First Blog Challenge of the New Year: Vintage Winter & Happy New Year

The first Lunagirl Moonbeams blog challenge for 2014 will be Vintage Winter / Vintage New Year.

Don't miss the samples from the Moonbeams Design Team below, for your inspiration!  The DT will be working with images from my Winter Fun digital collage sheet and Christmas Children digital collage sheet (many pictures of children in the snow are also on Lunagirl Christmas New Year Photos CD ~ currently on sale!).


GUIDELINES:
This challenge (#18) will end at Noon (Central Time) on January 12.

Any craft or medium is OK,
No more than 3 entries from one person in each challenge, 

Vintage style is encouraged but not required, and
Please link to my blog and Lunagirl.com on your site if you have one.

The winner will be selected randomly to win a $10 coupon for Lunagirl.com! Of course I love if you use at least one Lunagirl product, and I hope you'll go take a look at my collection... but that's not a requirement!  However, starting with this challenge, if you use a Lunagirl image in your creation, you will be entered TWICE in the drawing! I want to welcome everyone and every style but also give a little something extra to my wonderful customers! 


LUNAGIRL MOONBEAMS DESIGN TEAM
Find out more about the Moonbeams DT and visit their blogs!

Below are "Vintage Winter" projects shared with us by the Lunagirl Moonbeams Design Team.  They have all done a lovely job of combining the Lunagirl images with papers and elements.  

PETRA BERENDSEN: Birthday wishes!
"For the next challenge: Vintage Winter I created a Winter themed card with lots of distressed edges
and one of your adorable images from the Christmas Children 1 collage sheet."

MICHELE STORMS: Happy New Year!

MANDY CHILVERS: What a sweet bunch!

VICKI ROMAINE:  Whee! and more Birthday wishes

"I used a great Lunagirl image for a winter card.  The card itself is embossed with snowflakes and a variety of snowflakes were cut with die.  I know the children are having fun-therefore the sentiment.  I have made this into a birthday card for one of my friends whose birthday is Jan 1."  

Blue Christmas Challenge Winner: 2amscrapper

21 entries for the Blue Christmas challenge! It was certainly fun to see everyone's different beautiful and charming takes on that theme.

I just completed the random drawing, and the lucky winner of this challenge drawing is #19 by 2amscrapper!

Congratulations, Helene, please email me at info@Lunagirl.com to claim your $10 credit at Lunagirl.com!

I want to send a big Thank You to everyone who entered this time, with Best Wishes for a Fabulous New Year.  Be sure to come back and play in my next Lunagirl Moonbeams challenge, starting tomorrow morning, on the theme Vintage Winter and New Year.

One last blue angel...

Thank you, Vicki Romaine, for one more beauiful Blue Christmas card, a pretty angel in turquoise.

"This angel's wings shine as I put some Wink of Stella on the wings which is similar to glitter.  The black ornate design is actually stickers which I think enhance the card."

Blue Christmas challenge ends tomorrow at noon CST!

Starry Night Noel and Merry Blue Santa :-)

Here is a beautiful silvery and blue Noel tag by Moonbeam Vicki Romaine, who writes: "Very subtle tag.  Lunagirl's image of Mary and baby Jesus. (altered)"

The Madonna and Child image is an image from an antique French postcard that I tinted and altered for my Blue Noel collage sheet.  Vicki has put it on a blue tag background with silver stars and lacy silver ribbon.

 And here from Michele Storms is another take on Blue Christmas -- a jolly Father Christmas in blue, bringing a festive Christmas tree and plenty of toys, on a very merry background, embellished with a happy daisy. 



Merry Christmas to all -- enjoy the remaining days of 2013 crafting and join our Blue Christmas challenge to win $10 credit at Lunagirl.com for new digital images for 2014!

Blue Christmas blog challenge continues!

During this very special week -- which is probably either very busy or very relaxed, depending on your life (or maybe alternating between the two?) -- you still have plenty of time to enter your "Blue Christmas" themed card, art, or other craft project in the Lunagirl blog challenge.  The entries are looking great, but there's always room for more!  And the winner of the drawing will receive $10 credit at Lunagirl.com, to choose some new digital images for 2014!

