Beauty

Theme Thursday is Beauty. I went a little unconventional, I think. With Memorial Day coming up, my mind is on the men and women who have served our country. So to all our Veterans, Thank You! You are my definition of beauty.

The Star Spangled Banner sheet music I picked up some time ago on a public domain site. The Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty images are from Suzee Que. The Arlington and Iwo jima images are my own photos from a trip to DC.

Happy Birthday Three Muses

Today is the 52nd challenge at Three Muses. The theme is cards. Here is my entry:

I saw this little girl image on flikr and just had to use her for this occasion. She is adorable and seemed dressed for a birthday.

Cock Robin PNG fun

The Graphics Fairy shared some info on digi stamps yesterday. After reading her follower's responses I decided to try creating a brush in photoshop. I have used brushes created by other people, but never made my own. I used an image from the vintage storybook "Who Killed Cock Robin?". I have shared some images from this book in the past. I used Illustrator to get a good outline of the image, then used Photoshop to remove the white and save the image as a PNG and created my brush. Here is the PNG if any of you are interested in using it:

If you don't know the story of Cock Robin, it is about his wedding to Jenny Wren. This is Robin Redbreast in his wedding finery. I think he is adorable. If you do find a use for him, I would love to see where he ends up.

A bird in the hand...

...is worth 2 in the (rose) bush. The theme at Theme Thursday is hands. Here is my interpretation:

The beautiful dove card and the bird (in the hand) are images from The Graphics Fairy and the hand is from my own postcard collection.

Grow old with me

The Three Muses challenge this week is: relationships. Here is my entry:

Both images are from Antique Images.

The magic of Tag Tuesday

Tag Tuesday is celebrating 1 year (52 weeks)!! Here is my tag celebrating the magic of Tag Tuesday.

Background is from Itkupilli, the little girl is from Marie's Freebies, the hat, rabbit, and bike are from The Graphics Fairy.

A quote from Rabindranath Tagore

It is time for Theme Thursday. Today's theme: butterflies or butterfly wings. I went online searching for inspiration and came across a quote by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Never heard of him? Me neither. So more online searching, and I found out he was a Bengali poet, playwright, novelist, and musician. He was the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. His words "The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough" were so perfect for today's challenge.

Nice Stems

Legs is the theme for The Three Muses challenge. Here is my "leggy" contribution.

The background is from Itkupilli. The flower is from a collage sheet you can pick up here on my blog.

flowers for you

It has been awhile since I offered images for you to use in your own projects. I am always so greatful to all the wonderful sites willing to share their images with the public. Here is an image from my own postcard collection circa 1907-1908:

I removed the background and cleaned up the flowers. I also applied a faceted pixelated filter using Photoshop. Here is a collage sheet of the individual flowers:

I included leaves and a stem. Here is a frame I created using a couple of the images:

I also put together this bouquet while I was playing around in photoshop:

I hope you will find a use (or two) for some of these images. Please remember to click on the image first so you can save the original, larger size to your computer. These images are all in PNG format. I would love to see any work using these images. Also, if you notice any quality issues or have suggestions to make the images more usable, please let me know. Comments are always appreciated.

Winnie the Pooh

It's Tag Tuesday! Today's theme is to be inspired by something in your own house. It was an easy choice for me. I am a long time fan of Winnie the Pooh. I prefer the classic characters to the newer Disney versions. I have a music box,

that plays Little Black Raincloud. When you wind it, the little ducks rotate around. Along the bottom it says "Promise you won't forget me ever". This was actually the inspiration for my blog name. So here is my tag:

The images are from Just-Pooh.com. I found this site while searching the internet for Pooh images. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I'll send you a postcard...

This week is not off to a good start. Ever have one of those days when you just want to run away from home? This is it for me. So I decided to join these ladies on a world adventure. I'll send you a postcard.

The postcard background is from my own collection. The globe, women, and eiffel tower are from The Graphics Fairy. I colorized the globe and the women in the car and all the images were layered and filtered in photoshop. I am linking this to Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy where you can check out all the wonderful things that get made with her images.

Tribute to Mom

Mother's Day is nearing. For theme Thursday I decided to do a tribute to my mom.

Mom, you have always been there for me. You are so much a part of me. My heart, the air I breathe. Home for me is where ever you are.

