How about some food inspiration for Valentine's Day? I love these cookies (cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma):
and this personalized chocolate heart (Williams Sonoma):
These sentiment cookies (also Williams Sonoma) are just fun!
And this quilted cake from Dean & DeLuca is amazing:
I love finding the perfect treat for my loved ones for Valentine's Day...
Thanks for your kind comments! I wanted to share a few pages from the rest of the Paris Book. I have been to Paris but it's been a long time (over 20 years ago!) and I am dying to go again. Because I wasn't much into photography at that time, I have few photos of that maiden voyage. So when I saw these new book board covers from 7 Gypsies, I knew I wanted to create a minibook about the Paris I remembered, so I turned to Flickr to supply the photos. The book utilizes paper, gaffer tape and paper tape from the new Venice Collection. The book board and brass plaque are new items being introduced at CHA. There are many Gypsy tags utilized in the book as well, along with a naked index pocket, and all of these lovelies are products from 7 Gypsies. What I do is I do an advanced search on Flickr under everyone's uploads, and check the following boxes:
Only Search Within Creative Commons Licensed Content
Find Content to Use Commercially
Find Content to Modify, Adapt or Build Upon
That will bring you a range of photos that you can utilize for your own projects, in most cases the artists do want you to credit them with the original photos (as you should do, anyway!).
So here is a peek inside the Paris Minibook that was created for 7 Gypsies for CHA Winter 2010, followed by attribution to the photographers:
There's a few more pages -- but you get the picture....
And without further ado, here are the photography credits, many thanks to these fabulous photographers for sharing their work so freely!
1) Blue Cafe - by david.nikonvscanon
2) Eiffel Tower - by schillergarcia
3) Green Door - by alq666
4) Les Deux Magots - by Serge Melki
5) Le Metro - by Pedro Simoes7
6) Macarons - by uggboy
7) Accordionist - by torcellotrio
8) Paris Flea Market - by extranoise
9) Laduree - by Sam Felder
10) Artist in Montmartre - by ingirogiro
11) Fromage (cheese) - by Jean-Louis Zimmermann
And here's a vintage image to share; makes me want to set to work on handmade valentines for sending, right away!
It's been great fun sharing the romance images. We'll segue into St. Patty's and Spring/Easter images starting tomorrow. Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Happy Friday, it's been a long week - hope you have a relaxing, enjoyable weekend planned!
We are back and busier than ever but Florida and three days of sun did my soul good. Running off to get everyone ready for work and school - more this evening! I'll have valentine/romance images posted until the 14th, then we'll switch to something else, maybe St. Patty's Day images mixed in with spring and easter images...
I love Mozart. I remember my first exposure as a teenager to The Marriage of Figaro and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I was enthralled. This little valentine reminded me of Mozart.
I'll try to post a few more images before Friday -- we'll be leaving for a little midwinter pick-me-up to Florida - just three short days at Disney, but I'll take three if it's all I can get. I am longing for sun and warm weather already, and it's only just now February. We don't really warm up here in Ohio until mid to late May, sometimes even early June. How I envy all you SoCal and Florida girls.
Here's a little piece I did while playing around with the QK birds die and tissue paper I picked up from Target. All I did was diecut two of each bird and layered them, secured them with some adhesive to the card and then handstitched the line that they're sitting on. Simple and I love using pretty tissue paper. I think it would give it a totally different look to use just one sheet.
My JBS February Kit came yesterday - and it's soooo LOVELY, full of new CHA product!! Jenni's new rhinestone buttons and papers are luscious. I am dying to play but it will have to wait until I get back from Florida. Work has been a bear and I am busy trying to get loose ends tied up there and pack before we leave, so more than likely the next few posts will be just vintage images.
I also am looking forward to getting some new photos of Alekha to scrap with. I have a ton on my computer but I need time!! Time to go through, sort, edit them -- time I don't have. I am determined to take lots at Disney though -- so hopefully you'll see some new pics instead of the same old ones I've been using for a month or two!
I have emails to catch up on and a bit of work to do before I retire --- so will bid you adieu for now!
