Swimming into the Past and Paddle Fest at Willows Beach

 This is my most recent photomontage of a photo I took at a beach near our house with antique French Postcard images applied and altered. I loved making this image. Every time I walk along beaches I wish I could actually see what went on years ago.

Here is a photo from the Paddle Fest that was happening at our beach this morning. I enjoyed taking so many photos because the kayaks were so colourful. My oldest son enjoys suping which is what the people are doing in the water standing up, it is a great sport. I have kayaked a couple of times and loved it.

My Passions

I hope everyone is having a great summer. My eBay has been shut down for a summer break but I'm still enjoying my Etsy shop and website so that has given me more time to play!! I've been doing a lot of macro photography with my Cannon 60 mm lens and thanks to an enthusiastic customer on Etsy I felt a renewed interested in fairies at the same time. Funny how a few passions can come together and suddenly I was having so much fun creating new photomontage digital downloads for Etsy. Etsy now has instant downloads which are so much faster than waiting for me to send images.

John and I went out to Butchart Gardens two days in a row and I really enjoy taking photos. The lighting was perfect. The first and third images I created in Photoshop using the photos for the backgrounds. For the second image I used a macro photo of thyme in our garden and a macro bee photo. All of the images were from my antique French postcards. The middle images were from a Bon Marche trade card that I loved. The cherubs with the pig I colourized and the wings were from butterfly images I colourized. The last photomontage is a fairy family collecting bubbles, the middle is a very lucky image with cherubs holding a piggy that was good luck in France for New Years. The second image is fairy garden helpers in my garden.

Enjoy the beautiful weather if you are in the Northern hemisphere.

Hugs, Jean

Medical Free Printables and June AIM Magazine

Photo of Completed Medical Project ©jdayminis

For the most recent issue of the wonderful AIM free online miniature magazine, I design a page of medical containers and a Physician's record book. You can click on the image and right click to save. If you would like a higher resolution file I do sell this as a digital download through Etsy.

AIM IMag Issue 46 by Artisans in Miniature

1935 Mom & My Grandmother at Butchart Gardens & 2 free vintage Mother's Day cards

Happy Mother's Day! We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful city as Victoria which features the fabulous Butchart Garden which always reminds me of great times with my parents and grandparents. We still have great family times there, especially at Christmas.

My grandparents lived in Saskatoon Sask. but made two trips to Victoria before moving here with us in 1959. The second visit was in 1935 where they always visited the Gardens. My grandmother knew Mrs.Butchart and had the good fortune of visiting her in her private garden that the top photo shows. You can see my Grandmother, Jeannie Turnbull born in 1888 and mom at 14 years old with grandma's sister and nephew. I think that is Mrs Butchart on the far left. This was and still is a completely private area for the Butchart family only. The second photo was taken at the same time but I think the third photo was much sooner because mom looks younger. I enlarged them and brought out more detail and contrast, it is wonderful what you can do to old photos in Photo Shop.

The last photo was one I took while visiting the Gardens last week, it was in the morning the the sun was shining through the tulips and really made them glow.

I have included 2 vintage Mother's Day cards from my collection for you to print and use in projects if you like. Just click on the image, then right click and save it to your computer. I have added them soon to my higher resolution area for download at 4shared.com.
 http://www.4shared.com/folder/ILtK6LJE/_online.html

Have a great week, Cheers, Jean

Shelly's Miniature Online Show starts March 13 & My new digital download Albums

New on our website Etsy and our website, new for Shelly's Show, photo altered art and Easter scrapbook Project digital downloads. The photo albums have cut out frames to insert a photo so they look more realistic.

http://aminiminiatureshow.weebly.com/dealers-by-scale.html  Shelly's wonderful online show starts March 13, 2013, her show is always terrific and so much fun to see what all of the miniature dealers are offering for sale! The show will be on until March 18.

I am excited to be offering 7 new digital download projects..5 new Victorian photo albums, a Bird and Owl altered art book similar to the French Altered Art book I sell on Etsy and an Easter Scrapbook with about 55 images to play use in it. I've been really having fun! They will be $4.75 each and all of my fabric kits will be 25% off. I am showing photos of the new digital downloads below. They will be offered on Etsy later in the week too and at my website http://jdayminis.com
The photo window openings are to be cut out in the photo albums and selections from the photos are glued into the openings to give a very realistic look. Hope to see some of you at the show.

Hugs Jean who just became a senior citizen today, oh my!!

Happy Valentines Free Printables and New Years Resolution

A lovely friend of mine gave me the sweet Valentine card this year that is the first image and I just had to share it with everyone. She knows I love vintage cards. I am also offering a larger version of thee Valentine Gift card that I offered in 1910 that you can also find on one of my blogs smaller as a previous free image. You can right click on the images to same them for printing.
If you do a search on my blog for Valentines, you will see other freebies I have offered for Valentines in the past.I also put a larger version of the first Valentine gift card if you prefer to right click and save.

