Free Antique Baseball Coloring Page

Bustles and Baseball? 
An old illustration from the 1880's Victorian Bustle Era.

I ran across this old graphic recently while doing research on a completely different project. It was in the Public domain, and yet needed a little facelift, so to speak. I have enlarged it and cleared it of some torn areas plus one scratch using photoshop processes. There is a bit of a quality issue as far as resolution goes, but since it is intended to be either hand colored or tinted, I saw this as being  a very minor issue. My recommendation would be to use colored pencils. After all, it is fairly small (not even filling the 8 1/2 by 11 inch final size) and yet it is also very full of details! Please adjust your printer margin settings to .25 inches (1/4 inch) for this one.

My! - how they did used to dress up for the ball park! Americans really would do that a lot. Almost everybody wore hats, and some men would even wear suits. The women in the foreground of this picture wear hats, corsets, and long dresses with bustles underneath. Just look at all of the different hat styles the ladies are wearing to this game! Personally, I like the small top hat that another woman is wearing.

In the distance, there is an obviously very busy harbor of some sort. This must be a port town somewhere. I wish that I could share the location of this old ball field with all of you. Perhaps somebody can help me out with the history and location? Meanwhile ~

Happy Coloring!

PPSColorMe™: An Antique Baseball Game Graphic

Download HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Credits:

nypl.org

Free for use.

I'm keeping this in the Public Domain.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Ice Skating the Victorian Way

The scene is from an 1859 magazine.

The illustration below is of a wintry day in Victorian Boston. The ice rink is crowded, simply full of life and activity. I thought it would make either a nice framed print for someone's wall or else something fun to be colored in, although it occurs to me that this could work well for card making and other craft projects.

It was found in a Public Domain venue, and then re-sized and cleaned up a little. In other words, it's for everyone and anyone for any reason.

Happy Wintertime Fun!

PPSColorMe™: Boston Ice Skating

Download HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Free for Public Domain Use.

Her First Ice Skates

Skating in the fresh air for the very first time!

Isn't this a fun and pretty old picture?  Everybody seems to be having such a very good time. The cold weather seems to be a joy, and not a problem, for them.

When I was a little girl, I used to enjoy skating, too. In our town, there was a lake where it was safe to skate during cold enough weather, as well as a man made rink. My first skates were white. I had to save up for them, and was so very excited when I finally could wear them on the ice!

This picture is shown in two ways, original tone or sepia. Both have separate downloads below. Please read all red letter Guidelines here at this blog. Thank you. That having been said, this particular image happens to be in the Public Domain, meaning that anyone may use it for any reason. It's been reformatted and resized for a better print, and also cleaned up a little bit, by me.

This illustration from an antique magazine could likely also be colored in. My suggestion would be for clear color of some sort, or for soft treatment. Perhaps colored pencils or pan pastels might look really nice. However, ink will run if exposed to moisture, so unless your home printer or copy center offers ink which is not water soluble, I think that dry media would work better.

Happy Wintertime Creativity!

PPS™ Her First Ice Skates

Download Original Look HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Sepia Toned Look HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

You are free to:

use these ice skating images

however you may choose.

These particular images

are in

the Public Domain.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Free Paper Doll Cycling Outfit

Victoria's New Cycling Costume

As many of us know, young ladies of Victoria's era were fascinated with bicycles. Cycling as a new sport grew in popularity throughout the late 1800's, becoming quite a fashion challenge for anyone who wore petticoats.

Please see the red letter Guidelines below. Thank you.

A few solutions were offered, among them, the one you see here. Some cycling skirts were more like our 1970's palazzo pants, but shorter. These wore like skirts, yet were split like pants for greater ease when cycling. Another design called for "bloomers," or knee length puffy pants, underneath a fairly full mid calf skirt. The more daring cycling outfits designed for women involved no skirt at all, and left the bloomers, along with a blouse under a jacket. Almost every official cycling outfit designed for girls and women during that era wore like a suit. The jacket almost always matched the skirt. The blouse or "shirtwaist" had a stiff, high collar and long sleeves. Often, young women wore manly looking ties over such blouses.

