For St. Valentine's Day...

 My download packs for Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving have been very popular, so I've created some new download packs of valentines images: Cherubs, Children, and Hearts! Vintage imagery adapted from Victorian valentine cards, altered and nicely cleaned up for you... I'll be making more for St. Patrick's Day and Easter... click the pics below to find these at Lunagirl.com (they're also in my Lunagirl etsy shop).

Celebrate in February

February means Valentine's Day AND African-American history month... So isn't this perfect?

Michele Storms is a very inspired and very busy lady... She has kindly shared these new creations using images from the newly expanded collection of African-American images from Lunagirl.

I love the combination of silver snowflake and silver heart doily she used... and of course the lovely vintage Paris image.

The one below is a digital piece called "Old Fashioned Girl." It reminds me of old letters and the sweet sadness of time passing.

Share your work celebrating February!

It's February!

More Valentine sweetness from Michele Storms of Artfromthe Well.blogspot.com... Vintage couple from Lunagirl Victorian Romance.

This lovely little creation is a traditional "moo" (approximately 1.1 x 2.8 inches).

Puppy Love ATC

Some sweetness from Michele Storms! Lunagirl images for the 'handwriting' background and main photo image... beautifully combined to create her ATC. Getting ready for Valentines next month <3 p="">

Week Three: LOVE

VICKI ROMAINE Cheerful Stamp Pad

Here's wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day ~ with inspiration from the Design Team, and a reminder that our theme of Love in all its wonderful forms continues throughout the month of February.

I hope to see what you create! See the entries so far, and link up your own. 

MICHELE STORMS
Art from the Well 

MANDY CHILVERS
MandysMagicalWorldofArt

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

A sweet vintage Valentine greeting to you and yours... Enjoy the day with your loved ones.
And help spread the love by joining in my LOVE challenge which continues all through February!

Enjoy this lovely pop-up card by VICKI ROMAINE Cheerful Stamp Pad
(On the left is the outside of the card, on the right you can see the inside!)

Freebie Sweethearts for 'Love' Challenge

It's almost Valentine's Day! But my LOVE challenge for February will continue until the end of the month. And it's Leap Year so that means February 29th!

Here's an early Valentine for you ~ some vintage sweethearts cut from an old postcard. Right-click to download, and use them to create your entry in the challenge!

Second Week: LOVE challenge theme

MANDY CHILVERS
MandysMagicalWorldofArt

More beautiful inspiration from the Moonbeams Design Team! And there are already some lovely and fun entries in my LOVE challenge for February. Link up yours! You can enter up to three times.

MICHELE STORMS
Art from the Well

February Challenge Theme: LOVE

Welcome to my February challenge! 

The theme this time is LOVE, in all its wonderful guises! In February, our thoughts naturally turn to romance and Valentines ~ or maybe to some humorous "anti-Valentines" sentiments if you're single! (My youngest son is currently on this bandwagon.)

And romance, valentines, and anti-valentines are all perfect for this challenge.

But I don't want to limit this theme to only romantic love... Let's expand the theme to embrace other kinds of love as well. Love between friends, between parents and children, sisters and brothers, love of family... love for and from our furry friends... the love that inspires us to share with others and care for others, to work for compassion and kindness and fairness for others, even people we've never met... 

I don't mean to get too philosophical. If I get all Valentines and romance, I'll be happy! :-)  I just want to make sure that everyone feels free to interpret this theme however they like, to reflect what love means to you in your life. LOVE... we certainly need more of it, in every form!

I always enjoy seeing some Lunagirl images in the challenges. You'll find lots of inspiration at Lunagirl.com to help get you started... image collections by download or CD, and hundreds of digital collage sheets! A good starting point this time would be my Valentines collection, I suppose.

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES

Challenge ends at 3:00 pm CST on February 29

Any craft or medium is welcome.

ENTER UP TO THREE PIECES!

Vintage style is encouraged but not required.

Use a Lunagirl image and your entry will count twice in the drawing!

Link to this blog and to Lunagirl.com on your site if you have one.

Prize: $15 credit at Lunagirl.com! Winner will be selected by random drawing.

An InLinkz Link-up

LUNAGIRL DESIGN TEAM

MICHELE STORMS
Art from the Well

Here's a tag created by Michele Storms, digital collage by Shelby Pizzarro to get the challenge started!

I'll be sharing more from the Design Team in days to come!

"Red Rose Girls" by
SHELBY PIZZARRO Sisterhood of the Muse

St. Valentine's Day and the Marriage of the Birds

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
Michele Storms created this gorgeously vintage red tag  for the current Vintage Red challenge and also for Valentine's Day.

Did you know it was once believed that February 14 is the day the birds begin to find mates?  The earliest known association of Saint Valentine's Day with romance is by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1382:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his mate.

"For this was on St. Valentine's Day,
when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."

No matter how cold and dark the Winter, Spring will always come... The birds know! This beautiful tag certainly warms up a cold day.

New Challenge: VINTAGE RED

Scarlet.... Crimson...RED!  Vintage Red is the theme for my next challenge here at Lunagirl Moonbeams.   

Perfect for Valentine's Day -- although you don't need to use hearts and roses unless you want to! -- and perfect to warm up February's chill here in the Northern Hemisphere.  Although my favorite colors tend to be the cooler colors, I've always been fond of a lovely deep red... red birds, red poppies, red roses, Little Red Riding Hood, red shoes, red wine, red cherries and apples and strawberries... red for romance and life and energy...

