A Ghostly Cemetery in Paris--DigiScrap Printables in 3 Sizes

Well. I must say Halloween has its hold on us for sure! We can't seem to get enough!
One of our members is keen on the history of this Paris cemetery, and so it was decided to recreate this scene into something slightly creepier than before. 
Her design sense generally rocks, so we hope she may enjoy the final outcome of our foray into the past via Paris' most famous cemetery, Pere La Chaise (sorry about the lack of accent to the first "e" of "Pere"--no place I checked could give me accurately the right way to create it here for you using this computer). It is an historic cemetery in so many ways, you may wish to learn more about its denizens by going HERE.
We offer our newest DigiScrap background in 3 sizes, so anyone may make use of one or all of them.
I've included it in the latest Three Muses Challenge, the theme of which is the Moon. Not sure if it really fits, as the Moon herself does not show, only her lovely glow from the sky. If not, I'll simply re-edit this post and maybe try for something a little more celestial for my entry in this stellar challenge.
Have a spook-tacular time using your--
Happy Creativity!
Rose

PPSDigiScrap™Background in 3 Sizes

French Cemetery at Twilight

Download 12" by 12" Size HERE

Download 10" by 10" Size HERE

Download 8" by 8" Size HERE

Credits: Pere La Chaise image--Wikimedia Commons

Digital Brushes used--Obsidian Dawn, hilla29, witchy_13, nadine pau-stock, 

Spook-tacular ATC Backgrounds!

As promised, here is our spooky six pack for your ATC fun. I like the creep factor here, especially hidden in the scene with the two howling dogs. But they're all really fairly spooky, as may be seen. We naturally expect you guys to creep us out the further by adding your own dashes of spooky art-ing around to the surface of these babies. ;)
Hope you'll share with us how some of you have been able to utilize them. (broad hint)
(Now for the guilt trip!)
After all, we do offer our works here for free. 
(See?Guilt-guilt-guilt!--boy it sure piles up around here, huh?)
;)
Seriously, everyone, we realize you can't always show us your works made with elements we have provided, but we can't tell you how much it pleases us when you can.
Anyway, have fun today with your-- 
Happy Creativity!
Rose

PPSATC™ Six Pack: Spooky Background Scenes

Downloadable Version HERE

Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org
Also, Wiki Commons

Monsters & Mummies & Ghosts, Oh My!

Isn't this a fun time of year? Our Halloween fun is just beginning, while Fall is blooming before our eyes in many splendored colorful displays.
I like walking through the leaves that drop and collect by the wayside, don't you? That crisp rustle all around my feet as I wade through a pile of leaves takes me back to childhood fun raking leaves so we kids could take running jumps into our pile. Makes me grin all over! :)
Our second set in our Halloween Collage Series for you is all about the creepy, scary, or ghastly ghostly. In it, we have included a funeral for a mummy, complete with barges on the proverbial Nile. Also, two more freaky cat images for you, this time a little larger, and with the added benefit of both ways facing. Thought that might make a nice graphic for someone wishing to create a banner, header, or some fun collages.
We also supply a small cross section of our collected images of ghostly scenes, more of which you'll find here later on this week. We also hope to feature a new Halloween ATC background set for you later on today, so do stop by for a second peek if you're interested.
As usual, we feature the Digi PNG Version first, our Print JPG Version next, followed by the Display Copy, all of which differ from one another.
The first one, of course, has no basic background, allowing our flanking crazy cats to be usable straight off.  The Print Version, like the Digi, is set at 300dpi, which means it's print ready. Our Display model, on the other hand, may have all the appearance of being a pretty fair image, but you'll find it's lacking greatly, being set at a mere 96dpi (the latter helps us to save storage space in Picasa).
Just a heads-up for our newer visitors.
Once again, we've accessed Wikimedia Commons for you, cleaning up, resizing, and  generally reprocessing items for your use. We'd like to thank them right here and now for being our most diverse find so far online or anyplace else, for that matter, for public domain and copyright free imagery. It's a beautiful world!
We hope you'll find lots of uses for our image sets below, and that at least some of you may let us in on how these images worked for you. In the long run, this can only help us bring you better quality all around. Thank You.
Happy Creativity!
Rose

PPSDigiScrap™Halloween Collage Set 2

"Monsters & Mummies & Ghosts, Oh My!"

