More Collage Sheets -- PINK !

See all our Lunagirl collage sheets at

LUNAGIRL.COM and COLLAGESHEET.COM.

New Collage Sheets! Color Themes

Our latest new Lunagirl collage sheets, in fun color themes!
See all our new designs at
LUNAGIRL.COM and COLLAGESHEET.COM.

For Naola (Nell) my second mom

A monday free image in honor of my very kind and loving mother-in-law Nell, who passed away on Thursday.

She loved flowers and birds, and kept the hummingbirds who visited her yard very well-fed and happy!

You're welcome to use this for personal non-commercial use.

Victorian Religious Ephemera on CD

More samples from the new, revised, updated & improved edition of our Victorian Religious Ephemera CD.... there's such a variety of great images on this CD! I love holy cards and religious imagery...

Gothic

I've always loved this photo. The little girl looks like she doesn't really want to step out of that doorway and into the next room. What is her mother whispering to her? What is the little girl looking at, and why doesn't she want to go into that room?

Inspired by recent messages/conversations my head is full of imagery that for lack of a better word I call gothic: windswept cliffs over stormy oceans at night, annabel lee in a white dress, the bronte sisters dreaming out on the moors, a disheveled cinderella, abandoned brides and ragged wedding veils, silent little girls, angry little girls, moonlight through swiftly moving ragged clouds... stuff like that!

I'm sure in time all this will give rise to some cool new collage sheets (and other projects I hope)

but for now I'm content to post a few favorite photos with a 'gothic' feel.





As a kid I always gravitated toward songs and stories that were melancholy, or dark and sweet at the same time. I'm still inspired by beauty and sadness, especially when they're combined...

Edgar Allen Poe said something about how art is inspired by loss and beauty, and that the greatest artistic inspiration was the loss of beauty or love. Or something to that effect....

Then's there's this lady below! What's on her mind?

New Edition: Victorian Religious Images on CD

We've just released a new edition of our Victorian Religious Ephemera image CD! It's newly updated and re-organized, with new holy cards and other images of the Virgin Mary and Holy Family, the Christ Child and Nativity, Jesus and the Resurrection, and images of prayer and worship including lovely photo postcards of nuns.
Plus the beautiful floral decorated crosses and embellished inspirational sayings and Bible verses from the first edition, religious cards for Christmas and Easter, angelic images, and more.

Click here to see details and order.

Featured Artist: Katies Rose Cottage

I've discovered a beautiful website and blog to share!

Lori Avery of Katie's Rose Cottage offers all kinds of lovely romantic and cottage chic treasures. (I love tags, you can use them for so many things, and these are so pretty.)


There are charming vintage flea market finds as well as lovely handmade tags, ribbon roses, sweet pendants and charms, and romantic items for your home, bed and bath, most created by Lori herself using vintage and/or reproduction vintage items and other beautiful embellishments.

Lori is a very nice lady, and if you love a vintage romantic, shabby chic look, her site is a great place to find the perfect gift for a friend or for yourself!



Her embellished vintage bottles featuring birds and roses are especially unusual and pretty, and there is a whole section of unique wall decor.

She also has a lovely blog at http://www.katiesrosecottage.blogspot.com/

All the photos here are Copyright Katie's Rose Cottage.
Click on any picture to visit!

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)

Bumblebees!

Today I saw bumblebees in the yard for the first time this year!

Hans Christian Andersen's Birthday

Today is the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, the author of so many beloved fairy tales. While he did adapt folktales, many of his best-known stories are actually original works, including "The Snow Queen," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Ugly Duckling" which is somewhat autobiographical.

Andersen grew up in poverty and suffered much in childhood from "not fitting in." However, he was an imaginative and intelligent child and was fortunate to have parents who indulged his love of literature and a grandmother who told him stories. He built a toy-theater and spent many hours creating costumes for his puppets and reading, even memorizing entire Shakespeare plays and acting them out with puppets. After a short time working as an actor and singer, Andersen began writing. His novels and fairy tales made him an instant success, and by his death at age 70 he was famous throughout Europe.

As a child I loved these stories, especially "The Little Mermaid," which I must have read a hundred times. If you've seen only the cartoon movie and never read the story, it is much different. The original story is a haunting tale, and while the ending is hopeful it's also melancholy, hardly the traditional "happy ending"! The sadness was one thing that I loved about The Little Mermaid (although my favorite part was imagining the undersea kingdom!)

If you ever go to Denmark, see the statue of the Little Mermaid overlooking the harbor in Copenhagen. H.C. Andersen's birthday is also International Children's Book Day, so enjoy a storybook today!

Thank you, Mr. Andersen!