Merry Christmas to You!

 

I can tell you a secret: Next year there´ll be Christmas again! So I´ve been having fun tonight making a few more snarky cat holiday cards I´ll send next year ... but as it´s still Christmas for about 45 minutes, it´s not too late to send Holiday Greetings to all my blog readers. Hope you´ve had some festive days!

Happy Christmas!

This week the Sunday Postcard Art challenge has an open Christmas theme - the opportunity to post a card that´s a bit out of my usual range. I´ve used stamps from StampingBella, Visible Image and Dina Wakley here and altered the face by using washi tapes from Jane Davenport.

And I couldn´t resist to make two more snarky cats Christmas cards ...

 

More Snarky Cats Cards

 Of course I couldn´t resist to make more Snarky Cats Christmas cards.

Dear Santa

 

Everything that puts a smile on my face is precious these days, and Tim Holtz´ Snarky Cats do this ... so I love them and will make a few Holiday card with them this year ... This is one of them, but it´s also my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Wreaths". 

Packed

 

Here´s my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Luggage & Suitcases". 

Again, I´ve made a card that´s somehow Corona themed as so many of us have had to stay home instead of traveling the world this year. I´m not a big traveller usually, but this year I haven´t left my hometown for one single day, and that´s very unusual even for me ...

This card was made with rubber stamps and Distress Paints.

Pink or Blue?

 

My friend Beth aka Songbirdy came out with two new image kits today called "Pretty in Pink" and "Melancholy Blue", and both are perfect to make some beautifully coloured artwork. My samples have a few other Songbirdy images that go well with the colour schemes.

Caged

 

I´m the host for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and I´ve chosen "Caged" as my theme.

In times of Corona, these might be your feelings while being quarantined or social distancing, staying at home. But feelings are very individual.

You might feel caged in a partnership you´re unhappy with or would like to leave. Freedom is something that everyone has to define for her-/himself - being free as a bird will always stay a dream.

And some of us even feel the need of rules to feel safe. What is your nest may feel like a cage for somebody else. Some people even feel caged within their own body. How about you? Do you feel caged right now or have you ever experienced that feeling?

My rubber stamped postcard above was made with stamps from Visible Image and Coosa Crafts, and the digital sample below was made using images from Mary Bailey (Miles Beyond the Moon) and Mr. Whiskers.

Alice in Wonderland

 

This batch of ATCs was made for a swap in a German ATC group - Alice is always such an inspiring theme to play with.

Skyline - Der Himmel über Berlin

 

My sister is this week´s host at Sunday Postcard Art, and her theme is "Skyline". As she lives in Berlin and I´ve just purchased a lovely Berlin skyline stamp, I decided to use it for my card. A strip of streets covered washi tape, a glossy background and a piece of a book page came together with the title of one of the most fascinating movies about Berlin, "Der Himmel über Berlin" by Wim Wenders (Hollywood used it as a model for "City of Angels" in 1998) and Kennedy´s famous words spoken in Berlin in 1963.

Happy Halloween!

 

Snarky Cats wishing you a wonderful Halloween today!

Your Inner Demons

 

This digital collage is called "Evil Spirits", and these aren´t the raven and the snake (who look more like the lady´s company and shelter) but her own inner self. If you´ve ever been in an emotional crisis, you might know how she´s feeling - you don´t need to be mentally ill to experience moments when you really fear your own inner self.

All images used here are from Beth Todd´s new Songbirdy kit "Samhain".

Social Distancing

 

What more´s to say - it´s 2020 ... I´ve been thrilled when I found out how well the VLVS mask stamp fits Tim Holtz´ professor. A few viruses and some sprays in the background, and my Covid card was finished!

Halloween ATCs

 

With the beginning of October, it´s time to post some Halloween artwork here, I think. These are a few ATCs made for one or more swaps, depending on the number of participants in them and on the ideas following during the next weeks ...

The Beat Goes On!

 

I´ve always loved the music of the Sixties, so Beth´s aka Songbirdy´s new digital image pack called "Swinging Sixties" came in handy to enjoy one hour of English sixties music and playing with colours. Do you still remember those yellows and greens? 

Science

 

Three Science themed ATCs made for a swap in a German ATC group.

Faux Stitches

When Mandy asks us for new themes for her Sunday Postcard Art challenges, I´m always on the hunt for themes that offer a wide range of possibilities for artists - and that´s why I´ve picked "Faux Stitches" as this week´s challenge theme: No matter if you´re a digital artist or a stamper or you like to draw, this is your perfect theme! You don´t need a sewing machine to draw you stitches or stamp them or use a digital image of stitches.

When it comes to designs, stitches are such an interesting element: You can use them as a border, or you can emphasize a part of your card that is important, or you can "sew" different parts together like a quilt.

To give you an impression of what I´ve said before, I´ve made two samples this week, a rubberstamped card and a digital one.

(The rubber stamped card above was made with stamps from Visible Image, Autumn Leaves and Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous; the digital card below was made with elements from Valentina Pellitteri aka Valentina´s Creations and Jen Maddocks.)

