A Knight in Shiny Armor

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Glimmer, Shimmer´n Shine" I´ve made a card with a Knight in Shining Armor. As always, the silver embossed parts of the armor don´t show well in the scan, so I took some detail photos that help to see the embossed parts.

Most of the stamps I´ve used are from Hampton Art/ Graphic 45, but I´m not sure where the knight is from.

 

Your Heritage or Culture

For my bi-monthly journal pages tip-in swap, Stephanie´s theme for my October pages was "Your Heritage or Culture". Her book measures 5,5 x 8,5 inches, so a whole spread is 11 x 8,5 inches.

Well, if you´re German, you may have the same mixed feelings about this theme that I had ... But though I´m very aware of the deadly militaristic Germany of the 19th and 20th century, I see myself in the following of old traditions that have also been here forever, which is mainly German philosophy and literature. And as I was born in a city with a history going back to the year AD 50, I also wanted to show how much history and beauty Germany has that not everybody is aware of.
My Cologne spread shows just a few glimps of this city´s history: the foundation of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in AD 50, the invasion by the Vikings in 862 and 882, the bones of the Three Wise Men coming to town in 1164, the building of the cathedral from 1248 to 1880, and some info about the city today. A separate bookmark explains the Coat of Arms of Cologne with the three crowns symbolizing the Three Wise Men, and the 11 flames symbolizing the 11.000 virgin companions of St. Ursula.

My second spread concentrates on some highlights of German literature: the Minnesang period, the Arthurian Legend (found in Heinrich von Veldeke´s, Gottfried von Straßburg´s and Wolfram von Eschenbach´s works for instance), Goethe and Schiller, Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann. Below is the bookmark I´ve made to accompany this spread.

Skulls

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Skulls" I´ve made a digital postcard using elements from several Itkupilli kits plus a few cobweb brushes.

A Family Gathering

Yes, some kind of Family Gathering it was on my blog last week when some of my blog readers came by to celebrate my blogaversary with me - thanks for stopping by and leaving me a note!
I´ve drawn two winners today, and Johanna and Tamara are the lucky winners who will find a handmade card in their mailboxes very soon. I´ll contact you to make sure that I have your correct addresses.

For my digital collage above, I´ve used the wonderful Falloween kits from Itkupilli and Mary Bailey (Miles Beyond the Moon).

Want Mail? Come Celebrate!

On October 8, 2006, I started this blog with a couple of posts, and yes, that was 10 years ago! In the meantime, I have changed, and that is why my blog has changed - I´ve learned new techniques and learned getting better in those techniques I already used back then - but all in all, the journey just continued. My blog never changed its name or place, and it has always been there for me to post whatever I wanted to share, to come back to older posts for reference, to use it as a gallery for photos, ATCs, cards, collages and other projects, and last but not least, to stay in contact with my art friends all over the world with my annual blog swaps.
So today it´s time to say thank you to my blog readers with a little giveaway! I will send the two postcards above to two winners that I´ll draw next weekend. Just leave a comment here and tell me if you´d like to win the Halloween card or the Zetti card, and maybe something that you´ve always wanted to tell me (but that´s not necessary at all). I´ll draw a winner on Saturday, Oct 15, and will contact you if you´re a winner. Good luck and thanks to all of you!

Fail Better

DSD is over now, but I´ve got far behind with posting my challenge layouts here - this one was made for the "Words to Live By" challenge over at MischiefCircus, and I´ve used elements from Holliewood Studios and Finecrafted Designs for it.

The Sea of Wonders

Every new month, I´m looking forward to Jen Maddocks´ Bricolage Society challenges. She always provides a small freebie kit with a few elements, a colour swatch, two or three quotes and an idea behind it. You just have to take one element from each category and just go your own way with the theme. My collage above is for her October challenge, and all elements are from Jen Maddocks Designs.

The Wizard

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Wizard", and I decided to go with the Wizard of Oz, using elements from Marta van Eck and Altered Emporium.