Offline

It´s quiet here, isn´t it? My computer is down since last Thursday, and I don´t know when I´ll be able to scan and post again. Hope you´re patient and I´ll see you here soon!

Home is the Sailor

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

Water Stamping

Have you noticed the new Compendium of Curiosities challenge? If you´ve bought that book by Tim Holtz you´ll know what this is all about - every Monday there will be another challenge from this great book of stamping techniques. Have a look at Linda´s blog here.

This week´s challenge is water stamping. I like to combine water stamped images with regular stamping to get more contrast.

Beatles Swap finished - finally!

Maybe you didn´t notice, but this year my annual blog swap didn´t go as smoothe as in the past years. Four (!) envelopes to the U. S. got lost in the mail - so if you didn´t receive three thank you mails for your cards it may be possible that your ATC has been among the lost ones.

Those wonderful participants who sent an extra ATC for me made it possible for me to send all four patient U. S. players a second bunch of ATCs so that everyone has received three return ATCs now.

So let me say thank you to all those who sent an extra ATC - I wouldn´t have been able to send out 12 extras without your help!

Hope to see you all again in next year´s swap.

Sanding - two new videos

I´ve just uploaded two new videos on Youtube - both about sanding as a mixed media technique.
On the left you can see a postage person whose body was made by sanding a magazine image.


On the right is a 4 x 6 card which is completely sanded. The first video shows how it was made. Have a look here to see the whole process.

And this spread in my altered book themed "Untold Stories" also has sanded elements; the second video shows how the altered photo on the left and the postage person on the right were made using sand paper. Have a look here to see the process.

Steampunk

I´m going to attend a stamping convention in Hamburg tomorrow - it can´t be wrong to take a few more ATCs for personal trades with me ...

No. 39

Here´s another one of those lovely 5 x 7 chipboard houses - this time it´s not for the Red Lead Altered Houses swap but will be used as a gift I think.

Questions (no answers)

You may have wondered what happened to my Alphabet Discovery Book. I just haven´t had the time to work in it for a while, but today I finally got back to it and made my letter Q spread. It´s not my best work, but as this book is my personal journal, it´s the journey that matters in the end - and to finish a project that´s big fun.

Hurt

Song lyrics are one of the greatest inspirations for my collages. Sometimes I just can´t get some verses out of my head until I´ve "illustrated" them - which can be very loosely and intuitive like I did here. This skinny quotes the song "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, wonderfully covered by Johnny Cash.
"I hurt myself today / to see if I still feel. / I focus on the pain, / the only thing that´s real."
If you want to see more songs used in art pieces have a look at this week´s Three Muses challenge.