Time to celebrate on Monday!

Gothic

In my international tip-in exchange group, Mel´s theme for my March/April pages was "Gothic". 

First I did some brainstorming - what came to my mind were black roses, ravens, fog, Gothic architecture, melancholy, and a dark, black/green/purple colour scheme.

Mel wanted her pages to be made on old book pages in the size of 10 x 15 cm, without a margin.

So I had a look at my old books and found one with German songs. I had to cut the edges to get the right size, and I had to be very careful with these brittle papers.

My first idea was a Poe themed spread, and I´ve made a digital collage with images from Finecrafted Designs that I printed on the old book pages and then lightly coloured it with coloured pencils. I was thrilled about the result!

For my second spread, I wanted to use a couple of rubber stamps in the themes of melancholic women and Gothic architecture. I stamped them on dyed book pages in appropriate colours, then collaged them on the song book pages, and finally coloured in with watersoluble crayons to hold it all together. The song title on the right page ends with "in dunkler Nacht" (in the dark night) which was just perfect for my purpose, so I highlighted these words. Finally I added a quote on the left page.

My two tip-in spreads will be in the mail to England tomorrow!

Connected

"Connected" is the name of Nancy Baumiller´s new Crowabout StudioB kit that I´ve used for my collage "Rule No. 1" above. There´s so much fun stuff to play in it, and of course it also comes with printable collage sheets for your cut and paste collages. The background is from Nancy´s extra Connected paper kit.

All Things Alice Blog Swap Update No. 9

It´s three days before this swap comes to its end now, so this is the last regular update.

Finally, we´ve been 24 artists submitting to this swap: 8 from Germany, 9 from the United States, 2 from Australia, 2 from Canada, 2 from the UK and 1 from Austria.
Last week, I received envelopes from Jo, Anja, Nan, Trudi, Solvey and Ilka. Almost all envelopes have already arrived, I´m only waiting for one envelope from Germany and one from Australia. Thanks to all of you for sending your ATCs in time!

If you haven´t visited our swap pinboard for a while, you´ll be surprised how many ATCs we now have there. (Jo even made a second batch of ATCs because her first batch was lost in the mail - thanks, Jo!)

And here are the last links to finished ATCs:
Please have a look at Nan´s blog or have a look at her ATCs together with Leigh´s at the Lost Coast Designs blog here. And you´ll find Solvey´s, Anja´s and Ilka´s ATCs on their personal blogs. And two ladies from MAKIstamps, Andrea and Kerstin, teamed up to send their ATCs shown here.
Finally, I´m still waiting for a link to Glenda´s ATCs that are already finished and sent but not posted yet.

Now that all ATCs are finished and posted, it´s time to visit all the blogs and albums of the other swap participants in order to meet some new faces. When you´re there and see something you like, please don´t forget to leave a comment.
If you´ve been a participant in my blog swaps in the past, you know that I use your comments as hints when swapping out all ATCs in the end. You can also leave comments on our Pinterest board, but if your Pinterest name is NOT your real name, I won´t be able to assign your comments to your person unless you send me an email with your Pinterest name.

That´s all news for today - I´ll be back soon with more infos on the swap.

Just Breathe

After a longer break, Nancy Baumiller from Crowabout StudioB has come out with a new mini kit today called "Just Breathe", and it comes together with a pack of papers.
I´ve made a digital sample for you here, but of course you can print the papers and the collage sheet and start making cut and paste art!

All Things Alice Blog Swap Update No. 8

Our swap is coming to an end now very soon, and I´d like to remind you that your swap ATCs have to be in my mailbox within the next 10 days.

I´ve had one more sign-up last week, and the ATCs from Laura, Dani, and Leigh found their way into my mailbox. But I don´t have any new links to finished ATCs for you right now: Though a few of you have already mailed their envelopes, they haven´t made their blog posts yet, so I can´t share their work today.

I received 15 envelopes so far, but I´m still waiting for 8 more. I´ll send out personal reminders today to those of you whose ATCs haven´t arrived yet. If you won´t be able to send your ATCs in time, please contact me.
See you next week!

Cut apART

Marsha´s new Tumble Fish Studio kit named "Cut ApART" is something special: it contains colourful collage sheets plus several shapes in png and jpg versions, and you can print and cut those sheets to make collages, or your can work with them digitally and mix them with other images (like I did it here), or you can click clip or glue parts of the sheets to shapes (I´ve also done that in my samples). If you have a look at the pictures featured in the shop listing for this kit, you´ll get more ideas about how you can use it, and I can tell you that it´s versatile and fun!

All Things Alice Blog Swap Update No. 7

It´s time for my weekly update on our Alice swap, and there´s quite a lot news this week:

I´ve had one more artist signing up last week, and another person showing interest.

My mailbox filled up with ATCs from Jannet, Lenna, and Brandie - thanks for sending your entries in time, ladies!

And here are this week´s links to finished ATCs:
Please have a look at the lovely cards from Lenna, Laura, Leigh, and Michele, and don´t forget to leave them a blog comment if you like what you see. (Of course they´re also pinned to our swap pinboard here.) This swap is all about getting to know more artists and especially Alice lovers, so I hope some of you get connected through this swap.

I´ve been to a stamping convention in the Netherlands last weekend and met three of our swap participants there, found some Alice ATCs in the albums of people I´ve been trading ATCs with, and bought some more Alice stamps and stencils for my little collection.
However, I´m not sure if I´ll be able to make more Alice ATCs with my new findings while this swap is going on, because the due date is near - please keep in mind that all cards have to be in my mailbox before April 30/ within the next two weeks. I hope there´ll be more colourful stuff coming in soon!

Starlight

Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio just came out with her kit "Starlight" which is perfect for making digital as well as physical journal pages. I´ve made two digital collages for you, "Your Secret Universe" above and "Magic Night" below, but as the kit comes with loads of printable collage sheets, you can also use it for all kinds of cut and paste artwork. 

All Things Alice Blog Swap Update No. 6

It´s Wednesday, so it´s time for some swap news!
Last week, I´ve had two more sign ups for the swap, and I´ve had envelopes with ATCs from Judith and Cathy in my mailbox. Thanks, Ladies!

You may have seen the new ATCs on our swap pinboard, but in case you haven´t, please take a look at Cathy´s, Jannet´s, Dani´s (1, 2, 3, 4), and Brandie´s ATCs now.

Please keep in mind that the due date for this swap is April 30 which is only 3 1/2 weeks away - so if you´re from outside Europe, your ATCs should be mailed within the next 10 days! All ATCs have to be in my hands before April 30. I´ll send a reminder newsletter this week.

Finding My Way Home

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Architecture", I´ve made a digital card because it was much easier to tell a story that way ... If you´ve ever explored a foreign city on your own, you´ll probably understand.
For my collage, I´ve used elements from Anna Aspnes, Christina Renee, Jen Maddocks, Maya de Groot, Just Jaimee, Tangie Baxter, Holliewood Studios, and Krysty Scrap Designs.