Join Our Creative Challenge: MARIE ANTOINETTE

Our theme this time is "Marie Antoinette" ~ and this is another "double" challenge with Vicki Romaine's challenge blog, cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com. Our Design Teams will be guest designers for each other's blogs... and you can link up your creation on BOTH sites for double chances to win!

I can't wait to see what you create ~ link up your entries below. And I know you'll enjoy the Design Team and Guest Designer creations. At Lunagirl.com shop you'll find Marie Antoinette collage sheets for inspiration, plus plenty of other vintage French-inspired images!

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES:

Any craft or medium is welcome!

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:  Winner will be selected randomly to receive a $15 credit at Lunagirl.com!

Challenge ends at 2:00 pm CST on Thursday, July 16.

I love it when you use Lunagirl images, and I hope you'll go take a look at my collections... but that's not a requirement!  But do remember that if you use a Lunagirl image, you will be entered TWICE in the drawing! I welcome everyone and every style but also want to give a little something extra to my wonderful customers! Most important is have fun, get creative, and enjoy vintage style. 

An InLinkz Link-up

LUNAGIRL MOONBEAMS DESIGN TEAM + GUEST DESIGNERS

HAZEL HARRIS My Crafty Outlook 

KARLA BADANZA Poetic Postcards "For the first week of Marie Antoinette, I made a card using an image kindly supplied by our sponsor Lunagirl and it is called Queen Marie Antoinette in Gilt Frames. It is such a vintage beauty! I layered it on a scrapbook paper and on a blue cardstock. I also added some decorating paste flowers and pearls. When I think of Marie Antoinette, refinement and graceful approach to life crosses my mind and those things are still important. Have a creative weekend! Hope you continue playing along with us!"

VICKI ROMAINE, owner of Cheerful Stamp Pad 
"A Mixed Media Tag using one book page, watercolor diecut,, stickers and Lunagirl image.My tag also has a beautiful cut from a old card and some text scribble."

CORINNE MARIE Digital by Corinne

BARBARA GODDEN Barb's Creative Corner 

MICHELE STORMS Art From the Well  "a tag, images from marie, dreams of paris and winds and roses collage sheets.
enjoy!  happy 4th!"

Paris Botanical Tags Set: Ephemera, Flowers & Fruit

Still working on Paris Botanical tags today... I made another sheet with yellow flowers and golden fruit. Very pretty! While I was at it I realized I should make a sheet of matching tags that are mostly blank and have a place to write -- to use as backs or just to complete the set. So here is the whole set so far... expect more tags in different themes because I'm having fun with these!

More French Botanical Tags... and a Surprise Just for You

Here's another new printable tag sheet ... 

more beautiful botanical prints of flowers and fruit, in gorgeous shabby purple and green, plus lovely vintage aged pages from the French journal Horticole. 

I had so much fun with these, and I hope you will too! I love these colors and the French text.

Here's another little something fun: a discount code just for my blog readers! Use discount code PURPLEPARIS at checkout at Lunagirl.com for 25% off every item until Monday ... just for you!  

Really I just want to see who is listening :-)

NEW Paris Botanical Tags Printable

More new tags!

These are created with pages from a beautiful old French horticulture journal and pretty antique botanical prints of cherries, strawberries, little red flowers and pink lilies. They have a lovely aged sepia color, from the antique paper, and charming French text.

I call this sheet Paris Botanical Tags: Pink & Red Florals. I plan more sheets in this style in other colors (yellow/gold, blue/purple) and other fruit like grapes, apples, pears... I love working with these images.

This first one is available now at Lunagirl.

Friday Freebies: Paris Boulevard Ephemera

Here's a Friday Freebie "just because."  It's an antique French advertisement for a diamond shop in Paris, and does have some Vintage Red for the challenge! (There's still time to enter!)  I like the hot air balloon picture and the little crown and diamond rings, but I think my favorite part of this image is all the different vintage-style fonts.

