For the Birds

This week´s theme for the Gothic Arches challenge is "For the Birds", and here´s my entry. This arch is quite large, about 5,9 x 8,3 inches.

A Number of Zettis II

This is the back cover for my 6 x 6 tip-in book called "A Number of Zettis".

Open Your Eyes

"Open your Eyes" is this week´s theme for the TMTA challenge. If you are a photographer you probably know what my ATC will tell you - how much more you will see if you try to BE an eye and really take a look around and go into details.

There´s an Angel in my House

This weeks theme for the "Dans ma maison il y a ..." challenge is "un ange", an angel. Here´s another page of my decorated house shaped chipboard book.

The Bird Lover

This 5,5 x 8 inches collage began as an entry for the "Tag You´re It!" challenge. This week´s theme is "Untraditional Shape Tag", so I grabbed my body shaped tag and decorated it. But as usual, I just couldn´t stop, so the tag has been used as the centre of a collage now.

Travel around the world: Venice

I´ve joined Katrin´s "Travel round the world" swap, and this month we´re going to Venice. This is my 5 x 5 collage for Fatma.

A Number of Zettis

I just couldn´t wait to do the front cover for my upcoming tip in journal at Paper Traders. This will be a 6 x 6 book with pages from 12 participants, so it´ll be finished after one year. Of course any Zetti stamps or images are perfect, but any other weird things and scenes will be o. k. - and the design has to include at least one number. Pages shall be colourful with a bit of b/w.
Please click on the image to see the textural details.

Nostalgia

This week´s theme at TMTA is "Nostalgia" - this lady is looking back to her days of youth when she grew up in a small village before she moved to the big city to start a new life.

Who let the dogs out?

I´ve never had a dog myself but have so often heard that dogs are real friends in good times as well as in bad times. This lady seems to be quite unhappy, and her friend no. 1 does all he can do to cheer her up ...
"Who let the dogs out?" is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and here´s my 4 x 6 postcard. The song in the background is an old German folksong from the 18th century called "True Friendship".

There´s a Poem in my House

I´ve made a house shaped greeting card for this week´s "Dans ma maison il y a ..." challenge which is "un poème".

The poem I´ve used is by William Blake:

O rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy,

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

It´s a night scene, so there´s not much contrast in it.

Fishy ATCs

Three fishy ATCs for a German swap.

The third one uses the branch mask made by Heidi Swapp; as Tim Holtz will be coming up with some vinyl masks soon, this technique will soon be used very frequently, I think ...

Darkness

My entry in Stefanie´s Altered Book themed "Darkness" illustrates lyrics by Peter Gabriel:
"The deeper I go, the darker it gets/ I peer through the window/ knock at the door/ and the monster I was/ so afraid of/ lies curled up on the floor./ When I allow it to be/ it has no control over me./ I own my fear/ so it doesn´t own me."
I love that song and believe that there´s much truth in it: what you fear is in your head.
The German words on the left page say: digging deeper, deeper and deeper, in the dark depth. If your mind feels dark you´ll dig deeper and deeper, and maybe that´s necessary to find the way to the light again.

Mona Lisa and Friends

... is this week´s theme for the Make a Moo or Two challenge.

Two tone two

My third ATC for the Letter G swap qualifies for this week´s Wednesday Stampers´ theme "Two tone" again.

The German word "Gedankengebäude" means construct of ideas but the German term literally says building of ideas.

Garden Fairy

The background for this ATC is the same as for the last one - but what a difference it makes if you use a few more colours!
I´m definitely not a two tone artist.
This ATC is my second one for a Letter G themed swap.

Two tone

What a difficult challenge this week at Wednesday Stampers!

I´ve made this ATC only in red and blue, but I´m not sure if it wouldn´t look better with a bit of white ...

Bird Book

These are Chipboard book pages for a Paper Traders swap. I´ll keep the first and send the other five to be swapped. The backs are made almost identical.

Cats, not Birds

No no, this is not a bird arch, but a cat themed one! "Cats" is this week´s theme for the Gothic Arches challenge, and this bird will very soon regret to have flown in ...

Birds in the Flourishes

When I saw that this month´s theme for the Inkurable Stampers´ challenge is Flourishes, I had just gotten the beautiful flourishes stamps by Green Pepper Press as a birthday gift. This stamp is my favourite one from the plate; it measures about 6,1 x 3,7 inches.

La tour Eiffel

... has to be in our houses this week for the "Dans ma maison il y a ..." challenge. This cover for a house shaped chipboard book is quite simple because I wanted to keep it flat.

Fishy 4 x 4

Here´s my fish themed collage for this week´s 4 x 4 Friday challenge. I have already mounted it to send it as a greeting card.

Berries

This card illustrates the saying "When two are fighting, the third wins". It´s my entry for this week´s Layers of Color challenge "Berries".

Birds!

Oh no, someone please stop me!! This week´s theme for the Make a moo or two challenge is birds, and you know that I can´t resist these winged friends ...

Books

Three ATCs for a swap about books and reading. The middle one says "forgetting about everything else", the third one "reading gives wings".

Goethe´s "Faust"

Two ATCs for Ute illustrating verses from Goethe´s "Faust".

The first one wonders how everything makes a whole, and one thing acts and lives within the other.

The second one quotes:

Two souls, alas! reside within my breast.

In a hurry ...

... running to Kathy! I´m not that slow normally, but I´ve let her wait for her mail art piece way too long!! This one is quite large, about 5,9 x 9,3 inches, and I hope she´ll like it!

It´s all about Girls

This tagbook is for Nellie.

This Song

The theme for this ATC was "Packing paper".

More Birds ...

... for another Bird ATC swap.

Black & White

... is this week´s theme for the "Make a moo or two" challenge.

Birds of a Feather

I can´t believe that I´ve really done it - for the first time I have made nine ATCs for a swap! This wouldn´t have been possible with another theme, but you all know that birds are my favourite ;-)

Orient Collage

This Orient themed collage on canvas board is only 5,9 x 5,9 inches small. It´s for Manja, and I really hope she´ll like it!

ATC Collection

I´ve just received my return cards from an ATC swap and discovered that I´ve hit the 2.000 limit now - I now have 2001 ATCs from 410 different people from 19 nations, wow. Thanks to all who have contributed to my collection, and I hope I´ll get a card or more from those of you that I don´t know yet ... if you´re interested in trading ATCs, just have a look at my Flickr album and let me know.

Good News

Wednesday is the day when my daily newspaper announces news from the register of marriages and births. So when I did a search in today´s newspaper for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge "Newspaper" this page caught my eye ...