Free Clip Art from Vintage Holiday Crafts

It wasn’t until I posted all the free vintage children clip art images on this page that I realized all but one features flowers in some way. Once I noticed that, I looked at the rest of my vintage children clip art images and found that almost every one of them has some sort of floral theme. Apparently it used to be popular for children to sell flowers, because there are a disproportionate number of vintage clip art images in my collection that look like the kids are geared up to go out on the street and sell. You see one example of that in the image of the little boy selling violets.

There are also a disproportionate number of fair-skinned children. I included the one suitable African American children clip art image I had but as you can see, the image is presented quite differently than the others. No flowers, fancy clothes or elegant poses for those boys. You can clearly see the difference in racial perception that was so prevalent at the time these vintage clip art images were created. Not that there’s anything wrong with the image of the four boys; it’s cute. It’s just that it’s a grittier portrayal than found in the fair-skinned children clip art images.

Thankfully, today we see images of children of all colors together as equals in advertising and other forms of public imagery. That means the next generation of vintage art will more accurately reflect the fact that we live on a diverse planet.

Read our TERMS OF USE and then click on the images below to see and download larger versions of the free vintage children clip art (enlarged sizes vary):

Update: This post has been up for four months now and I have seen these images of children popping up all over the Internet on the blogs of creative people — mostly women — who do any number of crafts. Although it’s not surprising, it’s interesting to see how much these creative women resonate with images of children. I love children, too, and see myself as a crafty sort, so I feel like I have a lot in common with all these women I’ve never met.

When I actually cross paths with some of them who write to me to ask about particular images or permission for use, I find there are a lot of kind souls out there in the crafting community. That has been great for me, because I also run across a lot of people into making money online in other ways who aren’t so nice. Frankly, I find some of them a little hard to take.

I’ve always maintained that you can make money doing what you love. Granted, some of the people who make money online make a lot more money than I do. But I’ve tried a lot of those methods and they don’t work for me. What does work for me is to give value to other people and to also use my creativity. In short, I’m true to my nature. I did have to study quite a bit to understand how to incorporate my talent with online practices that would produce money. But no matter how much I learned or how many techniques I tried, I’ve always come back to the fact that I’m an artist and a writer and I need to honor that to succeed. Hence, the vast collection of clip art and scrapbooking resources you see on this site and in the pages linked from the sidebars. I hope you enjoy using these resources as much as I enjoy bringing them to you!

Like what you see? Please help others find more vintage children clip art, plus all the rest of our free vintage clip art and greeting cards by linking to us from your blog or Web site.

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