Wicked

Halloween is coming near, and for a "Wicked" themed skinny swap I´ve made this 3 x 5 inches skinny page, front and back. Hope it will arrive in Canada in time!

Spring Friends are here!

Spring is in the air now, can you feel it coming? And with the new "Spring Friends" kit from Hidden Vintage Studios at DeviantScrap I couldn´t resist making a few Easter themed items!

The "March Hare" collage is digital, using a background from Crowabout Studio, a heart by Paula Kesselring and a title by Tangie Baxter.

But if you´re more on the cut and paste side, just try the jpg files that come with the kit - for my "Egg Hunt" I`ve combined the lamb with stamps from Stampin´ Up! and GreenPepperPress, and for "Hoppy Easter" I´ve used a border by Tumble Fish Studio and letters from Crowabout Studio.

Let Go

Here´s my last 4 x 8 skinny for Lorraine. It´s feeling strange to have finished the last skinny for this 10 months project ... When the project started, I feared that I wouldn´t have an appropriate idea each month, but now it´s hard to accept that this is the last skinny for our project ...

Working without a theme at first was intimidating, but I think I´ll miss the freedom of just making what comes to my mind by accident.

Zetti Princess

How could this happen - how could Mary Green´s beautiful Lillian Russell turn into a Zetti Princess? Somehow she lost her head and received a rose skirt and striped legs, and her arms no longer wrapped around her chair but put her crown on her new head ... well, as you know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and luckily Hermine, who´ll be the recipient of this skinny once it´s finished, likes Zetti!
Wanna play yourself? Just go to Mary´s wonderful site, download her new challenge images and give it a go!

Wherever

Here´s my 4 x 8 skinny for Trudi. The vintage images I´ve used are from a collage sheet Mary Green from Green Paper has so generously posted to download for free - and to use it for a challenge she´s hosting. Go and have a look at her gorgeous page and have fun with her images!

I added actual vintage stamps, some rubber stamped images, a die-cut cage as the lady´s skirt, and some words.

Fishing Trip No. 5

This 4 x 8 skinny page is my entry for the Wednesday Stamper´s challenge themed "Gone Fishing" as well as for Helga´s blog challenge thats wants us to make mermaids, -people or -animals. I´ve used one of the new ARTchix chipboard mermaid tails here, so it´s a bit 3-D.

Hurt

Song lyrics are one of the greatest inspirations for my collages. Sometimes I just can´t get some verses out of my head until I´ve "illustrated" them - which can be very loosely and intuitive like I did here. This skinny quotes the song "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, wonderfully covered by Johnny Cash.
"I hurt myself today / to see if I still feel. / I focus on the pain, / the only thing that´s real."
If you want to see more songs used in art pieces have a look at this week´s Three Muses challenge.

To-Do List

Here´s my monthly skinny page, this time for Lorraine. I´ve tried hard to do something less negative but failed ...

So here you can find some favourite verses of Russian poet Anna Achmatova (1889-1966). I thought that the mysterious look of Botticelli´s Simonetta Vespucci fits perfectly with these words.

All Around My Hat

This week´s Three Muses challenge theme is "Hats and Crowns and Wings and Things", so I thought that my skinny page for Hermine just fits in - isn´t this a nice hat?

Diseases of the Heart

This is my 4 x 8 skinny page for Trudi. On the back there´s the mother of these siblings asking herself: "What did I do? Wasn´t it right? right or wrong?"

My Body is a Cage

Last week I´ve bought Peter Gabriel´s latest CD and stumbled upon his version of a song by Arcade Fire, "My Body is a Cage". These words captured my mind immediately, and when I listened to the rest of the lyrics, I knew that this song would be my inspiration for my February skinny page for Marsha. The front page says:
My body is a cage that keeps me/ from dancing with the one I love,
and the back continues with some more verses from the song that are illustrated on the front:
... but my mind holds the key. (...)
I´m standing on a stage/ of fear and self-doubt, (...)
though the fear keeps me moving/ still my heart beats so slow.
If you don´t know the song yet, have a look at this lovely video made with it here.

Flight 253

With the beginning of the new year, we´ve started a 4 x 8 skinny pages project featuring six artists from four countries. This is my first page that goes to Viola. As she didn´t give any rules for her pages, I just started with a background in her favourite colour turquoise and went ahead by intuition, inspired by colours and design.

Spring

What a fun size this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge wants us to use! I´ve made my 2 x 4 inches mini skinny using paper and thistle stamp from Crafty Individuals and added stamps by Stamping Fairies, Stampington, and Stampers Anonymous, then accented the stamps with pink, blue, and white gel pens.

Skinny Sisters

This week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge is to make a 3 x 5 skinny.
I´ve used stamps from Stampington, Paperbag Studios, and A Capella for mine.

Row House Skinny

I´ve made this 3 x 6 inches Row House Skinny page for a swap, and as it´s my first swap with that group, I just hope it´s o. k. ...

In the Garden

This 3 x 5 skinny page is my entry for this week´s Creative Wednesday challenge "In the Garden".

Skinny Book - U is for Unbalanced

Our challenge for the last page of our Skinny Alphabet book was to use an image transfer technique.

As my book´s theme is "In the Mood" I´ve decided to illustrate an unbalanced person by layering different pictures of this person.

These are four transfers made with transfer ink which is very easy to use for the layering technique. I have then added the cut outs at the bottom.

The photo shows my finished Skinny Alphabet Book - you can see all the pages together here.

Skinny Book - I is for Introverted

The challenge for our letter I page was to use a small frame for our composition and fill it with diamond glaze or any other dimensional lacquer. In my example the frame doesn´t really highlighten the woman´s emotional expression - but I think it nevertheless supports the illustration of the illustrated mood: she seems to be caged in the frame or in the music she has in her head, and so it´s the perfect addition here.

Skinny Book - N is for Naughty

The challenge for our letter N page was to use rub-ons.

As my book´s theme is "In the Mood" I have chosen to introduce this naughty gang to you. The trees and the letters are rub-ons.

Skinny Book - M is for Melancholic

Our challenge for the letter M page was to create texture.
Remember that my book´s theme is "In the Mood", so I´ve decided to illustrate the melancholic mood.
I have used gesso to make my textured background: the vault remnants were stamped with gesso, and the M was made by filling a metal stencil with gesso. Then I have used black ink to accentuate the texture.