Free Christmas Images for Last Minute Projects

I know many crafters are already in the back of their minds thinking of Valentine's Day (always a season ahead!), but as we're in the midst of this beautiful Christmas winter holiday season, here are a couple of free images for last minute tags, place cards, etc.  And don't forget we have many holiday collage sheets available for instant downloading at Lunagirl.com http://www.summertownsun.com/lunagirl/W-Lunagirl-Collage-Sheets-Holidays.htm (plus lovely cupids and hearts and romantic kisses and sweet girls in pink and red if you simply MUST think ahead!)

Send New Year Greetings: Revive This Edwardian Tradition!

Sending Happy New Year postcards to family and friends was a very popular tradition with the Victorians and Edwardians (and French ladies of the time) ~ as popular as sending Christmas cards, judging by the great number and variety of New Year cards we find!

 

These charming cards often showed illustrations of children, cherubs, Old Father Time, happy couples, benevolent angels, lucky horseshoes and shamrocks and pigs (yes, a symbol of luck and prosperity), even New Year gnomes who bring wealth and happiness to your home.  

Other New Year cards, especially the French ones, featured photographs and the wish for Bonne Annee (a good year) or Heureuse Annee (a happy year), like these from our collection.

You will find a lovely selection of illustrated cards on our Victorian Holidays Volume One CD and beautiful photo cards of children, ladies, and couples on our Christmas New Years Photos CD.

We altered some of the photographs into Christmas cards on the CD, but we left many with new year greetings in French. 

 I think New Year postcards should make a comeback! They would be a wonderful tradition to revive, especially in these anxious times. 

 

  

Just print onto cardstock, embellish if you like, and send to wish your loved ones a happy 2011.  The best wishes of a friend mean just as much now as they did a hundred years ago in 1911!

Victorian Thanksgiving Card for you to download

I walked outside last night to discover a beautiful bright full moon.  Don't you love moon shadows?  The world was quiet, except for the occasional rustling of dry leaves by the wind.  This morning, from the window over my desk I can see a brilliant maple tree, glowing red and orange in the grey light.  Autumn is so lovely. 

Thanksgiving is coming up!  Just for our 10-year-old, we bought what I believe was the biggest turkey in the supermarket yesterday.  Good thing we like turkey sandwiches as we may be eating them for three days afterward. :-)  I like leftovers and rented movies on "Black Friday," no shopping for me (except online)!

Here is a free download for your last-minute Thanksgiving crafts (click to enlarge to full size).  Let's all remind each other that this weekend is not just about food and shopping.  I hope I will remember to be thankful every day!

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)

How to Make Glass Marble Magnets

I just discovered this tutorial on how to add images to glass marbles, and thought I would share!

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/marblemagnets/

All of the images on our Lunagirl Images CDs can be sized very small for projects such as this. I've printed them as small as 1/4-inch wide with great image quality! We also offer an ever-growing variety of "minis" collage sheets, with 1" images on ready-to-print jpg collage sheets (print the file at 50% for 1/2" circles or squares)

Take a look, try something new, have fun! A great project for staying inside on cold days.

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 !

An Invitation

Would you like to see your altered art projects, jewelry creations, decoupage projects, ornaments, handmade cards - or other handcrafted creations! - featured on Lunagirl Moonbeams blog?

I would like to feature artists and crafters more often, especially those who use vintage ephemera or vintage-style ephemera in their work. So whether you sell your work or create "just for fun" - email me at info@lunagirl.com if you're interested!

Free Thanksgiving Card!

Today's Monday free image: a charming Thanksgiving card with vintage illustration by Ellen Clapsaddle. Free for you to use in all your personal non-commercial projects!

For more holiday images perfect for your card making, paper crafts, altered art, scrapbooks... check out our Lunagirl Victorian Holidays & Occasions 2-CD set. Over 3,000 images for all major holidays, plus birthdays, romantic occasions, best wishes, etc. Over 1,000 Christmas pictures!

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).

What kinds of images would you like more of?

We are (literally) surrounded in our office by hundreds of vintage photo postcards recently purchased as a large collection from overseas. Most are French and some are German or Dutch. We have pictures of women from the Victorian and Edwardian age, romantic couples and some brides, Victorian boys & girls, flappers and little girls of the 1920s and 1930s, holiday photo cards, and more, all waiting to be scanned, restored, altered and published.

What to work on first!? It would help us to hear from our customers .... what you like to see more of in terms of images for your art and crafts projects? Email us at summertownsun@yahoo.com and let us know!

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.

Moon-day FREE IMAGE DOWNLOAD Vintage Bellydancer

I love dance, especially bellydance, and we are proud of our Lunagirl collection of vintage bellydancer photo postcards. We would like to share this lovely photograph from the early 1900s Edwardian era, of a joyful dancer with her veil. I have restored the image and enhanced it with subtle shades of pink and violet and a little added sparkle.

You're welcome to use this lovely image in your personal crafts and altered art projects (no commercial use). This altered image is copyright 2007 by us. If you publish or display your work, include credit and a link to http://www.lunagirl.com/

For more vintage bellydancing images and other vintage ladies, check out our collections of Victorian Edwardian Vintage Ladies Photos on CD.

New Collage Sheet Designs!

Two new Lunagirl collage sheet designs
Bird Ladies &
Bathing Beauties II



All my digital collage sheets are delivered as high-resolution 300-dpi JPGs for exceptional image quality. Save to your own computer & print onto your own fine paper or transparencies or even fabric. Beautiful vintage ephemera ideal for altered art, decoupage & other crafts.

You'll find them at: Lunagirl Collage Sheets

New collage sheet collections on CD!

We have recently released 7 new collections of Lunagirl ephemera collage sheets on CD! Ideal for altered art, altered boxes, jewelry, decoupage, scrapbooking and other paper crafts.

Digital collage sheets are easy to use: Each is a high-resolution jpg image, ready to print onto your own fine papers, transparencies, vellum, the choice is yours. Best of all, you may print them as often as you like for personal non-commercial use.

We spend a great deal of time and care creating our unique ephemera collage sheets, to make them beautiful, interesting & diverse. Check them out at Lunagirl.com.

You can also purchase Lunagirl collage sheets individually by instant download!