Cracked

 
Deann asks us for something cracked for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I really like Leonard Cohen´s quote that seemed to be very appropriate here. 
(Stamps are from Katzelkraft and Reprint.)

Italy

 
If you ask me for my favourite country in Europe, it would be Italy, so that´s why I´ve picked Italy as this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme. 
I´ve only been to the northern parts of Italy, so Rome is still on my list, but I loved Ravenna, Aquileia, and Florence, and I love the sound of the Italian language. I really hope that I´ll be able to see much more of this beautiful country! I haven´t been to Venice yet but Aquileia is the lagoon besides it, and I don´t want to be among those tourists in Venice, Barcelona and probably other European locations that make those places unvisitable. I´ve never took a flight, I woudn´t book a cruise, and I prefer to step back from my own dreams if I see that the pure amount of tourists overcharges a place I´d love to visit. 

So I´ve never been to Venice and probably will never be, but I´m still dreaming of it.

What is your favourite place in Italy you would like to visit? And will you be able to make your dream come true?

I´m curious to read your personal stories, so please share them with us this week!

Space

 

Space is the theme Sabine has chosen as this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme. In fact I made my card in her stamping room, using a combination of her stamps and my own, but my card looks completely different from her sample card.

I have never dreamed of travelling to foreign galaxies, and there are only a few science fiction movies about the theme that I like, but when I rode through the August night by bike tonight, I´ve been hypnotized by the starlit sky that was just amazingly bright. Next week there will be falling stars again, and though I´ve only seen a single one in my life, it has been a great moment. So while I´m not much fascinated by spaceships and astronauts, I really like watching the stars in summer nights. Oh, and before I forget it: When I read Samantha Harvey´s wonderful book "Orbital" ("Umlaufbahnen" in German) I really loved it because it brings up so many interesting thoughts about space flights and what astronauts really do (a lot of science) and think about while being so far from their life on earth that goes on without them for a while - it´s really worth reading it.

Favourite Colour - Indigo

 

Aimeslee asks for our favourite colour for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge. If you´re a follower, you know that I often use strong colours, and maybe you´ll be surprised to see my baby elephant painted in all kinds of indigo. If I had to choose, Indigo would be my favourite colour because it´s so versatile - you can paint any black and white photo with it, but you can also make it look greenish or a bit on the purple side - but you can make all these colours with indigo, and that´s why I love it.

No stamps this week but only a handdrawn baby elephant.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Fruit is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and strawberries have been what I ate a lot during the last weeks. I love these Alison Bomber stamps from Paper Artsy, and I love Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles, so here´s my card for this week!

New stamps

 
Even before I made sample prints for my inventory, I couldn´t resist making cards with some new stamps I got recently. I really love the rose stamps from Alison Bomber at PaperArtsy, and aren´t those raccoons from Stempelbar the cutest? I thought that this verse from the famous Adele song fits perfectly.

Frida

 

We celebrate Frida Kahlo´s birthday these days (born July 6th, 1907), but she also died in July, on July 13, 1954. 

Currently, there´s an exhibition about her life at the Tate Modern in London that opened on June 25th. 

Personally, I´ve seen a lot of her original paintings in an exhibition at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg in 2006, a rare opportunity to see so many of her rather small paintings in real life in Europe. 

I liked her art before I saw that exhibition, but I must say that it really helped to see her paintings in the neighbourhood of works from other painters (especially surrealists) to see connections but first and foremost the differences between her work and paintings from other artists. I believe that her colourful life sometimes obstructs our view upon the quality of her artwork, and that´s a pity. 

For my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Frida that I´m hosting, I´ve used a stencil from PaperArtsy (Lynne Perrella) and stamps from Invoke Arts.

I can´t wait to see your postcards inspired by her life and art!

Mad

This card was just made for FUN because I loved this head stamp from Stempelbar so much! I combined it with my favourite arms and legs from Zettiology, a book image from Stamperia as the body and Venetian house stamps from Heindesign - a little bit of text, a postmark, and there we are.
 

