Free Printable Insect Metamorphosis Ephemera – Vintage ATCs, Tags & Collage Images
Explore Creative Transformation with These Symbolic Insect Collage Sheets
What’s Inside:
Download three free printable collage sheets featuring symbolic insect metamorphosis illustrations
Includes vintage-style ATCs, gift tags, and collage rectangles for junk journaling and mixed media
Ideal for dream-inspired artwork, nature symbolism, and surreal storytelling in visual formats
Transformation is more than just change. It’s growth. These free printable collage sheets explore the theme of metamorphosis through a curated set of 19th-century insect illustrations. From pupae to flight, from structure to bloom, the symbolic beauty of growth is captured in finely detailed vintage engravings.
This ephemera set is perfect for mixed media artists, junk journalers, and creatives who love nature, surreal imagery, and visual metaphor.
What You’ll Get – 3 Free Printable Sheets
This set includes three beautifully arranged collage sheets featuring antique insect imagery:
ATCs (2.5" x 3.5") – Perfect for art trading cards, pockets, and layered collages
Gift Tags – Use as charming labels, tuck spots, or embellishments in journals
Rectangles (2.5" x 4.25") – Great as focal points or vertical design elements
Each sheet includes crisp, high-resolution artwork. You’ll find bees, beetles, larvae, honeycombs, cocoons, and hives, a symbolic representation of life in motion.
2.5” x 3.5” ATCs
Creative Ways to Use These Printables
These insect-themed illustrations offer a wealth of symbolic inspiration for your next creative project. Try these ideas:
Junk Journals: Use the cards and tags to explore themes of growth, transformation, or nature’s rhythm.
Dream or Shadow Work Journals: The symbolic imagery lends itself beautifully to inner exploration.
Nature-Themed Pages: Pair with botanical illustrations or vintage garden ephemera for a cohesive spread.
Handmade Greeting Cards: Create mysterious, meaningful cards or altered envelopes.
Mixed Media Collage: Use the rectangles as visual anchors, layers, or contrast pieces in surreal compositions.
Print them on matte paper or card stock for best results, or try on kraft paper for an extra vintage touch.
Gift Tags
About the Imagery
The illustrations used in this set are taken from a 19th-century natural history book. This publication focused on insect life cycles, especially the transformation from egg to adult. The scientific detail, combined with artistic engraving techniques, results in ephemera that feels both symbolic and strange, ideal for collage art that leans into metaphor and meaning.
This collection is a tribute to that curiosity. It captures the beauty of change, the complexity of growth, and the wild mystery of nature’s cycles.
Love Symbolic Ephemera? Download More Free Sheets
If this printable inspired you, don’t miss these other free themed collage sets:
Theatre of Machines – Intricate engravings of curious mechanical inventions from centuries past.
Ornamental Masks – Mysterious and decorative mask illustrations perfect for theatrical or surreal journal spreads.
Vintage Mushroom Illustrations – Beautifully detailed fungi artwork ideal for nature and woodland-themed projects.
Explore the full Collage Sheets Archive for more free vintage-inspired printables to spark your next creative session.
2.5” x 4.25” Rectangles
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Terms of use:
Free to use for personal or commercial projects. You may print the collage sheets as many times as you wish for your personal crafts or in your projects to sell, including: scrapbooks, junk journals, collage art, etc. You may not redistribute or sell the collage sheets “as is" in either print or digital form.
If you wish to share the files on your own website, please do not make the files available for download directly from your site. Instead, include an image with a link back to this site. Pinning is always welcome and appreciated!
To the best of my knowledge, these are all royalty free images that are in the Public Domain in the US. However, you should always do your own research if you plan to use them commercially.
