SHOES challenge week 2 !!

Come join us ~ here at LunagirlMoonbeams.com and also at CheerfulStampPad.blogspot.com ~ for the second week of our creative challenge with the theme of SHOES! Challenge guidelines here

Here is some inspiration from the Design Teams... and see the entries so far... I hope you'll join in by adding your link below :-)

Blue Shoes Tag from MICHELE STORMS Art From the Well 

HAZEL HARRIS My Crafty Outlook I printed and cut out two shoes from Lunagirl's Fancy Footwork digital
collage sheet mounting them on to a piece of paper with shoes (I've
had this ages, originally from a magazine freebie). The pleated card,
lace and flowers from my stash and the quote was generated on computer
and printed.

SHELBY PIZZARRO Sisterhood of the Muse

An InLinkz Link-up

Music and Dance Challenge: Second Week!

Silvery Moon tag by Michele Storms

My Music & Dance challenge theme continues all this week.  Be sure to check out the lovely entries so far and add your own!

Here is more magical inspiration from the Lunagirl Moonbeams Design Team...
There's a full moon coming up in a couple of days... let the light of the silvery moon inspire your creativity! Show us the music and dance in your soul :-)

Vicki Romaine:
"I created two altered playing cards for this challenge.  I used designer paper for my background.  After using the LG images which I fussy cut, I added some scroll stickers and some metal musical embellishments from my stash."

Altered Card Moon Goddesses by Vicki!

Vicki has been busy creating more cards for her altered playing cards deck (remember her fabulous chickens from last time?). This pair features two moon goddesses for the Moon Goddess challenge that's going on this week.

VICKI ROMAINE: This is two Altered Playing Cards using Lunagirl images.  The background was made with watercolors. Silver  Stickles was used for "stars".

Those pretty crescent moons look alot like the waning crescent that will be in the night sky tonight. I like the silver stars that Vicki added, and that purple and blue sky background.

Anyone else doing the altered playing card challenge? Make one a moon goddess and link it up with us!

Fairyland Altered Playing Cards by Vicki Romaine

Vicki Romaine has been working on these magical playing cards, perfect inspiration for our Fairyland challenge!  These are the backsides of her altered playing cards. The background is Heidi Swapp color spray, stenciled designs, and in the foreground are Lunagirl fairy images. A full deck is going to be amazing!

For Last-Minute Easter Projects

Don't forget, my Lunagirl digital collage sheets come to you by instant download and are perfect for those last-minute projects!  Cards, decorations, tags, you name it, just download, print and craft!  I've put a bunch of my Easter and Springtime designs together here for your convenience ... bunnies, chicks, children, decorated crosses, angels, flowers, feathers, butterflies, eggs... Have a lovely weekend.

Tutorial: Emily Summers Design and Nonsense: Pretty Handmade Envelopes

I collect craft tutorials on pinterest, and I thought it would be nice to share some of them on my blog, with credit of course!  Here from Emily Summers "Design and Nonsense" blog is a very lovely and very simple tutorial for creating pretty handmade envelopes from scrapbook paper or any kind of scrap paper -- you could use maps, book pages, even printed Lunagirl images!   She uses a regular envelope as a template by unfolding it flat (see pics in tutorial).

This would be great for holiday invitations or greeting cards or even little envelopes for gift tags, don't you think?
http://emilysummers-designer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/pretty-handmade-envelopes.html

More New Collage Sheets: Antique Tarot Cards

One of my favorite things to collect is Tarot card decks.  This one features antique Victorian era artwork, and I've created some digital collage sheets with a few designs in both bright colors and sepia tones.  Perfect for gypsy souls.

 

Lovely Bellydancers and Gypsies from the Design Team

Oh, it's Monday again.  The good news about that (you didn't there was any, did you?) is that it's time to share more Design Team creations on our blog challenge theme of BELLYDANCE.

Mandy Chilvers has used one of my favorite dancers here as the central image on a beautiful tag embellished with flower and leaves, ribbons, and a softly colored background.  

