Free Illustrated Template for Garden and Nature Journals, Scrapbook Page or Spring Graphic Design Projects: Cheery Robin Decorative Border

Birds know themselves not to be at the center of anything, but at the margins of everything. The end of the map. We only live where someone's horizon sweeps someone else's. We are only noticed on the edge of things; but on the edge of things, we notice much.
― Gregory Maguire, Out of Oz
Lovely antique border showing a cheerful robin perched on still-bare branches singing a song to welcome in the spring. You can use this to decorate a journal or scrapbook page but it is also useful for spring-themed announcements such as for baby and wedding showers, yard sales and community get-togethers.

You can find the high-res 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.


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.

Whimsical Fairytale Illustrations for Card Making, Collage, Crafts or Scrapbooking: A Garden Fairy & A Spring Workman

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
― Roald Dahl
Two fairytale illustrations; the first shows a girl fairy sniffing a white blossom as she stands on the leaf of a rose bush, with a pink rose curling in towards her on the left. From a late 19th century Victorian trade card.

The second illustration was published in April 1874 and shows a small winged cherub with a paint palette and brush painting the colours onto a garden pansy, one of the first flowers to appear in spring. The caption that originally accompanied the drawing stated that this was "A Spring Workman (from a French picture)."

You can download the first illustration as a high-res 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG here and the second illustration as a high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Both digital files are watermark-free and can be used for card making, collage, crafts, scrapbooking or other creative projects.


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 Nature Poem An April Song by an Unknown Author

From 1881, here is a Victorian poem called "An April Song" by an unknown author. Accompanying the poem is a decorative border with an illustration of a blossoming tree and various spring flowers plus a scattering of assorted planting paraphernalia in the garden.

The poem goes as follows:

Earth's heart with gladness glows again,
Gone is all wintry gloom;
The sun peeps through my lattice-pane,
And fills my little room
With life divine, and bids me fly
My books and pens awhile,
To wander forth beneath a sky
That wears an April smile.

Old loves at every step I meet,
Sweet fragrance fills the air;
Such songs of praise that birds repeat,
As move my soul to prayer.
E'en primrose clusters on the banks,
And violets nesting low,
To Him uplift a look of thanks,
From whom all blessings flow.

The hyacinth hangs her languid head,
And waits the gentle May,
Now drawing near with noiseless tread,
To kiss her tears away;
The fields with daisies are besprent,
As white as flakes of snow;
And from the whispering woods are sent
Joy-murmurs, soft and low.

You can download a free 8.5" (w) x 12" (h) @ 300 ppi JPEG of the poem (without a watermark) for collage, graphic design, junk journal or scrapbooking projects here.


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.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: Cheery Robin by B. Lander

Image source: Wikimedia
The following is a public domain Victorian children's poem written by B. Lander and originally published in 1880. The poem is called "Cheery Robin" and this is how it goes:

Robin in the April time
Blithely sings of summer prime,
Every mellow note outwelling
Sweetly telling of his glee;
How his merry carol rings!
As he sings,
In the budding April time, -- Cheerily!

Robin in the summer prime,
What cares he for autumn rime!
Present care and present pleasure
Fill the measure of each day;
And his merry carol rings,
While he sings,
In the golden summer prime, -- Cheerily!

Robins in the autumn rime
Singeth of a sunny clime,
Where the bowers glow with flowers,
Where the hours brim with glee.
Still his merry carol rings!
Still he sings,
In the chilly autumn rime, -- Cheerily!

Robin to the aged Year
Sings a parting note of cheer;
Happy heart of sunshine, Robin,
Ever throbbing merrily.
Sweet contentment Robin brings,
When he sings,
With a cadence loud and clear, -- Cheerily!