The more daring cycling outfits designed for women involved no skirt at all, which left just the bloomers, the blouse with jacket, and the tie. These more manly-looking outfits were frowned upon by most mothers, of course. Footwear for cycling involved high ankles, with or without "gaiters."

The hats seem almost like uniform items, too. I suppose that we could call them "boaters," for they resemble those flat topped, stiff straw hats often worn aboard yachts and at the seaside. Men wore such hats, too, which is why many barbershop quartet singers wear them today.

There was a more utilitarian use for the bicycle, of course. All was not merely for the sheer enjoyment of cycling through a pretty landscape. Working women could bicycle to and from work, provided they remained sedate and ladylike throughout, and kept their skirts clear of the ground without showing too much ankle.

Victoria's outfit is both prim and proper, if a little daring due to its shorter than average skirt. 

The outfit was found online in the public domain, and yet had to be altered and upgraded considerably. Plus, I've added all 5 hair colors, each with its own copy of the hat. This outfit has taken several hours of work to complete. I am still a bit puzzled as to the difference between the two handlebars, and yet have decided to post it anyway.

The Hat Tab (included with the download), as per usual, needs to be glued to the reverse of the hat for the best fit. I like to recommend a tiny dab of Uhu Stick (or any other good quality glue stick) at the very top between the two pieces, only adding further little dabs as you go, until the hat is truly stable.

Happy Playtime Creativity!

PPSPlaytime™: Victoria's New Cycling Outfit

Download HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

©RHMcGuinn as are all of the rest of the Paper Dolls, outfits, rooms, Scenes and Accessories, including standards. 

Thanks for the courtesy.

Guidelines

You are free to:

play with, give or trade

this paper doll outfit.

You are not free to:

ever sell it as is or in a set.

Otherwise

you'd be selling my time and work.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Regency Note Paper, 2 Styles, 3 Colors

Regency Style Stationary

Skating a pen across a page never looked so fun! Please change your Printer settings to the 1/4" margin setting to ensure the best fit. Choosing to have no margins at all may be possible with some machines, so if you're uncertain, perhaps this might work just as well.

The 3 color choices are as follows: ordinary black and white, a medium brown, and a wintry ice blue.

The 2 Style choices are with "Jan'y" at the top, or without. I know that January will soon be upon us, and so have chosen to offer both the dated and the undated styles here for you.

Happy Wintertime Creativity!

PPS™Regency Ice Skating Stationary

Download Dated Black and White HERE

Download Undated Black And white HERE

Display version 1

(lower quality than the download)

Display version 2

(lower quality than the download)

Download Dated Brown HERE

Download Undated Brown HERE

Display version 1

(lower quality than the download)

Display version 2

(lower quality than the download)

Download Dated Ice Blue HERE

Download Undated Ice Blue HERE

Display version 1

(lower quality than the download)

Display version 2

(lower quality than the download)

You are free to:

download these pages for personal use.

Please do not sell them, 

for if you do, 

you are selling my work.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Fun on the Ice for Mercy and Victoria!

Two outfits, one for each young lady

Victoria and her newly married cousin, Mercy are taking to the ice today, each with her very own brand new outfit. The outfits come in two colors, and were designed to fit each doll specifically.

[Please see Guidelines in red, posted below. Thank you.] 

The blue chosen for Mercy is meant to enhance her lovely clear eyes, while the red of Victoria's in the perfect choice for her in every way. 

Victoria the Doll does come with 5 different hair colors here at the Studio (for the complete set of choices, you may follow the link HERE). This time around, as a special treat, I've decided to include all 5, each one with its own coordinating hat. In other words, no matter which style of doll you may have chosen here before, there is the appropriate hair color plus hat included in this outfit set.

The new Mercy paper doll may be found by following this link HERE.