Ah, love letters. I am from that era that straddled the romance of letter writing and the exciting dawn of the computer age. And though I love my PC and all it enables us to do (we wouldn't have blogs without our computers!) I still believe in the charm of an old fashioned love letter, written with flowing red ink from a gorgeous fountain pen with a golden nib, tucked away into a scented envelope and sealed with sealing wax. Take time to pen a love letter to someone you love this month - a real, old fashioned love letter with all the trimmings. They'll love it and you'll be glad you did!
And thanks for your comments, I read and appreciate each and every one! Have a great weekend!
Call me cheesy, I'm a sucker for Disney love songs. Bella Notte from Lady and the Tramp came to mind as soon as I saw this image:
I was asked to guest design for the Creative Therapy blog and I really enjoyed it. Karen sent me a list of catalysts as a jump off point for an art inspiration project, and I chose "What's your favorite poem, and why?"
Here's my intro and the project I created in response to the catalyst - be sure to check out the other amazing inspirations from the team and if you decide to play along, you can upload your creation to the Creative Therapy Flickr group for a chance to win a RAK. (Details on the Creative Therapy blog). Thanks to Karen for letting me play along and to the team for such amazing artwork!
Ranjini Says:
I love poetry. I have loved words from the time I was very young - I learned to read early on and devoured books. I remember though being profoundly affected by poetry; Shakespeare, Tennyson, Dickinson, Frost and a host of other poets enchanted me with their works. I was charmed by beautiful words strung together in precisely the right fashion so as to evoke emotion and challenge the intellect. I have loved many poems throughout my life and even keep a notebook of my favorites, however the one that has moved me more than any other poem is one by William Butler Yeats, titled “When You Are Old”. The poem inspired me to create this work that is centered around Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the movie “Roman Holiday”. In the movie, Audrey plays Princess Ann, a princess of an unnamed country. She is on a European tour but longs to escape the strenuous and tiresome duties of being a royal in the public eye. She decides to leave her country’s embassy to explore Rome for herself. In the course of her adventure, she cuts her hair short, meets Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), an American reporter, and finds herself. Unexpectedly, she falls in love with Joe, and he with her. Eventually she acknowledges that she must return to her royal duties and he bids her adieu. He sees her again at a Press Corps meet and greet with the Princess. During the meeting, he hands her an envelope of photos that could have ruined her dignified reputation. She expresses her love and gratitude in a hidden message to him. In the end, he walks away, wondering what may have been between them. I particularly love this movie, and everytime I read William Butler Yeats’ “When You Are Old”, I think of this movie. It is essentially a poem of unrequited love, and Yeats reminds his love that “one man loved the pilgrim soul in you”.
When You are Old, by William Butler Yeats
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
The poem gives me chills when I read it, and I liken it to Joe’s character and to Princess Ann - who will never forget their love.
The poem inspired my project, titled “amore”. I created this piece by gutting out an old vintage book. I then printed a photo of Audrey Hepburn for the cover, on canvas paper. I trimmed it down to size and then applied glue and clear glitter to her bodice and hair ribbon. I added a small clear gemstone to her ring for a bit of three-dimensional bling. I used Seven Gypsies gaffer tape down the spine and sewed on a few vintage paste and rhinestone buttons. I added the words amore (Making Memories stickers) to the bottom right corner and glued the image to the cover. I added crimson seam binding (crushed by wetting and crumpling it and allowing to dry). On the inside of the book - I added a photo of Ann and Joe from Roman Holiday, the poem printed on cardstock on the facing page, and some small embellishments on either page. I took an approach of less being more as the poem and the photo speak for themselves.
Technique Highlight:
Printing on canvas. I used plain Office Max brand premium coated canvas, but there are better canvas papers out there if you want extra high quality. I did adjust Audrey’s image in photoshop by applying some artistic filters. I loved the dimensional and glittery look that the addition of glitter and bling added to the piece. I set my printer on a glossy paper setting when I printed the piece.
Fairy godmother, magical glitter dust keeper, story teller, dreamer, and artist.
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