Peace

 
For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Peace", it could have been possible to make a Holiday Card with a Peace on Earth message, but I decided to go with John Lennon´s song "Imagine" in a street art style.

Thankful

 
"What are you thankful for?", we´re asked for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge. The first things that came to my mind were books and bird songs, as shown in my digital card (all elements from Songbirdy). 
And today, I´m really thankful for having three good friends who bake Christmas cookies with me every year - here´s yesterday´s result, eight sorts of very different cookies, made without much effort but with lots of fun:

I hope you´re having a lovely first sunday in advent, too!

Honeycomb

We all know that Einstein quote that says that the existence of the world as we know it depends on the life of bees ... so I don´t repeat it here. Bees are really important for the balance of nature, and we all should do everything we can to make our world a bit more comfortable for them. 

I only have a small balcony but I try to plant what bees like ...old plants instead of new breedings that are more colourful etc.

I´m happy to have insects as well as breeding birds on my balcony because these are the future for mankind. 

This card is my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Honeycomb". 

Dali

 

You shouldn´t use more than one portrait of the person you feature on your card - eeeemh .... yes.

But if this person is Salvador Dali, there couldn´t be enough portraits of him, because he was egocentric. 

I don´t consider myself an artist, but thinking of artists I admire, I don´t find anyone I would have liked to meet in real life or to be a friend of. It looks like great artists (poets or painters) usually aren´t the friendliest persons. Is it necessary to be egocentric to be an artist? What do you think?

My card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Artists" was made with rubber stamps from Carmen´s Veranda, AALL & Create, Stampingbella, Rajastamps and Stempelbar.

Halloween

 
I have no idea why I haven´t been in Halloween mode this year - maybe too many things going around in my head right now. But I´ve been able to make these ATCs for a swap, and I´m really happy with how they turned out. Stamps used here are from Tim Holtz, Picket Fence, Stempelbar and Whimsy Stamps.

Type It

 

I´m this week´s host for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge and have chosen "Type it" as the theme. I couldn´t resist using this wonderful book piano stamp from ArtSpecially and to build my whole design around it. It seemed to me that the text about Tucholsky´s "Idea Piano" (Heindesign) was a perfect match, and I added books from Deep Red, "Creativity" and "Phantasy" from LaBlanche as well as some typed letter clouds from Sommerabend. 
Can´t wait to see how this theme inspired you!

(If you´re interested in the story of Tucholsky´s words, here´s what he has written in the Berliner Tageblatt on Oct. 2, 1919, using his alias "Peter Panter":
"Wir hätten sollen ... das ist ein nachdenkliches Wort. Wenn ich es auf meinem Gedankenklavier, der Schreibmaschine, anschlage, klingt es lange nach - es ist fast wie ein Thema, das mit vielen Variationen gespielt werden kann. Wir hätten sollen.")

Spooky Wings

 
This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Spooky Wings", so I couldn´t resist to give Mr. Poe some bat wings ... 

Monochromatic

 

If you´re coming to this blog regularly, you know that usually my art is quite colourful. I like playing with colours for the sake of them and usually don´t like to be restricted by a reduced colour scheme. But for this month´s Visible Image ATC swap themed "monochromatic" I took the challenge and went with my beloved ravens and crows and a greyscale colour scheme of course. I thought that a reduced colour scheme asks for some finishing touches, so I used a white pen on the ATC above and some white gloss spray on the greeting card below.

Pink + Tape + Bird

 
For this bunch of ATCs, the swap theme was to use pink and tape and a bird - what a lovely challenge!
But it´s also a challenge for my scanner that didn´t show all the colour in the ATC in the lower left corner ...

Pixie Dust

 
I´m not a fan of fairies, so when it came to the theme Peter Pan for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, I decided to use dragonfly wings as a symbol for Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.

I used Mica sprays for shimmer and rubber stamps from ArtJourney, Visible Image and Hero Arts, and I used Distress Watercolor Pencils for colouring.

Imagination

 
Dina Wakley´s stamp set Seeing is Believing is just what I´ve been waiting for - I have so many ideas to use this stamp set - here´s the first one, combining it with one of my favourite quotes from Catslifepress.

Sewing mends the Soul

 

Dressforms/Sewing is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and though I´m not a sewing person, I love this saying and thought it was perfect for a birthday card for a friend who sews a lot. And it was a good opportunity to use Tim Holtz´ lovely blueprint stamps.

I´ve used just a tad bit of colour this time instead of my beloved colour explosions ;-)

Twins

 

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is twins. When I read it, I knew immediately that it would inspire me and I wanted to take part, but I had too many ideas for it ... 

In fact two old friends of mine have twins (that are adults now), so I have thought about the implications of being a twin a lot during the last 25 years. I´m sure that twins have a special connection that lasts for their lifetime, but I think that most of them feel the need to express their individuality more than most of us do.

Mark Making

 

When I read a theme for a challenge, I often think "Oh, I´m out", but sometimes I´m hooked and immediately see the stamps I´ll use. The theme "Mark Making" for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was one of these. 

