Beauty from Michele Storms

She emerged.... That's the title of this beautiful digital art by Michele Storms. See more of her work at Art from the Well

More Loveliness from Michele

Three friends take time for tea! Collage ATC

Visit Michele's blog Art From the Well to read about her supplies and process for these and see more of her work...
Images from Lunagirl Children collage sheet and Art Deco Ladies collage sheet.

A 'Moo' for Mardi Gras! Love!

Design Team Inspiration: Patti's Retro Kitchen

This time of year is about thanksgiving and gratitude, and isn't it also about FOOD? Cooking (and eating) goes along with the Harvest theme this time of year ~ gathering in, spending time with family, expressing gratitude for one's blessings in life, and of course cooking and sharing some of that wonderful harvest! The cornucopia full of harvest vegetables is an old traditional symbol of Thanksgiving ~ now I think the "cornucopia" is a table covered in casseroles and pies!

Enjoy this playful collage created by Patti Robinson... she was inspired by retro images, layering colors and images to evoke the cooks and hostesses of the 1950s. And I love those 1-2-3 potatoes! Read Patti's blog post about her process... I hope you're getting inspired to show us your Harvest/Gratitude/Thanksgiving creation in my challenge this month...

Winner of Music & Dance Challenge: Corinne Marie

Entry #3, a gorgeous digital collage by Corinne Marie is the winner of the random drawing for my Music & Dance themed challenge.

Click on this thumbnail to see the full size image on her Flickr page -- it's amazing! Brilliant reds and golds and lovely collage work in the background.

Congrats and thanks to everyone who entered -- come back for our next challenge -- the theme will be Asian Art & Ephemera.

Celebrating Mothers in Vintage Style All Week!

I am late posting today due to a minor "adventure" (translation: minor torture) at the Driver's License office, but I'm home again with a cup of coffee and all is well!

Our celebration of mothers continues, as the Vintage Mother's Day challenge theme lasts all this week, until Sunday.  You still have plenty of time to link up your creation and maybe win a $10 shopping credit at Lunagirl.com. You know you need some new images for summer :-)

Here from my ever-fabulous Design Team, the Lunagirl Moonbeams, is some more beautiful inspiration, each featuring mother and child.  Enjoy!

MICHELE STORMS
has created a series of Mother's Day cards this time in these lovely soft colors with perfectly vintage papers and embellishments.

VICKI ROMAINE
created this gorgeous, colorful collage for an art journal page.  Here's what she wrote about it:
"I thought I would try something a little different this time.  I made an art journal page collage using a vintage flower image and a mother's image.  The collage papers were scraps of Gelli paper that I made.  I also used a vintage mother's image for Lunagirl's Mother's Day challenge.   When I first started I wasn't sure how the vintage images would look on the bright papers.  Many coats of Gel Medium were put on these pages."

Great work, Moonbeams!

Something Special by Vicki! Collage Board

 Vicki Romaine of the Lunagirl Moonbeams Design Team has outdone herself this week to create this amazing Great Gatsby-themed collage board featuring 1920s images and embellishments.  She has used several Lunagirl images plus a wonderful variety of found objects, such as keys and jewelry and Bingo tokens, and pretty backing papers.  She started with an old printer's tray.  I love these old trays and shadow boxes -- anything with lots of compartments!  This inspires me, I hope it inspires you as well!  Thanks, Vicki! 

Don't forget to visit The Cheerful Stamppad to enter Vicki's blog challenges, and don't forget to enter your 1920s creation in my blog challenge!  Can't wait to see what you create.

Pink Angels

A Lunagirl collage sheet design featuring charming angels in shades of pink. Click on the sample image to see all of our angel collage sheet designs!

New Site! Get Lunagirl collage sheets either printed or digital - subscriptions too!

Well, it's taken awhile but we've finally gotten all 350+ Lunagirl collage sheets uploaded and available at COLLAGESHEET.COM.

What's new about CollageSheet.com is that you can purchase our collage sheets as digital downloads (as you've always been able to do at Lunagirl.com) OR as PRINTED collage sheets delivered by snail mail right to your door!

Each collage sheet is available printed onto 28 lb acid-free paper or cardstock, as well as digital format, and I hope to add more choices eventually.

I'm really pleased we can do this to meet the needs of our customers who prefer to receive printed sheets rather than printing them out themselves.