Boulevard des Italiens is one of the four grand boulevards in Paris. Also just for fun, here is an old photo postcard of Boulevard des Italiens!

New Collage Sheet: Memories of Paris

I wish I had made this in time for the recent "Meet Me in Paris" challenge, but better late than never, right? Here is another Paris themed digital collage sheet, this one with lovely old tinted travel postcards of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe d'Etoile, plus some inchies and a romantic French couple. I call it "Memories of Paris."  I have a whole pile of these pretty old cards... I hope you will enjoy using a few.  Click the picture to see it in my shop!

Winner of "Meet Me in Paris" blog challenge

Time to announce the winner of the drawing for my Meet Me in Paris blog challenge!  We had 17 gorgeous entries, and remember that everyone who used a Lunagirl image in their piece was entered twice in the drawing.  So, drumroll please....... the winner is #15 aNNie!

Congratulations to Annie ~ email me at info@Lunagirl.com for your prize, a gift credit of $10 at Lunagirl.com

As always I send a tremendous thank you to everyone who played.  It's always a pleasure to see everyone's work.  I love the Paris theme and all the entries ~ we may have do Paris again sometime!  Do come back and play in the next Lunagirl Moonbeams challenge on the fun theme of Victorian Tea Party!  I know the DT will have some lovely inspiration for you...

Meet Me in Paris: There's Still Time!

Entries for the Meet Me in Paris challenge are shaping up nicely ~ and you still have one more day to enter! 

I've been sick since Thursday so I haven't been posting this week (can't believe I got sick twice this winter already) but I wanted to pop in for a quick challenge reminder.

Here's an Ooh-La-La girl from a French postcard. Make of her expression what you will. :-)

Paris challenge continues!

I have a lifelong obsession with little containers and boxes and tins ~ so of course I'm crazy for this altered tin that DT member Michele Storms created for our Meet Me in Paris challenge (with my Meet Me in Paris collage sheet). What would go in here?  Maybe little secret memories of Paris ~ ticket stubs, a souvenir or two, a few francs you found in your pocket after you got home, a photograph, one earring (you lost the other one that romantic night...)  Or maybe dreams of your FUTURE vacation in the City of Lights?

What would YOU keep in this little treasure box?  And what will you create for the Meet Me in Paris challenge?

Meet Me in Paris! (until Sunday...)

 Here's a reminder from Lunagirl and the Moonbeams Design Team that the Meet Me in Paris blog challenge continues until Sunday noon!

Link up your Paris-themed creation to enter the random drawing to win $10 credit at Lunagirl.com.  Use a Lunagirl image in your entry for double chances to win!  Click here for details and to see the gallery of entries so far ~ they are lovely and romantic.

Here is more inspiration from the DT!

<<< Petra Berendsen created this pretty tag in shades of pink and green:  "My second project is finished, I used another fabulous image from the Meet Me in Paris collage sheet. This time I combined it with lots of stamping, fabric, lace and ribbon. Every time I use your images it is just amazing how they work with whatever technique you use and you can use them to achieve lots of styles as well. This is great."

VICKI ROMAINE:

I combined some Lunagirl images to make a collage card.

From MANDY CHILVERS

New Blog Challenge! "Meet Me in Paris"

Welcome to Lunagirl Moonbeams blog challenge #19!  

Our theme is "Meet Me in Paris."

Enjoy the samples from the Moonbeams Design Team below, for your inspiration!  The DT will be working with images from some of my French-themed and French ephemera collage sheets from Lunagirl Images.

GUIDELINES:
This challenge (#98) will end at Noon (Central Time) on January 26.

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!

This card by Vicki Romaine is so creative ~ I love the way she has layered the images to create a scene, and that she used a silhouette of the man with the umbrella.