Skates and ice had to be collaged into this story, as did the muff. Snow was next added for a better landscape feel. The hats might seem silly or too chilly for cold weather, yet that is what most women did wear when ice skating, whether at an indoor rink or outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine.


A Few Words About Mercy
Mercy and her husband have chosen to wait till winter's end before traveling abroad to celebrate their wedding. More of that story will be added later. For right now, Tom is busy at work in his role as an assistant to a curator in the British Museum. This has left Mercy free to come out to the park with her young cousin for some wintertime sport and some warming cups of cocoa in their Grandmother's lovely parlor. (That room, the Parlor, may be found by following the link HERE.)

Some Suggestions for Best Use:
As with the latest Regency Doll outfit (the green one with the hall table), these two outfits need a little strengthening. Card stock or a second layer of paper glued to the back of each outfit were both suggested as possible ways to handle this little problem in that post.
The choice will be up to you, of course.

Happy Outdoor Winter Fun!

PPSPlaytime™: Skating Outfits for Mercy & Victoria

Download Victoria's red Outfit HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Mercy's blue Outfit HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

You are free to:

play with or share or trade

the outfits and dolls  in this post.

You are not free to:

ever sell them for any reason.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

It's Football Season

Free 1920's Football Illustration

Touch down!! This one is actually in the Public Domain, and so it shall remain that way. Which means it is free to use in any way we choose. When I resized it into a more print-worthy shape, and saw that it was in fairly good condition for use, I decided right then and there to offer it here.

Happy Sporting Creativity!

PPSPrintable™: 1920's Football Illustration

Download HERE

Display version

(slightly lower quality than the download)

Public Domain

You are free to:

use this image in any way you please.

Have fun

helping me to

keep free things free!

Thank you.

Coloring Page: a Lady on Horseback!

Color Me an Autumn Ride!

I loved to color when I was a child. It's still an enjoyable pastime for me and many others of all ages. Please see the red letter Guidelines below. Thank you.

I've had to re-make the horse's belly for this one, along with the girth strap there, as the original had been drawn to be either incomplete, or else was simply badly rendered. This required me to remember the anatomy of horses in general. While I am not entirely satisfied with it, I think that it's now somewhat better than it was before I began to fix its looks.

In fact, it would be more fit to actually be riding! You see, the girth strap is the main force which keeps the saddle in place. The way that it had been first done, however, there was a wickedly big gap between the horse's "barrel" (or rib area), and the strap! This meant that the lady perched atop the horse's back, in all her finery, would probably have very quickly landed in that brook she's jumping her horse over!

Now that both look much safer performing their exciting leap over the water, I feel at last a bit better about the safety of both horse and rider.

I am prepared to offer two color ways for this one: Black & White and Sepia. I will post the Sepia one here first.

Happy Horseback Ride!

PPSColorMe™ Page:

Download HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the Download)

Download Black and White version HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the Download)

You are free to:

Either color or make works of art

using this image.

It has been altered by me for those purposes.

You are not free to:

Sell this image, as is.

Thank you for helping me to

keep free things free!

Back to School Graphics for Digi or Print

3 Back to School Image Sets 2 Ways

We love to be flexible around here, and so tend to offer our guests a certain number of options or choices. All 3 items are offered in 2 ways, Digi PNG for our Digital crowd, and Print JPG for our copy and glue crowd. I love to utilize both ways, myself, and hope our guests can relax, knowing they are among friends.

All of the children are charming, aren't they? Personally, my very favorite image from all of what we offer here is the one of the girl posing from a side view with a smile on her face. Her caption reads: " 'Draw me portrait, please, sir.' The load consists of school books and hobnail shoes." I love her dignified and very glad smile. I think she must have been a very interesting young person to have known. But then, I really do love children everywhere.

Our later version of the sheet music cover has been recreated considerably until it became a frame for you. I also enjoy the initial image it came with. It is offered both ways, for your enjoyment.