You can purchase the sheets individually for $3.45, and we also offer monthly and yearly subscriptions for the digital versions. The yearly subscription gives you 100 downloads for just $2 each, quite a deal! Another nice thing there is that we have larger sample images :-)

CollageSheet.com is open for business, so please drop by sometime!

New: Marie Antoinette Collage Sheets

By popular request, three new designs featuring images of Marie Antoinette, the fabulous, fashionable, but ill-fated Queen of France (and some vintage postcards that seem to us inspired by Marie and her times). Print to enjoy in your altered art projects, ATCS, card making and other paper crafts ~ because our files are jpgs you can print them smaller to make jewelry charms and pendants. Available at this link, exclusively from Lunagirl Images!

New Collage Sheets! Fancy Ladies Shoes

I hope you enjoy this fabulous collection of elegant antique ladies' shoes on these four NEW Lunagirl collage sheets!

Available for purchase and instant download at Lunagirl.com.

More Beauties...

Beautiful ladies of the past to inspire and enhance your altered art projects and card making!

Available for instant downloading today at Lunagirl Images !

Cold Winds .... and CIRCA ARTE at ZNE

It got cold again (of course). Snow flurries even! Here I am shivering with my basket of flowers. March always does this to me (those of you in Minnesota and Montana probably find it amusing that I think it's cold here). Oh well, the birds are still here and the daffodils always seem to survive the cold snaps!

ZNE is doing something cool I want to share. They have a podcast called Circa Arte which features topics of interest to mixed media artists -- art tips and education, product reviews, interviews with artists. For more info and schedule click the banner below!

If you're not familiar with ZNE: It's short for variaZioNE, Mixed Media & Indie Artists Connected. We're proud to be a member and to watch ZNE grow. It's mostly online, a great place to meet other artists and view their work, chat, discuss, share your own art, etc. If you enjoy creating or just seeing collage art, altered art, and other mixed media, check it out at http://www.zneart.com/.

NEW! MORE CHRISTMAS MINIS

New from Lunagirl: more Christmas minis!

"Christmas Minis 1" is 1-inch squares, and here is "Christmas Minis 2" with 48 1-inch circles.

(You can print the whole sheet smaller or larger if you want your circles smaller or larger.)

Click on the sample image to see all our holiday collage sheet designs, or visit here to see all our minis, bottlecap charms and inchies.

How to Create Altered Art Charms

Create your own altered art charms with Lunagirl images! Altered art charms are really hot right now. They're so beautiful and fun, and not as difficult to make as you might think. Many of the people selling bracelets are using Lunagirl vintage images.

Scroll down for some easy, basic instructions. I'm sure there are others ways to do this, but I'll share what works for me. (Thanks to Jodi Crago jodiwho of SPARROW'S GATE for permission to use her images of her work!)

PRINT & CUT OUT YOUR IMAGE
First, choose your image! I have several sheets of mini images (inchies and craft circles) ready to print and clip out for charms (1-inch circles and inchie squares for jewelry charms), but of course you can print ANY of our collage sheets smaller if you like, for smaller pictures (an advantage of digital collage sheets). Being high-quality jpg images (not pdfs) they will keep their image quality at smaller sizes.

To make charms it is best to print the image onto fairly thick acid-free paper or photo paper. Any good laser or inkjet printer should do, but many prefer the laser printing for charms because inkjet prints tend to smudge more easily.

After printing, place your blank charm setting on the picture and trace around it, then clip out the picture with some good very sharp scissors (it's good to first cut it slightly larger than you want, then trim it down).

There are several people selling the metal charm blank settings on ebay. If you search on the phrase "altered art charm blanks" you should find a few. Or, you can buy charm jewelry at discount stores and pop out the existing charms to put in your own pictures! You can also use dominoes, wooden pieces, etc.

GLUE ON THE IMAGE
You can glue the image into or onto the setting with a hot glue gun, or better yet with a good general purpose craft glue, then smooth it down nicely. Be careful not to be too heavy-handed with the glue, or it can get lumpy or messy.

A charm is beautiful with just a single image, but you can also add other images or printed words to create a collage. You can even add pressed flowers or other "pressed" items if they are very flat.

ADD A PROTECTIVE GLAZE
There are different opinions about which gloss/glaze is best. I prefer a few coats of spray-on Krylon Crystal Clear Glaze because it's easy and it's nice and clear without bubbles. Some people prefer a clear polyurethane you can paint on, as with decoupage. Either way, be sure to let it dry between coats.