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download JPG Print Version HERE

Digi and Print Halloween Collage Sets

With Halloween just a little over a month away, we thought it was time to bring on the fun!

And what a line-up of things to get into the Halloween mood with! Even the bats seem pleased to be included. ;)

As before, We've chosen to offer you our best by providing our Digi visitors with several PNGs in one set, as well as keeping the Print crowd happy with lots of imagery which is already prepared for your use.

Our Digi crowd will find their set in our "Digi PNG" version, and our Print crowd may find theirs listed below as "JPG Print."

I'm crazy about that cat, the one with the back arched. We found him online as a part of a magazine cover featuring a turkey, which we decided was removable in favor of allowing our cat to shine at his wicked best. And, with some doctoring, we found him to be a moderately good PNG image. Hope you'll dig him like we do! I think he's a real spook cat, if ever I saw one!

We've altered the other images to fit, doing the work for you with background removal/cleanup, as well as giving each a chance to shine through altering its dpi to 300. This means you may have to be selective in your resizing or enlarging of each item in our set, as some may not resize much before losing their good looks. This probably includes those magazine covers below. These were offered at such low resolution, we hardly dared stretch them in the process of adding them to the set. Hope this won't be a problem for you.

Enjoy your early fall weather with that--

Happy Creativity!

Rose

PPSDigiScrap™Halloween Sets 

"Mr. Poe & Friends"

Download Digi PNG Set HERE

Download JPG Print Set HERE

Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org

Also :Wikimedia Commons

Free Party Gear for a Batty Good Time!

We're having fun here in our Studio playing around with images in preparation for Halloween. It's too good a chance to miss!
Earlier on this month, we posted our first ever grown-up Halloween party gear offering, that of a batty invitation, which you can find by going HERE. 
Now we're including our follow-up to that particular post, that of matching Menu front and Pop-Up Place Card.
Thanks to a friend of ours, Gracie Adams (not blogging at this time--sorry), we are able to also show you what those little batty place cards really do look like once done. She has so kindly offered to help us with this project, and we hope may handle our photographic needs for a while. (hint, hint)
And isn't her card a cutie? Note the way it's folded, using the dotted lines included in the design. She followed the instructions to a tee!
Thanks so much, Gracie dear!
I simply cannot wait for more Halloween highjinks to happen in our blogosphere! As this will be my first autumn as a possum for PPS, this makes the time blogging here all the more pleasurable.
So, without further ado, here are your new party accessories.
Have fun creating for this way fun holiday with your--
Happy Creativity!
Rose


NOTE: Instructions for this project come with the actual printable.

Gracie's Photo

Digi Brushes used in this photograph by green eyed dragonfly and hilla29.

Batty Themed Pop-Up Place Card + Menu Cover

Download 300dpi Version HERE

Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org

Spiders & Snakes! Yikes!

Today's post comes straight out of our archives here at PPS.
You'll note we had already posted some pages from the antique book on snakes of the British Museum quite early on in our time blogging. Today's may seem overly refined, but the two we're posting were, for some inexplicable reason, very nearly pristine as they were. 
Our spider page comes out of an old Harper's Reader dated 1888. This one little volume has some quite charming (?) images, including that of our arachnid friends below.
Hope you will enjoy our little foray into naturalism today as much as we do sharing our ephemera with you.
Please note that there is a fun music video clip for you at the bottom of this post. ;)
Happy Creativity!
Rose

Spider & Snake Ephemera Pages

Trap Door Spider

B&W

Downloadable Version HERE

Original Look

Downloadable Version HERE

Snakes in Their Skins

Downloadable Version HERE

Snake Skulls & Jawbones

Downloadable Version HERE

Yikes!

