Design Team Inspiration: Patti's Retro Kitchen

This time of year is about thanksgiving and gratitude, and isn't it also about FOOD? Cooking (and eating) goes along with the Harvest theme this time of year ~ gathering in, spending time with family, expressing gratitude for one's blessings in life, and of course cooking and sharing some of that wonderful harvest! The cornucopia full of harvest vegetables is an old traditional symbol of Thanksgiving ~ now I think the "cornucopia" is a table covered in casseroles and pies!

Enjoy this playful collage created by Patti Robinson... she was inspired by retro images, layering colors and images to evoke the cooks and hostesses of the 1950s. And I love those 1-2-3 potatoes! Read Patti's blog post about her process... I hope you're getting inspired to show us your Harvest/Gratitude/Thanksgiving creation in my challenge this month...

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!

Freebies: Retro Housewives for the Challenge!

OK, this lady isn't your typical housewife, but everyone who cooks for Thanksgiving deserves to be Queen (or King!) for a Day. 

Below are some nice old kitchen images.  Why is this lady's refrigerator in her cabinets?  There's a whole cooked turkey in there!

mmmm pie

New Blog Challenge: Retro Gals!

Our Lunagirl Moonbeams blog challenge #15 is RETRO GALS!

Have fun with images of retro women and girls, 1950s housewives, vintage cooks, retro moms, even pin up girls -- all ladies of the 30s, 40s, 50s, even 60s and 70s.  Somehow this fits with Thanksgiving for me -- domestic goddesses and kitchen divas!

You'll find some here, along with other retro style ephemera:  http://lunagirl.com/collections/digital-collage-sheets-retro-40s-50s

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

GUIDELINES:
This challenge (#15) will end at Noon (Central Time) on December 1 (can't believe it's almost December!).

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

Don your sweater set and pearls and get cookin'! 

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! And here are some of their "Retro Gals"!

Mandy Chilvers starts us off right with two ATCs she has created with flirty pin up girls!  Oh my, what would the housewife in the sweater set and pearls say about this?  You never know!  We all have our sassy side, don't we?

And here is a rather nervous (excited?) looking pie baker by Michele Storms!

We're off to a good start with our Retro Gals!












From Petra Berendsen, I love these three cards below! Humor is essential this busy time of year!
Petra writes:  "For the current challenge I created three mini cards with images from the Retro Housewives collage sheet. I kept it very easy adding some background from an old calendar and a housewife quote I found on the web to each one of them."

 

Here is another Retro card from Vicki Romaine!

"The Lunagirl image is placed on a retro-looking piece of designer paper.  The cards from the past were fairly plain and simple.  However, I used a bow to accent my card"

 

NEW! Retro Gals

 The new collage sheets keep coming!

By request from a lovely customer, I got on the ball and pulled together some pictures of 1950s gals to create these two new digital sheets.

The Retro Moms are looking smart and sassy (although one is upset that she burned dinner) posed with their fifties fashions and well-stocked pantries, and I've included a cool dial from a mid-century dial telephone (for those of you too young to know what that is!)

The Retro Housewives seem terribly excited about their shiny appliances and kitchen accessories!  These old ads are funny.  I hope you'll enjoy them.

Back to School: Thank You Teachers!

It's back-to-school time.  We started three weeks ago ~ seems way too early to me! When I was a child I don't think we went back until the beginning of September. I remember how summer vacation seemed to last for months, endless days of play and sunshine and daydreaming.

Since summer vacation is kind of an anachronism anyway, a leftover from the days when children had to help their parents on the farm in the summer, I've a feeling it's on its way to extinction as more and more schools go to full-year schedules. From an academic standpoint I know that's probably for the best, but nostalgia gets the best of me. To those of us who remember fondly those long, long, lazy summer vacations of our childhood, it feels sad to see the tradition go!

As we start a new school year, we should all express appreciation to our children's teachers.  I am married to a high school teacher, and I have known many teachers at all levels, and I know that teaching is a very demanding job.  For even the average teacher, it's hard work, lots of time spent working outside of school hours, and IMHO not enough pay!  For really excellent, dedicated teachers (which is many of them)  ~ even more so.  They are treasures, often underappreciated. 

Most of us had at least one teacher that really helped or influenced us along the way.  So, thank a teacher today!

More New Collage Sheets: Retro Kitsch

Here are two brand new Lunagirl digital collage sheets featuring retro images.  What could be more retro kitschy than pulp romance magazines and pink flamingos?  The actual collage sheets are not watermarked, and can be found here on my Digital Collage Sheets Retro 30s 40s 50s and Pin Ups page.

Back to School Mid-Century Style

This young lady is ready for Back to School circa 1965.  Crisp yellow dress, matching headband and socks, saddle oxfords and a carton of whole milk.  And school started in September, not early August!

Or maybe she's dressed for the return of "Mad Men" this week!  We are mad for mid-century.  I am on a mission to find some ladies' fashions images from this era that are OK to use, but for today here is little Linda in honor of the first day of school.