The always-astonishing Lunagirl Moonbeams DT has sent me more beautiful Blue Christmas sample projects to inspire your creativity.... don't miss them below.  The Moonbeams got very creative this time around: ornaments, cards, tags, banners, gift bag (actually a whole gift set!), even a candle.

Whether you join our challenge or not, I hope your holiday inspires you with joy, peace, hope, love, fellowship, and beauty.

MANDY CHILVERS: lovely tag with blue angel and bird's nest

 MICHELE STORMS:  blue Christmas matching gift bag, tag and card

VICKI ROMAINE:

The Lunagirl image was placed on  embossed cardstock.  A elegant sheer, silver ribbon and bow complete the card.

PETRA BERENDSEN: 
A very simple one but I like the way it turned out being a little crackly: I printed the lovely blue angel on tissue paper and then covered the front of the candle with the image.

Starry Night tag by Michele

Michele Storms created this beautiful "starry night" tag for a challenge at Tag Tuesday.  Don't I have a wonderful Design Team here at the Moonbeams blog?  :-)

This tag uses images from my Lunagirl Celestial digital collage sheet, btw.

Visit Michele at Artfromthewell.blogspot.com and see more of her work!

The Blue Christmas blog challenge is continuing until the 29th, so join the fun and link up your blue Christmas creation!

Long Nights

The Winter Solstice is almost upon us -- the longest night (and shortest day) of the year, and the original winter festival! This is the darkest time of the year, but also the turning point when the days begin to lengthen again -- Light overcomes Darkness as the Sun is "reborn" and moves toward the promise of Spring, when Light finally triumphs at the Spring Equinox.  The Winter Solstice is a perfect time for any Festival of Lights, and candles, twinkling lights, Yuletide fires, evergreens, etc.

Tonight go outside and you'll see the Moon is full.  The full moon of December is sometimes called the Cold Moon or Long Nights Moon.  The term Long Night Moon is especially appropriate because not only are the midwinter nights especially long, but also because the moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full moon takes a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low sun.

The nights are cold, but the stars are bright.

Exclusive image from our Victorian Holidays Volume One collection available on CD.

Lunagirl Blog Challenge: Blue Christmas

I'm happy to announce the next Lunagirl Moonbeams blog challenge theme: Blue Christmas.

In my Victorian vintage Santa collection, Santa doesn't wear only red -- many of the antique pictures show him in green, brown, purple, and yes sometimes blue!  And of course there are blue angels, and children in blue, beautiful blue-themed Nativities (Mary traditionally wears a blue cloak), and even Christmas cards with blue flowers.  I hope you have fun with the Blue Christmas theme (next year I want to do Shabby Pink Christmas!)

Don't miss the samples from the Moonbeams Design Team below, for your inspiration!  The DT will be working with images from my Blue Christmas and Blue Noel collage sheets:

GUIDELINES:
This challenge (#17) will end at Noon (Central Time) on December 29.

The winner will be selected randomly to win a $10 coupon for Lunagirl.com!

Any craft or medium is OK,
No more than 3 entries from one person in each challenge, 

Vintage style is encouraged but not required, and
Please link to my blog and Lunagirl.com on your site if you have one.
 
Of course I love if you use at least one Lunagirl product, and I hope you'll go take a look at my collection... but that's not a requirement!  Most important is have fun, get creative, enjoy vintage. 





LUNAGIRL MOONBEAMS DESIGN TEAM
Find out more about the Moonbeams DT and visit their blogs!

Petra Berendsen used four images from the Blue Christmas collage sheet to create this adorable banner.  I love this, don't you?  Petra writes: "I enjoyed my self by creating a little Christmas banner using images from the Blue Christmas Collage Sheet. I die-cut banner pages from patterned paper and added scalloped musical note circles and your images to the page. To focus on the images I kept the embellishments quite minimal with buttons, a little bow and some die-cut and glittered holly leaves."

Michele Storms created this beautiful, serene card, with a verse from the Christmas story in the Book of Luke.  She used an antique angel/Mary painting that I enhanced in blue on my Blue Noel collage sheet , and I see a Lunagirl freebie background!  Since I was a little girl I have loved images of Mother Mary, and I love what Michele did with this one.

