Cherry Blossom Lady

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art Challenge theme is "Anything Goes", so I show you my Asian themed postcard that will go postal to Kyoko in Tokyo next week.

She Sews

I´ve had fun yesterday, making my ATCs for the current Red Lead ATC swap themed "She Makes - She Sews". All three ATCs use the wooden framettes from Red Lead and collage images and rubber stamps from that company which is a favourite of mine ...

Happy Holidays!

Hope to see you all again here next year!

(credits: Holliewood Studio, Hidden Vintage Studios, Tumble Fish Studio, Mediterranka)

One Last Tissue Tape Christmas Card ...

... for this year ;-), and what an easy one: just a watercolour background, a square of gesso, a snippet of  Tim Holtz die cut trees, a frame made from Tim Holtz tissue tape and two star stamps from Dina Wakley.

Tissue Tape Christmas Cards

Maybe you´ve noticed that my Christmas card for Sunday Postcard Art used several tissue and washi tapes as a Christmas tree. For all of you tape hoarders here are two more ideas how to use tape on your Christmas cards: The card above has a frame made from tissue tape on a light green paper, then I painted gesso over it, added a Christmas tree from Rucola Designs and two rubber stamps from Stampington and Heindesign, and mounted the piece to a dark green card.
The card below was inspired by Anna Scarpino´s lovely cards in the latest issue of Take Ten, p. 109: I just painted a rectangle with gesso on a red card, added a frame with tissue tape and stamped over a star from Dina Wakley. I added a stamped sentiment, and had a finished card in less than ten minutes.

 

Mechanical Christmas!

It´s the same routine every year, you say? The same hectic shopping, the same running behind everything? So maybe a mechanical tree is what you need! Here´s my Steampunk Christmas card for this week´s SPA challenge. I have used several masking tapes as my tree and a few brads as lights and gear ornaments - have a great Mechanical Christmas everyone!

Weird Birds

What an interesting theme for an ATC swap, I thought when signed up for the "Weird Birds" swap, but I found out that it´s a difficult theme, too. The due date has postponed, so I´ll have to wait before I can see the ideas the others came up with ...

Greetings from the Elves

... is a design I´ve made as a Christmas greeting card using the new kit "The Toymakers" from Hidden Vintage Studios (combined with elements from Tumble Fish Studios, Rucola Designs, and Altered Emporium). I just love these Santa´s helpers with their stylish hairdos and Spock-like ears!

Altered Cabinet Card

Here´s a card I´ve made using an altered cabinet card for the recent Red Lead challenge - so all stamps and images are from Red Lead.

O Rose

all images from G and T Designs

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.

William Blake

Owls

I´ve been happy when I saw that this month´s theme for our ATC exchange at The Artists´ Nest is Owls - I think I could have made six ATCs instead of the two I needed ... I´ve used rubber stamps from Red Lead and Indigo Blue and a collage image from ARTchix Studio for my ATCs.

Feel the Rain!

When I noticed this week´s SPA theme "Rainy Days", I said to myself: "Hey, that´s a theme I really know a lot about!" Is there any town in the world that has more rainy days than Münster?
I have borrowed this lovely girl from a beautiful painting of Marie Bashkirtseff that I´ve loved from the first moment I saw it. I cut the girl out, sanded the image, adhered it to my own background, and painted over it, then added Roger Miller´s words. The weather forecast says we´ll have a storm front tomorrow, so I´ll have to hold on to my umbrella tomorrow!

She´s Having a Ball!

In my town, the Christmas market will start on Monday, and the booths can already be seen everywhere - yes, it´s going to look like Christmas soon! And it´s time to make some Christmas artwork, maybe by using the lovely new "Christmas Junque" kit from Tumble Fish Studio at Deviant Scrap! And if you´ve missed her three previous Christmas kits, you can now buy them bundled together for a special price.
My first sample on top is a tribute to Josephine Baker - just with Christmas balls instead of bananas ... she´s definitely having a ball!

