Free Vintage Animal Relief Scrap Printables for Junk Journals & Crafts
Overview
Download two free printable collage sheets featuring vintage animal relief scraps, including rabbits, squirrels, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, sheep, birds, peacocks, mice, and other woodland and farm animals.
The sheets are designed for junk journals, scrapbooks, art journals, ATCs, handmade cards, tags, altered books, mixed-media collage, and paper crafts.
These colorful vintage animal cutouts are taken from Victorian and Edwardian-era printed scrap images, when embossed and die-cut paper embellishments became popular.
The downloadable files are high-resolution and can also be used for digital collage, digital scrapbooking, and graphic design projects.
The original vintage artwork is in the public domain in the United States, to the best of my knowledge, while the collage sheets themselves are original compilations created by The Art Scavenger.
You can download the free JPG or PDF files below and print them as many times as you need for your own creative projects.
Free Vintage Animal Relief Scrap Printables
If you love old-fashioned animal illustrations, colorful paper ephemera, or the look of Victorian scrapbooks, these free vintage animal relief scrap printables are for you. I've put together two collage sheets filled with colorful antique-style animal cutouts that are ready to print, cut apart, and use in your next creative project.
The collection includes rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, mice, sheep, birds, peacocks, quail, and plenty of other animals. Some of the illustrations are tiny enough for layering, while others are large enough to become the main focal point on a journal page.
The imagery has the distinctive look of old scrap reliefs: brightly colored animals surrounded by bits of grass, flowers, foliage, or other decorative details, with the figures cropped closely around their shapes.
And, of course, they're free.
Scroll down to download the two vintage animal collage sheets in JPG or PDF format.
These printables are especially useful if you're making a woodland-themed junk journal, nature journal, cottagecore project, scrapbook page, handmade card, or mixed-media collage and want something more unusual than a standard animal illustration.
What Are Vintage Animal Relief Scraps?
Vintage animal relief scraps are printed paper illustrations that were originally produced as decorative pieces for scrapbooks, greeting cards, albums, gifts, and other paper crafts.
Unlike a conventional rectangular illustration, a scrap was often printed and cut around the outline of the subject. Relief scraps could also be embossed, giving the paper a raised or dimensional appearance.
The history of printed scraps goes back to the early 19th century. Early scraps were often simple black-and-white engravings that could be hand-tinted and cut out. The development of chromolithography in the 19th century made it possible to produce much more colorful printed scraps, and manufacturers began producing elaborate embossed and die-cut designs.
By the Victorian period, scraps were being produced in an enormous variety of subjects, including flowers, birds, animals, children, flowers, holidays, people, and decorative motifs. Museums with Victorian scrapbook collections still preserve examples of these colorful paper embellishments.
That's part of what makes these images so useful today. They were originally made to be cut apart and incorporated into other creative work, which is remarkably similar to what we do with printable collage sheets now.
You can use the individual animals as you would any other piece of printable ephemera: cut them out, layer them, combine them with paper scraps, or build an entire journal page around one particularly interesting creature.
More Free Animal & Nature Printables
If you enjoy these animal relief scraps, there are plenty of other animal and nature-themed printables on The Art Scavenger that you can combine with them.
Free Printable Vintage Animal Illustrations — A collection of vintage animal illustrations from an 18th-century natural history book, with plenty of larger animals for nature-inspired journal pages.
Free Printable Julie de Graag Animal Graphics — These black-and-white animal illustrations have a completely different look and are great for pairing with colorful scraps when you want some contrast.
Free Vintage Bird Illustration Collage Sheets — Add vintage birds to the animals in this collection for a larger natural-history-inspired spread.
Free Vintage Animal Alphabet Printables — The 1880 animal alphabet sheets are a fun option when you want to introduce typography and children's-book imagery alongside your animal collage pieces.
What's Included in These Free Vintage Animal Printables?
This giveaway includes two full-page collage sheets.
The first sheet focuses heavily on mammals and woodland creatures. You'll find rabbits, squirrels, guinea pigs, mice, hedgehogs, and other small animals, along with a few larger creatures.
The second sheet expands the collection to include both animals and birds, with sheep, lambs, rabbits, squirrels, guinea pigs, peacocks, quail, pheasant-like birds, and other feathered creatures.
The variety of sizes is one of my favorite things about these sheets. You can use a large rabbit or squirrel as the centerpiece of a page, then tuck tiny mice, birds, or baby animals around it as secondary details.
These images work for both printable crafts and digital design projects.
Free vintage animal relief scrap printables featuring colorful rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs, sheep, birds, and other antique-style animal illustrations.
A Little History of Victorian Scrap Reliefs
The Victorian era is particularly important when talking about printed scraps.
During the 19th century, improvements in printing technology made colorful decorative paper goods increasingly accessible. Chromolithography allowed printers to produce richly colored images, while embossing and die-cutting added texture and more interesting silhouettes.
The manufacturing process could be surprisingly elaborate. Sources describing Victorian scraps explain that printed sheets could be coated with materials such as gelatin and gum, embossed to create a raised effect, and then stamped or cut so that individual images followed the contours of the design. The finished pieces were sometimes left attached to one another by small paper connections until they were ready to be removed.
Animals were an especially popular subject.
It's easy to understand why. A squirrel with an enormous fluffy tail, a rabbit sitting in a patch of flowers, a group of sheep, or a brightly colored peacock could be used in all sorts of decorative projects.
Scraps were also used in Germany for decorating cakes and biscuits, and later became popular in albums, greeting cards, scrapbooks, and other paper crafts.
The sheets I'm sharing here aren't original antique scraps themselves. They are modern printable collage sheets made from vintage public-domain imagery, arranged so you can easily print and use the individual pictures in your own projects.
