A Victorian Illustration

This is from an 1892 American edition of Thomas Hardy's famed novel, "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," a tragedy of the mid-Victorian era. Here we have our heroine's dignity undermined by the low behavior of someone not trustworthy to her. Her appalled expression says it all. I could see parts of this used in a new way, for collage purposes.
Happy Creating!
Rose McGuinn

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Tess 

And in Modern Standard Black & White

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Free Collage Printable: PPS #2 "Ageing Gracefully"

Life gives us wrinkles. It can also give us spots. I think we are all lovely to look at even in our elderly years. The same can be said for the collection below. In it, we've included a few creases, some signs of age from wear and tear, all in the varying hues which paper can glow with after a hundred or so years.
This is another of our exclusives here, and you'll note it has its own copyright mark. We have taken the time to go through our collected ephemera, and to make everything a little clearer for you and ready for use. Please refrain from violating copyright law by either reproducing anything created by our team or by taking the credit where credit isn't due. Thank You.
Happy Creating!
Plush Possum Studio

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Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

For the Mechanically Inclined: Music Box Metal Parts Diagram

What fun it is to see the internal workings of small mechanisms such as our music box, here. Each part looks like a wonder to me, and how everything is made to work is truly fascinating. Here's hoping you'll take a fancy to them too.
Happy Creating!
Rose McGuinn

Music Box Medley

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Plush Page Ornaments: Art Nouveau Jewel Toned Colors

Today's offering is a favorite one of this Plush Possum Studio member. But then, the Art Nouveau movement is a main favorite here. This would make a good flourish for a blog or for stationary, book arts, mail-art, scrapping, you name it. It was found in a compendium of magazine pages from the turn of the last century.
The colors range through the color spectrum as close as we could get them to. Hope you'll find plenty of uses for at least one of our gems below.
Happy Creating!
Rose McGuinn

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We highly recommend you enlarge each one before

saving, as the finished product will look much better.

Art Nouveau Page Ornaments In Jewel Toned Colors

Ruby

Sapphire

Emerald

Amethyst

Golden Topaz

Fire Opal

Garnet

Original

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Antique Botanical Art c. 1887

Aren't these beautiful? These are plants one might walk right by without really seeing them, and yet here they are, rendered as handsomely as if they themselves had been artfully crafted for all to see. In the details, there is much to praise. Several selections from various pages in the same volume were handpicked for your use, then brought together into one clip art page. I'm loving these. Hope you will too.
Happy Creating!
Rose McGuinn

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for best resolution offered

Our Selected Botanicals

Sheet

One Page in Its Entirety

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Free Antique Advertising: Ivory Soap c. 1907

This one is from the very early days in this blog's history. It is by no means representative of the current quality standards maintained here. Thank you for understanding.

It floats! Apparently, it can also induce a husband to help his dutiful and pretty young wife with the dishes. It's so much fun reading old fashioned ads. How they were worded says a lot about the times they come out of. Imagine being budget-minded over 3 pennies! But 'way back then, those pennies were usable, not just loose change. We've given our readers 3 ways to view this old advert, one with nothing but the fun dish rack frame or border, one with only the illustration portion, and the other in both its redone black and white form, along with its original look.
We hope you'll find lots of fun ways to use our free imagery.
And thanks for stopping by!
Happy Creating!
Your PPS Friends

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Antique Soap Advertisement

Detail

The Border Alone

Original Look

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

ATC Originals Sunday

From a time when I was just learning the ropes, and before I began to utilize Downloads. This older post of mine offers 4 different themes in one printable set. Though my skills with things such as clarity by way of resolution (number of pixels per square inch, etc) have increased since that time, these still could be fun for you to play with.

Their Titles:
Top Left: "Ragtime Blues"
Top Right: "Distressing French Letter"
Bottom Right: "A Splash of Distress"
Bottom Left: "Distressed City Blues"
They will appear larger than normal on your screen but were created in ATC regulation format.

As usual, you may utilize any one or all of these backgrounds as part of the ATC trading scene, and you may embellish and distress them further to your heart's content.

What you may not do, however, is to ever sell them in part or as the set in any format existing. These are my designs exclusively, but they involve the work of others (Digital Brush designs). Please honor the wishes of all artists work and please do credit this design to this blog.

Thank you.
Happy Creativity!
Rose McGuinn 

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saving to your computer.

PPSATC #3

Distressed & Elegant ATC Backgrounds

Digital Brush Credits: 
Fox Orian, JS Scully and ObsidianDawn

Outdoor Winter Fun

Is there anything more exhilarating when we're young than flying down a slope on a fast sled? I have some fond memories of that myself. The hot cocoa afterwards by a crackling fire on the hearth was a definite plus factor for me.
I like this cheerful picture with all its quaint fashion points, don't you? Imagine having to wear gaiters out in such weather because you aren't allowed to waer trousers or knickerbockers like your brother!
Where is that hot cocoa, anyhow? Brrrr!
Happy Creativity!
Rose

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largest size(s)

Snowy Fun

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Old Stamp Album Cover with Vintage Clip Art Letters

A lucky find brought this venerable yet sturdy stamp album to our ephemera library. Few stamps, but a great cover! What stamps it does contain we are working on getting the best resolution for you. It may take a little while, but we'll get there. It took some work (well, a lot of work!) and some patience, yet here is that cover for you, along with the letters from it. Have fun! I myself can't wait to make a little collage using our letters. Such a fun font! It could give memory pages a truly unique look.
As usual, we are affirming our rights to publish anything we have created via whatever means used, whether for sale or otherwise, here or anywhere. You may neither sell these images nor claim they were manipulated by you. We hold some rights, then, to today's clip art page. You may use a portion of it only, in work you make for display online, or for art trading, even for sale--once it has been incorporated into your work.
We hope you'll find plenty of reasons to enjoy using the images displayed.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Happy Creating!
Your Friends at Plush Possum Studio

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Vintage Clip Art Letters

And here's one more for those 

with a use for the elegant "P"

(which needed tweaking for some reason)

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

You are free to:

use these letters in artwork.

