The Giveaway Has...

I am so happy to announce a winner of my giveaway of a year's subscription to Romantic Paris Magazine!  The person's name who was drawn from the hat was...

Rachel of Titania's Tea Party

Congratulations, Rachel!!!  

Didn't win, but would still love to savor every minute of this gorgeous online publication?  You can subscribe right here and you can still participate in the great buy-one-get-one free offer and send one to a friend as well!

Thank you so much to Krystal, Editor-in-Chief of Romantic Paris Magazine, for providing me the opportunity to offer this giveaway to you here at The Tearoom!

Happy Halloween!

Hello to you, Dear Friends of The Tearoom!

Happy Halloween week to you all!  When asked what she would like to be for Halloween, our Dear Victorienne answered "The Captain of an airship, like the one we rode in on Christmas Eve last year!"  And, so, here she is, all ready to go out collecting candied apples and popcorn balls, while keeping a lookout for all ghosts and goblins!

Here at The Tearoom, we wish you all a very Happy Halloween!

(Images used in my collage today from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios of Mischief Circus, plus images from my own private collection)

Welcome to The Gothic Circus

Welcome, Dear Friends of The Tearoom

and Happy Halloween to you all!

And, welcome, once again, to my post for 

the wonderful Halloween Blog Party, hosted

by our Dear Friend Vanessa

of A Fanciful Twist!

This year, won't you please follow me,

as we visit a circus of long ago...

Welcome, one and all,

to

The Gothic Circus...

It's a cold and blustery evening

and the dry leaves rattle,

chattering as they stampede in crispy packs,

over your feet and down the road,

as we walk to the circus.

The tents glow warmly...

I look forward to getting there and having

a warm drink...

The last twinkly tinkles of music come from

the creaky old carousel...

We get our tickets from this beautiful lady

and she gives us directions to the snack tent.

The scent of caramel corn

and

hazelnut hot chocolate

lead us there...

Thank you, Miss, for showing us to our seats!

How welcoming all of that plush purple

velvet looks!

This is Madame Bellagia, trainer of bats!

As they swoop and flutter their way

through the hoop, their flight in intricate patterns...

Bobo The Juggling Wonder entertains us

by juggling the strangest pieces of fruit

we have ever seen!

Oh!  How they do stare at us!

Madame Violettina, 

the trainer of The Rare Flying Tyger Saffron,

whispers her polite requests to him

and in return,

he politely complies.

The tiny Princess Peony holds the curtain,

fascinated by it all.

Zizzou and Bizzou,

the zebra twins,

balancing,

dancing

and captivating the audience!

And here is Zizzou once again,

showing us more of his balancing skills!

Mademoiselle Octoberella has a special talent,

training the wild and exotic

Pumpkin Moths.

They listen to only her direction.

The clowns,

Monsieur Intelligentsia,

and The Sisters Rougette and Bleuette

(who are triplets, sister of Madame Violettina),

perform mysterious feats of conjuring...

Mademoiselle Coco, trainer of her

famous Circus Insecta.

What most find creepy and crawly,

she finds adorable.

At night, she tucks them all into tiny,

bug-sized beds.

As we walk away from the Circus,

into the cold, blustery night,

we hope it will stay long enough

so we can come back and visit

once again...

Wishing one and all

A Most Happy Halloween!

Won't you please go visit our lovely

hostess Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist

and the other participants as well?

And just as a reminder,

don't forget to sign up for my giveaway

HERE

to win a subscription to

Romantic Paris Magazine!

The winner will be announced on

October 30th!

I Don't Want to Grow Up Class - Week Four

Hello Dear Friends!
We have arrived at that time once again: the final week of one of my friend Bill's fun classes.  This was the last week of his "I Don't Want to Grow Up" Class on his Purple Moose Heart Art site.  I'm sad that it will be over, but once again, I had a lot of fun.  And if you haven't yet taken the class, the fun has yet to begin for you!  You can still sign up and take the classes anytime by going to his site here!

For the final week, Bill talked about graffiti as a positive art form and provided us with pdf files of images of brick walls we could create our own legal and safe forms of graffiti.  I thought it was a very interesting topic and it brought me back to my years in Washington.  Obviously, there were some not-so-positive examples of this in the form of tagging, etc.  But there were some very interesting and artfully-done murals on some walls that I thought added a lot to the visual landscape of the city.

Here is my attempt at graffiti (obviously practiced on one of Bill's images from the class and accomplished without worry of being arrested, sitting at my diningroom table!)

I started out with the word "Create" and added some vines, large leaves and a flame-colored flower, keeping in mind the tropical flowers and plants I loved (and miss) so much in Washington.

