Crazy Amigos Challenge- Birdhouse/Birdcage

I've begun to look around for new (to me, anyway) Challenge sites to see if I can rekindle my creative spirit, which has been struggling of late. This morning I found the Crazy Amigos and thought I'd give their weekly challenge a whirl. The theme is Birdhouse/Birdcage. I immediately thought of "caged bird singing..." and went from there.
Background from textures by Witchy13 at Brusheezy, along with a music tag by Frannie60 that I use all the time, and a piece of penmanship--aptly titled The Power of Song--from Graphics Fairy. The bird is also from there. The cage is from Keron from a Yahoo group I belong to and the quote is by Harry Belafonte.

Three Muses Challenge- Victorian

For this challenge I went straight to the namesake of the era, the Queen herself. I used an etching taken from a portrait of Queen VIctoria painted early in her reign. I think she was 23 here. Amazing to think of someone so young ruling an empire!
Background is Victorian wallpaper from Songbird Avenue, enbellishments are from Scrapbook Flair and the stamps were Googled.

Art on the Dark Side--Black and Orange

SPA-Autumn Glory

The leaves are changing here at last. As the nights grow colder the autumn colors are just beginning to emerge. The next few weeks will be glorious as naure paints her annual masterpiece.

I took my inspiration from the humble bittersweet--around here at least it's considered an invasive weed, and is torn out without mercy. I wonder if that is the origin of the name.

The main image was found on Google images and was altered with Photoshop filters; the butterfly is from Dover. The background is a texture from ShironekoEuro at T4L, enhanced with PS text brushes and a music tag by Frannie60 at Totally Free Textures. The French text is from the Graphics Fairy. The large leaf is a brush I made from a botanical sketch I found at the London Museum of Natural History.

4 by 4 Friday--Witch

Witches are in the air these days--a popular theme as the days grow shorter and thoughts turn to spooky things.

My witch this time is a pretty young woman, not the usual old crone. She's out for a stroll under the full moon, perhaps hoping to find someone to bewitch. She has that look in her eye.

The image is from art-e-zine, and the background is made with textures from Shadowhouse (that awesone red) and from Eddi07 and Happysweetmama at Twxtures for Layers. Blending styles, filters and photoshop brushes added the finishing touches.

More from the Digital Montage Workshop

Here are a few more pieces using the techniques we're learning in the workshop. I the Virginia Woolf piect we experimented with using layer styles--drop shadows, bevels and special effects--on brush layers for dimension and depth.

The Paris piece is my example of a Magritte style piece using a brush I made and laying it out on a grid.

The dancer was created using a technique called "Thowing Paint." and Water Lilies was made using brushes as erasers on a screen layer .

Check out the Digital Montage Studio blog http://digitalmontagestudio.blogspot.com/ for information about the upcoming classes and also for information abour purchasing the files from the previous sessions when they become available.