Such artwork may then be sold or traded or kept by you.

You are not free to:

repackage this set for sale online or elsewhere.

Thank you for respecting our gift.

Please respect all artists' copyrights.

Thank you.

It's a Frame-Up!: Childhood Theme c. 1908

Dear Friends: We are just as happy as can be you like our designs here at PPS. There's just one thing, however, we would like to share before it is too late. The designs you see here, prior to our changeover to better settings for our scanner and equipment, programs, etc., may well have been faulty from the start. This error is now being corrected. However, it may not be correctable in all cases. This particular offering has been found to be faulty for printing. It may, however, still be used via digital art-making, just not as a print-worthy option. Please see our newest and upgraded selections, all of which will be noticeable via the "Download HERE " or "Downloadable Version HERE" phrases. New to our site? Do be selective with your choices. As we are in the process of changing our lineup for you all, it may yet take some time to come full circle to give our best.

We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to do better in future.

Thank You

The Studio
Our current selection of frames and other decorative flourishes is growing. Here today, we feature the same frame 4 ways. Colorizing designs of the sort below can add to the fun when collaging, scrapbooking, making cards, etc. Our current selection is actually from yesterday's post about a motor-car. We fell in love with the frame during our editing process of the last post, and decided on the spot it would be ideal as a decorative element for a child's scrapbook pages, or just for general use creatively. We start with our black and white version, graduating to the colors we were able to conjure for you.
Happy Creating!
Rose & Friends

Sweet Frame-Up

B&W

Blue Frame-Up

Burgundy Frame-Up

Green Frame-Up

Purple Frame-Up

Sepia Frame-Up

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Antique "Motor-car" Art

Here we have a great old 3 page portion of a children's reference library, all about the new wave of the future in cars. And aren't they great? Nowadays, our motoring ability has gone far beyond what  had been dreamed of by the year of our pictures below. For your pleasure, we include both versions, the black and white we recreated digitally, along with a cleaned-up one of the existing patina. We hope you'll find reasons to use either or both.
Happy Creating!
Your friends at Plush Possum Studio

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its largest size(s)

Motor-car Pages c. 1908

Page 1

Page 1

Original Patina

Page 2

Black and White

Page 2

Original Patina

Page 3

Black and White

Page 3

Original Patina

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

NOW UPGRADED:Cocoons in Color

This came from the 1902 edition of a favorite of ours, W.J. Holland's The Butterfly Book. One of us ran across this weather beaten copy for sale at a library. Here's our cleaned up version for you.
Happy Creating!
PPS

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Cocoons in Color

With Upgrade

Downloadable Version HERE

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Peanuts! Get your (free clip art) peanuts here!

Dear Friends: We are just as happy as can be you like our designs here at PPS. There's just one thing, however, we would like to share before it is too late. The designs you see here, prior to our changeover to better settings for our scanner and equipment, programs, etc., may well have been faulty from the start. This error is now being corrected. However, it may not be correctable in all cases. This particular offering has been found to be faulty for printing. It may, however, still be used via digital art-making, just not as a print-worthy option. Please see our newest and upgraded selectios, all of which will be noticeable via the "Download HERE " or "Downloadable Version HERE" phrases. New to our site? Do be selective with your choices. As we are in the process of changing our lineup for you all, it may yet take some time to come full circle to give our best.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and hope to bring you better product in future.

Thank You

Sincerely,

Your Friends at The Studio
I love old farming catalogs. They feature such nice artistry. I find the details in our peanut plant depiction, below, just delightful.  I may have to use this one in some of my Mail-Art this year! I am offering you two versions, one without the enhancement, and the other a cleared-up black and white version. Free for you to enjoy, of course!
Happy Creating!
Rose McGuinn

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Old Farm Illustration of Peanut Plant

Original Patina

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Victorian (1892) Patterned Paper Gone Wild!

Dear Friends: We are just as happy as can be you like our designs here at PPS. There's just one thing, however, we would like to share before it is too late. The designs you see here, prior to our changeover to better settings for our scanner and equipment, programs, etc., may well have been faulty from the start. This error is now being corrected. However, it may not be correctable in all cases. This particular offering has been found to be faulty for printing. It may, however, still be used via digital art-making, just not as a print-worthy option. Please see our newest and upgraded selectios, all of which will be noticeable via the "Download HERE " or "Downloadable Version HERE" phrases. New to our site? Do be selective with your choices. As we are in the process of changing our lineup for you all, it may yet take some time to come full circle to give our best.

We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to do better in future.

Thank You
Sincerely,

Your Friends at The Studio
Yes, we've gone Retro today in our studio! Just look at all the colors you can choose from--like a regular smorgasbord! Like having a little bit of the 1970's right at the collector's finger tips!
Rock on!
Rose & Friends

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the largest size(s) possible

Victoriana Goes Funk Background Papers

Hot Magenta

Psychedelic Lime

Red Bandana

Vivid Haze

Denim Blues

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

Vintage Shoe Styles for You

Today's post is a fun one for me. And I've offered more colors than before, a thing I hope you'll want to make use of.
So, without further ado, here are those shoes!
Happy Creating!
Rose McGuinn

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highest resolution available.

Black

Red

Don't step on these Blue (suede) Shoes!

Purple (for the fun of it!)

Green (Who knew?)

And Brown for more practical purposes....

Scanned Imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use