There are many times when crafters will need to find a graphic or and image in a hurry. To make that last minute card, as part of a bigger design, to use as a digi stamp etc. This is where we get our free graphics and images for crafters from. (other than this site of course!).
There are lots of places to get there free designs on the internet BUT if you aren’t careful you can end up spending hours going round in circles. This is because many website owners are more interested in sending you from site to site, where you can view their adverts, rather than letting you find what you are after.
Copyright Free , Public Domain, Royalty Free etc…
We can hardly talk about free designs without talking about copyright. If you want to use design of the internet they really need to be copyright free or Public Domain Images. Some images licensed under the “Creative Commons” can also be used but in this case you will need to read each license separately.
Royalty Free is not good enough. For these images you normally have to pay a fee, after which you may use them as many time as you like, that’s the royalty free bit.
There has to be sense of reality here, I doubt even the strictest company in the world is going to drag you through the courts because you used their image on a one off card you made for your 4 year old nephew. But try the same thing on cards you are selling (even for charity) and you could find yourself in a completely different situation. Not only are you guilty of copyright infringement but could also be accused of selling “fake goods”.
The same applies if you make other peoples images available on a website, even as part of a picture of one of your products. You could even have your website closed down by your hosting company, although most will give you at least one warning and the chance to remove the images.
Where to get the images.
Well here is a list of Sites we like. Each really do have free images on them. Please ensure your read the sites polices about how their images may be used and/ or any restrictions placed on individual images.
A great site with a large selection of clipoart split up into categories such as animals, art, armed services, cartoon, education etc.
Lots of old out of copyright images which you are free to use in any of your crafting activities.
Lots of great free clipart and images on this site. Very good download system as well.
Great site with loads of clipart on. Some seem to have watermarks on which is a bit strange
You will fnd there and lots more free clipart sites listed in the relevant section on Free Craft Stuff
http://www.freecraftstuff.co.uk/generalclipart/
Just one final word of warning. When talking about copyright free images don’t always assume that the person with an image on their site has the ability to declare the image “copyright free” unless it is clear it is their own image. Likewise we have see sites which attempt to place their own copyright on images which clearly aren’t their own, in fact images which are actually release in the Public Domain.
Free Graphics and Images for Crafters
Authored By: Bob Prentice