Arrows - Take Chances

Arrows is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. For my card I have combined stamps from Visible Image (text and arrows) and Paper Artsy/ Kate Crane (fishies)

 

Space and Big Alpha - stamp art projects

Heindesign has two rubber stamp mail art projects this summer themed "Space" and "Big Alpha". Both arrived in their mailbox today.

For my first card "You are not alone" I`ve combined stamps from Globeland, Visible Image, Picket Fence, Viva Las VegaStamps and Stamperia. 

My alpha card "Ein X für ein U" (a German saying) uses large stencils and a clear stamp alpha from Concord & 9th.

 

Owls - The Look

 
Look who´s watching you! I couldn´t resist Sabine`s theme for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge "Owls". I love their eyes, their mysterious life (even for a night owl like me), their ability to bend their neck and so much more. I´ve painted a cute on here with crayons and watercolour on a magazine photo.

Who I am

The Sunday Postcard Art challenge asks for our favourite quote this week. As someone who studied literature and collected quotes from books I´ve read since I´ve been 16 I don´t have a favourite quote, there are just too many that speak to me. But someone I always get back to is Lewis Carroll, so my card for this week features one of his Alice quotes. 
When you´re young, you have an idea of who you are and think that you will get nearer to this person the older you get, but that´s wrong. When you get older, you explore more possible selves and changes, and that´s not bad but part of the adventure of life.
 

Tiger

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art theme is Tiger, so my big cat reminds you of not stepping back when you see a beast in front of you but to fight your fears - not easy of course.
 

Adventurous Alice

 
Alice put on the Madhatter´s hat and is going out for another adventure!

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Put a hat on it", so I´ve put the Madhatter´s hat on Alice using stamps from IndigoBlu.

My Beautiful Friend

"Faces" is this week´s Sunday Postcard Art theme, and of course I had many ideas for it. I ended up with a lovely face and a quote that makes you think about her sad smile.

I`ve always been more on the dark side, even if it concerns beauty. I never liked those shimmering young beauties without any background but preferred a bit of mystery behind a beautiful face. Every life has its own story, and I believe that it should be recognizable on your face, and that it intensifies its beauty.

(Stamps used here are from IndigoBlu and StudioLight.)

Shakespeare

I´m hosting the Sunday Postcard Art challenge today and have picked Shakespeare for this week´s theme. 

I love many works of Shakespeare, especially Richard III., Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Tempest, but I don´t like most of his comedies. However, his wit and beautiful language sound (I often read his words loud) show up in those, too.

We don´t know much about The Bard who lived from 1564 to 1616, and only the Chandos portrait from about 1600/1610 probably shows us how he looked like. For my card, I´ve chosen a stamp that reproduces the portrait from Martin Droeshout, an engraving from 1623, that is based on the Chandos portrait and was used as a cover for the first folio of Shakespeare´s works.

Have you seen "Hamnet" already? I had watched another film about the same theme recently, "All is true" from Kenneth Branagh, but I prefer "Hamnet". What about you?

The Shakespeare stamp is from VLVS, and I combined it with stamps from Paper Artsy (Alison Bomber and Seth Apter), and Zettiology, and papers from Stamperia.

Do you like Shakespeare, and which is your favourite work? I can´t wait to see your interpretations this week!

Happy Easter!

 
For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Rabbits/Hares I couldn´t resist using Tim Holtz´ lovely Mr. Rabbit who´s sending Easter Greeting to all of you.

Dragonflies

 
My Dragonfly card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was made using a stamp set from Visible Image and shimmering watercolours - what a pity that the shimmer and glitter can´t be seen in the scan!

Having Fun

I almost forgot to post this card using an Andy Skinner stamp and that I just made for fun, inspired by the lovely stamp.

 

Strong Women

 For this week´s Sundy Postcard Art challenge´s theme "International Women´s Day" I had sooo many ideas! In the end, I´ve combined stamps from Dina Wakley and Jane Davenport.

We are all very different, but we shouldn´t forget that we are all women and should support each other!
(In real life, I´ve experienced the opposite, such as female "colleagues" fighting against me and mobbing me for years. So I really wish that this won´t happen again in the future. Probably just a dream.)