Vintage French children’s language book pages make beautiful home and classroom decor. They’re also perfect for art/junk journals and numerous DIY projects.
Vintage textbook pages have a whimsical charm that doesn’t exist in modern textbooks. The full-color, hand-drawn illustrations are unlike anything you’ll find today. Antique book pages are ideal for unique wall art, such as for nurseries, children’s bedrooms, and elementary school classrooms. They’re also perfect for a wide array of craft projects, including but not limited to, art/junk journals, home decor, greeting cards, decoupage, scrapbooks, and Christmas ornaments.
It’s no secret that I love the look of vintage book pages. I actually already have a different set of vintage French primer pages on the blog. Additional vintage book page sets you’ll find on the blog include dictionaries, hymn books, an algebra textbook, a spelling textbook, a beginner Latin textbook, agricultural almanacs, a Christmas cookies cookbook, and a desserts cookbook. I’m so excited to bring you another set of vintage French primer pages today, this one with full-color illustrations.
The vintage French primer I’m featuring in this post is Pigeon Vole, copyright 1953. It’s a children’s language book, probably first grade level, with alphabet, grammar, and phonics lessons and short reading passages. Every page features beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, including animals, vehicles, sports, food, and household items.
I’ve made 20 full primer pages available for download. I’m also offering a couple of sets of ATC size cards and a set of journal tags that I created with the children’s language book pages. Enjoy!
How to use vintage book pages and illustrations
When you’re looking for old book pages, ATC cards, and journal tags, most likely you already have a few ideas for how you’ll use them. If you need a little inspiration or are simply looking for more options for your new vintage printables, think about one or more of the following projects.
- DIY wall decor. One of the most popular ways to use antique book pages is to create unique wall art. Vintage French primer pages make whimsical decor on their own for nurseries, children’s bedrooms, classrooms, and more. You can also customize your book pages by overlaying them with PNG or transparent background images and/or text.
- Tile coasters, using the method that I developed for my vintage sheet music botanical coasters.
- Greeting cards. Vintage book pages make gorgeous backgrounds for all sorts of handmade greeting cards.
- Glass or bottle cap magnets, using the technique that I share in my sheet music glass magnets tutorial.
- Pendant necklaces. You can also use the method outlined in the above magnets tutorial to create pendant necklaces.
- Art journals and other mixed media projects. Old book pages are very popular for art/junk journals and mixed media art. You can use them as is or layer them with stamps, ink, paint, and more.
- Scrapbooking. I love vintage book pages for both physical and digital scrapbook backgrounds and details. They’re also great for making your own scrapbook embellishments.
- Christmas ornaments. Antique book pages are perfect for a wide variety of Christmas ornament craft projects. You can make ornaments for your own tree, to sell online and/or at craft fairs, and to give as gifts to family, friends, and teachers.
About the free vintage French children’s language book pages
You are welcome to use the Pigeon Vole book pages, ATC cards, and journal tags for as many personal projects as you like, which includes classroom use. You may also use them for limited runs of commercial projects (5,000 items or less). Commercial use DOES NOT include made to order sites, such as Society6 and CafePress. Commercial digital items must be flat, finished products (i.e., not Photoshop files) consisting of your original content. You are not authorized to sell any of my items as is, either as individual items or as part of larger collections.
Additionally, please don’t distribute the download files to friends, family, or co-workers. If people you know are interested in their own book pages, ATC cards, or journal tags, please provide them with a link to this post, so they can download their own files. Thank you!
Full book pages
I’m offering 20 full-size vintage French children’s language book pages. All of the pages are 3800 x 5300 pixels. They cover a variety of alphabet, grammar, and phonics lessons as well as short reading passages. The content and accompanying illustrations cover a range of topics, including animals, vehicles, sports, food, and household items.
I’ve split the full book pages into three ZIP folders to give you large file sizes in an easy-to-download format.
ATC-size digital collage sheets
Please note: The preview images have black outlines around the 8.5″ x 11″ pages because it gets confusing having so much white space. The digital collage sheet downloads don’t have black borders.
I’m offering two sets of ATC-size digital collage sheets from the vintage French primer.
The first set is a general set of 12 ATC-size images on two 8.5″ x 11″ pages.
[Pigeon Vole – ATC Digital Collage Sheets]
The second set features cat illustrations with 8 ATC-size images on one 8.5″ x 11″ page.
[Pigeon Vole – Cats – ATC Digital Collage Sheet]
Journal tags
I’ve created 12 journal tags from the vintage French children’s language book pages. In addition to art/junk journals and scrapbooks, they’re ideal for numerous craft projects. Each tag measures 2.5″ x 4.2″ (750 x 1250 pixels). The journal tags ZIP folder contains two 8.5″ x 11″ pages for easy printing.
Please note: Again, the above preview image has black outlines around the pages. The 8.5″ x 11″ page downloads don’t have black borders.
[Pigeon Vole Journal Tag 8.5″ x 11″ Pages]
Extracting and downloading the full ZIP folders
I’ve created ZIP folders for all of the vintage French children’s language book pages content that I offer in this post. Zipped folders allow me to provide high-resolution files for crisp, vibrant printing and to protect said files from potential theft. Extracting and downloading the ZIP folders from Google Drive is a fairly user-friendly process. Please note that it does take a little time to download each folder completely, especially the full-page book sets.
- When you click on the download link, select the Open with ZIP Extractor option at the top of the page.
- The folder will open in a new window. The files will download.
- Once the files have downloaded, click Extract Now.
- When the files have extracted and uploaded, click View Extracted Files.
- Double click on the folder.
- To download, select the files you’d like to download. Click the three horizontal dots More Actions button. Choose Download.
- Follow the prompts on the download screen.
I recommend moving your downloaded files out of your downloads folder and into your main photos folder. I also recommend creating a second copy on an external hard drive or cloud storage drive. Keep your files in a folder labeled “Vintage French Children’s Language Book Pages” or something similar, so you’re able to find them again easily.
Now you’re ready to use your new vintage French primer pages for wall decor and endless DIY projects!
Printing antique primer pages
When you use antique book pages to create your own wall art and other home decor, my personal pick for at-home printing is Finestra Art Paper. I always choose Finestra because the paper features an acid-free, matte surface to dry ink quickly, producing crisp, vibrant images. I prefer the results that Finestra yields over regular printer paper, presentation paper, and card stock.
For all other journal and craft projects, my paper choice is white card stock. When you’re using book pages for scrapbook embellishments, greeting cards, and mixed media pieces, it’s not as important that the images are really vibrant. For projects that involve several coats of Mod Podge or diamond glaze, such as magnets, tile coasters, and pendant necklaces, you won’t be able to tell any difference in the finish of the paper. So it makes sense to use card stock, which is less expensive and still very durable and high-quality.
[Disclaimer: There are a few affiliate links in this post. Thanks for your support!]
Pin this post for easy access to the vintage French children’s language book pages later!
Are you using the vintage French children’s language book pages for home decor or craft projects?
I want to see what you’re creating with these free printables! Tag your images #RoseClearfield on Instagram or Twitter or post a photo to my Facebook page.
More free vintage book page printables:
Head to the free printables section of the blog for even more vintage book page printables as well as a wealth of additional vintage printables, including lots of sheet music and postcards.
