Happy National Postcard Week!

Hello to you, Dear Friends!

Lots of Real Life things occupy my days, but I'm still working hard to keep My Life in The Tearoom up and running as well!

First, I would like to thank all of my Fellow Fans of Vintage Postcards a Most Happy National Post Card Week (May 4th-10th)!  In honor of this week, this is the postcard I designed:

I am participating in a postcard swap for the second year in a row with Colleen from Butterfly in the Attic and this is the design I am using for the postcards I will be sending out this week!

And, if it's Tuesday, you know it's the fun Postcard Party at Butterfly in the Attic as well!!  In keeping with the fun, eclectic feeling of my postcard, I am linking these fun collage sheets this week at the party:

Entrance to Dreamland, Coney Island

Bottlecap Beauties

Flying Fish - An Original Digital Collage

Please don't forget to visit with us at the Postcard Party and celebrate National Post Card Week by sending postcards to your friends and family!

Portrait of a Circus Family

I haven't been able to participate in any of the collage challenges lately because we are in the process of packing all of our belongings real and imagined as we prepare to move!  I will still be doing my best to keep up on all of the goings-on in The Aether, but if you don't see me for a while, this will be the reason.

I'm happy that after much time of cleaning and organizing our house and putting it on the market to sell, I had time to participate in today's challenge on Sunday Postcard Art!  The prompt today was "Life is a Circus" and for some reason, this family of circus performers appeared in my imagination.

Today, I have used images from the following:  Itkupilli Imagenarium, Tumble Fish Studios and The Graphics Fairy.

Whew!  My work here is never done these days and now, along with more Real Life tasks, I also have a Mother's Day card to design and make for my mother-in-law as well as a design for some postcards I am making in honor of National Post Card Week!

Better Late Than Never (I Hope)...

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
Our Further Adventures in Real Life have kept me away a bit recently, but I didn't want to miss out in wishing all of Our Dear Friends a Most Happy May Day!

I do so wish we were all gathered together this evening in a café in Paris, nibbling on muguet macarons and drinking lime-blossom tea.

Here's hoping it it will be a lovely, creative and productive spring for us all!

In the Gloaming...

Gloaming...isn't it a funny word?  It is a rather archaic word meaning "dusk" or "twilight".  I am reminded of words like this when visiting at Butterfly in the Attic today, where our friend Colleen is hosting her weekly Postcard Linky Party!  Today, she is showing some night scenes in vintage linen postcards, for sale in her Etsy shop.  They are so beautiful.  You might take a peek!

I'd like to thank Colleen, as she has very kindly named my "Victorienne in The Rose Garden" Digital Collage Sheet as her featured ephemera at the party!

Victorienne in The Rose Garden

These are the sheets I picked to link to for today's party!

They are all made in the colors of twilight,

dusk or as it used to be called

"The Gloaming"!

Vivid Violets & Purple Pansies

Scenes of Paris Past

 Beautiful Ladies of Paris - The Blue Hour

Won't you join us at the party today?

Could it be you?

Will the next beautiful collage sheet you purchase from my shop Velvet Revived on Etsy be my 50th sale there?  And if so, what lovely gift is waiting for you?

What's New in The Tearoom...

Outside, the blustery wind huffs and puffs, but inside, we remain cozy, waiting for the rest of spring to arrive...

First of all, I have just finished a new sheet for Velvet Revived, this one an original collage called "Flying Fish":

Flying Fish Original Collage, available now at Velvet Revived

Also, I have applied the new layout to my Twitter account.  If you haven't seen it, there are lots of new changes.  If you had a background wallpaper, that is now gone from your background of your home page.  However, your avatar is bigger and there is a large area at the top of your page for a new wallpaper panel/logo.  This is my new design, which I have added today:

Wishing all Friends of The Tearoom a

swiftly emerging springtime!

A Most Happy Easter...

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
Just look what our Dear Victorienne has discovered for Easter:  a nest of peeping, fluffy little chicks, in a nest made of pussy-willows and lavender!!

Here at The Tearoom, we would like to wish all of Our Dear Friends, old and new, a Most Happy and Beautiful Easter!!

With biggest hugs from Betty, Mr. V and Victorienne

P.S.  Please don't forget to come visit with my friend Colleen at Butterfly in the Attic for her fun Networking Saturday Linky Party!  You can add one link for each of your Etsy shops, your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of your other social media contacts and discover new shops and sellers too!