This is challenge (#21) will end at Noon (Central Time) on February 23, and here are the guidelines:

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, 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! 

Enjoy the inspiring samples from the Moonbeams Design Team below, and please come link up your own creations.  The DT will be working with images from some of my red-themed digital collage sheets:  RED, Red Hat Ladies, Textures Orange & Red (plus some Valentines).



LUNAGIRL MOONBEAMS DESIGN TEAM

Find out more about the Moonbeams DT and visit their blogs!

MANDY CHILVERS:
 red heart

VICKI ROMAINE:
"Here is the cover of a book I made. I love the image on the black and white designer paper. It just pops. The Lunagirl image is on top of a flourish made with a Cherry Lynn die and then is placed on a tea-dyed paper doily    The book has the theme "Being Myself" and holds a number of verses and inspirational sayings." 

PETRA BERENDSEN:
"A little card combining the very beautiful Lady from the Red collage sheet combined with some patterned paper, ribbon and little charm."

MICHELE STORMS

 

Teatime Tag by Petra... and more freebies!

The Lunagirl Victorian tea party challenge continues until Saturday noon CST... and here is more inspiration from the DT.

Petra Berendsen created this pretty tag using an image from my Tea Party collage sheet.  Beautiful colors, so feminine! I love the little rose border, the teapot charm, the polka dot ribbon ~ Petra always brings everything together so nicely.

And below are a couple more freebies, also for your inspiration!  Why not?!  Click on the freebies so see the full-size image and then save to your computer.

And remember to enter the Victorian Tea Party blog challenge for chance to win $10 gift credit at Lunagirl.com!

Here is a Gibson girl enjoying a cup of tea in a pink teacup. What a look in her eyes! I wonder what she is thinking... I hope she will inspire you in the challenge.
From Lunagirl Vintage Women & Men over 800 images on CD

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, of course, and here is a lovely floral heart I like to share this time of year. I can't find a signature on the original card, but these look like Catherine Klein roses to me. The colors are so pretty. I especially like the little unopened rosebuds at the top, and the way the stems make a woven pattern at the bottom. Enjoy!
From Lunagirl Victorian Holidays Volume Two: 900 images on CD for Easter, Valentines, St Patrick's Day Mother's Day (currently on sale)

From maya*made: woven hearts tutorial!

maya*made: woven hearts: modernizing a classic: Woven heart baskets are a classic Valentine craft.

I couldn't resist re-blogging this great tutorial from maya*made!  Theses woven heart baskets are adorable ~ fill them with candy, flowers, love messages. And you can adapt the template to make "single layer" hearts, too, for cards and such.

Hot Deals for Cold Weather Crafting!

I guess everyone in the Eastern U.S. is enduring some super-cold weather!  Bundle up ~ or better yet, stay inside with hot cocoa if you can!

The Lunagirl Moonbeams DT has been sending me more lovely Vintage Winter creations, and I will get those posted to inspire you tomorrow.  When it's too cold and icy to go out, isn't that a great time for crafting?  Enter our Vintage Winter blog challenge! 

My customers are snapping up the Valentines images already, as they always do in January.  If you want an instant download, I have plenty of Valentine and romance-themed digital collage sheets, plus my new download packs of Victorian roses in various colors!

If you're in the mood for hundreds of gorgeous vintage style images, check out my craft CDs on sale almost 35% off this week. Lunagirl Victorian Romance CD and Vintage Lovers CD offer gorgeous, high-quality photos and art from my collection, restored and embellished, most not available anywhere else.  And Lunagirl Victorian Holidays Volume 2 features hundreds of Valentines plus hundreds of images for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day and more ~ some are exclusive to me, some you've seen before but never like this!  I'm pretty proud of our Holidays collections. :-)   And just for good measure, Lunagirl Angels Fairies & Fairy Tale Art CD is on sale too.  So stop in and "get 'em while they're hot"! 

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!)

Lunagirl Valentines Collage Sheets

Ready to download today! (Just $3.45 each at Lunagirl.com). Our collection of "mini" images perfect for Valentine's Day projects. These 1-inch circles, squares and little hearts are especially suitable for charms, pendants and other jewelry, but they can also grace your cards, scrapbooks, ATCs, etc. Use them to adorn and embellish tags, labels, holiday decorations....
Of course we have many other digital collage sheets for Valentine's Day and the theme of romance... plus designs for Easter, St. Patrick's Day and other holidays as well!

Free Victorian Style Valentine with Pink Roses

Happy Valentines Day! Free Victorian Pink Roses Valentine Heart image
For personal non-commercial use with link to Lunagirl.com please.

Want more? Need Easter or St Patrick pics?
See our Victorian Holidays Volume Two CD!
900 Images for Valentine's Day, EASTER, St. Patrick's Day & more.

Naughty But Nice

For a change of pace from the usual cherubs and flowers, why not try some of our "Naughty in 1900" risque French postcards for your Valentines Day projects? They are sweet and only slightly naughty ~ although they were quite scandalous in their day! You'll find some on our Ladies Photos Volume One CD.

Vintage Valentines Feature Article

As Valentine's Day approaches, we invite you to visit our special feature article on Victorian Edwardian romance to see a variety of vintage valentines and romantic photos and learn a little bit about the Roman god Eros (also known as Cupid).

You'll find it all here: Lunagirl Feature: Vintage Romance

In Ancient Rome February 14 was a festival in honor of Juno, the queen of heaven and goddess of marriage. Did you know it was once believed that February 14 is the day the birds begin to find mates?

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!)