Here is old Saint Nick himself in blue!  Mandy Chilvers used shades of gold and blue on this very pretty Noel card.  Love the gold stars and the holly wreath "O" in Noel.

 And here Vicki Romaine has used the same Santa in Blue image for a different look, all in shades of blue:
"As a change, I created a 6 x 6 card.  I made the background of this card using acrylic paints and added some Stickles to make it sparkle in various places.  The background was so busy I just added the sentiment along with the Lunagirl image."

 

Thank you , ladies, for getting us off to a fantastic start for this challenge!  I look forward to some wonderful Blue Christmas creations for the challenge!

Snow Angels Challenge Winner: Judith W

And the winner of the Snow Angels challenge, chosen by randow drawing, is #7 Judith W!

Congrats to Judith, who wins a $10 credit to Lunagirl.com, and thanks to everyone who played!  Please be sure to enter the next challenge with the theme Blue Christmas.  :-)

One more little snow angel...

Here is one last little snow angel that didn't make it in time for the end of the challenge (that's my fault)!  But Vicki Romaine's ornament is so sweet I'm sharing it now.  Here's what Vicki wrote: 
"Here is an ornament using a snow angel.  The base is a coaster covered with cardstock with a Lunagirl image in the middle.  This piece is fairly fragile as the lace was hard to place around the edge on both sides.  Embellishments include a snowflake, a bow, gold leaves and half pearls."

I'll announce the winner of the Snow Angel challenge shortly...

DigitallySweet Challenges: Frosty the Snowman

I'm pleased as pie to be sponsoring another challenge over at Digitally Sweet Challenges!  DSC lets you "challenge your inner digital every Friday"!  The challenges focus on encouraging and celebrating digital creations, although your work doesn't have to be 100% digital to enter.

The theme this Friday is Frosty the Snowman, and the DSC Design Team has created some truly wonderful samples using Victorian snowmen images from Lunagirl!  Who doesn't love snowmen? 

There are lots of vintage snowmen on my Victorian Holidays Christmas New Years CD!

I hope you'll hop over there to see their work and to enter the challenge.  It's a fun theme, and one lucky winner will receive all the snowmen images used by the DT! (6 snowmen pictures) Plus all entries qualify for Top 3 and giveaways...


DSC owner Karen Wilson enters our Lunagirl Moonbeams challenges, and I'll hope you'll visit her at DigitallySweetChallenges.blogspot.com and also creationsbykw.blogspot.ca. As well as DSC designer Denise Pustelniak at thruthelookingglass-glassgraffitix2.blogspot.com!

Join the Snow Angel challenge! Inspiration from Michele...

Our Snow Angel challenge is moving right along with lots of beautiful entries.  (See them here!) 

Here from Michele Storms is a sweet and cheerful angel Christmas tag -- one last reminder and inspiration for you to join the challenge.  Who wouldn't love to find this pretty tag on their Christmas present?  (Visit Michele's Art From the Well blog to read her post about it...)

The challenge continues until noon on Sunday (in my time zone, which is US Central) so you still have plenty of time to create a Snow Angel themed tag or card or digital collage, or gift bag, ornament, altered box or book, banner, whatever you want!

Lunagirl Snow Angels challenge

Antique Floral Christmas Cards

In our collection of vintage Christmas cards, we have quite a few that feature flowers.  While cards featuring Christmas angels, children in the snow, nativity scenes, holly wreaths, and of course Santa Claus fit our traditional ideas of Christmas, these antique flower cards are sweet for something different.  We think these floral Christmas cards are lovely and quaint -- they certainly reflect the "shabby" romantic spirit that so many of our customers like!

You'll find them, btw, in our Victorian Holidays collection on CD -- and also with holiday greetings removed in our Victorian Flowers collection, to use as flower pictures in your scrapbooking, card making and art.

ABOUT 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.

Floral Christmas cards were part of the Victorians' (and Victorian-era Americans') love for flowers, and  the early, expensive cards were probably sent mostly by wealthy people.
 
As sending holiday greetings became popular, it was inexpensive holiday penny postcards, sometimes imported from Germany, that were sent by most Americans until WWI.  Christmas postcards were also popular in many European countries, and we find many in French and German as well as English.  Judging by the number of Happy New Year postcards we have come across over the years, sending New Year greetings was just as popular!