Be certain to visit The Tearoom again on Saturday for our post for the Halloween Blog Party at A Fanciful Twist and on Thursday the 30th for the announcement of the winner of the giveaway of a free year's subscription to Romantic Paris Magazine!  If you haven't yet done so, you can leave a comment to be entered here!

All the Rage...

Good Evening, Dear Friends of The Tearoom!
It is our prediction that gentlemen of good taste will be sporting hats in the shapes of large cakes and bombé molds this season, worn along with dinner jackets in festive colors and designs, in the manner shown here by that famous photographer, Monsieur Fromage!

(click to see image larger)

This is my collage for the Take A Word Collage Challenge.  The prompt this week was "Masculine".

Images from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios (Mischief Circus) and my own collection.

It Is That Time of Year, Once Again...

Dearest Friends,
As Halloween nears, I love sharing with you my favorite Halloween treats!  And this is one of the most beautiful, spookiest and one of our favorite movies to watch at this time!  I present to you, a clip from the original "Beauty and the Beast" by Jean Cocteau...

A Reminder...

Good Day to you, Dear Friends,
A quick note to you today from The Tearoom reminding you that I have such a fun giveaway going on!  Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win a free one-year subscription to Romantic Paris Magazine!!  It is so much fun to read and Krystal, the editor-in-chief is so very generous to offer it  to my readers!  No need to follow, favorite, anything like that, simply leave a comment here to be entered.  Don't forget to either leave your comment from your blog or leave your e-mail so I can contact you when you win (please notice I said when, not if)!  Of course, none of this information will ever be used for anything except to let you know that you will now be enjoying a whole year of this delightful online magazine!!

The winner of this fun giveaway will be announced on October 30th!

Orange

Hello Once Again, Dear Friends of The Tearoom,

The prompt was "Orange" for the challenge at the Collage Obsession Challenge this week.  

(Click to see image larger)

This is Monsieur Poisson d'Orange.

He resides at the Chateau d'Orange,

near Chambord.

He enjoys spending his days

moving about his beautiful chateau.

Is he swimming?

Is he flying?

Who can say?

All we know is that it is the time

of year when The Pumpkin Moths,

Morti, Mooli and Ming-Ming,

make their yearly visit.

They are so happy you have come

to visit them today!

(Images from my collage today come from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios from Mischief Circus and The Graphics Fairy.)

I Don't Want To Grow Up Class - Week Three

Hello Dear Friends,
In week three of his class, my friend Bill at his Purple Moose Heart Art website had challenged us to write a haiku about the kawaii painting we did for last week's class (if you haven't signed up yet, you can sign up anytime here.  The class is always open!).  This is the haiku I wrote:

And this was how it looked when I put it in my painting:

Thank you, Bill, for your tips this week for getting our minds off things we are tired of thinking about!! It is nice to be able to escape from Grown-Up Life and think like a kid again, isn't it?  (Of course, having taken many life lessons from my Mommy Cupcake,  I learned to be a worrier from her! With lots of hard work, however, I have also learned how to walk away from worries, at least for a while!  (Retreating to The World of The Tearoom helps a lot!)

And, Little Victorienne would also like to thank Mr. Bill for putting the painting of her on the home page of his Purple Moose Heart Art site!!  It was very nice of him!

I Don't Want to Grow Up Class - Week Two

Greetings, Dear Friends!
This week, in my friend Bill's class "I Don't Want to Grow Up" at his Purple Moose Heart Art Website, he has asked us to create a Kawaii painting.  In case you didn't know, "kawaii" is a Japanese word meaning lovable, cute or adorable.  So, to encourage our inner child to come out and play, Bill asked us to make a painting with cute characters.  Of course I started out by dressing up our paperdoll daughter Victorienne as a cupcake with a teacup on her head as a hat!

(click to see the image larger)

I painted the back ground in a swirl of red, purple and white, making shades of lavender, mauve and pink.

I then sifted through some of my boxes of bits and bobs in the attic of The Tearoom and found some stickers I had ferreted away...the macaron stickers and the "Miso Pretty" stickers from a stationery set were from Paper Source when I worked there in Washington, and the shiny rabbit stickers were from a shop in Georgetown.

I then added Stickles in different colors (of course!)

Thank you, Bill, for your fun class!   My inner little kid is having a lot of fun!  Would you like to play along?  The class can be viewed anytime, so you can sign up here and do the exercises in your own time!  I highly recommend it!

A Giveaway Here at The Tearoom!

Dear Friends,
As I chatted about here, I have been working on some cross-promotion with Krystal of Romantic Paris Magazine, a wonderful online magazine about Paris!  If you haven't subscribed yet, you still have a chance to take advantage of their buy-one-get-one free sale!  Click here for more information on getting a subscription for yourself and one for free to send to a friend!!

And now, you have another chance to get to see all of the great photos and read the articles in this great online publication by entering my giveaway!  Krystal has so generously provided me with a subscription to give away to one lucky Friend of The Tearoom!!!

The instructions are simple!  All you have to do is leave a comment here on The Gossamer Tearoom Blog!  Just be sure I have a way to contact you if you win (either post your comment from your blog or include your e-mail in your comment here.)  On Thursday, October 30th, I will randomly draw a winner and announce it here!!!  That lucky person will receive a year's subscription to this lovely online magazine!

How exciting!  Whether you will be going to Paris soon and will use all of the great information in the magazine to help you decide which places to visit or if you are an armchair traveller, I'm sure you will find yourself as enchanted by Romantic Paris Magazine as I am!!

(These photos are all from past issues of Romantic Paris Magazine!)

Good luck!!

Tomorrow...!

Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
I hope I can count on your coming back for a visit to The Tearoom tomorrow, as I will be announcing a very exciting...

Until tomorrow...!

Spooky...

Hello Dear Friends!
It is a rainy weekend, here in The Land of The Tearoom, but today, I'm participating in the collage challenge at Sunday Postcard Art, where the prompt is "Spooky"...

(click to see image larger)

That Haunting Fragrance

Wishing all Friends of The Tearoom a wonderful rest of their weekend!

Something New...

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
I would like to thank you for a brilliant bit of inspiration I received from the participants of the collage challenge at Take A Word last weekend!  I participated in the "Buttons and Bows" challenge and while working on it, conducted an experiment which has led to my newest collage sheet in Velvet Revived!

In case you missed it, this is a detail from the collage from the challenge (you can see the whole collage here):

I had experimented with scanning some of the vintage Mother-of-Pearl buttons in my collection and then playing with the contrast in Photoshop to enhance some of the lovely, shimmery colors!  So many people commented that they liked the buttons and my explanation of how I came to have them in the collage that I decided to scan more of them this week and design a collage sheet of them for Velvet Revived!

Mother-of-Pearl Buttons Digital Collage Sheet

There are lots of fun things to be done with these digital buttons!!  Of course they can be used in digital collages like how I used them!  But they could be used in scrapbooking, collaging of the cut-and-paste variety or you could print them out (perhaps on glossy photo or brochure paper), punch holes where the buttonholes are and string them on thin ribbon, glitter twine or bakers twine for a super sweet garland like this:

Won't you please consider a return visit to The Tearoom tomorrow?  I will have even more fun collage work for you to see!

Diva

Happy Friday, Dear Friends!
Lots to work on today here in The Tearoom (as always!), but I was more than happy to take the time to do a collage for the Collage Obsession Challenge!  Kirsi provided us with a beautiful vintage image of the opera singer Emmy Destinn and the topic is "Diva".

(click to see image larger)

(Images used in my collage today from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios, both from Mischief Circus, and from my own personal collection of ephemera.)

Wishing all Friends of The Tearoom A Very Happy Friday and A Lovely Weekend Ahead!

I Don't Want to Grow Up Class - Week One

Happy Thursday, Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
Isn't the World of the Internet a lovely place to be for artists this week?  After all, this is the first week of my friend Bill's new class at his Purple Moose Heart Art website!  I love Bill's classes because they are so good letting me stretch my creativity!  You can start them anytime you like, so if you haven't signed up for it yet, it's not too late!!  And so, this week in "I Don't Want to Grow Up", Bill had us do a fingerpainting!  This is not something I had done for a very long time!  So, today was the day I did it and here is the result!

(click to see image larger)

Psychedelic Flowers

I think I must have been influenced by my two big childhood influences: Peter Max and Yellow Submarine!!

I can't wait for Bill's second class!!

P.S. Thanks and hugs to Mr. V for taking the picture of my painting today!  I asked that he just take it where I painted it, the funky old 50's formica red table with aluminum legs in the kitchen!

Happiness Is...

Hello to you, Dear Friends!
Today, I'm participating in the collage challenge at The Three Muses!  The prompt today was "Happiness Is...".   After having been away from doing challenges for a bit and then returning, I'm finding I really enjoy it more than I even thought I did before!  So, for me, Happiness Is Just Making Art!!

(click to see image larger)

Happiness is Making Art!

(Images used for today's collage from itKuPiLLi Imagenarium, Tumble Fish Studios (both on Mischief Circus, formerly Deviant Scrap), The Graphics Fairy.)

Keep checking back for updates on what is happening this month in The Tearoom, namely my art projects for my friend Bill's class on his Purple Moose Heart Art site (Have you signed up for his classes yet?), more collages for challenges, a giveaway (courtesy of Romantic Paris Magazine) and, on the 25th, The Halloween Blog Party at A Fanciful Twist!!!!