Congrats!

One of my favourite challenge blogs is celebrating its first anniversary - so let´s sing Hip Hip Hooray for Sunday Postcard Art! Thanks Mandy and Donna for your great challenges every Sunday!

Untold Story of Henri Pol

This is an entry in my own altered book themed "Untold Stories" that I´ve wanted to do for a while now. Some time ago I´ve found an article in my newspaper telling the story of a vintage Parisian postcard that shows Henri Pol, a man who was famous for being familiar with the birds he fed in Paris every day. The article taught me that this person has been the real life original of the man feeding birds that Rilke described in his novel "Malte Laurids Brigge", one of my favourite books. Of course I had known that text passage (that I´ve written down here), and maybe I had seen the postcard before, but when I read the article now, I immediately recognized that I even own a rubber stamp featuring that person! So the idea for a journal page was born, and here it is as my entry for this week´s Saturday´s Workout theme "Altered Books".

No Paradise

I´m soooooo tired of seeing all those Childhood Memories pages in art and craft books! Did all those authors and artists have a perfect childhood or do they only have a fragmentary memory? Maybe they just forgot about all those doubts and bad feelings, the loneliness and fears? Or maybe I´m the only one who remembers all that?
As I owe some mail art to several people, this 4 x 6 card will be in the mail soon.

Hear the Music?

Musical Instruments are this week´s theme for the Make a Moo or Two challenge.

The Animal Inside You

Two ATCs for a swap themed "The Animal Inside You".

Living in this Town

When I started this 4 x 6 inches card I only knew it had to be green and purple, because that´s the theme for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge. I just used what I had on my desk (that´s why I like it to be messy!), and I´m surprised about the result - a good example for my love of challenge blogs. The town, the wings, and the cancellation are stamped.

Dreams

The last of my ATCs for the "new stuff" swap.

Stripes

My third ATC for the "New Art Supplies" swap is just perfect for this week´s Crazy Amigo theme "Stripes" - I´ve used one of my new necktie brads here ...

Numbers

... is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and it´s one of my favourite themes! You can find all sorts of numbers on my card, masked, stamped, collaged, and embossed ones.

Playing With New Stuff

Two ATCs made for a swap that wants us to use recently bought art supplies. I´ve really had fun with these!

Where I was born

Cologne is this month´s station of our "Travel around the World" project. As it´s the town where I was born and where I have been living for the first nine years of my life, I had a lot of ideas for a collage - and that´s the problem: You can´t show your feelings and memories on such a small canvas, such as your heartbeat when the train arrives in Cologne and you can see the Rhine and the dome, and all those stories of your childhood that come to your mind when you return to your "hometown". But although this card only presents some town legends, the fact that I´ve learned all these legends at school makes it quite personal for me ...
I haven´t used the famous city arms with the three crowns and the eleven flames or drops of blood - but the crowns that represent the three wise men are on top of the card, and in between the wise men at the bottom is Saint Ursula whose 11000 virgins are symbolized in the drops of blood. Then there´s a brownie from the tale "Die Heinzelmännchen von Köln" with the first two verses of that story, and I remember to have recited one stanza when we played that story at a school party when I was seven or eight ...
No legend but annual reality is the clown representing the Cologne carnival (that I´ve always hated).
There´s so much more to tell about this fascinating city, think of Eau de Cologne, the ruins of antique Roman buildings from the times when the town was founded, and so many more interesting stories! Can´t wait to see what the other participants will show us!

Happy?

This week´s theme for the Make a Moo or Two challenge is "Happy" - so have a happy weekend!

Angels Among Us

These 8 x 8 inches pages are for Letha´s tip-in book themed "Angels Among Us".
If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you can see the amazing ear of the person listening with her heart ;-)

Peaceful Sunday

Everything is quiet outside, the bells of the three churches around my house are ringing, and most people stay at home today because it´s raining for hours and it´s a cold May day. You can say it´s boring, or you can enjoy the silence and have a peaceful day playing with your art supplies!
Peace is this week´s theme for the Gothic Arches challenge, and I hope that my arch expresses this quietness inside me.

Postage People Postcard

This week I´m hosting the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and you won´t be surprised to see that I´ve chosen Postage People as my theme ;-)

Thanks for the kind comments on my video that Mandy posted again as a teaser! Hope it helped you through the process. If you want to see more Postage People, you can read my article in the latest issue of Just Stamps, and you can find oh so many examples on my blog - most of them can be found if you click on the label "ATCs". As I´ve hosted a Postage People swap last year, you´ll also find links to the other swap participants´ ATCs which have turned out great! Find more postcard sized Postage People here.

Can´t wait to see your interpretation of the theme!

