Faeries

If you know me just a bit, you can imagine that I´ve had a hard time making a tip-in journal spread themed "Fairies" :-) But then I found some really interesting quotes (some lovely ones by John Lennon, Shakespeare, and W. B. Yeats) and started planning my page. Finally I decided to use these words by Charles de Lint and to use a very modern font for them instead of a romantic one. These pages will go to Canada tomorrow.

Touch of Nature

In my opinion, Silhouettes need a very simple design to be effective, so I kept my postcard for this week´s SPA challenge very pure. Hope you like it nevertheless!
(Silhouette is from Hidden Vintage Studios, additional elements from Pink Lotty, Finecrafted Designs, Carole Harden and Tina Chambers)

Dreaming of Spring

Did I ever tell you how much I love Red Lead swaps? Chris and Sharon always have such nice ideas and stuff, and this group´s members are so very talented! So I was really looking forward to my Red Lead order containing the Artisan Frames for the Dreaming of Spring swap, and I´ve been working on my entries for the last three days. Can´t wait to see what the other participants come up with! These will go out to St. Louis tomorrow ...

Time for a Break

If the world seems to turn upside down and you don´t know what to do first, it´s time to turn off your computer, radio, TV etc. and just sit down and enjoy the silence - then it´s time for a break.
I use this collage as a screen saver on my computer right now, and it reminds me to take time for myself every day. "Time" is this week´s theme for the Three Muses challenge, and this is my contribution.
(all images used are from Deviant Scrap´s collab kit "Somerset ColorSplash")

Time for Nesting!

Home
digital collage using HVS kit "Nesting Nymphs" plus elements from Tumble Fish Studio, Holliewood Studio, Beth Rimmer and Marta van Eck

"Nesting Nymphs" is the name of Hidden Vintage Studios´ lovely new and really big image kit at Deviant Scrap, and it´s just perfect for this time of the year. Go and have a look yourself!

At Home

digital collage, all images from Hidden Vintage Studios 

Two Birds

digital collage, all images from Hidden Vintage Studios

Shades of Green

Marsha aka Tumble Fish Studio has a new image kit out that´s called "Shades of Green". As green is my favourite colour (well, shades of it ;-)), I had much fun making two samples with it: Above you can see a cut and paste Moleskine journal page called "The Bird Whisperer", and below is a digital collage illustrating Peter Gabriel´s song "Kiss that Frog". If you also love green, don´t hesitate to check this kit out here; as always the kit includes jpg collage sheets so that you can use it just the way you like.
And the background for my frog collage is from Marsha´s new pack of Shades of Green Journal Cards that you can find here.

Blackbird

Now that spring is lurking behind the clouds, I´m waiting for the blackbirds to build their nest again on the balcony below mine like they did in previous years. So it´s just the perfect time for this week´s Take A Word challenge themed Blackbird!

Key to my Heart

For this week´s SPA challenge I have reworked a card I´ve made for one of Mary Green´s challenges. The rose, the lock and the key are dimensional, so please forgive me that the scan is a bit blurry ...

Longing for Spring

Whenever a tag swap is announced in my ARTchix Sisters Yahoo group, I hardly can resist ... unless it´s a Valentine theme ;-) Well, this time the swap is Spring themed, so here are my six tags for it! I´m sooooo longing for spring!

Cinderella

When I saw Marsha´s new images, this scene was one of the first that came to my mind - this prince will never cut down Cinderella´s fashion budget ...
(all images from Tumble Fish Studio at DeviantScrap.com)

Feeling Blue?

Blue Bingo

digital collage using elements from Hidden Vintage Studios and a background from Tumble Fish Studio

The new images from Hidden Vintage Studios´ kit "Blue and Broken Hearted" are quite different from their usual stuff - thus this sample is quite unusual for my own work. I hope you go and have a look at the new kit - as usual the images are also included as jpg collage sheets.

Once Upon A Time ...

Who doesn´t like to read or hear a fairytale from time to time? Me, I prefer literary fairytales, for example by H. C. Andersen and W. Hauff, but there are a few folk tales that I also like. However, as a specialist in German studies, I admire the brothers Grimm much more for their wonderful German dictionary (that they weren´t able to complete of course) but for collecting their "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" ...

If you´ve read my blog yesterday, I hope you´ve already discovered all the lovely new "Once Upon A Time" themed kits at Deviant Scrap - they make it so easy to tell your own tales now!

Today I show you a few samples using the new kits from Tumble Fish Studio (there´s a great new journal card kit here), two digital collages and one cut and paste moleskine journal page (as Marsha´s images as always come as jpg sheets with together with 

the png kit).

In The Bleak Midwinter

The first tip-in book I have to make spreads for in our new Paper Traders´ project was themed "Cool Colours". I just had to make samples with the brand-new Hidden Vintage Studios´ kit "Her Royal Ice-Ness", so I decided to lean my spread on these beautiful images ... Then I stumbled upon Christina Rossetti´s wonderful poem "In the bleak midwinter", and my book spread came to life quickly. As I wrote the words of the poem around the ladies, I decided to add a tag to the book spread with the printed poem and another icy lady. These pages have been sent to Australia last week, so the recipient will receive them in summer - good for her as I´d freeze when I received them in our cold German winter ...

Here´s Christina Rossetti´s whole poem for you:

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long Ago.

And as "Her Royal Ice-Ness" of course can used digitally, too, here´s another sample for you (additional elements from Eena´s Creation and Finecrafted Designs).

"Her Royal Ice-Ness" is part of the fantastic new collaboration at Deviant Scrap dedicated to Myths and Fairytales. You really should look at all the new kits here. Samples with the new Tumble Fish Studio kit will follow here tomorrow!

I Live My Life In Widening Circles

It´s not the first time that I´ve illustrated Rilke´s poem "I live my life in widening circles", but I couldn´t resist using it again for this week´s SPA challenge themed "Circles" ...
I know that it´s hard to read the handwritten words, so here they are again:

I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

(please forgive me that I´m an inch picker who has studied German literature, so please notice that the German original is quite different in verse 2:
Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen,
die sich über die Dinge ziehn. (- that overlay things instead of reach out across the world!)
Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen,
aber versuchen will ich ihn.)

However, the English translation led me to use the map in my collage ... but originally Rilke doesn´t talk of the whole world but only of "things", and this time it isn´t a rhyme that needs the different translation, hmmmm.