Postage People Alert!

Have you already flipped through the new issue of "Just Stamps"? You´ll find my article about Postage People there with lots of examples, including the cards shown here.

Workshop Results

I´ve joined three interesting workshops at the stamping convention in Stuttgart last weekend.
First I´ve learned how to make a little box decorated with a piece of melted Tyvek - I´ve tried Tyvek before but didn´t have much luck with it, so I´m very happy that Renate´s tips helped me to get the good results above.

The second workshop by Dani taught us how to make a binder cover decorated with black gesso on aluminium foil, coloured with oil pastels.

And Bine showed us how to make a Gothic Arch matchbox shrine - very clever!

Moos with Quotes

I´ve just returned from the stamping convention in Stuttgart, so my Quote Moos for this week´s "Make a Moo or Two" challenge are a bit late ...

The right quote is taken from a poem by Gertrude Stein of course.

Earth Day

My 4 x 6 card for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge themed "Earth Day".

Three more transparent ATCs

Some more ATCs for personal trades.

Bandage Technique

Today I´ve got some spare time to try this week´s Saturday´s Workout technique with gauze and distress inks. Try it, it´s fun!

Clocks/Watches, Keys, and Rust

Each of these swap ATCs had to have a clock or watch, a key and some rust on it ...

Alcohol Inks on Transparency

I´ve tried different techniques using alcohol inks on transparency here for this week´s TMTA challenge:
In the Asian ATC I´ve used just a strip of an Asian newspaper as a background.
The pink and orange ATC is based on an old book page that I´ve coloured with crayons first so that the letters are hidden and the colours of the inks are supported.
And the fish piece shows the complete book text so that it needed more white gel pen accents to brighten it a bit.
My favourite is the middle one.

Art Blast ATC Swap

These are my ATCs for the ARTchix Art Blast ATC swap. The required collage images for this swap are so beautiful that I couldn´t resist playing with them. And it´s always amazing for me how ideas develop during the process of putting things together.

Home Is Where The Heart Is - Arch

This seems to be the theme of the week, and I love it! So after having made Moo cards for it, here´s also a an arch for the Gothic Arches challenge. House and Hearts by ARTchix.

Pierrot

My entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Pierrot".

Zetti Style ATCs

Some more ATCs made for personal trades in Stuttgart next weekend.

Travel around the world: Istanbul

Our stop at the Travel around the World swap this month is Istanbul. I instantly thought of the song "Istanbul not Constantinople" when I read the theme, and I couldn´t get it out of my ears since (I prefer the version by They Might Be Giants ...). My card goes to Patty, hope she´ll like it!

Bird ATCs

Two Bird ATCs for a swap.

I received the bird on the left ATC in the mail today from Angela and couldn´t resist using it immediately.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

What a great theme for this week´s Make a Moo or Two challenge!

Playing Around

Last weekend I´ve been just playing around with several stamps and media to make some ATCs for trades at the upcoming stamping convention in Stuttgart.

Dyed Papers

I´ve promised you pics of our paper dying project - here they are: just dye your eggs first and then use the remaining egg paints for all kinds of paper. We´ve used tissue, old bookpages, papers that we had embossed with a cuttlebug first, and plain papers with different textures and thickness, and we´ve applied the paint with several techniques: just spreading it with a spoon, rubbing it on using rubber gloves, and spritzing it using those small atomizers called mini misters. Don´t forget to try rip-offs of your dyed papers, some of the results are amazing! We´ve only had three colours at hand, but of course you can use any egg paints you have.

One Fish, Two Fish ...

Four ATCs for a Fish themed swap. I´ve used some papers I´ve dyed with Easter egg paints - there´ll be another blog post with more pics as soon as I´ve returned from my Easter trip.

ATCs with Inchies

Open theme for this swap, the ATCs just have to have inchies on them.

Children, Birds, and something embossed

The theme for this swap was to show children and birds on your ATCs and to add some embossing.

Yellow Easter

Yello Easter is this week´s Make a moo or two challenge. Happy Easter!

Bella Italia

I didn´t think I´d have the time to participate in this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge themed "Bella Italia" just one hour ago ...
Then I´ve been sitting here while packing for a short Easter trip and spied a few old photos from a trip to Florence on my desk. I scanned one of them, photoshopped it with several filters, cut it out, and added a few stamps, and here it is, my Bella Italia card!

Wonders & Beauties of the Year

This tip-in book spread is 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches (about 22,2 x 17,1 cm). It´s for Keron´s book themed "Wonders & Beauties of the Year". She´ll add our pages to an existing book published about 1890, so our pages had to be in muted colours. As poetry was among the proposed components and nobody else has used poetry so far, I decided to use these verses by Emily Dickinson.

Togetherness

Togetherness is this week´s theme for the TMTA challenge - what a great opportunity to use one of my favourite stamps!

The Letter Q

I´ve finished my Letter Q ATCs today, so it´s time for another German lesson! There aren´t many German words starting with a Q, so it would have been easier to use some English words, but I´ve only used German ones this time: "Qualen" means torments, and a "Querkopf" is a queer fellow. Finally "querlesen" means reading through quickly, just scanning or skimming. As printing is called "The Black Art" in German, I´ve made this ATC black and white only.

Swan Lake

... is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I´m not sure if I like what I did, but thinking outside your box is what challenges are made for.

Define Yourself

What a challenge this was! Deana wants us to represent ourselves on two 8 x 8 tip-in pages in bright colours and Zetti style. So you see me balancing my life by cutting and pasting and painting and searching for the answers to life´s questions in books. Find out the rest by clicking on the pics to enlarge them.

You´ll see that I´ve written some explanations on the shown things - I´ve used this way of "journaling" in my own handwriting because of the privateness of these pages. There are even some words written vertically, and some maybe can´t be read properly - then it´s only me who knows what´s been written there. You can see more ways of writing on your pages at Michelle´s Crusade No. 30. I´ve used the trick she tells you there: writing down my words on a note pad first while assembling my pages, and then writing in the gaps later. This has been fun, and I´ll do it more often now.

Eggs

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

Transparent

Two ATC featuring transparencies made for a swap. I know the recipient very well, and these are not her favourite colours, but I hope she´ll forgive me ...

Spring

What a fun size this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge wants us to use! I´ve made my 2 x 4 inches mini skinny using paper and thistle stamp from Crafty Individuals and added stamps by Stamping Fairies, Stampington, and Stampers Anonymous, then accented the stamps with pink, blue, and white gel pens.

Adieu!

My ATC for the bi-weekly lottery at the ArtChix Studio group - the theme is "Take Me Traveling".