A Rainy Tuesday with Tea and Networking...

Hello to you, Dear Friends!
Here at The Tearoom, it is a quiet, rainy afternoon.  I sit here, sipping my Breakfast in Paris Tea by Stash (yummy flavors of bergamot, lavender and vanilla), enjoying the sound of rain on the windows of The Tearoom, knowing it takes away the last of the snow and brings green to the lawns!  Spring may finally be here!

And today, being Tuesday, is our day to visit with our Dear Friend Colleen at her blog Butterfly in the Attic!  Tuesday is the day that she brings to us another of her wonderful networking opportunities when she hosts her "Wait A Minute Mister Postman" Postcard Party!!  Everyone who is a Friend of The Tearoom knows how much I love vintage postcards, so this is one of my favorite days of the week!  About a year ago, she very kindly invited me to join her Pacific Postcards Team on Etsy and I am so very glad I did!  Colleen is such a nice lady and she's always coming up with new ways we can network to get more sales in our shops!

This week, she has featured my Spring Wishes and Apple Blossoms collage sheet.

Spring Wishes and Apple Blossoms,

available now in Velvet Revived

So, this week, the sheets I have selected to post at the Linky Party today are some that can be used for your last minute Easter cards or decorations!  Remember, all of my sheets are instant download, so there is no waiting to receive them!  You begin creating right away!

Victorienne's Easter Parade

Easter Bouquet

Floral Bunting

If you love vintage postcards or if you sell them, won't you please come pay a visit to Butterfly in the Attic today?

A Small Exercise in Minimalism...

This is my collage for the challenge at Sunday Postcard Art today.  The prompt was "Still Life". Thank you to the folks at Sunday Postcard Art for featuring my collage from last week "The Hotel Unusual" as one of the samples of work for the prompt last week! 

In January, I made a collage for The Three Muses, also based on the topic of still life.  I'm including it today, as I designed this second still life to match the first and I think they look pretty fun together!

The images I used in my collage today are as follows: background from Shadowhouse Creations, tulips and yellow moth from Rijks Studio from Rijksmuseum, cherries and French postcard from my personal collection.

A note about the Rijks Studio from Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam:  Did you know that this museum has made 150,000 of their works of art into open source images that artists can pretty much use for whatever they wish?  You can register on the site and make your own collection for your projects.  Also, the museum holds a contest every year, asking people to enter their submissions using these open source images.  I entered this year and this was what I submitted:

This is my five-panel design, made of images from 26 works of art from the Rijksmuseum open source collection.  I printed one out, assembled it and sent it to my mother-in-law for her birthday.  She loved it, so, perhaps later this year, I might have this produced for sale in The Gossamer Tearoom shop on Etsy.

A Less-Than-Scientific Explanation....

In anticipation of the lunar eclipse next week, I present you with my collage today.  Here, our new friend Madame Noire is travelling from one point to the other in a Moon Balloon, trailing the haunting scent of black roses behind her.  What a lovely way to travel!  And with contraptions like this floating around up there, how do we really know that the "scientific" explanation of what will temporarily block our view of The Moon is actually the real one?  Perhaps Madame Noire's diaphanous red scarf will trail out behind her, giving the appearance of The Blood Moon?  Who knows?

(This is my submission for the collage challenge at The Three Muses.  The prompt was "Transportation".  Images I used in my collage came from Tumble Fish Studios and Itkupilli.)

Don't forget to keep your eyes open for the eclipse on April 14th-15th!

Tuesday, Once Again...

Hello Dear Friends,
Today, in spite of the clouds and the gloom, the sun is trying so hard to visit us here in The Land of The Tearoom!  Bit by bit, the mountains of snow are melting and underneath, we can already see green grass!  We couldn't be more excited to see it!

And, today being Tuesday, of course once again I am participating in the "Wait A Minute Mr. Postman" Postcard Party on Butterfly in the Attic!  Once again, I would like to thank our host Colleen, for hosting this fun networking event.  If you sell postcards or artwork using postcards, won't you please consider joining us?  And once again, thanks go out to Colleen for featuring some of my artwork from my blog post of last week!

