More Birds

My ATCs for a Bird themed swap in a German stamping group - so stamped images have been the focus here.

I Love the Little Birdies

What a wonderful theme Connie has chosen for her tip-in book! I´m sorry for the dark and blurry photo of the whole spread, please have a look at the scans of the single 6 x 6 pages.
The quote is by Jacques Deval, the images that aren´t stamped are Paper Whimsy.

Helga´s Online class part 2

Do you remember the circle grid I´ve made last week as part 1 of Helga´s online class?
This week she wants us to take a magazine, tear and cut out pics that appeal to us, and make a collage with them, using one of our grid patterns from last week for the background, and embellishing the whole thing in the end.
I have used a magazine that I had already thrown away and was surprised when I found so many beautiful photos in the "trash". The purple background with golden fleur de lis pattern is from an ice cream advertisement, and it´s the reason why I´ve chosen the circles stamped with the lid of my glue stick for the background. I then added a stamped fleur de lis inside the circles here and there.
I remember that we had to do a magazine collage at school and that it came out quite ugly and made me hate collages for the next three decades of my life. I wish I´ve had a teacher like Helga in my youth because maybe I´d have more fun with collages then at an earlier point of my life.
This collage is about 11,6 x 8,15 inches, and I´ve really had fun with it today!

Orange and Black

... is this week´s Gothic Arches challenge, and as my previous Halloween pieces have been in purple and black mostly, I´ve made a Halloween arch. The tickets and spiders are lovely gifts I´ve received with my swap returns from Kris lately - thanks again!

Haunted

"Halloween" is this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

I´ve used stamps by Oxford Impressions, Beeswax, Paper Artsy, Inkastamps, and Flamingo Art for this 4 x 6 card.

Nevermore

Here´s my 5 x 5 inches card for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge "Halloween".
Stamps by Beeswax (web and spider), Silvercrowcreations (text), Cherry Pie (crow), Stamp Francisco (raven), A Capella (lady), and Paper Artsy (bat wings).
The 13 in the background was taken from an advertisement that was in my newspaper today - a company is celebrating its 130. anniversary ... well, that can be quite spooky!
If you like Halloween artwork, just scroll down this blog and you´ll find a lot of spooky stuff made during the last weeks.

Circle Grid

Have you noticed Helga´s new online class? It looks like fun! I´ve definitely have fun making my first piece: we were asked to make a grid on a large piece of paper and then use all round things we have at hand, which were in my case 1. a stencil, 2. postage stamps, 3. a polka dot paper, 4. an eyeball stamp, 5. rubbings/frottage of several coins like Euros, a Dollar, and a D-Mark, 6. circles punched from several papers, 7. two sizes of sequin waste used as a stencil, 8. a stamp of a clock and circles stamped with the lid of my glue stick, then I´ve added some painted circles, 9. a stamp of the earth.
Hey, this piece doesn´t have to look artistic, Helga said (and mine doesn´t), it´s all about playing!

Grungey Gothic

... is this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme, so here´s my 4 x 6 postcard.

Behind the Sun and the Moon

OMG, Loreena´s altered book themed "Behind the Sun and the Moon" has been one very hard to do for me. For my sun spread I illustrated verses from Nick Drake´s song "Things Behind the Sun": Don´t be shy you learn to fly/ And see the sun when day is done/ If only you see/ Just what you are beneath a star.

My moon spread uses a song of the German band "Unheilig" which is something like this:

It is/ Cold/ Is the chamber in the night/ Dark/ Is the world before you wake up/ It is/ More than you think/ Than you love and understand/ Lost world melts in shadows/ Elemental force that you´re feeling/ Dreaming is the brick in existence/ Only the man in the moon is watching/ Close your eyes/ The angel strolls through the night/ The black man has been awaken.

Open Your Mind

Here´s my letter O spread in my Alphabet Discovery Altered Book. Maybe you remember that pocket that you´ve seen from the back before when I posted my letter P spread - in fact it´s open from this side as is the mind of this young man who is actually Alexander von Humboldt. If you haven´t read Daniel Kehlmann´s "Die Vermessung der Welt" about the Humboldt brothers, you should consider to put it on your list because it´s a really good book.

Frost

We´ve had the first frost last night before the sun came out for a beautiful day. But it´s already dark at 7 p. m. now, so autumn is definitely here.

K is for Key

When I´ve read that this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge is "Key", I decided to make it the theme of the letter K page in my Alphabet Discovery altered book. The beautiful verses used here are by W. S. Merwin. All images and text stamped, only the door is an inkjet transfer.

Spooky

Two Halloween 4 x 4 collages - I just had to make one for a mingle but hope that Anita will like to get them both!

Blackbird

... is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

I have many stamps of black birds, but very few of blackbirds - most of mine are crows and ravens, so I´m happy that I have these lovely blackbirds from Invoke Arts.

The City Never Sleeps

Big Cities is this week´s theme for the TMTA challenge.
I´ve never been to the U. S. A., so my image of Chicago has been developed by watching gangster movies and reading modern American literature.
The eye in my ATC illustrates the city that never sleeps - something I connote with every big city in the world and that is a fascinating fact for me who´s living in a smaller town (280.000 inhabitants) nowadays but was born and raised in a big city.

Happy at Home

The letter H spread in my Alphabet Discovery altered book is about being happy at home. It features quotes by William Hazlitt, Maya Angelou, Samuel Johnson, and Christian Morgenstern.
This book is about playing with ideas, techniques, and colours, so I´m trying to make each spread a personal one with quotes I like and images that speak to me - regardless of a perfect result.

Inventors

... is this week´s theme for the Gothic Arches challenge. My postcard sized arch is about Benjamin Franklin who invented the lightning arrestor in 1752 but has also been a statesman and is famous for some fantastic quotes like the one I´ve used here. Enough work for three lives - what a genius he must have been.

The Letter V

Yes, it´s time for another German lesson!
My first letter V ATC shows Alice looking behind the curtain which is "Vorhang" in German, so the phrase means "Curtain up!"


Venice is Venedig in German, but this ATC only shows the English and Italian version.

And the last ATC is about population census which is Volkszählung in German.

Be Afraid!

I can´t help, but whenever I look at Andreas Vesalius´ skeletons, my back begins to hurt - maybe that´s what we shall be afraid of?
Usually all things Halloween, skulls, and skeletons aren´t my cup of tea, but today I´ve had lots of fun with this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme!

The Journey of Journaling

Long time no page, you might say, but here´s the next spread in my Alphabet Discovery altered book, and it´s the letter J. I´ve tried a popular journaling technique here and just used what I´ve had on my desk without too much thinking about it. I think I´ll try that again.

House of Hope

My last tip-in pages for the Mixed Media Madams are for Sandee, and she wants us to make a Vintage Row House. She likes earth tones, birds, nests, doors, windows, numbers, vintage images, and much more.
So here´s my ancestor keeping her house as a castle at the front, and the back tells another story of the children living inside and wishing to find their way out one day.
My house measures about 5 x 6,8 inches.