All image credits may be found below.
Please respect all copyrights with your Happy Creativity!

PPSDigiScrap™ Back to School Set 1

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download Print JPG Version HERE

Display Version (lower quality)

PPSDigiScrap™ Back to School Set 2

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download Print JPG Version HERE

Display Version (lower quality)

Our Sheet Music Front Cover "Frame" with "Chums"

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download Print JPG Version HERE

Display Version (lower quality)

CREDITS:

NYPL Image Archive

All Rights Reserved by NYPL.org

All design work using these images by PPS

You are therefore free to:

use the above images for educational or private use.

And you are therefore not free to:

sell any of the above images

without the explicit permission of NYPL,

even if they have been altered significantly by you.

Please respect all free gifts online,

including ours.

Please respect the rights of artists and archivists everywhere.

Thank you.

Free Paper Doll Tennis Ensemble

Victoria's Seaside Lawn Tennis Costume

NOTE: This paper doll outfit is for the earlier doll design.
While I hope to have a new tennis outfit for the new doll here soon, I have not been able to find just the right one. Fitting the dress to the new doll should work out well. It is the hat that concerns me.
~Rose

As some of you may already know, our young lady, Victoria Lacey, is currently visiting an American relative in Virginia Beach, VA, USA. She has had some adventures playing by the shore, and now is enjoying spending her time in equally fun pursuits.

Today's activities included a rousing lawn tennis tournament at a party given for her and all their friends by her Aunt Martha. For this, our Victoria's outfit was most fetching and fashionable, wouldn't you agree?

This particular paper doll outfit actually took days to make, owing to a time constraint, but it will hopefully have been well worth it. It had to be completely altered from its original fashion plate in black and white on browning old paper. We did this by easy stages, remaking all until it would actually fit Victoria herself, although the shoulder and sleeve areas made this a bit tricky for tabs. 

Remaking old fashion plates as paper doll clothes can really be a challenge! Thank goodness for Photoshop products! The original artist even had drawn her racquet really too, too small. We are still uncertain as to the best size, but have chosen to publish now that her racquet has been enlarged at least somewhat by the studio Photoshop process.

{Some tips:
And as for the hat, this should fit, although I wouldn't bet my life it would fit perfectly. Printer problems have prevented the usual testing this time. The hat will require a good bit of "fussy cutting" so it is recommended that a pair of small fingernail or cuticle scissors be employed for this task. I suppose a utility knife might work just as well, although such a project requires a certain amount of manipulation during cutting. Reinforcing from behind using cellophane tape might even make this cutting process a little easier, and also keep the tabs from tearing later on.}

The doll herself (that we re-worked until she was fresher looking and also more workable for young fingers) may be found HERE.

Her striped dress has shorter sleeves than usual for a more sporty look. Young ladies back in the 1890's were often interested in sporting activities, and many in her station or class could play tennis. Please note the wide collar as well as the lace-bedecked hat, built for shading the face. The wearing of gloves with the shorter sleeves seems silly to yours truly, yet these were fashion rules which simply were never to be bent. Paler skin on the hands was considered more "ladylike" then, and tanning was not necessarily something a woman would have then tried for.

She most likely would also be wearing a sporting corset (or set of stays) along with a camisole, corset cover, petticoats, drawers and heavy stockings for this outing. It all must have felt stifling to the ladies of that era!

All the same, it was a grand day out for our Victoria in her lovely new Lawn Tennis Dress.

Happy Creativity!
:)

Victoria's Seaside Lawn Tennis Outfit

may be downloaded HERE

Here is a Display Copy 

(at a lower resolution for storage purposes)

Credits: NYPL online for original dress imagery.

Alterations: PPS™ generated!

You are free to:

use our paper doll clothes in art for fun or profit

provided you will credit us for our work

or

simply for playtime.

You are not free to:

Repackage any of our paper doll items for sale.

