October 5, 2019

Vintage Upcycled Dictionary Art Prints

Years ago I went to one of our local craft fairs and there was a vendor selling vintage upcycled dictionary art prints, and I instantly fell in love with them. They were very expensive $5-15 dollars, and being the frugal person I am, I thought I would give it a try. At my local Salvation Army, they had a lot of very beat up old dictionaries, perfect!! Now to figure it out 🙂 It was easier than I thought and my new addiction began.

What you will need:

Image for printing
Old dictionary
Image editing software, all computers come with paint, that will work just fine.
Printer, inkjet or laser
Ruler
Scissors or paper trimmer

Getting started

Image for printing

I have a favorite site, The Graphics Fairy, she has hundreds of free vintage images that are unique, fun and vintage cool. Save some of your favorites to your computer and open up in your paint program. I always pick out an image that has a white background, it just makes life easier 🙂 White doesn’t print.

Image editing software

Your computer comes with a program called paint, it works fine. Pick out the frame you want to put your finished picture in (8×10 etc) and resize your graphic to fit. Paint has 3 tabs on the top, File, Home and View. Under the View tab, select rulers and gridlines. By selecting these options, you can easily resize to fit inside your frame.

Printer

Cut your dictionary page to fit in your printer and set your printer guides to snug the sides of your page. You do not want your page to slide sideways. From your graphics program, select your paper size and the graphic setting, if you forget, it will still come out ok, just not as detailed.

Select print…… That’s it !!

My firsts few did not come out well, but the great thing about an old dictionary is, there are many pages. I use a paper trimmer to trim my edges to fit in my frames, but scissors and a ruler will work fine also.

I have made hundreds of these over the years, some with color, some with just plain fun text. They are perfect for a unique birthday gift, Christmas gift, anniversary gift, Mother’s Day gift, Father’s Day gift, wedding gift, the sky is the limit.

Keep your page scraps, they can be used to make paper flowers, trees, gift tags, anything you want to add a touch of vintage cool to.