Letting Go

 
Letting Go is the hardest thing. There´s a "small" letting go when a relationship ends, and a big one when a person you loved leaves earth forever. Both are hard, and I´ve never been good at letting anything or anyone go.

Making a sympathy card is always a hard thing, and I remember that it made me happy when I´ve made one for a stamping friend years ago when her husband had passed away, and when I met her again, she hugged and thanked me for my card. 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge Rein asked us for a sympathy card, and it was the hardest thing to make one for a future farewell. When I make a sympathy card, I usually have the person on my mind that has left us, and making the card is part of the process of letting this person go.

I love to use images for sympathy cards that aren´t made for this purpose. Of course you can use falling leaves, bare trees etc., but there´s so much more. I´ve even made sympathy cards with images expressing love only, and they can bring hope, I know. 

The German sentence on my card above means "Letting go costs less strength than holding on, but nevertheless it´s so much harder."

Lavender

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art theme "Lavender" I thought about lavender and what it means to me. I´ve always had lavender on my balcony that I loved to touch and smell, and it seemed to have sort of a therapeutical effect. So I created a story about a woman searching for calm and peace of mind. She´s standing in front of a book shelf, drinking tea and enjoying the smell of lavender. What does bring YOU down?

Stamps used here are from PaperArtsy and Makistamps.

All Things Alice

 
I thought it´s time for another Alice challenge as we all love Alice, don´t we? So here´s my sample card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge "All Things Alice". I´ve chosen it as my sample as I love this Madhatter stamp from IndigoBlu, but wait, I´ve made more ...

The Queen of Hearts is another interesting character in "Alice in Wonderland", but instead of letting her yell her usual "Off with their heads" I let her insist "A Rose is a Rose", an iconic sentence from Gertrude Stein. 

(Stamps are from Penny Black and PaperArtsy)

And finally we have Alice herself in a nature setting, combined with a wonderful quote that is not from Lewis Carroll - but I don´t care as I really like it and I always collage pics with words that don´t come from the same source (both stamps are from IndigoBlu again). I´m not a Lewis Carroll curator in a literature archive but an artist, so I chose quotes that fit in terms of content, not history. 

Other people DO care if a quote used with Alice illustrations really is from the book - for those of you here´s an interesting blog post where you´ll also find my quotes that aren´t originally from the book - so what? A Rose is a Rose is from Gertrude Stein but seemed appropriate, and so I used it. As I have studied literature, I love words and literature and care for history, but as a collage artist, I`m free to combine whatever I want.

What do you think about Alice quotes? 

I´m curious to see your Alice cards this week and read about your opinions.

Live in the Present

 

My sister Sabine picked "Playtime" as this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. 

I´ve always loved playing, as a child I loved Hopscotch and the skipping rope and all kinds of parlour games, today I prefer a lovely evening with friends having fun with our monthly pub quiz. Having fun doing things that you do just for fun is very important for your soul, I believe, and so playtime should be a fixed element in our calendars.

Like Friedrich Schiller said: "Man is only truly human when he plays." Life is short, so live in the moment, live in the present and do things that you don´t have to do but that make you happy.

For my card I´ve used stamps from Andy Skinner and Visible Image on a gessoed magazine background, coloured with watercolours.

Blue Monday

 

When I read this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme "Blue Monday", I had New Order in my ears immediately. Their song came out when I finished school and became an adult, so it will be always on my mind. 

How does it feel to treat me like you do?
Tell me how do I feel?

It´s interesting that the song title "Blue Monday" doesn´t appear in the lyrics of this song, but this is just part of the mystery of this great song.

I´ve made my card with stamps from Visible Image and an alphabet from AALL & Create.

Feathered Friends

 

In my opinion, we´ve had enough winter, and I´m longing for warmer temperatures and listening to the singing of my favourite feathered friends. 

Feathered Friends is this week`s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and my card was made with stamps from Hobbycompleetdeduif and Red Lead Paperworks.