Free Vintage Store Advertising Ephemera: Printable Show Card Sheets for Mixed Media
Inside This Post:
Download five printable ephemera sheets of vintage store show cards, featuring early-1900s men's department advertising designs.
These artful print samples come from a printer’s sample book of show cards (used in retail displays).
Perfect for junk journals, collage, altered books, and retail-themed art pieces.
The sheets include ornate typography, decorative borders, and hand-illustrated elements for layered visual interest.
In the golden age of printed advertising, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stores used what were called “show cards” to catch the eye of shoppers. They placed small, often hand-lettered or elaborately designed display cards near merchandise, in windows, or on counters. These cards could include promotions, product sketches, or decorative branding elements designed to provoke interest in merchandise.
The free printable sheets you see here are made up of images from a printer’s sample book of show cards from the early 1900s, likely used for a menswear store or men’s department.
Because these show cards were both commercial and visual tools, they often combined elegant typography, decorative flourishes, and illustrative details, making them rich sources of ephemera for today’s journalers and collage artists.
By bringing these designs into your own work, you’re layering history, commerce, and design into your pages. Whether you’re building a vintage-themed journal, creating layered collages, or designing shop-themed art spreads, these printables offer a unique aesthetic that merges function and decoration.
About the Free Printables
Here’s what you’ll find included:
Five downloadable ephemera sheets in both JPG and PDF formats, featuring vintage store advertisement/show card designs.
Designs drawn from a printer’s sample book that was used to showcase designs to merchants.
Designs include ornate typography, promotional text, decorative frames, product sketches, and stylistic borders.
These show cards likely date to the early 1900s, capturing the era’s aesthetic trends in retail and advertising.
Provided in high resolution to support crisp printing on standard 8.5″ × 11″ paper.
You can print them on cardstock for sturdier use or lighter paper if you intend to layer or collage.
How to Use These Printables
These vintage store ephemera sheets are full of possibilities. Here are a variety of ways to put them to good use:
Junk Journals & Altered Books
Use them as headers, title plates, or collage backgrounds. They’re ideal for “shop pages” or themed spreads about fashion, sewing, or vintage life.
Mixed Media Collage
Cut, layer, and pair them with fabrics, stamps, and textured backgrounds. The decorative typography and borders make lovely collage anchors or frames.
Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) & Mini Art Pieces
Many of the show card designs are already compact or easily cropped to use on ATCs or postcard-sized art.
Gift Tags & Labels
Use the smaller elements or frames as tags, labels, or decorative inserts for packaging or journaling inserts.
Thematic Journal Pages
Create a “vintage storefront” layout or concept journal spread using these cards as signage, store nameplates, or coupon-like inserts.
More Creative Inspiration
Here are a few less-obvious ways to use these show-card printables:
Mock shop windows in mixed media dioramas
Use them in small fold-outs or mini booklets to simulate old shop displays.
Retail-themed collage spreads
Combine with vintage receipts, ledger paper, or fabric swatches to evoke early 20th-century storefronts.
Typographic art overlays
Use the decorative borders or lettering elements as frames around your own text or illustrations.
Layered ephemera pockets
Cut and tuck them into pockets or hidden folds in your journal pages to reveal behind flaps or windows.
Other Free Printables You Might Like
Free Vintage Fern Printables — Elegant botanical plates that contrast beautifully with the structured typography and give organic balance to collage pages.
Free Sewing Ephemera — Trade cards, catalogs, and sewing motifs that pair well with vintage store print aesthetics.
Free Dragonfly Printables — Delicate insect imagery that brings nature-oriented detail to contrast with the commercial art of the show cards.
Free Victorian Portrait Photo Printables — Atmospheric vintage portraits that can evoke era, mood, and storytelling when combined with shop ephemera.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I resize or crop them for my own project dimensions?
Absolutely. You can scale down, crop, or rotate any design to fit your creative needs.
What kind of paper should I use?
For durability, use medium to heavy cardstock (65–80 lb). For layering or collage, lighter matte paper works well.
Can I use these designs in projects I sell?
Yes! You may use them in handmade art, journals, or mixed media items for sale, but please do not resell or redistribute the digital files themselves or printouts of them "as-is."
Final Thoughts
These vintage store show cards are beautifully designed relics of early retail history, combining art, design, and commerce in one. By weaving them into your creative work, you’re not just adding decorative elements, you’re giving your pages a voice from the past. Use, layer, experiment, and let these elegant typographic treasures find new life in your art.
You may also enjoy these free collage sheets.
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: art journals, 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.
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.