All scanned imager this post courtesy PPS Archives
Free for Public Domain Use

Steampunk Party Mask for Ladies

Well, it's about time, if you ask this possum, for our ladies to enjoy their first Steampunked mask. We took great pains to differentiate this one from her counterpart from two posts ago. In doing so, we gave our gal some special decorative touches with a bit of feminine flair.
We hope you like her veiled top hat and winged clock, along with the French map which frames her eyes.
You'll notice her format is the same as for her heart's desire, 11" by 17", otherwise known in the states as "Legal Sized." Once again, there is a 1/2" margin at both side edges. Do bear that in mind when you choose to print this one.
As for me, I guess I cannot choose which one of the two to favor.
Please recall how it's better to back anything made with paper with at least one layer of heavier yet flexible material such as card stock. To reinforce those string holes on the face portion is also best.
While you're at it, you may want to check into the rest of our Steampunk Category. Also, you can go HERE for our Halloween goodies.
We're adding some geared-up gramaphone music at the end of this post for your listening pleasure.
Thanks for stopping by and--
Happy Creativity!
Rose

Printable Steampunked Mask for Ladies

Download 11" by 17" Legal Document Sized Printable Version HERE

CREDITS
Digital Brushes used in the design process of this mask are from
Obsidian Dawn and nelchee.

Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org
Also, WIki Commons

A New Invitation, Grownup Style

Today, we're offering our visitors our second line of Halloween party gear for party animals who don't happen to be children, this time for those with no time for shopping. In fact, it's children's parties we most often think of when this holiday's mentioned, isn't it? 
Generally speaking, this means there are next to no truly choice designs offered at your supermarket or even your stationer's store.
This simply will not do. 
Time for the grownups to have their own cheeky fun with their very own version of Halloween, which might include cocktails or a full dining experience, perhaps followed by a migration of guests in a flock to their favorite area costume function. (It's even nicer when such a ball is held for the benefit of others in the community, leaving everybody with a better feeling afterwards.)
;)
Our first item, then, will be our invitation, the cover of which has been converted from an antique playbill for a production of one of my favorite light comic operas, "Die Fledermaus"("The Bat"). It's a charming storyline, involving lots of humor at a masked ball, among other funny scenes, and was written by the same composer of "The Blue Danube," that most famous of waltz numbers. Strauss obviously had fun penning his score for this one!
We are following national (perhaps even international?) guidelines on our invitation, using the A2 sized envelope as our choice. Plus, you'll find our insertion should nestle nicely inside its cover. We'd like to recommend card stock in plain white for your cover, and regular computer printer paper for your insertion print-offs. 
A little Uhu™ Stick or some other glue stick, and with just a quick fold or two, all should come together for you with ease. Just pick up a set of A2 envelopes at your local copy center, and you'll find you're pretty well equipped.
We have provided cutting lines by two means. For our invitation, this takes the form of a soft grey dotted line. To trim just inside of this line is the suggested approach. For our Insertions, we're using a drop shadowed effect to allow for an easier trim at the chopper or with your photo trimming equipment. Just inside the line, again, should do it with ease.
You'll find more unique designs for the sophisticated party goer by going HERE.
And you can look for us to keep adding to the set, following the same design prompt. We plan to keep updating all our lines of party gear, right on through the Holiday Season. 
Meanwhile, you can kick back, relax, and have fun watching those clips (mostly in English) below if you so desire. 
Happy Creative Halloween!
Rose

Batty Halloween Invitations with Insertion Pages

The Invitation

Download Printable Version HERE

The Insertions Page

Download Printable Version HERE

CREDITS

All digital brushes used in the making of this Invitation pair

by Obsidian Dawn.

Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org

New Steampunk Party Fun: Wrap Up Your Cupcakes!