Vicki Romaine does a fabulous job with a fortune teller theme on her piece:

"I decided to make an arch with my Lunagirl gypsy image this time.  Embellishments reflect a gypsy fortune teller.  They include a playing card. a number, the fortune teller hand, a moon and a wheel.  I placed on the bottom border a scrap piece of burlap ribbon." ~ Vicki

 Michele Storms created this amazing ornate card. 

Great work, ladies, as always!

To all my readers and visitors:
You still have all week to enter the blog challenge!
It doesn't close until Sunday night (11:55 pm Central Time), and you will be entered in the random drawing to win free digital collage sheets of your choice.

To enter, go to the Blog Challenge here, and use the blue "Add Your Link" button to link up your project.

You can email me if you have questions, at info@lunagirl.com.  :-)
Bellydance images on sale!

Vintage Gardening Inspiration from the Moonbeams DT!

I forgot to add the Design Team pieces to my challenge announcement yesterday!  I'm so sorry about that, I know that everyone enjoys them.

So, here are some beautiful works from Michele, Petra, and Vicki created with Lunagirl summer vegetable seed packs and French flower seed packs and other images and elements.

Enjoy, and link up your own!  And do follow my blog to see more from the Lunagirl Moonbeams Design Team.

A pretty tag from Michele Storms with lots of cool green and some cute little ladies!  I love this color of green, and the "rays" motif on the tag.

" i think we all know what makes children grow – eating peas!this tag shows how peas make little girls grow big and strong.the seed pack is from “summertime seed packs” collage sheet and the little girls are from the “littlegirls” collage sheet, both from lunagirl of course!the rest are goodies of my own.eat your peas! "

Petra Berendsen created some fab garden themed art using our collage sheets: Summertime Seed Packs and Vintage adverts: Seeds and Plants.  These are nice for saving seeds or marking your garden, or just as art/cards!

Vicki Romaine used a French flower seed pack as a focus for this lovely summery card:

"I used a cream-colored base card on which I placed burnish-looking designer paper.  On top of that I used a Cheery Lynn Design die out of cream cardstock.  On top of that is a brown embossed piece of embossed cardstock from my stash.  Topping the card layers is a beautiful digital sunflower seed pack image from Lunagirl.  As an added touch a flower embellishment is placed in the corner opposite the sentiment."

Vintage Halloween Witches ~ New Collage Sheets!

I had to show off some of the new collage sheets I've been working on, just in time for Halloween crafts.  Yes, I know it's only August, but crafters tend to always be thinking one holiday ahead!  I'm crazy for Halloween witches and I hope you will enjoy these new vintage Halloween images I don't think you'll find anywhere else ~  including Art Nouveau Witches, some cool Witch Photos, unique Victorian Witches from vintage postcards and ads, Edwardian Witchery, and finally a 1920s Halloween Dance.

Check them out at Lunagirl.com.

Free Vintage Image: Girl Graduate Victorian Card

I found this lovely, unusual picture of a Victorian / Edwardian era picture of a female graduate, and thought I would share.  Isn't she pretty?  I like her eyes, and the flower.  Download and enjoy for personal use!
Congratulations to all graduates ~ and we should remember with gratitude the brave Victorian and Edwardian ladies who led the way, fought to get an education when no one thought they should, and blazed the trail for girls today!

Happy Mother's Day!

Vintage Images for St Patrick's Day Crafts

Coming up in only one month: St. Patrick's Day! We offer a nice selection of cards and images featuring children, pretty women & girls, shamrocks, Irish flags, and other images to celebrate Erin and the Wearing o'the Green on March 17.

Perfect for card making, ornaments & decorations, gift tags, scrapbooking, and other paper crafts ~ even fabric crafts and jewelry making. You'll find 70 St. Pat's images on our Victorian Holidays Volume Two CD, available here: http://www.summertownsun.com/lunagirl/Lunagirl-holidays-volumetwo.htm

For commercial use: http://www.lunagirl-images.com/gallery.php?gid=58

Naughty But Nice

For a change of pace from the usual cherubs and flowers, why not try some of our "Naughty in 1900" risque French postcards for your Valentines Day projects? They are sweet and only slightly naughty ~ although they were quite scandalous in their day! You'll find some on our Ladies Photos Volume One CD.