I started with making my marks on a paper by using gesso and an old credit card. Then I loaded my black ink pad with more ink and used the credit card again to push the ink into the stamp pad - and then used the credit card with the black ink again on my background. 

Then Dina Wakley´s stamps came in perfectly, and I also added stamps from Red Lead. I hope and believe that the fun I´ve had making this card is visible in the final card.

Weather Forecast

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Newsprint" I´ve used the weather forecast in my daily newspaper as my background. I collaged it with some gesso and used stamps from Stempelbar and Klartext on it. And yes, I hope we´ll have some rain here soon because it´s too hot right now ...

Soap Bubbles

 

Sometimes it just takes a few new rubber stamps to get the inspiration for a card, and sometimes these stamps don´t need anything else to make a cool card. These stamps reminded me of my love for soap bubbles - when my friends´ children were small, I´ve loved to bring soap bubbles as a gift for them - you´ll never be too old to enjoy soap bubbles.

Metamorphosis

 

Anyone interested in literature should have read Franz Kafka´s "Metamorphosis" ("Die Verwandlung" in the German original) from 1912, edited in 1915. And it really pays to read it again and again because you always discover something new that you haven´t noticed earlier. Though Kafka doesn´t mention a beetle as the result of Gregor Samsa´s metamorphosis, most of us read this between the lines. 

This is the reason why I´ve chosen Kafka´s story for my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Beetles". 

No Regrets

When I first read this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge "Femme Fatale", I thought that I´d skip the challenge this week. But when I started thinking about the theme, I began to like it: 

Usually we associate Femme Fatale with a fin de siècle woman that is manipulating and seductive - characteristics that I hate from the bottom of my heart attributed to women who influenced famous men.
But of course those women that were labeled with this term have lived in times when women had no choice when they wanted to live their own life - they could only live it as an attribute to a man´s life. The term Femme Fatale is one that tells us of a male perspective - an adventurous woman is described as one that causes the (bad) fate of a man. We should change our perspective and see the woman who just wants to live her own life as a free and independent human being.

Longing for the Sea

 
Lighthouses is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and here´s the card I´ve stamped for it. This lady is dreaming of the sea, beaches and faraway countries, there´s something romantic about the sea.

Lemons

 

Lemons/Oranges is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I wanted to illustrate the freshness and "splash" of those fruits, so I used watercolours and stamps from Makistamps.

Dance

 

You must dance Life - that´s a motto I must remind myself of daily as I´m someone who doesn´t take things easy. No matter how old you are, there are always things left to work on.

This card is my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Dance".

Window to my Heart

 
This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Windows". My card was made with rubber stamps from VivaLasVegaStamps, Stempelbar and Catslife Press.

Frida

 
Last weekend, I haven´t done anything creative, and though I´ve felt recovered the next day, I also felt that something was missing. So this weekend, I did some stamping again and already feel better! 
Here are my Frida Kahlo ATCs for a swap in a German ATC group.

How about you? Do you feel the need to create and miss it if you´ve been lazy for a while, or is it enough to make some art from time to time?

David Bowie

 
I´ve made these ATCs for a David Bowie themed swap. 

The first one is a collage of Bowie postage stamps, covered with gesso and overstamped.

The next two ATCs illustrate "Space Oddity", Bowie´s famous song from 1972. 

And then there´s that great collaboration with Pat Metheny from 1985, a song I really love, from the soundtrack of "The Falcon and the Snowman". 

I´ve had more ideas on my list for ATCs illustrating "Black Star", "Let´s Dance" and "China Girl", but as we didn´t have enough participants for this swap, I stopped here ...

You are my Sunshine

Your are my Sunshine is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

May I say that I don´t like this song at all? It´s a classic from 1939 (recorded then by the Pine Ridge Boys, but written in 1937), and there are about 350 cover versions, for example by Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Johnny Cash, but I really don´t like it ... 

I don´t like its musical simplicity, the simple lyrics and the fact that there´s nobody I could sing it for. 

If you´re alone, you have to find other things or creatures that enlighten you and are your sunshine - in my case, flowers and especially birds make me happy every day. How about you? Do you have someone or something who or what makes you happy?

Lost

 

Here´s my true story card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Keys".

Stamps are from Oxford Impressions, Ciao Bella, AALL&Create, Studio Tanja, Hampton Art/Graphic 45 and PaperArtsy/Seth Apter.

Blackbird

 

I´m hosting the Sunday Postcard Art challenge this week, and I´ve chosen "Song Lyrics" as this week´s theme as I always feel inspired by words and lyrics, and some song lyrics even accompany your whole life.

Blackbird is such a timeless song, and it´s one that can be illustrated in so many ways. For my sample card, I´ve used rubber stamps from Green Pepper Press (Michelle Ward) and York´s Little Art Studio (Wendy York).

Hope you´ll feel inspired to show us your interpretation of a favourite song!

