Free Vintage Animal Clipart for Crafts or Collage: Frolic, the White Squirrel

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
― George Eliot, Mr Gilfil's Love Story
This illustration originally appeared in the December 1904 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. Drawn by Meredith Nugent, it shows Frolic, a young albino squirrel that became a much-loved family pet. "In June, he stained his paws with strawberries; in August he feasted on mushrooms; and during winter birch buds fresh from the snowy woods were always a great treat." You can download a 6" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG for crafts or mixed media collage projects here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Template with French Floral Embroidery Design for Cardmaking, Journaling or Scrapbooking

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this,
in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
A vintage flower embroidery border originally published in an antique 19th century ladies' magazine. I have incorporated it into a template that you can use for cardmaking, journaling or scrapbooking. You can download the free high-res 10" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Add your own words by opening up the file in Photoshop or importing into Microsoft Word. I recommend printing on high-quality heavyweight cardstock or hot-pressed watercolour paper.


All pre-made templates by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Green Lattice by Charles Courtney Curran

Green Lattice, 1919
by Charles Courtney Curran (1861 - 1942)
I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired. I watch the wind play with the trash that's been under the snow all winter. Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by abscence?
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

You felt a deep sorrow, the kind of melancholy you feel when you're in a beautiful place and the sun is going down.
― Thrity Umrigar, The Space Between Us

Vintage Art Appreciation: Young Girl Carrying a Pumpkin by Fausto Zonaro

Young Girl Carrying a Pumpkin, 1889
by Fausto Zonaro (1854 – 1929)
Before the fruits of prosperity can come, the storms of life need to first bring the required rains of testing, which mixes with the seeds of wisdom to produce a mature harvest.
― Lincoln Patz

We were put on this magical planet, not to dominate and consume her, but to care for her and love her. To harrow gently. To harvest gratefully. To build reasonably.
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

In life, we plant seeds everywhere we go.
Some fall on fertile ground needing very little to grow.
Some fall on rocky soil requiring a tad bit more loving care.
While others fall in seemingly barren land and no matter what you do; it appears the seed is dead.

Nevertheless, every seed planted will have a ripple effect.
You could see it in the present or a time not seen yet.
So be wise about where you plant your seeds.
Be very mindful of your actions and deeds.
Negativity grows just as fast if not faster than positivity.
Plant seeds of kindness, love and peace
And your harvest will be abundant living.
― Sanjo Jendayi

Vintage Art Appreciation: Rhubarb by Nikolai Astrup

Rhubarb, 1911
by Nikolai Astrup (1880 - 1928)
The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

It often happens to children - and sometimes to gardeners - that they are given gifts of value of which they do not perceive until much later.
― Wayne Winterrowd

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.
― Elizabeth Lawrence

Free Botanical Clipart for Collage or Crafts: Varieties of Summer and Autumn Berries (Fruit Clipart)

Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.
― Henry David Thoreau
Antique engravings from an 1890 manual of plants. This page shows a variety of summer and fall-bearing berries: blackberry, Early Harvest; dewberry, Lucretia; blackberry, Wilson, Jr.; black raspberry, Tyler; and raspberry, The Hansell. Ideal for recipe cards; childhood, summer and food-themed scrapbooking, plus many other collage or craft projects. You can download the high-res 8.25" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: The Dial of a Summer's Day by C.E.C. Weigall

A Victorian poem entitled "The Dial of a Summer's Day" by C.E.C. Weigall, originally published c1890. Accompanying the poem is an illustration of a small farmhouse surrounded by a lush meadow at the height of summer. The poem goes as follows:

Just one o'clock:
In the meadow of hay,
The reapers are reaping and singing today,
Ant the swish of the scythe rings a glad roundelay.

Just two o'clock:
Hush! you babbling rill,
The world lies a-drowsing, the reapers are still,
And a shimmer of heat dances over the hill.

Just three o'clock:
Said the hare by the stile,
"The reapers are crafty -- the reapers of Lisle."
So he crept 'neath a dock-leaf and pondered awhile.

Just four o'clock:
In the wild rose and clover
The honey bee laughs, and dips over and over,
And "peewit, 'tis hot!" pipes the petulant plover.

Just five o'clock:
Twixt the moor and the sky,
Where the far distant purple of heather doth lie,
The arrowing curlews still hover and cry.

Just six o'clock:
From the ivied church tower,
The breeze carries upward in the chime of the hour,
Which the great bell is tolling with ponderous power.

Just seven o'clock:
Drones the humble bee red,
As he watches a cockchafer whizz over head,
And fussily follows a neighbour to bed.

Just eight o'clock:
As I watch and I wait
In the gathering twilight, beside the farm gate,
I know that the flowers say, "Mabel is late!"

Just nine o'clock:
As we wander and pass,
Hand in hand, lip to lip, over dew-spangled grass,
We can hear the white owl shrieking, "Lovers, alas!"

Just ten o'clock:
As we part 'neath a star,
The angels are smiling through heaven's bright bar,
And the new moon is rocking the clouds in her car.

Just eleven o'clock:
In her window the light
Flares redly and instant, then fades out of sight,
And I turn with a sigh, and walk into the night.

Just twelve o'clock:
On the motionless deep
The lights of the fishing-boats tremulous peep,
And the angels have hushed the world's sorrows to sleep.

You can download the poem along with the black and white illustration as a high-res 12" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Lovely as a framed print but can also be used in a greeting card, junk journal or scrapbooking project.


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Mixed Flowers by Margaret Rose Preston

Mixed Flowers by
Margaret Rose Preston (1875 - 1963)
Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.
― Andy Warhol

What keeps life fascinating is the constant creativity of the soul.
― Deepak Chopra, Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.
― Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water

Vintage Art Appreciation: Hydrangeas by Louis Icart

Hydrangeas, 1929
by Louis Icart (1888 - 1950)
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
― Marcel Proust

Dare to Be
When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully.
When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light.
When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it.
When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway.
When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back.
When there seems to be no hope, dare to find some.
When you’re feeling tired, dare to keep going.
When times are tough, dare to be tougher.
When love hurts you, dare to love again.
When someone is hurting, dare to help them heal.
When another is lost, dare to help them find the way.
When a friend falls, dare to be the first to extend a hand.
When you cross paths with another, dare to make them smile.
When you feel great, dare to help someone else feel great too.
When the day has ended, dare to feel as you’ve done your best.
Dare to be the best you can –
At all times, Dare to be!
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.
― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary