Birds and Nests Challenge at Tag Tuesday

I want to give another little reminder / nudge to check out the current challenge over at Tag Tuesday ~ the theme being BIRDS & NESTS.

Always a favorite theme for me! And so perfect this time of year ~ whether your birds are twitter-pating and nesting yet, or you are still waiting for the snow and ice to melt, it is officially Spring (in the Northern hemisphere at least!)

And isn't this a wonderful reason (as if I needed one) to share this uniquely fabulous and creative tag by Michele Storms? Dodo stamp by madrat rubber (the dodo bird illustration from Alice in Wonderland!) collaged with eggs and nests by Lunagirl and other lovely vintage elements. Love the background paper...and that moth in such a soft pale green...

Happy Spring to you!

Flowers & Birds One More Week

March has 31 days... There's still plenty of time to enter our March challenge!

Spring Flowers & Birds is our theme ~ a celebration of life and rebirth and hope, and warmth and sunshine and rain showers, and just general joy and happiness!

Flower blossoms and birds always bring me joy and make me smile... And bird's eggs have always been a symbol of rebirth and renewal in Springtime.

Here Michele Storms has including some tiny colorful eggs in a nest on this tag celebrating life. :-)

Show your interpretations and inspirations from the theme SPRING FLOWERS & BIRDS!  The challenge continues until the 31st, which is Thursday, and a winning entry chosen by random drawing will receive $15 credit to spend at Lunagirl.com!

Spring Chickens challenge... second week!

Check out my SPRING CHICKENS challenge and join in the fun!

The Design Team sends you some delightful inspiration and inspiring delight...

MANDY CHILVERS TagAlongChallenge.blogspot.com

Michele Storms ArtfromtheWell.blogspot.com

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.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

Here is a Victorian Easter bunny, ready for his big day with a pile of colored eggs!

We have over 100 Easter bunnies in our vintage images collection.  While I love the Easter angels and children and chicks, I have a special fondness for the bunnies! Like many holiday traditions, the Easter rabbit has its origins in pre-Christian times and was adapted to Christian celebrations. The rabbit or hare (like the egg) is an ancient symbol of rebirth and fertility, associated with the rebirth and renewal of plant life in the Spring.

The name Easter seems to have come from the ancient Germanic month of eostre, named for a goddess Eoster (similar to Ishtar and Aphrodite). In many countries the holiday is called Paques or Pask, from the Greek word for Passover -- our charming French postcards say Joyeuses Paques!

The Easter rabbit tradition began in Germany, where children filled their hats or bonnets with grass to create a special nest where the Easter rabbit might lay brightly colored eggs. Beautiful Easter baskets (still filled with grass) developed later, as did Victorian-era Easter greeting cards and postcards.

Did you know that RED and GREEN were the original traditional colors for Easter eggs?  Red and green are the colors most commonly associated with Life and Renewal/Rebirth (which is why they are Christmas colors!)  Our Easter pastels seem to be a later, Victorian custom inspired by the colors of spring flowers.

However you celebrate, have a blessed Easter weekend!
Check out the links below for more vintage Easter:

• Digital collage sheets for springtime and Easter: Bunnies, chicks, decorated crosses, angels, eggs, flowers, butterflies... and more!
• Lunagirl Victorian Holidays Volume 2: Valentines Easter Mother's Day (on sale today)
• Lunagirl Victorian Religious Ephemera
• Lunagirl Easter Photos & Postcards

Featured: French Easter Photos & Postcards on CD

 Perfect for Easter season crafts: our Lunagirl Easter Photos & Postcards CD includes 100 charming vintage images. Most feature ladies, children, and romantic couples, many with eggs, baskets, flowers, and/or Easter greetings (usually in French!) This lovely and unique offering, created especially for Lunagirl customers using antique cards from our private collection, is available now. Click here to see details and a bunch of sample images!

Get images by instant download for last-minute Easter projects!

All of our digital collage sheets are available for just $3.45 with instant download delivery. Perfect to print for creating last-minute cards, Easter decorations, gift tags, bookmarks, even pendants or charms to give -- and use them to decorate your "Easter memories" scrapbook pages afterward! (with digital you can print them again & again...) click here to shop

Natural Easter Egg Dyes

I thought I would again share some links for making natural Easter egg dyes. This is a great "old-fashioned" way to dye eggs, but also a "new-fashioned" way to avoid artificial dyes and such. It's a fun experiment and a fun way to spend some time with your kids!

The earliest traditional colors for Easter eggs were red and green. Red is the most ancient sacred color, the color of life energy. Green of course is also symbolic of life and vitality and renewal. Pastel colors became popular later, probably in imitation of the pinks and yellows and lavenders of Spring flowers.

Here are some links ~ have fun!
http://www.floridaherbs.com/Newsletter_Archives_Dyeing_Easter_Eggs.htm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/eggs060405.cfm
http://www.aeb.org/kidsandfamily/eastereggs/naturaldyed.asp

On that last link, you'll want to click the "next" button at the bottom a couple of times, because the next few pages have wonderful ideas for decorating eggs with stencils, leaves and seeds, ribbon, even postage stamps!

The egg picture is from our Lunagirl Victorian Holidays Volume Two (Valentines, Easter, St Patrick's Day & More)

What we've been up to lately

We haven't been posting as much here because we are so busy creating new collections and new editions! Just published, a revised edition of our beautiful Victorian Flowers image CD, with more newly acquired, newly restored and embellished flower images. I've been collecting floral postcards for awhile and am glad to offer over 100 beautiful new images on our Flowers CD. Over 900 flowers.

DETAILS & SAMPLE IMAGES HERE

Also just published, we now offer a Victorian Birds CD! We have taken the birds that were formerly offered with our flowers and added to them over 300 new birds images, to create a fabulous new collection of over 500 birds.

This collection includes sweet Victorian greeting cards, pretty watercolors, and a great selection of antique prints. There are whimsical and humorous birds as well as detailed realistic nature prints. Bird eggs, too! ALL 300 DPI and ready to print.

DETAILS AND SAMPLE IMAGES HERE

This image CD includes 100 Audubon birds in a size appropriate for card making, altered art, etc., but if you want large Audubon prints suitable for framing, see my post earlier this month about our Birds of America 2-CD Set!

New Bird Eggs Collage Sheet!

This collage sheet was created with one of my favorite ephemera finds -- little cards illustrating colorful bird eggs. Each has the name of the bird, and I've removed extraneous text and enhanced the colors as needed. The sheet has two of each type of egg, plus two little blanks I've created from the back of the cards. Charming!

Download it today at Lunagirl.com to print-it-yourself!

Ephemera Find: Birds Eggs Cards!

We just purchased a set of 50 little cigarette cards featuring all kinds of bird eggs! These are so sweet, and I look forward to creating collage sheets and other design elements with them, but I couldn't resist sharing one here for Spring!

The back of each has information about the bird, and they were designed so that you can "push up" the egg so that it stands up on the card. Such a great find, from a shop in England.

I'm happy to share these for use in PERSONAL NON-COMMERCIAL PROJECTS ~ Please be kind enough to CREDIT LUNAGIRL.COM if you publish your piece or display it online.


A NOTE ABOUT OUR FREE IMAGES: We recently came across someone reselling one of our free images in a digital kit (thanks again to the person who told us about this). Their picture host took down their pics when we reported it, but it's so unpleasant to do that. PLEASE: This is a gift for your personal use in your own art. Please be courteous & don't resell it, so that we can continue to have fun offering freebies!

Great Saturday Project: Easter Eggs with All Natural Dyes!

Did you know you can make natural egg dyes from stuff around your kitchen? I looked around for tips on dyeing Easter eggs with natural dyes and picked a few of the best links to share! This is a great "old-fashioned" way to dye eggs, but also a "new-fashioned" way to avoid artificial dyes and over-commercialization of holiday celebrations. It's a fun experiment and a fun way to spend some time with your kids!

The earliest traditional colors for Easter eggs were red and green, btw. Red is the most ancient sacred color, the color of life energy. Green of course is also symbolic of life and vitality and renewal. Pastel colors became popular later, probably in imitation of the pinks and yellows and lavenders of Spring flowers. Supposedly teal is the "hot" color this year!!

Here are some links ~ have fun:
http://www.floridaherbs.com/Newsletter_Archives_Dyeing_Easter_Eggs.htm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/eggs060405.cfm
http://www.aeb.org/kidsandfamily/eastereggs/naturaldyed.asp

On that last link, you'll want to click the "next" button at the bottom a couple of times, because the next few pages have wonderful ideas for decorating eggs with stencils, leaves and seeds, ribbon, even postage stamps!

The vintage egg greeting card pictures are from
Lunagirl Victorian Holidays & Occasions.