More Christmas freebies!

I'm already getting a few orders for Valentines images -- I know many of you who sell crafts are already thinking of Valentine's Day (always a season ahead!), but as we're in the midst of this beautiful Christmas holiday season, here are a couple of free images for tags, cards, place cards, etc.  (Click on the pictures for full size).

And don't forget we have many Christmas and winter collage sheets available for INSTANT DOWNLOADING at Lunagirl.com  (plus cupids and hearts and roses and romantic couples and sweet girls in pink and red if you simply MUST think ahead to February!)

Antique "Xmas" Greeting from Santa?

Perfect for last minute Christmas projects, here is a lovely antique Santa Claus.  I love old Santa postcards.  He was certainly a popular subject for Victorian Christmas cards -- we have over 200 Santa images on my Lunagirl Victorian Holidays Vol 1 CD!

This particular card is especially interesting because of its greeting:
"All Xmas Joys Be Thine."

You might be surprised to see "Xmas" on an antique Victorian-era card, but actually the use of Xmas as an abbreviation for Christmas goes back to the Middle Ages.

The "X" is a CROSS and is a symbol or abbreviation for "Christ."  It's not a modern invention, and it was definitely not an attempt to "take religion out of Christmas" as some seem to believe.  It's just an old traditional abbreviation.

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this lovely old image of Santa!

Snow Angels from the Moonbeams

Well, I don't have any snow yet but I do have lots of snow angels.  The entries in the blog challenge gallery are so pretty!  And the Lunagirl Moonbeams DT has been inspired and busy creating more gorgeous samples for you!  I'm sure you'll enjoy them.  You can always see more of the DT's work at their blogs.  And I hope everyone will link up their own angels for the Snow Angels challenge, which continues until Sunday...

This very Christmas-y card was created by Michele Storms.  Lovely details ~ see the little heart the dove is carrying?

Petra Berendsen created this beautiful snowflake ornament featuring a snow angel with glittering gold wings ...


and the pretty Winter Wonderland tag below!

Vicki Romaine sent this sweet little angel card:  "This card puts a Lunagirl Snow Angel on a Cheery Lynn diecut. which has been placed on a piece of designer cardstock.  The flourishes are cream-colored which works well with the beige designer cardstock.  They are made of thick acrylic."

 

And from Mandy Chilvers, two pretty star shaped snow angel ornaments.  

I love the soft vintage pink colors.

Pretty Snow Angel Tag by Michele

Gold and silver seem to be popular this Christmas season, and Michele Storms has used them well in her snow angel tag:

"i covered a green tag base with this cool embossed kind of vellum-y pale white paper and decorated it with the vintage snow angel, a golden snowflake and golden stars.  it seemed right to keep it sweet and simple."

Now it's your turn!  Submit your snow angel creation to the current blog challenge and win a $10 Lunagirl.com gift credit!

Need some snow angels to work with (and need them quick?) I offer a set of five snow angel images on etsy for just $2, instant download!  They will charm and inspire you!

New Blog Challenge: SNOW ANGELS

For my next blog challenge, I've chosen a theme that highlights one of my favorite types of Victorian images: the lovely little Snow Angels.

You've probably seen these sweet little angel children, bundled up against the cold, holding candles or flowers, Christmas gifts or bells, maybe even a bird's nest.  I have 27 of them available on my Lunagirl Angels Fairies Fairy Tale Art CD ~ and a little download pack of 5 snow angels on etsy!  Plus photos of Angel Children and more... Or maybe you will create your own style of Snow Angel.  Whichever way, I love these little symbols of warmth and hope in the winter, and I hope you'll have fun with this theme!

Don't miss the samples from the Moonbeams Design Team below, for your inspiration!

GUIDELINES:
This challenge (#16) will end at Noon (Central Time) on December 15.

The winner will be selected randomly to win a $10 coupon for Lunagirl.com!

Any craft or medium is OK,
No more than 3 entries from one person in each challenge, 

Vintage style is encouraged but not required, and
Please link to my blog and Lunagirl.com on your site if you have one.
 