Vicki writes:
"I decided to do this card with having the man with the umbrella looking at the Lunagirl French poster as if he were visiting in Paris and trying to decide what to do.  The background uses some scrap pieces of cardstock while the  image is on gold cardstock to make it pop."

A wonderfully romantic Paris creation by Petra Berendsen!

Ooh lala, indeed!

From Petra:

"I started to work on the new project straight away and created a digital postcard using images from various of your collage sheets: Meet Me in Paris, Children with Flowers, Carte Postale 2 and an image of a couple. I thought they match perfectly!"

 

Feast your eyes on this lovely Paris memento by Michele Storms...

...and this Meet Me in Paris tag by Mandy Chilvers. 
I think this young lady has what is called a "come hither look"!

Let us see your "Meet Me in Paris" creations... 

be sure to enter the challenge!

Fete Nationale (Bastille Day) July 14

You can celebrate Bastille Day, the French national holiday, with our vintage French patriotic postcards on Lunagirl Victorian Holidays Volume Three.

 Le Quatorze Juillet (the 14^th of July) commemorates the successful storming of the Bastille fortress in 1789 by French citizen-soldiers and revolutionaries.

The people of Paris, fearing an attack by the French royal military, attacked the Bastille in search of ammunition. The Bastille was a symbol of the oppressive rule of the aristocracy, because the king used the Bastille as a prison to hold people indefinitely without trial or appeal.

.

While the French aristocracy enjoyed fabulous wealth and power, common people experienced increasing difficulty supporting themselves and their families, and writers who dared to criticize the government were jailed.

We like to identify with the elegance of the French aristocratic ladies, but the fact is most of us would have had more in common with the citizens of Paris and the French countryside. 

One of the first protests beginning the French Revolution was led by mothers who had no bread to feed their families. 
A famous story (probably fiction) says that Marie Antoinette, sheltered in her world of fancy parties and powdered wigs, asked why the common people were angry. When told, “Because they are starving and have no bread,” she is said to have replied, “Well then let them eat cake.” A remark quite witty and amusing to her rich friends, but not so funny to the hungry Parisian commoners!

 Marie Antoinette was a fashionable and influential woman but apparently not a very nice queen. Although she was popular at first, her sometimes arrogant behavior and extravagant lifestyle contributed to the decline of the French monarchy. As a footnote, this woman who is often considered the epitome of 'Frenchness' was actually an Austrian princess!

We have a lovely small collection of authentic French patriotic cards on our Holidays CD #3. They were printed during World War I, when France was again in struggle. They show symbols of France including the tricolor flag and Joan of Arc, as well as French soldiers and women, with slogans that speak of faith and hope.

If you can’t get to Paris, they also celebrate Le Quatorze Juillet in the French Quarter in New Orleans!

Vintage Diva: Cleo de Merode

In honor of my DIVA blog challenge going on this week, I thought it was time for another Vintage Actress feature.  We have so many beautiful photo postcards of Victorian Edwardian actresses and dancers in our Ladies Photos collections, and maybe you'll enjoy knowing a little more about these famous ladies of the stage.  I'm working on a collection of just actress and showgirls, organized alphabetically so you can find all the images of each lady together.

Many will recognize the unforgettable face of Cleo de Merode.  She was born Cléopatra Diane de Mérode on September 27, 1875, in Paris, France, the daughter of the Austrian landscape painter Karl Freiherr von Merode, part of a famous Belgian noble family. She began her study of dance at age eight and made her professional debut at age eleven.

Cléo de Mérode quickly became known for her beauty and glamour even more than for her dancing skills, and at a young age her image began appearing on postcards and playing cards. A unique new hairdo she choose to wear became the talk of Parisian women. She was also noted for her tiny waist which was accentuated by the tightlacing that was popular at the time. Sculptor Alexandre Falguière used her as the model for his sculpture "The Dancer," which today can be seen in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Several famous artists of the day painted her portrait. In Vienna her beauty caught the attention of painter Gustav Klimt.