My New Years resolution this was to learn something new in Photoshop and my other programs everyday. I would say that this resolution has had the largest impact on my life of any I have made.  I usually use the same painting techniques and creating techniques in the programs. Corel Draw, Photoshop, Painter and Corel PSP are my favorite programs and each has so much to offer. To learn some of the techniques, I creating photomontages and collages from stock photos in Photoshop recently. It has been very exciting and so creative. I use Photoshop all the time for my digital downloads but like any computer program there is always so much more to learn. Here are a  few I have been working on, the last is a freebie Valentines card too.

Have a Joyous, Prosperous and Healthy New Year

May you all have a Joyous, Prosperous and Healthy New Year for 2013. I loved the scene and sentiment in this antique image. You can download a larger version of this image for printing here
http://www.4shared.com/folder/ILtK6LJE/_online.html

25% off sale in my eBay and Etsy shops, hope to maybe see you there. The sale lasts until Jan. 6.

Hugs, Jean

2012 Christmas Decor, keeping it simple.

This Christmas I wanted to have my decorations simple in our studio. As well as working in the studio, we watch TV and read at night. Since we spend most of our time in the studio, decorating in it is more important to me. I had been admiring many French blogs with their wonderful stars and simple images for Noel. I started in earlier December by printing out some antique Christmas music and gluing it to card stock and cutting out stars. I then strung them on linen and hung them from the studio mantel piece. It is made of a very large piece of drift wood.

I've collected antique and vintage decorations for quite some time so decorated with them, trying to keep it simple and added candles. We have lit the candles every night since I decorated and love the soft natural glow and tried to show this in the photos. We have had the small tree for a few years and this year I just decorated it with my antique garlands and realized that was really all it need. You can also see John and our son's dog Artie at Butchart Gardens which was beautiful this year and also my center piece on our dining room table.

I was inspired by Kathleen's home at Faded Charm Cottage, her decor is fabulous. I joined her Holiday Home Tour. You might like to go over an check out each of the wonderful links to decorated homes.  http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.ca/2012/12/holiday-home-tour-2012-linky-party.html

Thank you so much to all of my fabulous followers..without you I wouldn't feel the need to blog. I hope you have a healthy and happy New Year. Hugs, Jean

Joyeux Noel and a Free Printable image digital download

Season's Greetings!! Here is a free digital download Joyeux Noel Oilette image that was sent from France in 1907. The oilette was produced by Rapheal Tuck & Sons. I loved this young boy enjoying their Christmas tree. All the best for a fabulous and healthy New Year. I realized that it was quite dark so I have lightened it up a little, which ever you prefer.

Click this link if you would like to download a larger image  or here to view each of the downloads  http://www.4shared.com/folder/ILtK6LJE/_online.html

Hugs, Jean

Our Fortieth Anniversary and a few new Halloween Digital Downloads

Thought I would show you a couple of  Halloween digital downloads I am offering on Etsy that I've been making recently for Halloween. I especially enjoy altered art such as the one of the lady and her cats. I scanned in a small 1870 photo, colourized it and added atmosphere and most especially many black cats.

We have recently arrived home from a beautiful 17 day Cruise down to LA and then around the Hawaiian Islands especially for our Fortieth Anniversary.  I can't believe I have been married that long to my wonderful husband John. I hope to show you some photos soon, we went on a tour to a Hawaiian botanical garden and I took some photos I really like. Always great to be home to Autumn and getting down to doing art again.

Hugs, Jean

Sharing Sunday, Flower Holders and Uses

My husband's mother, whose maiden name was Genevieve Doucet was French Canadian and had a grandmother from France she would often mention. Gen was a lovely lady who I really admired in so many ways. She loved her family, writing poetry and was in the garden, gardening almost every day of her life. She also loved flower arranging and the top right photo shows all of her flower holders.  The flower hold in the middle is interesting, it is in two parts, one is moon shaped so they could be used together or separated. The top right holder is attached in a small dish which is handy for smaller plants. I think they are so beautifully rustic.

Flower holders are very handy for other things as well, scissor holders as shown on the bottom left, photo holders and I thought I would show also a miniature use in the middle photo. 

I wanted to make vines for a miniature display and wrapped wire around a comb and then made the loops go in two different directions, then I glued leaves onto each loop. I was thinking that instead of a comb these flower holders would work well. You can also use this technique for wire structures and for making miniature bows. 

Thought I would show some of my lovely French sewing postcards and small vintage scissor collection. Love the Eiffel tower scissors.

Cheers, Jean