On her blog post this week, she shows us some vintage postcards showing some very cute little children!  So, how could I resist?  Of course, the first sheet I'm featuring in the Linky Party today is one of Victorienne, Our Own Dear Paperdoll Daughter!

Victorienne's Easter Parade

The next sheet I will feature will be my newest:

Floral Tea Set

The last sheet I will show at the Linky Party today will be one of the first I made when I opened Velvet Revived, just about two years ago:

Spring Wishes & Apple Blossoms

(because we still need all the spring we can get!)

All sheets, as always, are available in Velvet Revived on Etsy!

The Hotel Unusual

(Please click to see the entire image.)

Welcome to The Hotel Unusual!  We are glad to welcome you!  As you can see, each room has a lovely view!  Our new friend Madame Noire is here to greet you, as is our own Dear Victorienne.  Oh, and don't worry about the large friend who is shown here nosing about on the loggia on the second floor!  He just wants to be friends!

(This is my submission for the collage challenge today at Sunday Postcard Art, where the prompt was windows.  The images I used here are from Tumble Fish Studios, Itkupilli, Cemerony and my own personal collection.  And, thank you so much to my new friends at Sunday Postcard Art for having featured my collage from last week!  You can see the other beautiful samples here!)

Saturday Again at The Tearoom...

Dear Friends,
Can you believe another week has gone past us?  This week has been a good one for us here at The Tearoom and in spite of receiving another skim of snow last night, we had a couple of warm days, have had lots of melting and have more warm days ahead!

Per usual, I have been working on another new digital collage sheet and here it is:

Floral Tea Set in my Velvet Revived Shop on Etsy

(Oh, and this sheet comes with a fun free bonus sheet!)

And, if it's Saturday, you know that The Tearoom is participating in the weekly networking event at Butterfly in the Attic!  It's a great way to promote your Etsy businesses!  You can leave one link for each of your shops, plus one link to any of your social media sites as well!

Wishing you all a beautiful weekend!

For My Mommy

(Click to see image larger.)

This is a photo of my Dear Mommy Cupcake, surrounded with flowers!  This was always one of my  mother's favorite times of the year because she loved all kinds of flowers!  And all of the flowers I have used in my collage today were some of her favorites.  She lives in Heaven now and I'm sure she is surrounded by flowers there.

(This collage is my submission for the challenge on The Three Muses today.  The prompt this week asked us to surround a vintage black-and-white image with color.  As soon as I read it, I knew what I would do for my collage!)

Bonne Poisson d'Avril!

Or, in other words,

On April 1, when we are celebrating April Fool's Day by playing various pranks on each other, in France and Belgium, people are running around pinning paper fish on each other's backs and yelling "Poisson d'Avril!" or "Fish April!".  The folks in Italy have their version of this as well!  Above, I have included one of the vintage postcards from my personal collection, which celebrates this fun holiday!

And, today being Tuesday, of course once again I am participating in the "Wait A Minute Mr. Postman" Postcard Party on Butterfly in the Attic!  Once again, I would like to thank Dear Friend of The Tearoom Colleen for hosting this fun networking event.  If you sell postcards or artwork using postcards, won't you please consider joining us?  Again, Colleen is featuring some of my work from my blog post of last week. (Thank you for that, as well, Dear Colleen!)

So, in honor of April Fools and the silliness that ensues today, I am including three of silliest and most fanciful digital collage sheets:

Victorienne in Wonderland

Entrance to Dreamland

Spring Chicken Easter Parade

Wishing you a fun and festive April 1st,

however you celebrate it!

Spring is on its way!

Under Prairie Starlight...

(Click to see image larger.)

shhhh.....

We must be very quiet.

We are witnessing something very rare.

Under the light of a million stars,

Out on the prairie,

The jackalopes and their queen converge nightly.

She lovingly guides them on the travels

Over sagebrush and ground-cover cacti

She even gives a little hug to those that require extra encouragement

The jackalopes are rarely seen

(Some say they don't exist, but I don't believe it.)

But this is the first time the Queen has been captured in an image.

shhhhh...

Don't let them notice we are here...

We will just sit here counting the un-countable numbers

of stars and watch in wonder...