Please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Free Summertime Paper Doll Outfit

Victoria's Gone to the Seaside!
Back in the late nineteenth century, a "bathing costume" could be a very big, heavy garment. This sporting ensemble was intended for a day's outing at the beach. You won't be able to see it, but this outfit most likely had a pair of bloomers underneath its skirt, rather than petticoats, for decency's sake. It has cloth covered buttons, a matching belt, and a very broad, heavy white collar,  features that were very fashionable in its day (about 1894 or so, but probably earlier)

We love paper dolls here at the Studio. We also like to offer things in more than one way wherever possible, and so have decided to give our Victorian paper doll two color choices for dressing today: blue or red. I guess you could say that she's dressing appropriately for Independence Day celebrations at the beach!

The outfit itself was really quite challenging to produce. We like to start out with fashion plates that are in the public domain (meaning copyright free) and then alter them substantially so that they will not only fit this doll, but will look correct in every respect. This was tricky, at first, until we had added an arm, changed the sleeves, and revamped the collar just a touch for you. Once all of that had been taken care of, her outfit was tailored and even looked nicer than was anticipated!

As Victoria herself has UK relatives as well as USA ones, we also thought it would be fun to allow her to visit her Aunt Martha in Virginia Beach, VA for the summer months.

All of our paper dolls may be found under the category "Paper Dolls" (see below, left) or our guests may click on this link HERE instead.

We hope our guests will enjoy this new outfit with their
Happy Playtime Creativity!
:)

Victoria's Seaside Ensemble in Red

will look as displayed below

The outfit itself may be downloaded HERE

Victoria's Seaside Ensemble in Blue

will look as displayed below

The outfit itself may be downloaded HERE

You are free to:

Play or make art with our paper dolls for fun or profit.

You are not free to:

Repackage the doll as we have remade it or any of the outfits for sale to anyone.

Please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Free Swimming Graphic

Let's go swimming today!

Here is an old swimming graphic from 1890's France. It's been altered somewhat in order to make it hopefully a little more usable than before. The original was a bit messy, and so needed cleaning up and freshening.

It may well be that this was considered a slightly bawdy cartoon in its day, but we will never know, as jokes do change through time.

I love to look at all of the fashions that they wore! But would we be comfortable wearing such outfits today? Believe it or not, they were mostly made of knitted worsted wool. That must have been an itchy and very warm experience indeed. I actually was once able to closely observe a man's swimming suit from the very early 1900's and, while it had been cleverly constructed, it looked very uncomfortable to my modern eyes. But then, most modern day clothing frees our bodies and most nineteenth century clothing was extremely confining.

I think that today we'd all much prefer our modern cottons with stretchy spandex or latex to those old "bathing costumes," don't you?

But no matter. Let's all enjoy today's swimming lesson with our

Happy Creativity!

1890's French Swimming Graphic

Download HERE

You are free to:

Use the above graphic in artwork for fun or for profit.

You are not free to take the credit for our processing of this item

by repackaging it for sale in any way.

Please respect our copyrights and those of others.

Likewise

please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Plush Possum Studio

Let's Play Ball !

Women's Pro Baseball Blog Button

Recently, here at the Studio, a button was offered which reads, "Art is a manly sport." (which see in our right hand column)

The fact that it is, of course, is obvious to anybody with sense, as both women and men do enjoy getting creative with color or objects, etc.

Women, likewise, can enjoy playing or watching sports, just like men. To even the odds, or to bring things into balance again, the new button is all about women playing pro sports.

In this country, from 1943 to 1954, a few rare women played a form of supported major league baseball that has yet to be repeated. For more information on the subject, you can go HERE and HERE. (I like the second link the best) Though they got called girls, and even were sometimes jeered at from the stands for not being male players, they were women playing hard and fast ballgames.

In honor of the feminine sport enthusiasts among us, the Studio is now prepared to offer you a new button. It is a sort of answer to the prior button about art being manly as well as being feminine.

The photo being used in the button offered below, is of pro player, Dorothy "Dottie" Schroeder. You can find out more about her HERE, and a little bit in the video above.

