My challenge blog for Lunagirl Vintage Images, featuring fun creative challenges with prizes, projects, freebies, holiday and seasonal info, and more!
A place for mixed media artists, card makers, scrapbooking enthusiasts, fabric artists, creators of jewelry, altered art and crafts of all kinds.
Would you like Lunagirl to sponsor a challenge on your blog? Email me at INFO@LUNAGIRL.COM. :-) I'll provide images for your DT!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

LATEST RELEASES from LUNAGIRL



Two gorgeous new collections from Lunagirl: Vintage Girls & Boys and Vintage Women & Men!

Both offer a bounty of beautiful 300 dpi images from the Victorian Edwardian eras through the 1930s, including a wide variety images from postcards, die-cuts and scraps, and stunning fine art paintings! A must for anyone who loves vintage.

Why buy digital craft supples? These days saving money is on everyone's mind, and if you've bought paper crafting supplies you know how quickly the cost adds up. Instead of buying single copies of paper pictures and stickers, get beautiful, high-quality digital images on our easy-to-use CDs, and print them over and over again, on any and all papers you like, whenever you need them.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Just something cool for those of you who create jewelry: 2,000-year-old gold earring found in Jerusalem (from AP)

By SHAWNA OHM, Associated Press Writer -- JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem's old city, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.

The discovery dates to the time of Christ, during the Roman period, said Doron Ben-Ami, director of excavation at the site. The piece was found in a Byzantine structure built several centuries after the jeweled earring was made, showing it was likely passed down through generations, he said.

The find is luxurious: A large pearl inlaid in gold with two drop pieces, each with an emerald and pearl set in gold.

"It must have belonged to someone of the elite in Jerusalem," Ben-Ami said. "Such a precious item, it couldn't be one of just ordinary people."... Finds from the Roman period are rare in Jerusalem, Ben-Ami said, because the city was destroyed by the Roman Empire in the first century A.D.

Shimon Gibson, an American archaeologist who was not involved in the dig, said the find was truly amazing, less because of its Roman origins than for its precious nature.

"Jewelry is hardly preserved in archaeological context in Jerusalem," he said, because precious metals were often sold or melted down during the many historic takeovers of the city.

"It adds to the visual history of Jerusalem," Gibson added, saying it brings attention to the life of women in antiquity. ...

Earrings similar to this one have been found at archaeological sites throughout Europe, Ben-Ami said, where the Roman Empire also flourished. The authority said the earring appeared to be crafted using a technique similar to that depicted in portraits from Roman-era Egypt.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Beautiful New Collage Sheet Designs!

Antique children's books have some beautiful illustrations. We know you'll enjoy these brand new Lunagirl collage sheets featuring Little Red Riding Hood, Nursery Rhymes Characters, and Storybook Animals and Birds! Click any of the pictures to see them (and more new digital collage sheets) on Lunagirl.com ... ready to purchase with instant download!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Steampunk Style Test

Oh joy, another quiz! We know how you love them, so here you go:

Are you the Aristocrat, the Gadgeteer, the Scientist, the Explorer, the Officer, the Citizen, the Air Pirate, or the Ragamuffin? Lunagirl takes her place among the Gadgeteers (but a lady nonetheless).

To take the Steampunk Style Test go here:

Saturday, November 1, 2008

What Is Steampunk?


What in the world is "steampunk" you may ask? (And some of you have).

Steampunk is one of those things that can be difficult to describe but you know it when you see it. It is related to the neo-Victorian movement but has more to do with funky machinery, gears, gadgetry, etc., inspired by the Victorian interpretation of the then-emerging industrial revolution, especially by wildly imaginative futuristic literature of the era such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Steampunk is imagining the Victorian view of science and technology into the present. What if everything still ran on steam power and was built of brass and iron and wood and leather?

Steampunk: Building a fabulous steam-powered bat-winged flying machine in your study. Airships. Steam engine trains. The Nautilus submarine from Jules Verne. Those giant antique brass diving helmets. Goggles and telescopes and pocket watches. Gears and cogs and gadgets, and elaborate machines with lots of brass and copper and moving parts and engraved instructions. Having these things in your book-lined wood-paneled study (or laboratory). A gadget-enhanced wood-sided leather-upholstered flying car with retractable webbed wings. Mad scientists and eccentric inventors. Aeronauts and aviatrixes. Curious and daring young ladies who have read all the books in their fathers’ scientific libraries. Antique typewriters and calibrating devices. Contraptions and chronometers. Thaumatropes and stereoscopes and difference engines. Building a modern device out of salvaged antique parts. Neo-Victorian dress with a little mad scientist Victorian techie flair. A corset or leather vest accessorized with lace gloves, goggles and a brass laser gun.



These amazing, working computers were designed by Datamancer.com.


Steampunk seems a bit related to cyberpunk but inspired by older technology, and also related to “retro-futurism,” which has to do with how people in the 1930s-1950s imagined the future (think jetpaks, rayguns, Buck Rogers, streamlining, shiny tight metallic clothes, flying saucers) and bringing that aesthetic into contemporary design.

But steampunk is instead inspired by an earlier vision of the future imagined by the Victorians ~ a “future” of amazing technology and progress based on steam power and brass fittings and the aesthetic of their time.

Steampunk subculture has been around for quite a while and is now filtering into the mainstream as a “style,” as such things do.

Visit www.brassgoggles.com or http://steampunkpics.blogspot.com/ for more. If you do a search on “steampunk” on http://www.etsy.com/ you’ll find some interesting items (although we’re of the opinion that steampunk means more than just “made of watch parts”!)
Here is a search for STEAMPUNK IMAGERY on my site Lunagirl.com.


Lunagirl on Etsy