Vintage Valentines Feature Article

As Valentine's Day approaches, we invite you to visit our special feature article on Victorian Edwardian romance to see a variety of vintage valentines and romantic photos and learn a little bit about the Roman god Eros (also known as Cupid).

You'll find it all here: Lunagirl Feature: Vintage Romance

In Ancient Rome February 14 was a festival in honor of Juno, the queen of heaven and goddess of marriage. Did you know it was once believed that February 14 is the day the birds begin to find mates?

Victorian Floral Christmas Cards

The custom of sending Christmas cards began in Victorian London in about 1840, and in 1875 Boston lithographer Louis Prang began publishing Christmas cards in America. The earliest cards usually featured colorful flower blossoms or pictures of birds, children or angels.

We couldn't find out much more about floral cards, except that they were part of the Victorians' (and Victorian-era Americans') love for flowers, and that the early, expensive cards were probably sent by wealthy people.

It was inexpensive holiday penny postcards, somtimes imported from Germany, that were sent by most Americans until WWI.



We think these floral cards are lovely and quaint -- they certainly reflect the "shabby" romantic spirit that so many of our customers like!



While cards featuring caroling children, nativity scenes, holly wreaths, and of course dear old Santa Claus fit our traditional idea of Christmas, these old flower cards are sweet for something different.

You'll find them (and hundreds more holiday images) in our Holidays & Occasions 3CD set -- and with holiday greetings removed in our Victorian Flowers collection, to use as flower pictures in your scrapbooking, card making and art.

New from Lunagirl: Download Packs

I'm trying a new item in our shops: "download packs" of about a hundred images on a certain theme, for $5 each (no shipping, of course).  Our first four are 110 Santa Images, 102 Angel Images, 100 Christmas Children Images, and 100 Halloween Images.  All are available in our etsy shop and also at Lunagirl.com.  After your purchase of the download pack, you will receive your jpg images by a download link in an email.  These are currently sent "by hand" so it's not necessarily instant delivery (like our digital collage sheets at Lunagirl.com) but we're pretty quick!

Visit our download pack page at Lunagirl.com, or our etsy shop.  The first four sets have been quite popular, so watch for more on the way!

 

 

Between the Worlds: Part Four

Black Cats & Witches

Cats have long been the objects of much superstition, and they are frequently associated with Halloween.  Cats were sacred to the Druids; it was believed that they had once been human beings.  Perhaps the cat had magical power because it was supposedly the most common "familiar" of witches (probably just the favorite companion of old ladies living alone).  Feline behavior towards a person on Halloween was often taken as an omen.  For example, if a cat jumps into your lap on this night, good luck is foretold.  Probably more prevalent is the belief that cats, particularly black cats, can be ill omens.  Everyone in the U.S. has heard that a black cat crossing your path means bad luck ahead. The bad reputation of the cat may have been a medieval Christian reaction against the honor given them by the pre-Christian Druids.  Medieval Christians burned cats along with accused "witches" (leading to an overpopulation of rats, which bred fleas, which carried the bubonic plague...now that's bad luck).

The figure of the witch is now an integral part of Halloween in our minds, but she may be a relatively late arrival.  How she got there is a story extremely long and complex.  I suspect that originally witches were just another of the various supernatural beings thought to walk or fly about the earth on Halloween.  Witches tended to get confused with sorcerers, who, since they may supposedly used evil spirits to carry out their work, would be particularly active on this night.  