The Letter R

Time for another German lesson!
On the left I´ve illustrated the German saying "Roß und Reiter" which means to name names, to point out who is responsible for something gone wrong.
"Rabenschwarz" means black like a raven or jet-black, but in German it´s possible to say that in just one word. It´s often used to characterize someone´s black humour.
And on the right you can see a life buoy or life saver which is "Rettungsring" in German. This word is often used for overweight. Well, the guy on my ATC has them both ;-)

Just Clowning Around

... with a Spin & Splash background for this week´s Saturday´s Workout challenge. The clowns image is from Gaby Braun - thanks for your freebies!

Did Rilke like Polka Dots?

These 8 inches wide book pages (front and back) for Megan´s Polka Dot tip-in book have been a real challenge for me! First I´m not good in cutting circles, then I´m not a fan of polka dots ... So I took that funny and optimistic theme and made a melancholic project of it ;-)

In German, Rilke´s words are:

Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen,

die sich über die Dinge ziehn.

Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen,

aber versuchen will ich ihn.

Ravenology

Here are my bird shaped and Raven themed ATCs for a "Ravenology" swap.

Little Girl

My entry for this week´s Gothic Arches challenge themed "Little Girls".

Alice

What can I say about Alice in Wonderland? I just love that mixture of nonsense and philosophy. A great theme for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

Poe Abode

These ATCs were made for a swap themed "Poe Abode", celebrating Edgar Allan Poe´s 200th birthday. The cards have to be house shaped.

Zetti Time!

Making these Zetti Moo cards for this week´s Make a Moo or Two challenge was the perfect way to start my weekend!

Untold Story of my Childhood

After quite a long time I finally finished another spread for my own altered book "Untold Stories". This one features one of my favourite quotes from song lyrics, from The Who´s song "Substitute". Since I´ve heard it for the first time, I take the plastic spoon as a symbol for underprivileged people, growing up in poverty. It´s my entry for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge "Spoons".

Artist

If you have watched my video about working with Transfer Ink you already know how easy it is to make lovely backgrounds without much planning ahead. Now this piece shows you that the same product is also perfect for working more purposedly - the design here has been well thought out and then put together image after image.
The theme is the life of German artist Heinrich Vogeler (1872-1942) who started and got famous as an Art Deco designer and painter and later changed his life completely to become a political painter and activist. Regardless of the question if his decision made him happy or made him a better artist, I´ve always been fascinated by his way of doing just what he thought was the right thing.
The collage shows some people who have strongly influenced his character, such as Rainer-Maria Rilke, Clara Westhoff, and Paula Modersohn-Becker, as well as two of his early paintings in the background. The quote at the bottom is from Tankred Dorst´s play about Vogeler, "Künstler" (Artist(s)), and says: There you are now, all being painters, and you don´t see what arches upward you so wonderfully.

Birdie ATC

Oh no, this is definitely NOT my day! When I returned from work, my internet access didn´t work, and now that I´ve finished my ATC for Helga´s weekly challenge (this week´s theme is "Celebrate the Birds"), my scanner denies to work before I´ve changed the yellow ink in the printer - what does "he" need it for if I only want to scan?? So instead of being late for the challenge, I can only show a (bad!) photo of my ATC and will upload the scan when I´ve been able to buy a new cartridge of yellow ink, grrrrr ....

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Aaaah, now this scan is so much better than the photo!

Vintage Women

... is this week´s theme for the Gothic Arches challenge.
I´ve been in the mood for stamping today and have used several new stamps.

Sew

... is this week´s theme for the Make a Moo or Two challenge. The little button on the right Moo is cute, but it made my scan a little blurry :-(

Using Transfer Ink!

I´ve had several mails from my readers whenever I mentioned Transfer Ink in my blog posts, so I decided to show and tell you more about it. This product is made by Stewart Superior and is very easy to use - this video shows how the two cards above have been made.

Both started with inkjet prints transferred with the transfer spray on regular copy paper. Then I added rubber stamped images and watercolour pencils and crayons. If there are any questions left, don´t hesitate to ask!

You´ll find more examples of my artwork using Transfer Ink here and here and here and here ... Try it and have fun!

Orange Arch

It´s Labour Day today, and I feel lazy!
So killing two birds with one stone, here´s my orange piece for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge as well as my Gothic Arch ATC for today´s TGIF theme. I´ve used a few new stamps I´ve bought at the stamping convention last weekend.

For a lover of postage stamps ...

I gave a copy of my Postage People article to the man at the postage stamps counter in my post office - you should have seen him grinning! Hope he´ll be even more patient with me next time it takes me a while to choose my postage stamps ;-)