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?"

Birds

I´ve told you before that there´s a Birds themed swap just around the corner - now here are my finished ATCs for that swap.

Kopenhagen

This month our "Travel around the world" swap sends us to Copenhagen. As Kierkegaard was born and died there, he accompanies my version of the little mermaid.

Inside My Head

... there´s a permanent Tweet ...

Did I already tell you how much I love my new head stamp? It´s SOOOO versatile!

Luna

This week´s SPA challenge theme is "Goddess", so here´s my Goddess of the Moon, holding the silver crescent.

All my OWOH gifts arrived!

Yippieh, today I received the last of my three OWOH giveaways! I´ve won a lovely ephemera package from Mary, a handmade needlecase from Jen and a fantastic set of Derwent pencils including a sketchbook from Lois. Thank you, ladies!
My own giveaways have all reached their winners, too. And all those nice new contacts from all over the world made OWOH a great event again - hope it will happen again in 2011!

Spring Swap

Now here´s the whole bunch of Spring swap ATCs. Wonder why there aren´t more birds on them? Well, a Bird swap is waiting just around the corner!

More Spring

Isn´t this guy lovely? I´ve found the stamp on ebay and had it in the mail today, so I just had to use him immediately!

Think Spring!

Maybe a new hat helps? These ATCs are for a Spring themed swap at Altered Art Obsession.

Travel

I really believe that you have to be able to happily stay at home before you´re able to travel. So of course I love Emerson´s quote that I´ve used for my "Travel" card for this week´s SPA challenge.

A Passage To India

These tip-in pages for Lorna´s "India" book are my last contributions for the 2009/10 Paper Traders tip-in project. You can see some of the details in the scans below: for example there´s a beaded spiral in the sun, the elephants have some bling, and there are four little square mirrors at the bottom of the pages - remember those India skirts and bags with little mirrors in the seventies?

Curious and Curiouser ...

... to see the movie on Monday! Here are three more Alice ATCs in the meantime.

Roads & Paths

Sometimes when you read a challenge theme, you´re inspired immediately: Ideas come up, images pop up in your mind, words make up phrases, an atmosphere is growing. This happened when I read the theme for Lenna´s new swap at creativeswaps which is themed "Roads & Paths", so I´ve made my four 4 x 4 collages today.

Can´t Decide ...

Mermaids are this week´s SPA challenge theme.

Alice in Wonderland

As "Alice in Wonderland" is today´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge, I´ve made my first four ATCs for my sister´s upcoming Alice ATC swap today - maybe I´ll make some more because I haven´t used all my Alice stamps yet :-)

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.

Twins

Please welcome - no, not the Glimmer Twins, but the Wonder Twins! It´s their first show at today´s SPA challenge "Twins", so please clap your hands for this smart couple :-)

The Fab Four

Our next station on Katrin´s "Travel around the World" postcard swap is Liverpool. This card goes to Pat.

King Sherlock

Have you seen the ads for the movie "Sherlock Holmes"? My first thought when I saw them was: "What a great postage people body!" So here they are, my Sherlock king ATCs.

The Illusion of Freedom

Letha´s tip-in book is themed "Core Creations" which means that she wants us to create from our soul with whatever or however we feel inspired to do so. So of course my pages had to feature birds, houses/nests and a poem or quote. Here I used a quote by Jean Paul Sartre.

OWOH Giveaway Winners

Wow, I´ve had 280 comments on my OWOH giveaway post, and after I had deleted the duplicates, I´ve had 270 names in my jar today!
The winners of my gothic arches are Tracey from Ohio/USA, Caro from Austria, and Moonfairys Dreamland from Norway.
I don´t know any of you, so please let me know your addresses within three days, and your arches will be on their way to you very soon!
Thanks for entering my giveaway this year, it has been a lovely event again!

It´s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world!

I´ve told you that I´ve signed up for two Zetti swaps, so here are my ATCs for the second one. Not sure if I´ll stop here ...

Paper Dolls

Have you ever tried to make paper dolls? These are all completely stamped, and you´ll find some of them in the latest issue of "Just Stamps" - check it out and try your own!

From Italy to London

I hadn´t made any postage people for a while, but as this week´s The Three Muses challenge is "Postage Stamps", here´s someone who may have used his wings as well as his feet on his journey from Italy to London. My card is 4 x 6 inches.

Some Zetti Personalities

I´ve signed up for two Zetti swaps recently, and these are my ATCs for the first one.

And Let My Eyes Into Your Pupils Dart

In my opinion the greatest poem that was ever written about a cat (but not really about a cat ...) is by Charles Baudelaire - here´s an English translation that I think is quite good:

Come, my fine cat, against my loving heart;
sheathe your sharp claws, and settle.
And let my eyes into your pupils dart
where agate sparks with metal.
Now while my fingertips caress at leisure
your head and wiry curves,
and that my hand´s elated with the pleasure
of your electric nerves.
I think about my woman - how her glances
like yours, dear beast, deep down
and cold, can cut and wound one as with lances;
then, too, she has that vagrant
and subtle air of danger that makes fragrant
her body, lithe and brown.

I´ve tried to capture the feeling of these verses for this week´s SPA challenge "Cats".

Still shy

A simple ATC for the ARTchix bi-weekly lottery themed Red and White. All elements used are by ARTchix Studio.

The King of ...

... is the theme for these ATCs I´ve made for Sandra.

The Raven King

How could I resist today´s 4 x 4 Friday challenge "King Raven"? I´ve painted mine with Twinkling H2Os and mounted it on a glossy dark blue card, so my raven looks quite royal. I´ll send it to a friend who loves ravens and crows as much as I do.

Feel Crazy

My second ATC for the Clowns swap has movable parts, so it fits in an ATC sleeve.

Clowning Around

When I see all this snowy white and the grey sky, colour is what I really need. So I´ve made a colourful ATC that fits for this week´s TMTA challenge "Circus" as well as for today´s Crazy Amigo challenge "Carnival". And as I´m planning to join a Clowns themed ATC swap, I´ll use it as my first ATC for that one. Am I really that lazy?

Cats

Jeannie´s theme for her tip-in book is cats, and I didn´t want too much cutesy for my pages. I´m not really satisfied with the result, but at least my first attempt to put two pages together in Photoshop was successful. The pages are 6 x 6 inches each, hope that the image resolution is o. k.

Phrenology

Phrenology has been a 19th century thing, but even today some people think that parts of your character are located in distinct spots of your brain. This theory has led to some very dangerous conclusions, but also to modern neurology. And phrenology is this week´s theme for the SPA challenge.

ARTchix Inchies

Helga challenges us to work in a very small format and make five inchies - I´ve had fun with them, but I feel it´s time to use a larger canvas now :-)

Money

Money - it´s a crime. Share it fairly but don´t take a slice of my pie.
Money - so they say, is the root of all evil today.

Yes, you´ve heard these lyrics, haven´t you? Just imagine the sound of a cash register, and you have one of Pink Floyd´s greatest hits in your ears ...

Money doesn´t mean anything to me. I just need as much as it takes to pay the rent and buy enough art supplies. If you don´t have enough of it, you get nervous, but I´ve heard of some people getting nervous though (or because?) they have more than enough of it.
However, Money is this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge, and it inspired me to make the letter M spread for my Alphabet Discovery book.

One World One Heart Giveaways

Do you remember last year´s One World One Heart event? I´ve really loved to be a participant because of all those interesting blogs and friendly people that I´ve found by taking part.
If you´re new to my blog this year, be welcome to take a look around and maybe contact me.
This year we´re all riding the magic carpet, and I´d love to see you jump right on!
Wherever you see this badge,



you´ll find a participant of this year´s event, and it´s so easy to join us - just click on the logo to find a list of all participating blogs and have fun as well as the chance to win!

I´ve picked three of my own favourite postcard sized Gothic Arches as giveaways this year, and everyone can win.
All you have to do to win one of them is to leave a comment to this post with a valid e-mail address so that I´ll be able to contact you after I´ve drawn the three winners on February 15.