French Ad Ephemera
These sheets of vintage French ephemera are from a short-lived French publication dedicated to the arts and literature published in 1919. These are ads that were found in the back of the magazine. They feature advertisements for fashion, chocolate, perfume, automobiles, etc. They are not bright or flashy but would be great in a junk journal or any vintage mixed-media spread.
Scroll down, and you’ll find three different sheets of ads that you can cut apart, or use the entire sheets for backgrounds. The preview images you see displayed on this page are low resolution, so they load quickly, but the downloads will be high-resolution, print-quality images.
If you like these vintage ads, you should also check out the ephemera section of my library of free printables. And if you are interested in vintage French fashion, look at these ephemera sheets featuring fashion from Gazette du Bon Ton, popular during the same era.
If you enjoy these free printables, be sure to follow me on Instagram and Pinterest, so you’ll see when I post new ones.
Here are some ideas on how you can incorporate vintage magazine advertisements in a junk journal or art journal:
Collage Backgrounds: Cut out various vintage advertisements and use them as collage backgrounds for your journal pages. Layer them to create interesting textures and patterns.
Focal Points: Select eye-catching advertisements that can serve as focal points on your pages. Trim them neatly and glue them onto the pages. You can surround them with additional elements like doodles, washi tape, or handwritten notes.
Themed Pages: If your vintage advertisements revolve around a particular theme (e.g., fashion, food, travel), create dedicated pages that showcase those ads together. Arrange them creatively on the page and add complementary elements to enhance the theme.
Pockets and Envelopes: Incorporate vintage advertisements into interactive elements like pockets and envelopes. Glue an advertisement to the front of a pocket or envelope, and inside, you can store tags, journaling cards, or small mementos.
Altered Art: Transform vintage advertisements by altering them with mixed media techniques. Paint over parts of the ad, add doodles or stamps, or incorporate other ephemera to make them unique and personalized.
Background Layers: Tear or cut vintage advertisements into small pieces and use them as background layers in your journal. Apply them with glue or collage medium, and then add other elements like paint, stamps, or stencils on top to create depth and interest.
Theme Prompts: Use vintage advertisements as prompts for journaling or art-making. Let the imagery or text inspire you to write about memories or express your artistic interpretation.
I hope you’ll add these to your supplies for art journaling, junk journaling, bullet journaling, scrapbooking, collage, artist trading cards (ATCs) and other mixed media artwork and crafts.
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.
