Fall Beauty Digital Collage

I started following the Lunagirl blog the other day and they have an Autumn challenge going on right now. So I created this Digital Collage for that challenge; it is my Fall Beauty.

The woman in the vintage photo is actress, Lily Elsie, and she gained fame in the Edwardian era. I think she is such an amazing beauty. I found her image while looking around for vintage images one day on Google. So I was happy to use her image in this digital art. I challenge you to do a Google search and look at her photos (there are many) and compare them to a contemporary actress, Rachel Weisz. I swear those two look so alike they could be sisters. I loved Rachel from the time I first saw her in The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. So beautiful and so talented too! Just my observations. :)

If you visit the Lunagirl blog, be sure to stop by her digital store too. She has lots of digital goods for sale, along with CD's of images and what not. I haven't even had a chance to look around her store yet, but I'm hoping to do that this weekend.

Witch Magic Hang Tag

I like creating Hang Tags, whether they are 'real' or digital. I created this one for this week's Fall Colors challenge at the Inspiration Avenue blog.

I love the colors of Fall, don't you?! :)

A Star Can Never Die

I created this digital piece of Michael Jackson Art for this week's creative challenge at the Three Muses blog, the theme of which is Music.

What can I say? If a challenge theme is Music, my head and my heart immediately go to Michael Jackson.

“A star can never die.

It just turns into a smile and melts back into the cosmic music,

the dance of life.”

― Michael Jackson, Dancing the Dream

Forest Magic

This week's creative challenge at the Inspiration Avenue blog is to create and share what the words Woodlands or Forest mean to me. So this is the Digital Collage that I came up with for that challenge. I'm calling it Forest Magic. (Fairy by Lorie Davison of scrapbookgraphics.com)

When I think of forests, I always think of something that's a little magical. So, it's no surprise that fairies come to my mind as well. Hope this fairy brings a little magic to your day. :)

Getting Witchy Altered Art Hang Tag

It's been awhile since I've done some Altered Art, so I decided to create something in my studio over the weekend to add to my collection of Hang Tags. It's this Getting Witchy Altered Art Hang Tag.

I used a brown paper Kraft tag, then stamped on a wood-look background. I used Distress Ink along all the edges to give the tag and aged look. Then I used black ink to stamp on some spider webs, and I put some Kraft paper flowers on after that. Next I added the witch, the stamped paper spider, and a couple of black ribbons for some embellishment. 

And now this little paper witch is all set for Halloween.

Lilies at the Farm

The Hubs and I bought an old house on an old "farm" recently, which we intend to remodel (it needs it from top to bottom) and move into within the next few years. We put our camper out there in the mean time as a little getaway place, and we like to just hang out there sometime for peace and quiet.

What's been really fun for me though is discovering all the nature and wildlife that's out there. There are frequently deer and wild turkeys running in the fields behind our property; that area is owned by a farmer who has crops growing there. On our property though I discovered lots of different flowers at various times over the spring and summer. One of my favorites were the lilies that were growing right next to the old grainery building that will one day become my studio. I snapped a couple of photos of the lilies and thought I'd share one with you.

Aren't they pretty? We have some other lilies that grew out there too, along with some other things...and lots of wild daisies. My mom would have loved those, as daisies were her favorite flowers. I like to pretend that she makes them grow there for me...or at the very least, that she's with me when I'm walking around enjoying them. 

Flowers always make me smile. They're like a free little gift every time I visit the farm. Can't wait til I can move out there and plant a garden and just enjoy all the nature every day.

Trash to Treasure Chairs

I've been going through all of my photos in my house recently--and I do mean ALL my photos. Even the ones that pre-date my digital camera. I'm trying to get them all organized so they're easier to pull out and look through whenever the mood strikes. Of course, most of them are older, since more recent digital photos only get printed if I want to put them in an album, which is really the nice part about digital cameras--you only have to print the ones you want!

But anyhoots, in going through all of my photos I found a photo of some Adirondack chairs that I transformed several years ago. I thought they'd be a good Trash 2 Treasure feature here on the blog. The original (before) version wasn't really "trash." It really just needed a little TLC and a facelift, so that's what I gave it.

I had two of these chairs, both made by my father-in-law, and I loved them, even in the "before" state. But I was doing an all white theme on my front porch at the time, so I decided to paint them white, and then use some floral stencils to make them a bit more decorative. They almost had a Shabby Chic look about them. I loved how they turned out and I used them until the day my husband tore off the porch because he was putting on siding AND planning to redo the porch itself. Unfortunately, the chairs got put in storage and basically got ruined. I was not happy. But I did love them for the time that I had them. And they sure looked nice on my porch!

Childhood Fairy Digital Collage

I'm starting to participate in challenges from the Take a Word Challenge blog this week. The theme for this week is Childhood, so I created this Childhood Fairy Digital Collage.