Call me Leonardo

 

Though Leonardo da Vinci is my hero of all times, I wasn´t much inspired to make a card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, but then I thought he should have an opportunity to tell people that his name is not da Vinci but Leonardo - just that. Or Leonardo da Vinci which means Leonardo from Vinci. Vinci is a little village in the hills of Tuscany, and this is where he was born (believe me, I´ve been there), but last names hadn´t been invented at that time, and to make it easier, people were called after their birth places if these were known. As Gottfrid von Straßburg is just Gottfrid and Walther von der Vogelweide is just Walther, Leonardo is just Leonardo, and isn´t that enough for a genius?

Home is the Sailor

When I was young, I loved to watch "The Onedin Line" (1971-1980), a British series about a shipping company in the 19th century, and travelling in those times was so dangerous that it really was an event when a ship reached its home again. This is what I´ve had in my mind when I´ve made this "ships" themed postcard for this week´s  Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

When travelling, I like to be where I´m going, and sometimes I like the way to go there, but what I always love is coming HOME. What about you?
(I´ve used stamps from Carabelle, Marianne Design and Mirkwood for it.)

Playing Cool

When you were young, did you belong to the cool people? Or did you stand in the corner watching the others, doing your own thing? I´ve never been cool, I´ve always had the wrong clothes, friends, hobbies, and thoughts, and it was only when I´ve been in my twenties that I´ve learned that there are people who like me nevertheless - or even because of what I am.
This is how my "Funny Animals" card for this week´s  Sunday Postcard Art came together: I wanted to use these funny peeps playing cool, and because I can only think of them as big city kids, they needed a street art surrounding.
I´ve used rubber stamps from Les Ateliers de Karine, Visible Image, Claudine Hellmuth, and Badass Stamp Studio for my card.

Train - another Corona post

I´ll understand if you´re tired of these, but this is another Corona themed post - well, it´s 2020!
This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme is "Train", and as I don´t have a driving license, traveling by train is my usual option (no, I´ve never got on a plane so far).
I´ve only had 6 days off work so far in 2020, so I´ve been looking forward to my September holidays (two weeks, yeah!), and as always, I had planned to visit my sister in Berlin. But after watching some TV news about traveling by train here in Germany, I think I´ll better stay at home. But of course I´m not sure about this - I´d love to see my sister for the first time since Christmas, but don´t want to wear a mask for about 6 to 7 hours. And the Corona status in Berlin is even worse that the one in my home town. Should I stay or should I go? (thinking of The Clash of course! what a great song!)
So my thoughts about my upcoming holidays were the inspiration for my card, using rubber stamps from AALL & Create, Paper Artsy and My Favourite Things.

Summer Fun

We´ve had such a hot day today that getting your feet into water was probably a dream we all had - and it looks like the night won´t be much cooler ...
This digital collage was made with my friend Beth´s new Songbirdy kits "Sandy Toes".

Conversations

You are just jealous because the voices talk only to me -

when I first saw this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme "Conversations", my thoughts went the normal route, but tonight I stumbled upon an old gelli print I´ve made with a magazine photo and a rubber plate from Carabelle, and I decided to add a text stamp from Inkadinkado/ PaperArtsy, some more stamps from Visible Image, and some colour, and here it is, my card about conversations in times of Corona ... isolation leads to self conversations, and those aren´t healthy.

Maritime ATCs

These 3 ATCs were made for a swap themed "Maritime". The one on the left is my version of Loreley - not sitting on her rock singing songs this time but as a mermaid causing shipwrecking from below.

Still Life

Usually, I like to make humorous digital collages that make you smile or even laugh, but when I saw the images of Beth´s new Songbirdy kit "Anything Goes", my mind went just the other way, and I thought of recent news like companies closing because of Corona and the Black Lives Matter movement. So here´s a collage reflecting these times ...

I´m Changing

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Mirror", and as I´m not young anymore, looking into the mirror has become a daily adventure. Sometimes you´re satisfied, and other times you may ask yourself who this person is that scares you so much, We all need to accept that we´re changing and that this does not have to be a bad thing, no matter how it looks at first sight. We all like faces that mirror our lives and experiences, don´t we? We all win or lose our personal fights, and our faces should picture our lives in my opinion.
(For this digital collage, I´ve used elements from Foxeysquirrel, Crystal Rain and Valentina´s Creations.)

For Love

For many of us, the Middle Ages have something romantic about it - the knight in shining armour is still in our minds though we know that these times didn´t smell well, people were poor, and romantic love was a fiction.
I´ve been working on medieval manuscripts for more than four years, and if you´ve ever met them, you´re infected for the rest of your life. Gottfried von Strassburg´s Tristan and Isold has been one of my exam subjects many years ago, and it´s one of the most wonderful books I´ve ever read.
My sister Sabine has chosen "The Middle Ages" as this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme, and I couldn´t resist making a card about love in those faraway times.
(I´ve used rubber stamps from VLVS, Hampton, and Stampington for my card.)