We're having so much fun at the Studio using Steampunk for a theme. And if it's party gear you're after today, you can look no further. Already, we have two back-to-back posts focussing on Steampunk party gear with an edge on fresh design.
Ours are the first cupcake sleeves we've found within the same colorways or theme. All you have to do is print, clip, line with a little wax paper (we prefer the brown variety, made  from recycled paper for this particular project, but your choice might be the standard), cut the slot, slip around your choice of cupcake (preferably one still in its baking liner), and tuck the tab into the slot. That simple. Hides a multitude of ordinary cupcake liner styles!
NOTE: For speed's sake, you might try using a pair of decorative edged scissors, cutting just a hair above our geared-up top edges.
Or, Simply follow the highest peaks, ignoring the valleys altogether with your scissors, and leave just a tad of white between our peaks.
Enjoy your party season with our growing selection of party gear for--
Happy Creativity!
Rose

Steampunk Party Style Cupcake "Sleeves"

Set One

Download HERE

Set Two

Download HERE

CREDITS
Corner digital brushes to both these items are by
Obsidian Dawn.


Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org
Also Wiki Commons

Steampunk Party Mask for Gents

I love this time of year. And, with Halloween just around the corner, we thought we'd include a few items to keep our Steampunk loving visitors busy with new ideas for party fun.
This would have to be my favorite out of all our Steampunk stock, certainly of all the masks posted thus far.
And isn't he a dapper fellow, our top hat wearing Steampunked man? He's obviously been seeing the sights of both London (after all, the facial part of his mask is cut from an antique map of London, England) and Paris--even to a hot air balloon ride high above the Tuileries, and perhaps to a rendezvous at Maxim's or for midnight cocktails at the Moulin Rouge.
I can imagine him spending an evening with friends at London's Savoy Theatre, then donning his goggles and greatcoat, and climbing aboard his very own dirigible the next day to cross the Channel. 
As a last minute choice for a costume, gents might consider wearing the cutaway coat or tails and tie from their wedding, along with this mask. With a few added details, such as a watch and chain or facsimile, a pair of gloves, and perhaps a different necktie reminiscent of the era, and any gent would have his costume locked, loaded, and ready! A walking stick might complete the outfit, giving it some added dash. 
And for those of you really into some flash wear, HERE is a nice tutorial on how to make some spats to really Steampunk yourself! It might be suggestible here to note that we offer collage sheets in our  Steampunk Category which might  do well as added flair via iron-on print-outs of any of the collage sheets we offer. These could then be assembled as per the Wiki How tutorial, for a real knock-out of an outfit!
We'd like to remind any of you interested that this offering is sized much as some of our previously offered masks are, for an 11" by 17" sized sheet. That's Legal Document size here in the states. It has a 1/2" border at its narrowest margin, so your settings for print should include this factor.
Also, it is obviously best to reinforce any paper mask before adding your strings to their holes at both edges. We like to recommend card stock or any other lightweight card, but some of you may wish to back it with stiff fabric, or even iron it onto some smooth finished cloth with backing for stiffener.
For more ways to make party fun more affordably unique in style, you can view the rest of our PPSPartyGear™ HERE.
Also, for anyone interested in our other Halloween items, you can go HERE.
Happy Creativity!
Rose & Co.

Printable Party Mask for Steampunked Gentlemen

Download our 300dpi 11" by 17" Version HERE

CREDITS
All brushes used in the production of this item come from
Obsidian Dawn

Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org
Also, Wiki Commons

Steampunk ATC Backgrounds: Town & Country

Who can ever have too much Steampunk? Not this possum! 
Included in our post for you today there are several city scenes, along with two country views. For our visitors with a yen for things French, you'll find two views on Paris. We also include one view on Berlin, along with two USA views.
These will hopefully lend themselves well to creating ATCs for trade or for keeps.
More than once, I've found myself wishing I had just the right outdoor view to build on, and I know I'm not alone in this. The Berlin one looks to me as if it might lend itself well to an aerial view, as in a dirigible or two, while our lovely view of the Rhein at Mainz in Germany gives oodles of room to play around in.
And I love the old Brownstone mansion with its wide boulevard--obviously in its brand new setting of Victorian elegance (a then new suburb of NYC, perhaps?). The Paris view above it is of a street scene adjacent to the Comédie Française. Perhaps they have a stage play by famous playwright Moliére running?
For more in our Steampunk Category, you can go HERE.
I love all these scenes, actually, and I hope you will too. Enjoy your weekend ahead and--
Happy Creativity!
Rose

Steampunk Town & Country ATC Six Pack

Downloadable Version HERE

CREDITS
All digital brushes used in the production of
this post come from Obsidian Dawn.