The Real Witches - Wise Old Ladies in the Woods? Some today regard the so-called witches of old Europe as simply survivors from the pre-Christian, nature-focused religions of the ancients.  In other words, pagans who revered nature (not Satan).  The idea of older, traditional folks living off in the woods, continuing their seasonal celebrations, magical beliefs, and herbal medicine, is not far from our image of the witch.   As Christianity gained ascendancy in Europe, witches were reinterpreted through Church dogma and came to be viewed (incorrectly) as Satan-worshippers.  Many of the popular (and often incorrect) notions about witchcraft derived from "confessions" extracted by torture from the accused "witches" of earlier centuries. Most who were executed as witches during the "burning times" were most likely "strange" old ladies living alone in the woods, the mentally ill, midwives and herbalists, people who followed the "old ways" of the Celts, women whose remarkable ugliness or beauty brought attention.....those whose "difference" aroused suspicion in a fearful, ignorant, and tumultuous age.

Bats and owls are associated with Halloween probably because they are nocturnal -- active only at night.  Perhaps they join the spirits to fly about the night sky.  Owls were for thousands of years associated with knowledge and wisdom, especially feminine wisdom, and so are a fitting companion for the witch, the Old Wise Woman.  (Owls were a symbol for Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, as well.)

The witch's cauldron may represent the "cauldron of Cerridwen" of Celtic myth, source of wisdom and rebirth -- and the direct symbolic predecessor of the Holy Grail.  In myth often one was cut up and boiled in the cauldron, to emerge again reborn in wholeness, health & wisdom The cauldron and later the Grail were believed to be guarded by a hideous woman-beast.  In many Celtic stories it is through this terrifying creature that the magic vessel is finally encountered, and only the person who can accept and kiss her can gain access to the wisdom and renewal she guards.  By embracing the pain and struggle of life we gain wisdom and greater strength.

 

This image of the old witch hovering over her cauldron embodies beautifully the original symbolic meaning of Halloween. 
This is the night when we confront perhaps the ultimate riddle: As winter approaches, the world comes face to face with the power of death and darkness, which holds within it the promise of rebirth.  On the wheel of the year, the cold stillness of the coming winter will take us around again to the warmth and renewal of spring. 

Behind our holiday called Halloween lies the eerie, magical mood of the ancient festival of Samhain and All Hallow's Eve.  Perhaps we would do well to remember some of its original meaning -- not to conjure up real fears again, but rather to rekindle a feeling of wonder toward the great cycle of death and rebirth in nature and in our lives.

All pictures shown are included in Lunagirl's Victorian Holiday Cards Graphics 3-CD set
(Click to see a full description of the set -- over 3,000 vintage images for all holidays!)

Visit Lunagirl.com to see all our Image CDs: Vintage Graphics, Victorian Cards, Vintage Photos, Ads & Labels, Collage Sheets & Ephemera on CD

Entire text copyright 2005, 1983, K. Goode and SummertownSun Publishing, all rights reserved.  Illustrated feature article copyright 2005, SummertownSun Publishing, LLC, all rights reserved. 
This entire text is an original work of authorship, and all intellectual property rights are retained by the author and copyright holder. Any unauthorized copying or reproduction in any form, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden and a violation of copyright law.  Please contact us for permission if you wish to use parts of this article.

Poisson D'Avril -- April Fool's Fish?

Why are there always fish on these French "Avril" cards? In France, the victim of an April Fool's Day prank is called "poisson d'avril," or an April fish (which refers to a young fish easily caught!)

Why is April 1st a day for fools and foolishness? Nobody seems to know for sure. There are stories about the change of calendars in the 1500s, but they don't hold up well because April Fool's celebrations date before that time. Some people connect it to the unpredictability of weather and nature at this time of year.

We do know that for many centuries, in many cultures, this time of year has been associated with celebrations of frivolity, lightheartedness, and sometimes pranks. (The Romans had a festival called Hilaria around the end of March.) Maybe it's just that the coming of spring after the long months of winter brings out our pent-up energy and silliness, and we need a day to let it out!

One interesting note: April is named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty and fertility. One of her symbols is a fish, a symbol of fertility. Think how sly Aphrodite uses desire and passion to "trick" creatures into love or at least lust and a lot of work and trouble! Nothing can make a fool out of you faster. In the myths she is one capricious and "tricky" goddess.

Anyway, have fun and be careful! You could become Poisson d'Avril if you don't watch out!