New Kits on the Block!

Deviant Scrap is having a big party this week celebrating the site´s 4th birthday. The designers have packed a wonderful freebie collab kit themed "Out of this World" that you can grab at the Deviant Scrap blog. I have used the Hidden Vintage Studios and Tumble Fish Studio parts of this collab together with the new Hidden Vintage Studios´ kit "Alienated" plus additional images from Nancy Baumiller, gelli prints, vintage postage stamps and  tape for my cut and paste postcard above and the cut and paste journal page below.

And Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio also came out with a new kit today that´s called "Dreams - Peculiar". I´ve made this digital collage with it as a sample for you, but to see the variety of images, you should have a look at the whole kit here.

The Song in your Heart

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Music", I´ve chosen one of my gelli prints as a background again. I added stamps from Dina Wakley and Red Lead and stenciled a heart with red ink, then added the words to the printed circle and a few white accents with pencils.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 3

I´m back home from my Easter vacation, and this bird lady (image from Itkupilli) told me that it´s time for our next swap update!
In the meantime, I received 6 envelopes full of goodies from you, and many more have already sent me the links to their finished ATCs. I´ve just pinned them to our swap board on Pinterest, so please have a look at the new cards there or visit the blogs/ online galleries of Jo (first 4 ATCs), Daniela D., Ann, Melissa, Johanna, Sabine, Stephanie 1, 2, and 3, Daniela R., Dagmar, Ulrike, and Sirkkis.
Right now, we´re 33 players from 8 countries, and I´m sure there´ll be more sign-ups as there´s still enough time to join the swap and send me the ATCs so that they´re in my hands before June 1st ...
I´m happy to hear how much fun you all have with your birdies!

Medieval

What a great leap from modern Street Art to the Middle Ages - but here they are, my ATCs for a medieval themed swap this month ...
Watch out for our next Bird People swap update coming on Friday!

Street Art

I´ve been very interested in Banksy´s Street Art since I´ve been watching the DVD about him, "Exit through the gift shop" about two years ago. So of course I was thrilled to see that the German stamp shop "StempelBar" has come out with a collection of Banksy´s images as rubber stamps.
For these 3 ATCs, I´ve black embossed the images on Gelli print backgrounds and added some drawn details and other stamps from Stamping Fairies and Red Lead. I´ve already ordered more Banksy stamps and can´t wait to play with them!

Bunnies

These are my ATCs for a "Hares" themed swap - happy Easter to all my blog visitors!

Home is where the Light is

This is my postcard for this week´s SPA challenge themed "Lighthouses". I´ve used a design paper, added "water" and "landscape" with stencils and ink, and stamped the lighthouse (Graphic 45), compass, and text (Red Lead), then coloured with watercolour pencils.

OWOA Winners!

And here they are, the winners of my OWOA giveaways: Birgit, Singtatter, and Linda! Congrats, ladies, I´ll email you soon and will send each of you one of my postcards as soon as you´ve answered me with your snail mail address ...
I´ve had fun with this year´s One World Our Art event and hope there´ll be another one next year.

Life is a Circus

With Hidden Vintage Studios´ new kit "Send in the Clowns", I decided to show you how nice these images could be used for your cut and paste artwork - I know I´m not the only one who has several circus themed rubber stamps in her stash! I´ve also used lots of colourful washi tape for these pieces and have a lot of fun making these samples for you.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 2

For this update, I have a stamped ATC for you as a sample made with a clothed bird rubber stamp. (It´s from Loast Coast Designs, as well as the text on the top, the books are from Stampendous.) If you´re a stamper, you might have some other bird people in your stuff - I know I have!

There are two reasons for this new update: First some of you have been very busy and have already finished their ATCs, and I want to share the links to inspire all the others. And then I recognized that although there are 13 pins on our Pinterest board already, there´s only one comment so far - so maybe some of you haven´t found the board yet!? Please remember to leave some comments on those ATCs you especially like.

I´ve had a few more sign-ups in the meantime, so right now we´re 24 players from 6 countries - thanks to all of you!
And here are the links to the ATCs that have been finished since my first update. Please have a look at the beautiful cards from Birgit, Peggy (the first 4 ATCs in her post), Bevlea, Eugenia, and Sherry.

There´s still much time to sign up and play, just be sure that your ATCs are in my hands before June 1!

Home Sweet Home

These are my ATCs for this month´s Red Lead ATC swap themed "Home Sweet Home" - all images and stamps are from Red Lead of course!