This second collage is quite traditional, and you´ll find a wide range of Santas like this one in the kit.
My third piece gives the opposite of my own Christmas wish - as I have to travel to see my family for Christmas, I always hope that there won´t be any snow before New Year´s Eve!

Joyful Jewelry

You wouldn´t believe that I´ve had a little job in a shop for beads, buttons, and wool about 20 years ago if you have a close look at these charms ... Even in those far gone days I´ve been happy to knit and explain techniques but wasn´t very talented when it came to bending wire ... So usually I´m not very fond of creating jewelry and charms, but I´ve made an exception for a swap at Red Lead!

Her Name is Dot

This week´s SPA challenge theme is "Pattern(s)", so my card this week features circles, dots and a spiral.

Naughty or Nice?

Did you realize that there are only six weeks left before Christmas??? Well, I was shocked when I noticed that fact - it´s time to get my train ticket for Christmas now if I don´t want to pay more than necessary ...
And it´s time to get in a Christmas mood, so I´ve been very fond of Hidden Vintage Studios´ new kit called "Better Not Pout", and I was so inspired that I even made four pieces with it!
The first two are digital and combine the kit with images from Tumble Fish Studio.

And the following pieces are samples for cut and paste artwork with the coloured and sepia collage sheets included in the kit; the first one is the first one in a long row of Christmas cards I´ll have to make, and the second piece is a tag envelope. Both combine the images with stamps from Oxford Impressions and Scrollswork in a very minimalistic colour range.

Moleskine Pages

I´ve made two pages in my Moleskine journal using Tumble Fish Studio´s new kit "Journaling Pieces 2" - so much fun stuff to play with! This kit has 7 collage sheets (that I´ve used for my cut and paste pages of course), but you can also make digital collages with the images as pngs. Have fun journaling!
(You´ll see more details if you click on the images to enlarge them, but it will be difficult to read the words written round the shape of the lady above, so here they are: "Well, I´m sure it would be if I had one ...")

Tangled Up

Have you ever tried zentangling? Now you can even doodle digitally by using Hidden Vintage Studios´ new kit "Tangled Up" - these black and white images really pop if you combine them with colours, but you can also make a completely b/w layout. And of course you can print out the included collage sheets and combine the images with your own doodling - hope you´ll give it a try!

Journaling Again

Journal pages are pure fun, no matter if they´re done in a cut and paste collage technique or digital. The spread above is an altered book spread while the sample below is completely digital. And both were done with the new Tumble Fish Studio kit "Journaling Pieces 1" exclusively. The kit comes with png images as well as seven printable collage sheets, so it´s your choice how you want to use it. Have fun!

We Find Our Way

Thanksgiving is getting near, and to celebrate it, Hidden Vintage Studios at Deviant Scrap have come out with a lovely new kit called "Howdy Pilgrim" - you should have a look at it here. I´ve made a cut and paste postcard this time, as the kit provides png as well as jpg images.
And in case you´ve missed their "13 weeks of Halloween kits", you can now get them all bundled together with a 60 % discount - there´ll be another Halloween next year, and most of the images can be used for other occasions and themes troughout the year.

Hot Air Balloon

... is this week´s SPA challenge theme, and here´s my postcard for it - the stamps I´ve used are by Paper Artsy, Oxford Impressions, Artistic Outpost, and Red Lead.

It´s Digital Scrapbooking Day

... and sales are waiting for you in your favourite image shops - for example my friends Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio and Tracey and Melissa from Hidden Vintage Studios have their sale at Deviant Scrap from November 2nd - 4th - you shouldn´t miss it! And remember that even if you don´t work digitally, you can use all these images (even the pngs) for printing and then using them in your cut and paste collages.

Flitter Everywhere!

Have you ever used Mica flakes on your art pieces? Well, you see them on my first two tags above ... as well as on my kitchen table, kitchen floor, my desk, carpet and scanner ;-) But wow, they really make these tags festive, and I´m sure I´ll also use them on some of my Christmas cards this year. 

