Up, up and away

I´ve made these Steampunk ATCs for a swap called "Up, up and away", and they´re already on their way to California.

Friends

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme is "Friends", and my although I have a few human friend, bird friends were my first idea ... they really make my life better!

Stick a Gear on it and call it Steampunk!

Connie´s theme for her tip-book is Steampunk, and her format is 6 x 4 inches for each page (horizontally).
For my book spread I used a Tim Holtz paper for the background, rubbed with Original Rust, and torn aluminium foil with Original Rust on it for the foreground, several stamped and coloured images and a wooden gear. Hope these pages will travel to Wyoming very fast!

My Home is my Castle Blog Swap - important reminder!

Hi all, here´s an important reminder for all of you - PLEEEEEEAAAAASE send me an email IMMEDIATELY when you receive your returns from this swap. It´s just not possible to organize a swap with almost 30 people if you don´t do that. You know that there aren´t many rules to follow here, but this one is really important, so PLEASE contact me, o. k!?
(Sorry, but it seems that it´s necessary to post this again ... I´ll send out a second return envelope filled with my own ATCs and extras that have been made as hostess ATCs for me if your envelope will be lost, so it´s necessary for me to know whose returns arrived - hope you´ll understand how important that point is. I´m really disappointed that not everyone who got mail contacted me yet :-(( It´s a lot of work for me, and I don´t think it´s a lot of work to write a short email. And no, I can´t visit all your blogs to see if you´ve posted your returns there, I need an email.)
Oh, and I´d like to say that I gave up waiting for the missing ATCs and replaced the place holders with my own ATCs today - so the last two envelopes will be mailed tomorrow.

Paris

These ATCs have been made for a Paris themed ATC swap in one of my Yahoo groups.

My Home is my Castle Blog Swap Update No. 9 - almost all swapped out!

No, the last envelope I´m waiting for hasn´t arrived yet, but I decided to use place holders and START SWAPPING NOW! I had to take all cards to the office because I don´t have enough space in my home to lay them all down together ... I ended up with 26 envelopes that went in the mail TODAY and two more that will follow this week - if the missing cards won´t show up in a few days, I´ll fill the spaces with my own cards and mail the last two envelopes before the weekend.

I´m sending out another newsletter to all participants today, and I hope you´ll all like your returns and will play again next year!

Ephemera

What a great theme for this week´s SPA challenge - Ephemera! I remember that I didn´t know that word when I started mailing ATCs and other mail art, but during the last 8 years I´ve sent and received lots of ephemera like tickets, maps, letters, book pages, and postage stamps - sending "ephemera in lieu of postage" has become a regular task for me ...

Girls Gone Wild

Hidden Vintage Studios have come out with two new kits today: the girls from "Pretty Young Things" return with animal accents in "Girls Gone Wild"!
("Power" above: images from Hidden Vintage Studios and Holliewood Studios;
"True Friends" below: images from Hidden Vintage Studios, Holliewood Studios, Rucola Designs, and Mr Whiskers, all at Deviant Scrap.)

My Home is my Castle Blog Swap Update No. 8

Maybe you´ve noticed that yesterday was the due date for this blog swap, so here´s another update on it with a few statistics as well as the last links.

We´ve been 29 players this year from 5 countries, and 8 of you have participated in one of my blog swaps for the first time. 11 artists are from Germany, 12 from the United States, 3 from Australia, 1 from England, and 2 from Canada.

I have three last links to finished ATCs for you today, and I hope that you´ll go and have a look at the fabulous ATCs from Ingeborg, Claudia, and Christa.

All envelopes arrived but only one, but as this one has been in the mail for more than four weeks now, I´m sure it will arrive soon, so of course I´ll be waiting for it a few days at least! So I won´t be able to swap out all those beauties right now.
In the meantime you can go and leave comments on all cards you like, either on Pinterest or on each blog.
Hope you´ve all had fun with this swap - I know I had!

Shades of Blue

Marsha aka Tumble Fish Studio has come out with a fun new kit today themed "Shades of Blue" - please go and check it out here!
I´ve made two samples with this kit for you: the photo above is a cut and paste Moleskine journal page with watercolours treated with salt in the background, and the picture below is a digital collage.

Bathing Beauties

... was the theme for our bi-monthly postcard swap, and this card has already made its way to Renee.

Enchant Your Life

I´ve made some samples for Red Lead, one of my favourite rubber stamp shops, some time ago, and here are two more of them: a chipboard arch and a framette, both bird themed and decorated with hand-dyed book pages and Red Lead rubber stamps.

My Home is my Castle Blog Swap Update No. 7

There´s only one week left before all envelopes for this swap have to be in my hands - but I´m still waiting for 8 of them! So I´ll send out personal emails today to those whose entries haven´t arrived yet. It already looks like I´ll have to wait a few more days after the due date, especially as the envelopes from Australia obviously take much longer now than in past swaps, and I´m waiting for three of them ...

In the meantime, I have some more links to finished ATCs for you, and as always I hope that you´ll all visit these artists´ blogs and leave them some blog love if you like what you see. Most of the ATCs have been pinned to our swap board on Pinterest already, but as the latest ATCs there didn´t get any comments, I´m afraid that most of you haven´t been there lately ... And I wasn´t able to pin from Picturetrail, so please visit Ulrike´s album and comment there (you have to go down to the third picture and the following in the left column).
Already pinned are Becky´s ATCs as well as Lenna´s. So there are very few "mystery entries" left, yeah!

Hope you all have a sunny and creative week, have fun while blog hopping!

Sing Your Heart Song

Even if your heart is a bit rusty, I believe there´s a song that lets you sing and dance (at least when nobody´s watching ...). That´s what this week´s SPA challenge is about. I decided to keep my card simple, and I´m just happy that my scanner is able to scan 3D elements like this heart button ...
(stamps are from Judi Kins and Darkroom Door)

Garden & Flowers

You know I love ARTchix stuff, and of course I love flowers and gardens, so how could I resist this great new ATC swap? My ATCs are finished and will be on their way to our hostess Nikki soon, but there´s lots of time for you to join the fun and sign up for this swap!

My Home is my Castle Blog Swap Update No. 6

I´m back from my vacation and have found a few swap envelopes in my mailbox. Plus I received a few emails with late sign-ups or links to finished ATCs, yeah! So here are the links to more fantastic swap artwork from Melissa (plus here and here), Lynda (and the middle two here), Glenda, Beckie, Daniela, Sandy, and Charlotte. Lots of eye candy this week, and I hope you´ll visit these ladies´ blogs and leave them a nice comment if you like what you see. All cards have also been pinned to the swap board at Pinterest, so you can also like or comment there.

It looks like we´ll be 28 or 29 participants this year, and I´ve already received 13 entries in the mail. Most others have already sent me a link to their blog posts where their cards are shown. If you haven´t sent me your link, please remember to do it soon.

I´ll send out another newsletter today with a list of all cards received. If you´ve sent yours a while ago but don´t find your name on that list, please let me know.
See you all next week!