The little girl in the photo is my mother, whom I lost last year. She is wearing a dress that was handmade by my great-grandmother. I guess you don't see too many fairies wearing black dresses, but you know what they say...creative license.

I love the photo of my mom. She was around four at the time. And she was very close to her grandmother. She was such a pretty little girl, who grew up to be a beautiful and amazing woman, and she inspired me in more ways than I can ever say.

Miss you, Mom. NAIH.

Renaissance Lady Digital Collage

I was checking out this weeks' creative challenge on the Collage Obsession blog and the theme is Renaissance Woman, so I created this Digital Collage for that challenge.

A beautiful Renaissance Lady, some vintage hues, some digital elements, and a touch of magic helped me to create this digital art.

Leaf in the Sky

I'm not sure if I posted this photo before, but I'm sharing it now because it fits for the current challenge at the Inspiration Avenue blog.

The challenge theme is a "Kodak Moment." The idea is to enter something that, in our eyes, captures the meaning of a Kodak moment. This image, my Leaf in the Sky, does that for me. It was a moment where you see something, and you just HAD to snap a picture of it. I've always loved this photo, and it really captures the fun of Photography for me.

Minecraft Birthday Party

Over the weekend, my grandson, Dylan turned 10. Back about a month or two ago he decided he wanted to have a Minecraft Birthday Party. Cool idea, since he really loves that game. And considering the popularity of that game, you'd think there'd be lots of Minecraft party supplies around, wouldn't you? Well, think again. There are really zero Minecraft-related party supplies. So what did I say? Challenge accepted. I got into crafty mode and hit the studio to make as many Minecraft treats and decor items as I could. 

I've created two collage photos of what we did for our party. I want to share this because I know I was looking all over Pinterest and the Web for ideas myself, and really, thank goodness for Pinterest because that was a big help! So hopefully this will give you some ideas too if you or someone you know is thinking of doing a Minecraft Birthday Part too any time in the future.

Black sheets of "Duck" brand duct tape was my friend for this party. I used to to jazz up plain, bright green cups, which I purchased at the dollar store, with Creeper faces. We put the plastic ware in those cups. I also used it to put creeper faces on Dylan's presents (top right). On the bottom right you'll see some boxes I made to represent the Mincraft blocks/cubes--I created water, cobblestone, wood, and grass (two sizes each) and just stacked a few on each table. The grass ones were also decorated with patterned duct tape; the others were decorated with scrapbook paper. In the two smaller pics (right middle) there is tissue paper grass on top of "grass" tablecloths, and on top of the grass are wood boxes filled with either coal (just black stones I found at the craft store in the floral department) or colored plastic gems, to represent diamonds and other gems. I purchased a few things from Amazon: 2 foam pick axes and one Steve figurine. Not cheap either, so they counted as part of Dylan's gifts! But they were a great addition to the party theme. And the Creeper cake was made at a local bakery. I also made Creeper Punch--forgot to get a pic of that! It was just Sierra Mist and Lime Sherbert--and it was quite tasty!

The key to making all the treats for the Goodie Bags was really just making a lot of Minecraft-themed labels. I used Hershey's nuggets for Minecraft Gold and Silver. I got some green mini frisbees that we personalized for Dylan's party. I made Minecraft labels for little bottles of bubbles; Steve faces for the blowouts, and Minecraft Coal labels for the coal gummy candy (that is really Christmas coal candy, but the label hides the Christmas wording on the package, for the most part). I also made Zombie faces for some green "slime balls" candy I found online. And we got some silver buckets too and put Rolos in them for another form of gold. There was other stuff in the Goodie Bags too--some straws, some pens, some Mike and Ike's candy, and some Minecraft rubber bracelets, which I found on Artfire.

I also decorated two bright green T-Shirts, one for Dylan and one for my granddaughter, Destiny. I made a stencil of a Creeper Face and used fabric paint to get it on the shirts. Destiny is modeling hers in this photo. :)

Dylan's shirt turned out to be a little too small for him. So he wore a different Minecraft shirt, but we put his Creeper shirt to good use. My daughter had the wonderful idea to have everyone sign that shirt so he'd have a nice memento from his 10th birthday. It was a hit! It's hard to write on a T-shirt though, let me tell ya! It was neat though. All in all it was a great day. Everyone had a good time, and most importantly, Dylan had a great Minecraft Birthday!

Michael Jackson Eyes

The Three Muses blog has a challenge this week called Eyes. So I used my favorite muse to create this Michael Jackson digital art for that challenge.

Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on.

~ Michael Jackson, Dancing the Dream

Little Red Riding Hood

I was in fairytale mode when I created this Digital Art using one of my favorite vintage photos today. I originally posted it on My Enchantments blog on Tumblr, but I loved it so much I wanted to share it here too.

The little girl is so beautiful. I couldn't help but be inspired.