These tags were made for the annual ARTchix Sisters Christmas tag swap. I´m sorry that the last one was unscannable and the photo is a bit blurry, but the gift and giving hand are just too bulky. Hope you´ll like that tag nevertheless.

Lovely Paris

... is the name of my November ATC for our monthly ARTchix Sisters group lottery. I´ve just read that I´ve won our last lottery, so I´m looking forward to a few beauties in my mailbox. What a great way to start the new month!

The Poison Prince

I´ve just been playing with the new Oxford Impressions stamps, so here´s my Poison Prince ATC.

Who´s That Knocking?

Image you´re alone in your house on Halloween, and suddenly you hear someone knocking at the door ...
Here´s my black/orange/green/purple card for this week´s SPA Halloween challenge using two of the fabulous Land of Nod freebies.

It´s Almost Party Time

Yes, it´s time to decorate for your Halloween Party, and this witch has already gathered what she needs to have a good time! As the Halloween season comes to an end, Hidden Vintage Studios have come out with their latest Halloween kits "Toad Emporium" and "Always Practice Safe Hex" that were combined with several other Hidden Vintage Studios kits in my digital collage above.

Chasing Deadlines

If you´re swapping internationally, deadlines for special holidays can be pretty early - so the deadline for this year´s Red Lead Christmas swaps is the end of October, which means that I had to send my items before mid October to make sure they arrive in time.

The first swap is for Old Fashioned Christmas ornaments, the second one for wooden Holiday hangers.
I´ve had fun making these though I´m not really in a Christmas mood yet.

A Haunting We Will Go ...

... was the theme for our monthly ATC exchange. As both ATC go to the same swap partner, I´ve tried to make mine quite different: Whereas the first one is a painted collage on a painted and taped background, the second one uses a transparency stamped from both sides and dyed with alcohol inks.

Vintage Woodland Revisited

When Seth Apter asked for my favourite own artwork in his survey "Playing Favorites" you find on his blog today, I only thought about it for a moment and then picked this journal page I´ve made back in 2008.

I´ve been in a group of ladies then who exchanged tip-in pages (front and back, not spreads), each in a different format and size (some even round or house shaped) and theme. We´ve had themes like Vintage Christmas, Rainbow, Wisdom, and a lot more - my own book had a raven theme of course ;-)
It was a fun group and I´ve loved making my pages, getting to know the participants and taking the challenge of working in given themes and formats, but in the end my favourite pages have been those for a theme I didn´t understand at first: Vintage Woodland. The lady who had chosen it had described it like this: Forest with birds/eggs; think woodsy and be creative ... well, not easy. I knew I would incorporate birds, so I chose some favourite bird and nest stamps as well as some old book pages with an appropriate theme. And then I stumbled upon a sort of paper that was made from a thin piece of cork, and I immediately knew that this would be the perfect base for my wood; it really looked like soil. I added some vintage postage stamps and stamped and cut out a few leaves, then picked a rusty paper to keep it all together. I arranged all my items until I was satisfied, and then there was a problem: I wasn´t able to just glue my stuff to the cork, so I had to find another way to assemble my pages. I had bought a sewing machine some time ago, but I couldn´t sew - but I had to give it a try here! So I made separate front and back pages, glued everything together and then used my sewing machine in addition to fix it all. When I was ready, I sew both pages together back to back and ended with a single page that I really loved and that seemed to fit the theme perfectly. But was I loved most about it was that I had taken the challenge and tried a technique I´ve never used before. Thanks for the challenge, Patti! I hope your book has been a beauty in the end!

Steampunk´d

I love everything Steampunk, so I didn´t hesitate to join a Steampunk themed one on one postcard swap in a Yahoo group I´ve joined just recently - can´t wait to see the cards I´ll receive! My own cards will travel to Michigan and Texas tomorrow, and I hope they´ll do it full steam ahead!