Credits: Original Antique imagery (prior to our fiddling) from
the New york Public Library at nypl.org
Alos, WIki Commons

Plush Page Ornament: Royal Sapphire Coronets

Today's first post featured a lovely new addition to our collection of post cards for your pleasure. In with its design is a fun and pretty embellishment which we have now managed to extract for you. We feature this in two ways, in Digi PNG format and our regular Print JPG format. Our Digi crowd may find this of use, as all their work is done--we've spruced it up along with clipping it from its background, so all you have to do is choose to download our Digi PNG option. Our Hands-On artists will, of course, be able to enjoy the JPG Print version, and hopefully will find plenty of uses for it.

Both of these offerings are at 400dpi, suitable for enlargement to a fair degree. We hope our visitors may find lots of uses for this fun new addition to the line-up, as well as for any of our other freebie imagery here at PPS.

Happy Creativity!

Rose

"Royal Sapphire Coronets" Page Ornament

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download Regular JPG Print Version HERE

Scanned Imagery Courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

A Gem of an Antique Postcard for September

We love a good postcard here at the Studio! And isn't this a beauty? I found this one at the local Antiques & Collectibles hotspot I've mentioned here before. Sorry about the lateness! It got forgotten during recent weeks, and was only just dug out of the archives for you. You know what they say--better late than never! ;)
Anyway, here it is. The reverse is so simple, and yet quite messy, that it really cannot be improved upon well enough for posting. We apologize for that as well. Later on in the month, we hope to offer you the rose vine border on its own, in our jewel tone set for you. Till then, we hope you'll enjoy its look as is.
Happy Creativity!
Rose

Antique Postcard for September

Download 400dpi Version HERE

Scanned imagery courtesy PPS Archives

Free for Public Domain Use

The Harvest Followers

Today, we are offering our readers something of more general value, that of bravery in the face of poverty.

Gleaning is something we humans have been in the habit of doing since agriculture was developed. What touches me most is how it was adopted by the poor as a means for survival. In most farming communities, this was a gift, in a way. One might also say it was banned or outlawed only in places where big business and/or political interests took over, but mostly it just fell out of fashion. Most people are unaware of its still being one way for the working poor to augment their lifestyles with more choices for better nutrition. 
This might include fruits in season that have already fallen and/or been left to rot, or grain which harvesting machines couldn't gather.

Anybody caught gleaning here in the U.S. might be charged with trespassing, or worse. Yet, there are still little pockets of it scattered across our globe, and it's fascinating to think how some people literally used to survive for most of the year on any gleaned shocks of wheat, etc., they could gather for their families.

According to a film entitled "The Gleaners and I," this practice is still very much alive, and in some places actively pursued.

It is a back-breaking way to go in some cases, requiring patience and determination. It is so old a practice, it is even mentioned in ancient texts such as the Bible's Old Testament. We include a Gustave Doré illustration as our very last offering, featuring just such a scene.

We've also added a way for any children interested to learn about it using 2 new ColorMe™ Pages.

We hope you may also view at least one of the YouTube clips we're featuring here for you.

In the first one is a short, but clear description of the gleaning process using Millet's famed painting, along with its meaning in a larger context. It's much more to the point than might be expected, so we urge our readers to give it a play.

