soartful Challenge --Wine, bread and thou

Here's my (very late-again) entry for Soartful Saturday's challenge. Who can resist the idea of wine, bread--I'd add some dates and a bit of cheese--and a picnic with your love [sigh] These two look like they are enjoying this spot in the grape arbor.

Thanks to Playingwithbrushes and the Graphics Fairy for the backgground pieces, Collage Images Flickr group for the young lovers, Google images for the grape vines and Jeanette for the inspiration piece.

Three Muses Challenge-Steampunk

Ahhh...Steampunk. Don't you love to look at it, explore it's intricacies, try to figure out what it means. I do, but to create a piece in the steampunk style is a challenge for me. I don't know why, but it's hard.
So here's my attempt, with lots of help from Cindy Powell and Cecelia Swatton,both of whom have produced Steampunk digital kits available at Digiscrapstation, and other places too--lots of great elements. I also thank Scrapbook Flair, Google Images, Dover and the Graphics Fairy for help putting this together

4 x 4 Friday--Guardians

I know, I know...this is Monday night and I am days behind...
This Friday's challenge at 4x4 Friday is cemetery angels. I love to look at them, they have such a range of emotions on their stone faces. This angel seemed a guardian to me, not a mourner, so I began to create the ranks of Guardian Angels, coming from heaven to meet their newborn charges. They look strong, fearless and so kind to me.

The angel is freebie from Gaby Braun, altered by her, and again by me. The background pieces are from T4L, other bits from The Feathered Nest and Google Images. The original background layer, to fill in the white spaces around my angels was painted with a set of watercolor stroke photoshop brushes.

Pandora's Box

I've recently signed up for a digital workshop on one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. I'm very excited to be learning more about how to use the powerful tools in Photoshop Elements to improve and enhance what I create. The classes don't begin for a few weeks yet, so the instructors gave us a theme to play with to "warm up".

Pandora's Box

I've loved this story since I was a little girl--I loved myths and legends as soon as I began to be able to read them, and still do. I think the world is a more interesting place because of Pandora's curiosity. Imagine a world without all the "evils" let loose from the box. Paradise, yes, but not very challenging. If Pandora hadn't opened the box, you know someone else would have. We can't help ourselves--we HAVE to KNOW!

It is rising to challenges and conquering our fears and dealing with adversity that make us human.

And never forget that HOPE was also in the box. And that is the "saving" grace. Hope is what keeps humanity going- more than any other virtue we may possess.

This collage is made with images and textures from Suzee Que's Flickr site, Google, Digital Whisper,Graphics Fairy and Textures for Layers. It is comprised of 14 layers, including text and brush layers.

Sunday Postcard Art--Sea Voyages

Here is my postcard for this week's challenge. My inspiration for this is that as I type, my sister and her husband are sailing up the East Coast from Florida to Mattapoisett, MA, on a boat not much bigger than this one. If I hadn't heard all the stories of cold and heat and rain and bugs and broken engines and no wind, I'd say "What a Life!"

I'll still say it..."What a Life!"

The original image is one of my own photos, altered with artistic filters andd duplicated for the second boat. Background textires are from Cottage Arts, Scrapbook FLair and Cindy Powell's Painted Silks collection.

4 x 4 Friday--Solstice--Midsummer Morn

Here is my homage to Midsummer. My favorite time of the day, when the risen sun begins to penetrate the early morning mist. Everything is just so beautiful then, sparkling and warm. It's magical.

These are the Callanish Stones, a cross-shaped setting of Standing stones erected around 2000 BC, one of the most spectacular Megalithic monuments in Scotland.
Local tradition says that giants who lived on the island refused to be converted to Christianity by Saint Kieran and were turned into stone as a punishment.
Another local belief says that at Sunrise on midsummer morning, the "shining one" walked along the stone avenue, "his arrival heralded by the Cuckoo's call."
This Legend could be a Folk memory recalling the astronomical significance of the stones
With thanks to Suzee Que, Dover, The Feathered Nest, Google and Textures for Layers Flick Group