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 1

It´s time for our first swap update with more info and inspiration!
This Paris Girl ATC is my first one for the swap, and I´ve made it using a lovely bird lady from Hidden Vintage Studios´ latest kit "Animal Crossing":

When I first spied this kit, I already had decided about the theme for this year´s blog swap, and when I told Tracey how perfect this kit was for my theme, she generously offered to sponsor my swap - thank you so much, Tracey! So here´s the good news for you all: You can win one of three coupons for Tracey´s Hidden Vintage Studios shop at Deviant Scrap, just by taking part in this swap - you don´t have to use her images to be in the drawing!

(While you´re at the Deviant Scrap shop, you´ll notice that there are other lovely bird people images from Itkupilli and Finecrafted Designs that have found their way on other ATCs that I´ve made for this swap and that I will show you in future updates - just saying ...)

Do you still need some inspiration for the Bird People theme? Then you maybe want to have a look at this board on Pinterest that I´ve found. 

I´ve also have set up another Pinterest board for our swap here. You´ll already find the first finished swap ATCs there from Liz and Nancy, and as always, I want you to have a look at their beautiful pieces and leave them a nice comment on their sites or our Pinterest board if you like their artwork! 

(If you´re new to my blog swaps, I need to tell you that I´ll use these comments as a hint when swapping out all the ATCs in the end, so the chance to receive your favourite ATCs is much better if you post some comments!)

I´ve already had 20 sign-ups from four countries for this swap, and I´m sure that many of you will feel inspired and join the fun soon! There´s no sign up date, but don´t forget that your ATCs have to be in my hands before June 1. Can´t wait to see your Bird People ideas! 

Our World Our Art

find all info here

For all visitors who come to my blog via Lisa Swifka´s Our World Our Art international blogwide artistic event, here´s a little info about me:

I´m Marion from Germany, a self taught mixed media artist who loves to blog. I´ve been running my blog since 2006 and have met many wonderful friends and artists that way. Though there are other ways and places to meet people online, I´ve found out that nothing can beat your blog to show other people who you really are - you can make your own rules, design it just the way you want it to look like, and you can post whenever you want, plus posting doesn´t take more than a few minutes. I love to visit other artists´ blogs and often take the time to leave them comments because I know how much encouragement and joy they bring.
I´m even hosting annual ATC swaps on my blog - if you´re interested in taking part in my current one (just scroll down a bit), please let me know.

I´ve started my online activities mostly as a stamper but switched to mixed-media art very soon - you´ll notice that most of my artwork still features some rubber stamped images though. Nowadays I love to combine stamping with other techniques such as painting, cut and paste collage, and even digital collage - mixing these to find the perfect expression of what I want to say is my artistic passion.

As my gift giveaway, I´ve chosen three postcards that illustrate my favourite techniques and that have been published in one way or another:

Card 1 was published in an article about the Sunday Postcard Art challenge blog in Artful Blogging Spring 2009.

 Card 2 was published with my article about Postage People in Just Stamps 2/2009.

I demonstrate how I made this third card in my Youtube video about sanding here.

You can win one of the three postcards above if you´re a blogger anywhere in the world. Just leave a comment under this blog post with a way to contact you if your blog doesn´t provide an email link.
Winners will be announced on April 19, 2014, after the OWOA event was closed.
Can´t wait to get to know you all!

Announcing my 8th Annual Blog Swap: Bird People!

Yes, it´s that time of the year again: time for my Annual ATC Blog Swap! This year´s theme is Bird People, and I hope you´ll be inspired by it!
The idea is to mix birds and people to create bird people creatures. Here are a few samples from my old photo files that might give you a hint what all this is about - these are NOT my ATCs for this swap (though you´ll find a few of the creatures revisited on my new ATCs):

                                                                                                       As always, you can use any technique you like - you can stamp, collage, draw, sew, or work digitally (if you use at least one tactile element). You can use ready-made bird people from stamps or collage sheets, or you make new creatures yourself.

 For the very first time, this swap will be a sponsored one which means that there´ll be a giveaway - watch out for my next update for the details!

 Please sign up via personal email (just click on the link in the sidebar) and let me know your snail mail address. There´s no sign up date.

Then send 3 ATCs to my address (that I´ll send you when I answer your email) so that I receive them before June 1, 2014.

 As always, you´ll find updates on my blog with links to all participants´ ATCs. So when you´ve finished your ATCs, please send me an email with the link to the place where you´ve posted them online, and I´ll add that link to my next update so that everyone can go to your blog or other website to have a look at your artwork. And we´ll have a Pinterest board again as a swap gallery for all to visit and comment.

 I´ll send out invitations to all previous participants, but this swap is open to all my visitors. Have fun creating!