To the wind beneath my wings:

The flower border was created with two flower images from Vintage Catnip. The book background and the lovely mother/daughter are from The Graphics Fairy.

Swing on a star...

The Three Muses challenge this week is STARS! I was so excited because I have had this idea in my head since I saw this little girl image on Vintage Resources. So here is my entry for the Stars challenge.

And who doesn't love Bing Crosby? This song is a fond memory from my childhood. I hope you enjoy it.

Tag Tuesday

It's time for Tag Tuesday! Tickets are the theme. Here is the tag I created:

I found the ticket background at Shabby Chic Papirskatter. I just discovered her site yesterday. Lots of beautiful images. The rest of the images are from a collage sheet from Itkupilli I bought several weeks ago and never used until now. The quote on the smaller ticket is by St. Augustine. You might have to click on the image to enlarge it so you can read the quote.

When I grow up...

I started working on a collage series I am calling "When I grow up". Here is the first panel.

I am linking this to Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy. This adorable little boy is cut from one of her images.

The Light

Here is another collage. The little girl is cut from an image I found at Marie's Freebies. I have mentioned her before. She has beautiful vintage images. I created the train station background using a postcard from my great-grandmother's postcard collection. I am linking this collage to Theme Thursday.

Dream of Peace

I haven't posted in some time. I am helping with a home renovation and it is very time consuming. I did manage to finally finish a collage piece I have been working on. My tentative plan is to transfer the image onto an antique ceiling tin I have. We'll see how that works out.

Bird and egg tins

It has been awhile since my last post. It feels good to be back. I just finished a project I started this weekend and thought I would share.

I bought these tins on clearance at a local craft store. They are about 4.5in squares. There were a barn red color, but a spray painted them blue. The images are from The Graphics Fairy and Artefacts. I tied some coffee and spice stained cheesecloth around the top of each tin.

Baby PNG

I clipped this baby from one of my Great grandmother's photopostcards. I added some color to the eyes and lips. I think he, or she, is just adorable. This is a PNG format. If you are interested in JPEG or would like the image without the added color just let me know.

Remember to click on the image to get the full size, then right click and save to your computer. Enjoy!

wedding tag

I had so much fun doing the last post and loved all the comments. To show I haven't lost all faith in men and romance, I offer my latest tag:

This wonderfully romantic image is from Marie's Freebie's. She has a wonderful site. The image is black and white. I added a touch of color to some of the flowers in front. The layer behind the couple is a distressed paper image and the images are printed on photo paper. The embellishment in the upper right is an old earring from the local antique mall. The "ribbon" at the top is coffee and spice stained cheese cloth.

I put a little sentiment on the back:

The wine colored background is an image from The Graphics Fairy. Her link is on the left of my blog now. If you are familiar with my blog, you know I love her site. I took the image and distressed it. The saying is on a silver cardstock. Ghosted onto the cardstock is an image of some scroll work, also from The Graphics Fairy. I have used this same scroll like this before. I think it looks beautiful under a little poem or saying.

Stand by your man

I would like to share an image with you I created while practicing some new things in photoshop. I am working on putting heads on different bodies. So here is my first attemtp:

Brand New Look

Spring is in the air and I couldn't resist a new spring look for my blog. Over the winter I had a gorgeous grey background from the Background Fairy. For Spring I went with this number from Itkupilli.

Tags

Happy Monday to all. Today I have for you 2 variations of a Mother's Day tag. First, the basic elements:

This scroll is from the Graphics Fairy. I love the detail work and all the curves.

I used this piece as a frame. It also comes from the Graphics Fairy. Don't you love the white flowers all around the edge?

This adorable image is from Antique Images. The Links for Graphics Fairy and Antique Images Is on the right sidebar of my blog.

Here is the first tag.

A couple of close ups. You can see where I used the frame. I changed the color and size to fit the image and the tag. The scroll is ghosted behind the sentiment. The quote is from Abraham Lincoln and is hiding under the lace at the bottom of the tag.

And here is the other variation.

I hope you enjoy the tags. I plan to link to Brag Monday over at The Graphics Fairy. Be sure to check out her site. Especially on Mondays. You won't believe the talented people and all the great ideas you'll get!