Attribution for the Public Domain photo may be found beneath her photo HERE. According to her bio, she played for the full 12 seasons--and was singular in having done so.

So, let's do what Dottie was saying in her photograph and "Play Ball!" with our
Happy Creativity!

Dorothy "Dottie" Schroeder Baseball Blog Button

(It is best to use the "shrink to fit" portion of your blog button gadget window for this 96px PNG)

Download HERE

(below is our display copy)

You are free to:

use this button at your blog for the fun of it, or to celebrate the womanly art of sports.

You are not free to:

repackage it in any way, for sale or for your own offering elsewhere.

Please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Baseball Graphics: Free for Father's Day

Baseball Series Part 2

Our second offering in this series will be mainly colorful rather than plain black and white like last weekend's. 
This time, we offer two sets two ways, and in two separate formats (Digital or Print, at 8.5 inch by 11 inch or 12 inches square).We hope that you will find these useful in the making of projects for your own fathers, husbands, boyfriends or friends (or for yourself, for that matter!).
Note: all of these have half inch borders on all four sides.
Happy Creativity!

Take Him Out to the Ballgame (for Print version)

Download HERE

Digital PNG Version (11 inches by 8.5 inches, at 300dpi)

Download HERE

All Star Greats

Print Version (same 12 by 12 format) 

Download HERE

Digital PNG Version (also 12 inches by 12 inches)

Download HERE

Image Sources:

Library of Congress

NYPL

Baseball audience silhouette reprocessed completely 

by us here at Plush Possum Studio.

You are free to:

make art using the images above for either fun or profit.

You are not free to:

Repackage any of them for sale.

Please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Free Father's Day Baseball Graphics (Part 1)

PPS goes to the Ball Park for you this weekend, and with not a single moment to lose! After all, in just two weeks' time, we will be celebrating our American Father's Day.

But this is also Baseball season, so we have decided to run the bases in hopes of making a home run with free summertime sports graphics for our guests.

Our first offering features some of baseball's all time greats. 

From left to right, they are as follows:

1.) Satchel Paige, one of the finest pitchers America will ever see

2.) Chick Keating, shortstop (that is one tough role to play!) for two clubs (Cubs and Phillies)

3.) Babe Ruth, a superior hitter, known for hitting 714 career home runs, and considered to be one of the all time greats of the game

4.) Jackie Robinson, who played in a total of 6 World Series, and who began in the old Negro League, eventually having a stellar career playing Major League ball

As for our silhouette, this had to be completely overhauled, and it took about a total of 7 hours to clear up all of the jagged edges and messiness in order to remanufacture it for use. All of our work on it will therefore be copyrighted. (Please see our guidelines, below, in red)

First up, we offer our classic sized printable, followed by its Digi partner. Then we will offer you a 12 by 12  Digi set, with two silhouettes instead of one. 

These sets will be followed by more, next time in full color. 

We hope to have hit a real "homer" with our initial set for you today.

As per usual, all of these have at least 1/2 inch margins, if not more.

Happy Father's Day Creativity!

American Baseball Greats

Download HERE

American Baseball Greats Digi PNG Version

(Same size)

Download HERE

(same as above, but without any background, and ready for digital processing)

12inch by 12 inch Digital PNG Version

(same as above, but which features two ballgame crowd silhouettes instead of one)

Download HERE

Image sources:

Library of Congress

Wikimedia Commons

(please attribute as per Wiki Licenses)

We will list links here at our earliest convenience

You are welcome to:

use these images in your artwork for fun or profit provided we (for the silhouette in this case) and Wikimedia Commons (photo links will be provided shortly) are given credit 

(a link to our site would be nice, thank you)

You are not welcome to:

Repackage any of these items for sale in any way.

Please respect the work we are giving the public.

Please respect the rights of the public, as well as the rights of the image providers over at Wikimedia Commons.

Thank you for cooperating in this matter.