For those who have not seen them before, jackalopes are purported to be mythical creatures, a cross between an antelope and a jack rabbit.  They have become a symbol of popular culture in places like where I grew up in Wyoming.  First-time visitors to the area are convincingly encouraged to keep looking out for them during their travels across the prairie!  

(This is my submission for the Take a Word Collage Challenge.  The images I used in this collage are from the following sources:  Tumble Fish Studios, The Graphics Fairy and my own personal collection.)

Victorienne and The Party Chickens. . .

(Click to see the image larger.)

What a lovely spring day it is, the perfect day for an outing!  In the Land of the Tearoom, we are surrounded by rapidly-melting mountains of snow, but Little Victorienne is very happy to be someplace more spring-like and to finally be able to go outside without her snowsuit on!  Today, she pays a visit to The Farm of The Party Chickens!  They all rush to greet her in their finest finery and she is stepping ever-so gingerly amongst them!  She knows in their excitement they are not being careful of her, so she must be careful of them!  One would not usually wear white shoes to go visit at a farm, but her shoes are made of rubber and therefore, easily washed when she returns from the farm!

(This is my submission for the collage challenge at Sunday Postcard Art!  The prompt today was "Down on the Farm.")

The Age of Steam

(Please click for a larger image.)

Above is a rarely-seen image of a cotton-candy factory from The Age of Steam.  The process has been lost now, but there was a time when clouds of cotton-candy would rise from smoke stacks, hard-working little bluebirds with nets would capture it, where it would be held until it was to be sent to carnivals and circuses everywhere.  The Violet Cotton Candy Factory pictured here was one of the most famous makers of this favorite confection.  As you can see here, there was a large cage, filled with the delicious pink fluff, left where passers-by could come and have free samples!

(This is my submission for The Three Muses Collage Challenge this week.  Images used in this collage came from Charmed Memory Collage and Tumble Fish Studios.  The decayed effect was a layer I made from an image of a decayed daguerreotype I found here.  And I'd like to thank my husband Mr. V for the inspiration!  When I read the prompt out loud to him, he said to me, "Why not a cotton candy factory?"  Good job, sweet heart!)

Welcome Back to The Tearoom!

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
It has been such a long time since we visited here over a cup of tea here in the Tearoom! Today, I bring you back to show you how we have decorated with the new bunting sets I have created in Velvet Revived, here in our Imaginary Tearoom of the Aether!

Today is a good day for celebrating, as it is the day of the Tuesday Linky Party at Butterfly in the Attic!  Each Tuesday, she hosts a great party focusing on vintage postcards or artwork made from postcards in some way!  It's become one of my favorite days of the week!  Dear Colleen has once again featured one of my sheets (Thank you so much!) and it is just through pure coincidence that it happens to be one of the sheets I have drawn on for inspiration for my new line of buntings as well!  My French Tea Party Digital Collage Sheet is the one she has most kindly featured today:

Since this collage sheet, the matching Printable Invitation, my Alice in Wonderland Collage Sheet and matching Mad Tea Party Printable Invitation were some of my favorite projects to work on (and some of my most popular sellers), I decided to make Printable Buntings to match!  Here, they are, hung over one of the couches in The Tearoom!

The Mad Tea Party Bunting

Click here to see it in Velvet Revived

The Tea in Paris Bunting

Click here to see it in Velvet Revived

I hope you will enjoy a cup of tea with us today

(perhaps a cup of intensely floral Jardin de Pierre by Pierre Hermé

to encourage spring to finally visit those of us still surrounded

by mountains of snow?)

And won't you please be so kind as

to visit the Linky Party at Butterfly in the Attic as well?

Wishing for Springtime...

This is my submission for the collage challenge at The Three Muses.  The prompt this week was Spring.  My inspiration for this collage were the beautiful early Springtimes I experienced while living in Washington, DC.  Our neighborhood was mainly comprised of beautiful brownstones with tiny jewel box gardens in front.  On our street, older apartment buildings had these same gardens in front.  Up the street from us, in the garden of a very grand building, called most grandly The Chateau Thierry, grew mini daffodils, crocus and two shades of deepest purple mini iris.  I looked for these flowers each time I walked past on my way to the grocery store on the corner.  Many times, they appeared as early as February.  They were quickly followed by tulips, hyacinths, ornamental white pear trees, cherry blossoms, crab apple.  I miss my Washington springtimes of the past with all my heart.