I think there are much more interesting uses for it than that though.






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Halloween Couple Dancing

This illustration from 1920 seems to be of a couple wearing costumes dancing at a party. She is wearing a witches hat with a pom pom on the top and he is a (pardon my ignorance if I am wrong) a musketeer or buccaneer?






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Halloween Party Illustration

A black and white illustration from the year 1909 of a Halloween Party with all sorts of characters, ranging from witches, a fairy, gnome, jester, horse, and more.




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Edwardian Boots

Here is a non-Halloween related post. I thought the button up boots from the Creepy Lady ad post yesterday were pretty cool. So I clipped them out to make them available as two pieces of clipart for you too. These come from an ad from the year 1912.

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Weird Wednesday: Creepy Lady

Welcome to the first Weird Wednesday on the Vintage Snips and Clips blog!

What is that? Well, I keep coming across things like weird ads or other weird illustrations and thought I'd try sharing them on a regular basis. (I'm really good at procrastinating though, so we'll see how well that goes.) Since I have also been trying to gather Halloween stuff, I thought the first one I would add was something that is weird, but also kind of scary would do.

Obviously this ad for shoes from the year 1912 was not intended to be weird and creepy at all. I really think the people who created this ad did not realize how utterly creepy this woman would look once the drawing was translated into ink pressed onto newspaper. The style of make-up for that point in time, drawn in ink and then printed on newspaper...didn't translate so well in the instance.
 
Her eyes are dark, surrounded by dark, thick lines, and seem almost hollow. Her eerie smile is somewhat reminiscent of The Joker from Batman (but I think those are really supposed to be dimples). She is rather haunting, in my opinion. And what is up with her one hand? It's like an alien's hand or something.

In case someone wanted to use this for a sign, invitation, or other such purpose, I tried editing the shoes and text out and left it at the original size that I obtained it as.

This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Free Vector Images

I have been coming across some images that were very small or otherwise "poor quality" in regards for making for good clip art (in my opinion) in their original state, but were still interesting and could be useful. So I started to convert some of them into vector images and putting them up at OpenClipArt.org. There aren't many right now, but you can get them here. https://openclipart.org/user-detail/SnipsAndClips

Weird / Creepy Scarecrow for Halloween

Here is another picture for Halloween from an old advertisement with a Halloween theme. These is a pretty weird looking and, may I add, kinda creepy scarecrow. The string from his hat is hanging across his nose and over his face. He is pointing with both hands in one direction and has a freaky grimacing mouth.

Perhaps he is saying, "The Halloween Party is THAT way!" Or maybe he is saying, "I insist that you go to this Halloween Party!"







This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Halloween Pretty Witch

Vintage Halloween Witch

I am trying to get some images up for Halloween in this month of September, so that they can be used for things that need to be made in advance before October...or bookmarked or pinned to Pinterest in anticipation/preparation until one is ready to start making things for All Hallow's Eve.

This pretty witch with her broom, pointed hat and yowling black cat is a fun, black and white, vintage image for the spooky holiday.

Beware, the witching hour is getting near!

edit: This is so funny. I just noticed that this same witch is on The Graphic's Fairy's blog, but from many years earlier. I assume she got this image from the same source as I. But if you look closely at the two versions full size, you can see the different ways they've been edited. I think her's is more "sharp" if that makes sense (mine is also somewhat smaller). Just pick which ever version you prefer. :)


 

This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Woman with a Box of Chocolates

This woman holding a box of chocolates was from the same shoe ad that also had the image of roses from a previous post I made.

As far as I know there is no longer a trademark for the company listed on this box (anyone hear of Ogram's?) so it should be safe to use. To try to clarify what I mean...
This picture is in the public domain, but so are many Coca-Cola pictures from old ads...however the name Coca-Cola is trademarked so it is best not to use things that have a current trademark even if the image itself is in the public domain. I hope that makes sense.
I personally would remove the product name (and maybe the rest of the text, but I left it for those who want to use it as is. But it would also be fun to remove the text on the box and replace it with your own.




This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Black and White Illustration of Three Roses

Three Roses Tied With Ribbon

Today I came across this really cool image of three lovely roses tied with a ribbon. It had a lot of ink from the other page transferred onto it (you could see a man's face from an ad from another page on it)...so there was a lot of cleaning up to do, especially around the ends of the stems. Hopefully I did an alright job.

Overall it is a very crisp and clear, black and white image of long stemmed roses that I think turned out quite nicely.

It was from an ad for shoes from the year 1913, that was stating that if you bought a pair you got a box of chocolates and roses (I want to shop there). The ad described the roses being given as "a bouquet of Gude Roses." I did a quick search, out of curiosity, and found a few references to "Amelia Gude roses" in some old books and newspapers, but nothing else...I guess this is a "lost" breed of roses? They probably are just known by another name now.

I think there are so many things that could be done with this particular clipart of roses. Perhaps make a romantic item for Valentine's Day, or use to make a Mother's Day gift? Either way... Enjoy!




This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Menorah and Star of David Frame

Tonight I came across this cool and pretty, art nouveau style frame with a Jewish menorah on the left and a Star of David on the right. This came from a Jewish newspaper from the year 1911. The center could be used to place text (as it originally was used for) or maybe an image could be put in there as well.




This image is free of known copyright restrictions.

Sparrows and Holly

Vintage Illustration of Sparrows & Holly

I had someone ask if I could find some pictures of birds, especially things like sparrows. Pictures of birds are always useful for clipart projects, so I readily agreed to keep my eye out for some and I hope to find several to add here.

This is one of the first I have found so far...a picture of two, pretty sparrows flying together in front of what looks to be a holly bush to me.

Since I tend to think of holly as more of a winter or Christmas thing, and since some might just want a version without the plants for other reasons, I decided to do version with it edited out, which you can see below.

Vintage Illustration of Flying Sparrows

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Old American Flags

I meant to post this a little bit earlier. This old flag is from the Ethics of Success Reader that I first started posting images from on this blog when I first started it. But I thought I'd wait until closer to July 4th to post it. It only has 30 stars on it. Apparently this flag became the official flag for the United States on July 4th, 1848. www.usflag.org/history/the30starflag.html

And here is a 48 star Old Glory American flag. The U.S. flag came to have 48 stars on July 4, 1912. www.usflag.org/history/the48starflag.html

These images are free of known copyright restrictions.

A Simple Pair of Scissors

Sometimes all you need is a simple image of a pair of scissors. Thankfully I found just that in a vintage ad. It has a very clean outline and basic details.

This image has a resolution of 99ppi. If you need something bigger, consider getting the vector version I created...for more info go here.


This image is free of known copyright restrictions.