HAVE FUN CREATING!
Try using an old link bracelet, and turning it into something wonderful by adding your own charms and beads! There are lots of bead sellers on etsy as well if you want to add beads. Your local crafts store will probably offer findings (jump rings, clasps, etc.) and jewelry making tools. EVEN BETTER: Find costume jewelry and vintage jewelry pieces at discount stores, garage sales, jumble sales, and secondhand stores, and incorporate them or disassemble them to use on your own bracelets!

You can also create pendants, clips, even earrings and barrettes. Or add charms to your altered boxes and books. I've seen lovely bookmarks, hip clips, even cell phone jewelry, using altered art charms.

For a very simple yet elegant pendant, simply place your charm onto a beautiful ribbon or thin black trim or leather necklace.

If you decide to purchase Lunagirl images or collage sheets for your project, please be sure to read our FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS for useful information.

Browse our Lunagirl digital collage sheets to find mermaids, fairies, Christmas images, romance, witches, charming children, Victorian Edwardian ladies, flappers, retro glamour girls, flowers, castles, tea parties, vintage posters, Alice in Wonderland, text ephemera, and much more!

Or.... check out our COLLAGE SHEET SETS ON CD for amazing value. Thanks again to Jodi Crago of Sparrow's Gate -- visit her etsy shop to buy her gorgeous jewelry.

It's all about "altered": Take images and existing items you "find" and use your own creativity and imagination to create something new and unique! An altered art charm bracelet, pendant, or clip you've created yourself is a beautiful gift ~ truly one of a kind and from the heart.

Resource: Fresh Flower Scans

We've just discovered a fun site that offers scans of fresh flowers. With cold weather coming on it's comforting to look at these beautiful colorful photos, and they are free for personal use in your art and crafts projects. You can check it out here:

He even offers a tutorial on scanning your own flowers! These would be lovely in collage, decoupage or scrapbooks, or as backgrounds or transparencies for altered art projects.

For Victorian flower art & illustration, visit here. Surround yourself with flower art to help get you through the winter!

New Collage Sheet for Thanksgiving

We've recently released a new downloadable digital collage sheet design featuring charming children and lovely ladies (and turkeys!) from vintage postcards, some by Ellen Clapsaddle and Frances Brundage.

Enjoy these for your harvest time and Thanksgiving crafts: card making, decorations, tags, candle labels, etc! Click the picture to find it on our website ready for download (you'll also find several beautiful collage sheet designs featuring Victorian Christmas cards and ephemera).

CHRISTMAS MINIS LINK IS WORKING!

Our FTP server folks finally seem to have their act together, and our Lunagirl Christmas Minis collage sheet is now available for instant download!

You'll find it here with our other "minis" and here with our holidays collage sheets.
More downloadable Christmas minis are on the way, and we also have round & square minis of ladies, children, flowers, handwriting & music, nursery rhymes, vintage ads, Halloween images and more, ready to download, print and then clip out for charms or any other projects.

DOWNLOADABLE COLLAGE SHEETS

Looking for digital collage sheets? CLICK HERE to browse our selection of over 300 professionally produced 300 dpi designs ready for instant download! Print onto the papers of your choice, and use them in your projects today.

NEW Christmas mini images!

Our "mini" collage sheets are among our most popular lately, because they are so easy to use in creating charms and other jewelry. Here's the latest addition to our minis collection:
Available here with our other "minis" and here with our holidays collage sheets.

More Christmas minis are on the way, and we also have round & square minis of ladies, children, flowers, handwriting & music, nursery rhymes, vintage ads, Halloween images and more, ready to download, print and then clip out for charms or any other projects.

NEW! Download Images for Commercial Use

We're pleased to annouce our new royalty-free online store offering Lunagirl images licensed for commercial use.

So in addition to our image CDs and collage sheets to use in your altered art and crafts, you can also easily find images to suit your need for wider commercial use. For example, you can use images from our CDs to create handcrafted items to sell in small numbers (up to 10 copies of any image) ~ but for those entrepreneurial folks who wish to sell in larger numbers, we have made our commercial licensing easier than ever. Just browse the site for what you need, purchase the license, and download the image instantly!

So far we have uploaded only a small fraction of what will eventually be available, but we will upload thousands of images over the coming weeks. Click here to check it out.

You can currently choose Victorian Santas, vintage Halloween cards, and over 200 Victorian Edwardian ladies photos ~ but if need something else, just email us and we'll be glad to help.