Of course I love if you use at least one Lunagirl product, and I hope you'll go take a look at my collection... but that's not a requirement!  Most important is have fun, get creative, enjoy vintage. 




LUNAGIRL MOONBEAMS DESIGN TEAM
Find out more about the Moonbeams DT and visit their blogs!

This little charmer is by Vicki Romaine:
"I love this Lunagirl Snow Angel.  It is one of my many favorite Lunagirl images.  I placed her on a card on which I have decorated with a number of embellishments.  There is sequin waste, cloth ribbon, silk flowers and snowflake stickers.  This is really the first Christmas-looking card I have made for this year.  I need to get busy."

Michele Storms uses two snow angels on this pretty winter card.

 And here is an altered notebook by Mandy Chivers, with sparkly snow angel. Gorgeous, don't you think? 

I hope you'll get inspired and get creating!

Retro Gals gift boxes by Annie Claxton!

Hello all!  One of our regular challenge players, Annie Claxton, just missed the deadline for the Retro Gals challenge, and her gift boxes project was so cute I wanted to share her link anyway!  Very creative and pretty, and great pics in her post...  http://artyfartyannie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/little-boxes.html

Retro Gals Challenge Winner!

Our Retro Gals blog challenge has closed, so it's time to announce the winner.  We had just a few entries this time, so everyone had really good odds!  I asked my Random Number Generator for the winning number and it gave me #4 Karen of Karen's Crafty Playground!

Congratulations to you, Karen!  Please be sure to email me at info@lunagirl.com to claim your prize: a $10 coupon to use at Lunagirl.com!

And to everyone who played this time ~ THANK YOU! Come back again to share your wonderful work ~ my next theme will be Snow Angels!  And please do spread the word...

Thoughts on Christmas Shopping

Bright lights and Christmas decorations are going up, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. And it's COLD!  But of course the “Christmas” commercials have been with us for what seems like weeks. When I was younger, it was considered quite gauche, tacky, simply not done, for merchants to advertise Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving. Now they hardly even wait for Halloween!

Christmas shopping is in full swing, I suppose, but I’ve always enjoyed waiting until the week or so before Christmas to do mine. Of course, I now do much of my shopping online, and that must be done early enough to allow for shipping. But actually going to stores ~ I think that’s much more fun in mid-December, when it actually feels like Christmas.

As for "Black Friday"... For me, the day after Thanksgiving is for relaxing with family, watching movies, eating turkey sandwiches and finishing off those pies. My sisters-in-law sometimes go with each other and their daughters to the mall at 5:00 am, and have a big time, but you couldn’t pay me to go shopping that day!

I found myself telling my husband the other day how much I love Christmas, and that I would love it just as much without any shopping or presents at all. (Yes, I know that’s a dangerous thing to say to one’s husband ~ but he would never consider not giving gifts!)

Of course I will give and receive gifts ~ they are a way to express love and appreciation and friendship, a way to share joy and generosity, and they are so much fun to wrap (and open).

But really if I have beautiful Christmas music and a holly wreath and my mother’s nativity crèche set up on the piano, and most of all my family around me, I will be joyful and more than content.

Oh yes, and the Christmas tree.  And maybe some cookies....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hannukah!  

Blessings for the upcoming Christmas Season and Winter Solstice!

1950s kitchen divas from the DT

I know it's a busy week, but isn't that a great time to relieve some stress with a little craftiness?  :-)

Channel your inner domestic goddess / kitchen diva and enter my RETRO GALS blog challenge!
1950s housewives, pin up girls, mid-century ladies of all styles are welcome...  the challenge continues until Sunday, so take a break from cooking and company and football and shopping, and get craftin!  Retro women here if you need some.

Here is more inspiration from the Lunagirl Moonbeams DT!

PETRA BERENDSEN:  I completed the second project for the current challenge and it is in two parts: all images are taken from the Retro Housewives collage sheet. First I created the background using some of the images and made a collage. This collage was then used to create the tag-card. I aslo attached an image of the inside with the sentiment.

MICHELE STORMS: Happy Thanksgiving!

MANDY CHILVERS:  a great card and ATC!

VICKI ROMAINE's card is perfect for this week!