Creative Ways to Use Vintage Animal Cutouts
These animal scraps are particularly easy to work with because they already have so much visual personality. You don't need to create an elaborate composition from scratch.
Try using a single animal as a focal point, or combine several into a layered scene.
Junk journals - Use the larger animals on journal pages, tuck smaller ones into pockets, or layer several pieces over vintage book pages. A rabbit or squirrel can also make a great focal point for a woodland or cottagecore spread.
Scrapbooking - Cut out the individual animals and use them as decorative elements around photographs, journaling, titles, or patterned paper.
Artist Trading Cards - The smaller animals are perfect for ATCs or mini collages. Choose one creature, add a background from another printable, and build a miniature composition around it.
Handmade cards - A squirrel, rabbit, sheep, or bird can become the central image on a handmade greeting card. Add flowers, typography, or a simple border for a finished look.
Tags and pockets - Print several copies and cut out the smaller pieces for tags, tuck spots, journal pockets, and layered clusters.
Altered books - These illustrations would work particularly well in altered books with a natural-history, woodland, children's-book, or Victorian theme.
Nature and cottagecore journals - Combine the animals with botanical illustrations, pressed-flower imagery, mushrooms, insects, birds, and handwritten notes for a nature-study-inspired spread.
Mixed-media art - Glue the animals over painted backgrounds, vintage papers, tissue paper, maps, or handwritten text. Add pencil, ink, stamping, or paint around the edges to integrate the images into your composition.
Use These Printables for Digital Art & Design
You don't have to print these sheets to use them.
Because the downloadable files are high-resolution, the individual animal illustrations can also be incorporated into digital collage, digital scrapbooking, and graphic design projects.
You can work with the files in programs such as Canva, Procreate, or Photoshop, depending on how you like to create.
Digital project ideas
Digital junk journal pages
Digital collage artwork
Digital scrapbook layouts
Printable stationery designs
Social media graphics
Digital greeting cards
Journal covers
Printable wall art
Digital planner decorations
Mood boards and creative inspiration boards
One particularly useful approach is to crop individual animals from the collage sheet and save them as separate elements. You can then build your own digital collection of rabbits, squirrels, birds, sheep, and other creatures.
A few practical tips:
Crop individual animals carefully. Leave a little of the original grass or floral detail around the animal when you want a more natural cutout, or remove the background completely for a cleaner digital collage element.
Layer at different sizes. Use one larger animal with several smaller animals behind it can create a more dimensional composition.
Experiment with transparency and blending. A slightly transparent animal layered over vintage paper, handwriting, or a botanical image can create an interesting background effect.
Keep the original high-resolution file. Work from the downloaded JPG rather than a screenshot so you retain as much image quality as possible.
The original vintage artwork used here is public domain in the United States, to the best of my knowledge, which makes these images useful starting points for your own creative designs. As always, if you're producing commercial work, it's smart to do your own rights research for your particular use.
Vintage animal scrap printable featuring sheep, rabbits, squirrels, peacocks, etc.
Public Domain & Usage Information
The vintage artwork used to create these animal collage sheets is in the public domain in the United States, to the best of my knowledge. U.S. copyright law has different rules depending on when and how a work was created and published.
The important distinction here is between the original artwork and the collage sheet.
I have selected, restored, arranged, and formatted the vintage imagery into printable sheets. The collage sheets themselves are original compilations created by The Art Scavenger.
You are welcome to use the images in your own personal or commercial creative projects, including finished artwork and handmade products. You may print the sheets as often as you like for those purposes.
However, you may not sell or redistribute the collage sheets themselves "as is," either in print or digital form.
In other words, don't download the JPG, put it into a folder, and sell or give away that same JPG as a competing printable. Instead, use the individual images as part of something you've created yourself.
If you plan to use the imagery commercially, I also recommend doing your own copyright research. The Art Scavenger's public-domain assessment is based on the historical source material and is provided in good faith, not as legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these vintage animal images public domain?
The original vintage artwork used for these printables is believed to be in the public domain in the United States. The images are sourced from historical material old enough to have entered the public domain.
If you're using them for commercial purposes, I recommend doing your own research into the particular source and intended use.
Can I use these animal images commercially?
Yes. You can use the individual images in your own personal or commercial creative projects, including artwork, handmade cards, journals, collage art, and other finished products.
You cannot redistribute or sell the collage sheets themselves as-is, either digitally or in printed form.
What paper should I use to print the collage sheets?
For most projects, regular heavyweight printer paper or matte cardstock works well. If you're making journal pieces, lightweight cardstock gives the animals enough structure to be handled repeatedly without becoming too bulky.
For ATCs, tags, and handmade cards, I prefer a heavier cardstock. For pieces you're going to layer into a journal, ordinary good-quality printer paper can actually be easier to glue down.
Can I use these in digital collage projects?
Yes. The high-resolution files can be used as source material for digital collage, digital scrapbooking, graphic design, printable designs, and other digital artwork. You can crop, resize, layer, and combine the individual animal illustrations with other elements to create something new.
Final Thoughts
I have a soft spot for these old printed animal scraps because they feel like tiny pieces of another era that were meant to be handled, rearranged, and used creatively.
A squirrel can become the focal point of a woodland journal. A rabbit can turn into a greeting card. A tiny mouse can peek out from a journal pocket. A group of sheep can become part of a completely different scene.
That's the fun of collage: the original purpose of an image doesn't have to determine what you do with it now.
I hope these two free vintage animal relief scrap sheets give you plenty of pieces to cut, layer, rearrange, and make your own.
Scroll back up to download the JPG or PDF files, then start cutting!
Love These Printables? Support The Art Scavenger!
I love sharing free vintage printables, and if you enjoy them, there are easy ways to support my work so I can continue creating and offering more free designs:
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