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: Spring in the Forest by George Edward Lodge

Spring in the Forest
by George Edward Lodge (1860 - 1954)
The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.
― Harriet Ann Jacobs

The forest was not dark, because darkness has nothing to do with the forest — the forest is made of life, of light — but the trees moved with wind and subtle creatures.
― Lauren Groff, The Midnight Zone

Old-growth forests met no needs. They simply were, in a way that bore no questions about purpose or value. They could not be created by men. They could not even be understood by men. They had too many parts that were interconnected in too many ways. Change one part and everything else would change, but in ways that were unpredictable and often inexplicable. This unpredictability removed such forests from the realm of human perspectives and values. The forest did not need to justify or explain itself. It existed outside of instrumental human considerations.
― Steve Olson

Free Printable Botanical Illustration for Cardmaking, Collage, Journaling or Scrapbooking: Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera xylosteum)

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise.
It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.
— Ashley Montagu
Third and last colour plate from an antique French botany book that shows Lonicera xylosteum, also known as the fly honeysuckle. In the language of flowers, honeysuckle is a symbol of pure happiness. In addition, it conveys messages of sweetness and affection, thanks to the sweet smelling aroma it gives off. In a heavier interpretation, the honeysuckle is also said to represent the flames of love, and the tenderness for love that has been lost.

You can download this high-res printable botanical illustration (without a watermark) for cardmaking, collage, junk journaling or scrapbooking projects here.

Below is a sample journal cover I made with the illustration. If you would like to use the cover, you can find the high-res 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 you use or share this work.

Vintage Art Appreciation: The Old Stairs, Raixa by Santiago Rusiñol

The Old Stairs (Pedres velles), Raixa, 1907
by Santiago Rusiñol (1861 - 1931)
The painting:
Santiago Rusiñol's burgeoning success as a painter enabled him to concentrate almost completely on the subject closest to his heart, Spain's gardens and landscapes. When Rusiñol travelled to Mallorca, he sojourned in the locality of Bunyola whose opulent gardens became the inspiration for works such as this.

The present work depicts the upper half of the flight of stairs dedicated to Apollo in the Raixa Gardens, north of Palma de Mallarco. Originally laid out by the Moors, the Raixa Gardens were redesigned by Cardinal Antoni Despuig i Cotoner during the eighteenth century. Begun in 1902 and completed in 1907, Pedres velles is one of four pictures Rusiñol painted of the steps.

The artist:
The charismatic leader of Catalan Modernism, and a founder of Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona, Rusiñol travelled widely and spent extended periods in Paris. Notwithstanding his position as a leading member of the international avant-garde, however, it was in Spain that he was able to explore the full range of his resonant palette and where many of his most powerful and evocative works were completed.

Source: Sotheby's.

Vintage Art Appreciation: On an Apiary by Aleksandr Makovsky

On an Apiary, 1916
by Aleksandr Makovsky (1869 - 1924)

The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist.
For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.
― Jacques Cousteau

It is so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun,
to have lived light in the spring,
to have loved, to have thought, to have done.
― Matthew Arnold

And we should always remember that, in matters of evolution, nature will select for the ability to adapt and survive, not for maximum convenience to mankind.
― Phil Chandler, The Barefoot Beekeeper

Don't Just
Don't just learn, experience.
Don't just read, absorb.
Don't just change, transform.
Don't just relate, advocate.
Don't just promise, prove.
Don't just criticize, encourage.
Don't just think, ponder.
Don't just take, give.
Don't just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don't just hear, listen.
Don't just talk, act.
Don't just tell, show.
Don't just exist, live.
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Free Botanical Illustration for Cardmaking, Collage, Journaling or Scrapbooking: Common Hazel (Corylus avellana)

Our world is falling apart quietly. Human civilization has reduced the plant,
a four-million-year-old life form, into three things: food, medicine, and wood...
― Hope Jahren, Lab Girl
Second colour plate from an antique French botany book that shows Corylus avellana, the common hazel, a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia. To download this high-res printable botanical illustration (without a watermark) for cardmaking, collage, junk journaling or scrapbooking projects, please click here.

Here is an example of how I used it as a journal cover:

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.