In 1896, 61-year-old King Léopold II of Belgium saw Mérode dance in the ballet and became enamoured with the 22-year-old performer. Gossip started that she was his latest mistress. Because the King had two children with a woman reputed to be a prostitute, Cléo de Mérode's reputation suffered because of the gossip connecting her to the king.



Despite these whispers of scandal, Cleo became an international star, performing across Europe and in the United States. At the peak of her popularity, she chose to dance at the famous cabaret Folies Bergères, taking the risk to do something other elites of the ballet had never done before. Her performance gained her a whole new following.

Very popular in her ancestral homeland of Austria as well as in Germany, she appeared in the 1926 German motion picture "Frauen der Leidenschaft." Mérode continued to dance until her early fifties when she retired to the seaside resort of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques area of France. In 1955 she published her autobiography, "Le Ballet de Ma Vie."

Cléo de Mérode died in 1966 and is buried in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where you will also find the tombs of other famous artists including Frederic Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Honore de Balzac, Delacroix, Moliere, Proust, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf , and Jim Morrison.

MORE IMAGES OF CLEO

New Collage Sheet: Paris 1920s Fantasy Showgirls

I love creating collage sheets ~ it's so easy to get inspired.  Here is the latest, just posted a few days ago, created with French postcards from the Casino de Paris featuring flapper showgirls in some pretty wild costumes (and a little nudity -- warning/blush)!  The actual digital collage sheet is designed to print as a full-size sheet, 8.5x11" when printed at 300 dpi (can be resized before printing as needed!)  Get it here.

Artful Vintage-Inspired Dress Forms from White Rabbit

Looking for something truly unique for your home decor or perhaps to give as a special gift?  Kimberly Salter creates these gorgeous vintage-style dress forms.

They are lovingly painted and decoupaged with vintage images and ephemera, and I think they would be perfect for cottage chic or romantic Paris apartment style decorating.

You'll find them in her etsy shop thewhiterabbitstudio (along with her sister's lovely crocheted scarves and eclectic vintage findings).

Click here to visit our featured artist Kimberly Salter at The White Rabbit! 

New Collage Sheet: Cleo de Merode

Another new collage sheet just created, this one featuring altered photos of the lovely dancer Cleo de Merode.  She is certainly one of the most memorable beauties of the Edwardian stage, and we thought she deserved a collection all by herself.  Beautiful old images published in Paris long ago, enhanced and embellished for you to enjoy. To go to a page to purchase and download, click here! http://www.summertownsun.com/lunagirl/W-Lunagirl-Collage-Sheets-NEW.htm

Featured Artist: Katies Rose Cottage

I've discovered a beautiful website and blog to share!

Lori Avery of Katie's Rose Cottage offers all kinds of lovely romantic and cottage chic treasures. (I love tags, you can use them for so many things, and these are so pretty.)


There are charming vintage flea market finds as well as lovely handmade tags, ribbon roses, sweet pendants and charms, and romantic items for your home, bed and bath, most created by Lori herself using vintage and/or reproduction vintage items and other beautiful embellishments.

Lori is a very nice lady, and if you love a vintage romantic, shabby chic look, her site is a great place to find the perfect gift for a friend or for yourself!



Her embellished vintage bottles featuring birds and roses are especially unusual and pretty, and there is a whole section of unique wall decor.

She also has a lovely blog at http://www.katiesrosecottage.blogspot.com/

All the photos here are Copyright Katie's Rose Cottage.
Click on any picture to visit!

Coming soon! New Perfume & Cosmetic Labels

We recently acquired a sweet little bunch of vintage labels from perfume, soap, and other cosmetics, some French and some American, some antique and Victorian in style, others Art Deco. These are currently being scanned, restored, and altered to make them "just right"... stay tuned, I'll let you know when they are available!

Check out our current selection of labels at Lunagirl Images. (If you're interested in commercial use feel free to email us at info@lunagirl.com!)