Letters from the Past

When I saw this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, "Letters from the Past", I thought "What a lovely theme, I´ll take part" - but tonight, it has been more difficult than I had planned.

Do you own any handwritten letters from the past, your parents or your grandparents?

I own something handwritten by my father from the early 80s and a stack of love letters from someone I didn´t fall in love with myself from the mid 90s, and I treasure things like these. 

What about you? Do you keep old love letters, old postcards or letters? Do they mean something to you or do you believe that they´re worthless because they express feelings that are long gone?

Peacock

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Peacock" I didn´t have any appropriate stamps, so I decided to draw one and paint it with watercolours.

Chess

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, my sister Sabine has chosen the theme "Chess". I couldn´t resist adding a little bit of colour to this black and white theme though ...

Hat's Up?

 
Get Your Hat On is this week´s theme for ehe Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and it inspired me to play with a cool guy from Stempelbar combined with a few stamps from Tim Holtz.

Style is in my DNA

Here´s my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Dapper Men". I´ve used stamps from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous, Seth Apter/Paper Artsy and Visible Image.

My Body is a Cage

 
You wouldn´t believe how many birdcage stamps I own, so when I saw this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme Birdcage, I knew I´d make something. But it wasn´t before I went through my stamps that I knew I´d use THIS really unusual one by Nonsequitur. It´s based on a Magritte painting from 1937 called "The Therapist" that exists in a few different versions. If you google it, you´ll even find interpretations from actual therapists ... but I decided to make my own one based on a song by Arcade Fire, "My Body is a Cage", also featured by Peter Gabriel.

My Body is a cage that keeps me
from dancing with the one I love
but my mind holds the key.

Signs of Spring

 
Signs of Spring is the theme for the March ATC swap in the Visible Image FB group. As my ATC (above) and card (below) have arrived in the UK, I can now post them here. And they really fit the weather we´ve had for the last ten days with much sunshine!

Trees

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "crowns" I´ve chosen my favourite crown stamp featuring a tree (by Carmen´s Veranda) on a girl from Zettiology, buildings from Sheena Douglass and words from VivaLasVegaStamps. Hope you´ll like my take on the theme that´s a bit different ...

Edgy

Usually, we use the rule of the golden ratio when making art, dividing our surface in thirds and putting our focus on one third - even if we don´t think about the design and balance. So I thought it would be nice to try something different and concentrate on the edges of our cards!

But of course this theme is a play on words and you can also think of something eccentric (which is again something out of focus) in any way ... 

I hope you´ll be inspired by this open theme and play with us for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I can´t wait to see your cards!

I have used rubber stamps from Dina Wakely and Stamp Camp for my card. 

Cinema

 

When I was a child in the sixties, my grandfather loved to watch Laurel and Hardy on TV, but of course they´ve been movie stars before (from 1926 to 1951). I didn´t like them that much but of course have found other movies that I liked when I grew up, but Laurel & Hardy will always be connected with memories of my grandfather.

This is my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Cinema.

Sepia

 
If you know me just a bit (and I mean, you just have to scroll down a bit on my blog), you know that I´m not a person who likes to make art tone in tone, especially in sepia and other browns ... so this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Sepia" really was a challenge for me. I started with a collage of old book pages and sheet music, then used gesso and brown distress ink and finished with rubber stamps from Ranger/Dina Wakley and a bit of gesso again. Can´t wait to use colours again next time!!!

Coffee

 
When I was young, I didn´t like coffee but preferred tea. It took me many years to find out that I just didn´t like coffee with milk but loved it without. And when I moved to a region with bad water, I gave up making Darjeeling (because it doesn´t work right here) and became a coffee person. 

For a coffee themed ATC swap, I started with the ATC above and liked it a lot, but then it was hard to make some others to go with it. I´m happy with my result now, but the first ATC is still my favourite. Unfortunately the scanner took a bit of her rosy cheeks and lips ...

City of Stars

Most of us have seen "LaLaLand", I think, and while I don´t remember the story, what has been in my head for quite a while is the wonderful song "City of Stars" - so I´ve used it as the inspiration for my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Stars". 

I´ve used stamps from VivaLasVegas, Visible Image, Paper Artsy, Ranger, Nellie´s Choice and Stampers Anonymous for this card.

Melancholy

 
I haven´t made a digital collage for a long time, but today I´ve been in the mood to grab the G+T kit Down to Earth and start playing again. It felt a bit strange, but I like the result.

Tea Party

 

When you hear this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge "Tea Party", your first idea will be "Oh, Alice!!", and so I´ve made an Alice´s Tea Party card of course ... 

Jack Frost

 
Jack Frost is the name of this card I´ve made for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Frost". I´ve used rubber stamps from PaperArtsy/Lynne Perrella and Oxford Impressions - and Glitter embossing powder. As you can´t see it on the scan, I´ve also made a photo to show the glitter.

Usually, the first night of the year is one of the coldest, but this year we´ve had 13 degrees, and it was even warm enough to spend New Year´s Eve on the balcony!