Our second (offered here via link to YouTube) may be somewhat off-putting for our readers without French language skills or a desire to read subtitles when viewing it, but its visual context is not to be missed. I'd highly recommend you find a DVD copy of "The Gleaners and I" either through your local public library system (try interlibrary loan), or any video outlet such as Netflix. I found the film's content moving beyond speech. It is so deeply thoughtful, our readers may wish to preview it before deciding to share it with their children.
Our third clip was added as an afterthought, but it might shed more light on the focus here, and is also short, sweet, to the point.
A sincere Thank You to anybody taking the time to view any one, if not all, of these clips. We appreciate the time taken.

We also offer the following two links for more on French artists Doré and Millet.

{Personal Note: I find it of interest how even Millet's name is the same as for the grain, millet. A revival in the use of this hearty grain due to a growing health concern over gluten intolerance makes this all the more interesting for yours truly, who went off gluten earlier this year.}

We hope all our readers will remember to allow others to eat better during the coming fall and winter months by sharing their good fortune with those less fortunate, particularly those on our own shores.

And I would urge those interested in doing so to consider there many be many among our nation's poor who also most certainly will have more than one health issue, such as my own, so to think of offering gluten free or dairy free items might be an added kindness not soon forgotten. Such thoughtfulness saves lives, even.

Thank You.

Enjoy your Harvest season, and--

Happy Creativity!

Rose

For the trailer to the actual documentary mentioned above,

please follow this link.

Below is something a little different, but it's brief and to the point,

and says much about world hunger.

"After the Harvest" Collage Sets + 2 PPSColorMe™ Pages

and Doré's Bible illustration, "The Gleaners"

"After the Harvest" 1

Download HERE

"After the Harvest" 2

Download HERE

"After the Harvest" 3

Download HERE

PPSColorMe™ Page: Young Woman Gleaning

Download HERE

PPSColorMe™Page: Millet's Gleaners

Download HERE

Illustration: Gustave Doré's "The Gleaners"

Download HERE

All images in this posted collection are off of Wikimedia Commons.

Though some had to be enlarged, we have done this using our

Photoshop setup, pasting them onto 300dpi backgrounds.

Hopefully, any resolution issues will have been at least made a bit better.

Please let us know if you experience a problem.

Thank You.

Primary Color Fun With Ethnic Flavor!

We're following the Gingersnap Creations team's Primary Colors Challenge again today--and in a whole new way. This time, we're headed for a spicier part of the globe, India, for our design patterning, using digital brushes made by Obsidian Dawn as well as our main theme's brushes by iNDOdREAMIN. The latter has some amazing design concepts working for him, so be sure to follow his link for a quick look around. Obsidian Dawn's work you may have visited already, but it doesn't hurt to check into the latest there as well. They offer some of the best brushes our Studio uses. So do check them out.

This will be a lengthier post than some, comprised of two different posts in one. There are three ways you can go with our 8.5" by 11"collage background sheets, plus we have a set of ATC mini frames with our block print style patterning, but in the same triad of primaries, that of red, yellow, and true blue. These have been given a grey toned backing in the Print JPG for ease with cutting.

You'll notice we also provide our DigiScrap crowd with a PNG version to our ATC frames this time. Hands-On artisans can go for the same frames in our JPG Print version.

For more possibilities in this same color combo, you can go HERE and HERE.

Also, if you're new to us, and haven't had the time before to try out other areas of this here blog, you'll find that we are equipped to handle a whole variety of your imagery needs. Our Categories List has grown over the last several months to include many different ideas, along with lots of unusual images for your use. You'll find that list in our left hand sidebar. We hope you'll find what you're looking for, but if not, give us a shout and we'll see what we can find for you.

And thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Happy Creativity!

Rose

Primary Ethnic Flavor

PPSCollageMeAColor™ Backgrounds

"Lal Mirchi" Flavor

Download 300dpi Version HERE

"Garam Masala" Flavor

Download 300dpi Version HERE

"Zaafraan" Flavor

Download 300dpi Version HERE

PPSATC™ Frame Set

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download JPG Print Version HERE