Distance

Who would have thought that my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge would be Corona themed?? Not me!
Some days, I don´t even like to hear that word, and every day I hate to wear a mask on my way to work, but the only thing that I´m sure that helps against this virus is keeping distance, and that´s what my card is about - how far is distance? how much distance is necessary?
In my opinion, we wouldn´t need germicides and masks if we just kept distance - but most people don´t. That´s my personal experience in the town where I live - what´s yours?
(Don´t worry: where I live, we have 3 persons acually infected, and we have 330.000 inhabitants, so I´m not really worried, but I AM worried about other places on this planet.)

Fish ATCs

I´ve made these three fish themed ATCs for a swap in a German ATC group.

Torn/Broken

I´m not a fan of affirmations but believe in honesty and learning from mistakes - and I´m pretty sure that we all have been damaged and torn apart in our lives but will have to find ways to survive and make the best of what has happened to us.
This is my sample card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge that I´ve themed "Torn/Broken", and I hope that you´ll share your thoughts about it.
My card has been made using rubber stamps from Visible Image, PaperArtsy and Reprint.

Herr von Ribbeck

Probably most German pupils have to read and/or learn Theodor Fontane´s ballad "Herr von Ribbeck" by heart at school - I remember I did ... and while you usually don´t like what you have to do for school, this poem from 1889 is so lovely that you even like it and remember it if you didn´t choose it yourself. What´s not to love about a poem that´s about a man who likes to give the pears from his favourite tree to children, and when he dies, even cares for them by making sure that there´ll be another pear tree for them after his death? 

I´ve made this card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Fruit".

(For my interpretation I´ve used rubber stamps from AALL & Create, Paper Artsy, Oxford Impressions, LaBlanche, Red Lead, Hero Arts and Stempelmine.)

Domestic Goddesses

I hate housework. Period. But I love the new Songbirdy kit "Domesticity" and made two digital collages with it, the one above with a quote from Maya Angelou, the one below with words from Virginia Woolf.

But the best thing about this kit is that it makes a perfect couple with Holliewood Studios´ kit Collage Capers v. 3 Domestic Goddess that comes with printable collage sheets. For my two moleskine journal pages I´ve transferred a background from Songbirdy with Transfer Ink, then collaged with
Hollie´s images and finished with a bit of watercolour -
much more fun than housework!

Frida Art

As this week´s Sunday Postcard Art theme is "Art", this was a good opportunity to use my new Dina Wakley Frida stamp set on a background that´s all about making your marks.

Brecht - Der Liebende nicht geladen

For a typewriter themed postcard challenge, I´ve been waiting for this new typewriter stamp, and it came together with a custom made Bertolt Brecht stamp and several postal stamps. The poem was typed directly on the card with my old typewriter. It has always been one of my favourite poems, and I´ve had it on my wall when I was a teenager. Please click on the image to enlarge it, and you´ll be able to read these timeless words written in the late 1930s.

Lynne Perrella Inspired ATCs

It seems that many people have more time for their hobbies right now, but I haven´t. I´m still working 40 hours a week and more outside my home, and as canteens are closed and there are waiting lines at the supermarket, I don´t have much time left for myself. So I´m really happy when I´m able to make something in my studio aka my kitchen table that is worth to be sent to a swap host or to be posted here on my blog.
I´ve had the lower row of Lynne Perrella themed ATCs shown here finished on my desk for weeks, and I´ve had two of them from the row above almost finished, but I just haven´t had any time left to finish my project that was on short-term for the end of May.
Yesterday I´ve had an extremely busy day at the office and even had to stay there longer, but in the evening I snatched two CDs with new music from my library and sat down at my kitchen table with a glass of wine, and I´ve had a great evening - and in the end, I had this batch of ATCs that I´m quite satisfied with and that goes in the mail tomorrow.
Sometimes it just takes a plan, one spare evening, and some music and wine to make you happy, and "art" always does ...

Distance

All we can do during these unhappy times is try to find something funny in all this and don´t lose our humour. While I´m trying hard doing this in my everyday life and mostly fail, I´m happy to have art and social media to find things that make me smile and maybe put a smile on other people´s faces ...
These digi collages have been made with a new Songbirdy kit from my friend Beth Todd that´s called "Candy Floss".

Talking about Challenges

If you know me just a little bit, you know that I´m not into pastels at all! So when I read this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, my first thought was "Oh no - see you next week!"
Then I decided to play and learned once more that I can´t make anything that I like when I don´t like the theme ... So last night I decided to put this card away and don´t post it, but this morning I thought that this could be an interesting point to discuss on a blog - and SPA is really about blogging, I think.

So here´s my question for all you challenge bloggers: What do you do when you´ve made a piece you don´t like - do you show it nevertheless and discuss your problems, or do you hide it and only show your successes?

Faux Postage - Under the Sea

Faux Postage is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I´ve stamped my card with rubber from ArtSpecially, Makistamps, Mirkwood, and Darkroom Door.