Free Stuff

It has been a long day for me. Instead of images to share with you, I would like to share a great site I found today. It has free downloads for Photoshop brushes. I picked up several. I added the link to my sidebar at the right. I think my favorite will turn out to be the calligraphy brush. It has words like Merry, Happy, Thanksgiving, To, From, etc in calligraphy so you can easily add a cool calligraphy text for your projects using photoshop. The URL is http://www.easyelements.com/free-photoshop-brushes.html. I encourage you to visit. You won't be disapointed.

Lady in Red

I can't sleep. It is way past my bedtime and I can't sleep. So I'm up playing with photoshop. I was cruising some new sites earlier. Since I am new to digital images and clipart, I love seeing what other people are able to create. I am amazed at what talented people are out there. I wish I could chat with some of them over coffee and say, "how do you do that?" "Where do you get your ideas?" "Where did you learn that?" But instead I return to the land of the self taught where trial and error is a tough task master. So my experiment began with a postcard from great-grandma Pearl's collection.

I have been drawn to this one. I love her dress. On the actual card it feels like satin. I went into Photoshop and used the quick selection tool to crop out the lady. I brightened up the white of her shirt and the whites of her eyes. I brightened up the reds a bit. Then I decided I would like her with blue eyes instead of brown, so I made that change, and touched up her lipstick. So here is the PNG of the lady in red. If anyone has tips they would like to share with me, please do. I love learning new things.

Obey your mother

This image is so sweet. Again, coming from Who Killed Cock Robin. The poem is cute. The image made me think of spring, and Mother's day is just around the corner.

Here is the original page.

And a brigher version of the image.

Butter and Butterflies

The image I have for you today is from the Who Killed Cock Robin book. The story is about a boy who tells two young girls that if they churn butter fast enough they can make butterflies. Eventually they realize Jimmy Brown was playing a joke on them. They story is called Jimmy Brown's Joke.

This is the original page. I love the little girl's faces, dresses, and tights. They are both so cute. The dairy churn is so detailed and I like the butterfly panel at the top. such a darling image. I played around with it in Photoshop for a bit. I'm dying to think of a project for this image.

This a the jpeg of the cleaned up version, and

here is the PNG.

These are just 2 images where I was playing around with some color. If anyone comes up with a project for thses two butter churners, please share.

Who killed cock robin?

So I had an appointment today. It just happened to take me right near my favorite antique store. Poor me, right?  So of course I stopped in for a browse. Not expecting anything but to kill some time. I found a really cute childrens book. Who Killed Cock Robin & Other Stories. From about 1901 is my guess, but there isn't a publishing date, so I'll just say first half of the 1900's. Cute illustrations. In OK condition, but I got it for a steal!

This is the wren.

This is Cock Robin and he wants to marry the wren.

And I couldn't resist so here they are with just a bit of color.

Isn't he too cute tipping his top hat? I love it!

BSOD and bubbles

I don't know if you can tell from the title, but my day did not get off to a good start. I woke to find the 'Blue Screen of Death' on my computer. Better than coffee to get the blood pumping in the morning. Turns out I just needed an update for a driver, so an easy fix (this time). To celebrate the seldom seen easy resolution to a Windows problem (too cynical for a Monday?) please enjoy this adorable image of a little girl blowing bubbles.

Remeber to left click first to get the full size. This one is not available on my web site at this time.

More tags

I finished two more so I thought I would add them on. Above is another variation of the first one I posted. I think I like it better.

I really like this one. The background is from Vintage Catnip. The link is to the right. Her site is beautiful. She offers great images and you can check out some of the things she makes. She is truly talented. The cherubs with the letters are from Marie's Freebies. She doesn't have the entire alphabet, which is so sad. Luckily she had an M and a heart which I substituted for the O, which she does not have. I changed the lacey background from black to a teal color, printed it on a distressed brown-ish card stock, and wrapped it all in a sheer pink ribbon. I printed the cherub letters on a plain cardstock and modge podged a layer of polyester glitter over them. After they dried I distressed them, put some holes in the corners and strung them with twine. I added a pink bead at the top.

Make'n tags

It's Saturday. A pretty nice day, all things considered. I am working on some cards. Gift tags really, but my intention for them is that they would be more like cards. I was off to a slow start because my printer was acting up. I'm still not sure what was wrong with it, but it is finally working, so here is the one tag I actually have completed:

The adorable image is from Marie's Freebies at http://mariesfreebies.blogspot.com/. Check out her site. I especially love the images she has of children. Really cute.