Odd Bods

What an interesting challenge for SPA this week! Yes, this woman carrying her home with her is one of my favourite stamps, and the quote saying "Art is the only way to run away without leaving home" has been in my rubber collection for a while, too, but I´ve never combined the two before - and I don´t know why. That´s why I love challenge blogs - they bring out ideas that have been on their way for a while but didn´t came out for some reason you just don´t understand when you see the result ... in this case a person is finding her own way outside of the group of homes below her - love that idea!

Sing me a song

"Wheels" is this week´s Three Muses challenge - and this bird may have chosen wheels as his medium of transportation as he doesn´t trust his metal wings ... so what about his ability to sing? Those German words mean "Sing me a song", but I fear that the bird´s crazy look says "Singing? what are you talking about?"
The card is 4 x 6, machine and bird by Oxford Impressions.

Summer´s Bounty

Paper Whimsy now started a monthly ATC lottery at the Ning group. August´s theme is "Summer´s Bounty", and here´s my ATC for it.

Back to School

It´s funny how you lose track of when the holidays start and end once you´ve left school forever. I had to have a look into my calendar to see that there are two weeks left before school starts again here in Münster.

However, "Back to School" is the new theme for the Gothic Arches challenge, and this is my entry.

Mushrooms

I believe the boy is right -but what about you? Do you see the bird flying away with the house in his beak? So - did you eat from the mushrooms or have a glass of wine or any other drugs?

CCC: Distress Crackle

In week #9 of Linda´s "Compendium of Curiosities" Challenge (CCC) we try Tim Holtz´ Distress Crackle technique. For my 4 x 6 I´ve been following the instructions in his book very closely, using Distress Crackle Paint for the bird and Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint for the Bingo background. You can use a bingo marker to accent a number with a special meaning for the recipient, for example the year of his/her birth.

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.

Steampunk Swap ATCs

If you´ve ever made Steampunk ATC with all their bulky metal embellishments, you know why I couldn´t scan these properly - so here´s a bad photo of them, but believe me, the originals are really nice.

CCC: Tinted Vision Fragments

This large (5,9 x 7,3 inches) card is my entry for this week´s Compendium of Curiosities challenge No. 7 on Linda´s blog which is "Tinted Vision Fragments". What a fun and versatile technique!

Owls

I know that it´s a bit early for Halloween cards, but as today´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Owls", here are my bewitched owls - take some candy nevertheless!

Moo meets ATC

What a fun name for a fun swap! As a moo card (2,8 x 7 cm) is relatively large to find a place on an ATC, it´s not easy to combine the two - have a try!

A Midsummer Night´s Dream

This 6 x 6 page is my entry for the new Wednesday Stamper´s challenge "A Midsummer Night´s Dream". This is not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays (those are The Tempest, Macbeth, and Richard III.), maybe because I don´t like all that elves and ghosts and fairytale stuff ... but I like the fact that the lion, the moon and even the wall play their own roles here. Here´s a snippet from the first scene of the fifth act.

CCC: Multi-Medium Collage

Challenge No. 6 for Linda´s Compendium of Curiosities Challenge (CCC) based on Tim Holtz´ techniques is themed "Multi-Medium Collage". I´ve made an ATC here for a swap themed "Two", but if you make the same design larger (and maybe brighter :-)), it will make a lovely wedding card.

Hot or Cool?

These are my ATCs for the ARTchix Butterfly ATC swap - which do you prefer, the hot ones above or the cool ones below?

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.

The Things I Love

Due to my computer problems and other things I´ve missed a few challenges on Linda´s Compendium of Curiousities challenge (CCC) - but here´s my entry for the fifth challenge themed Distress Embossing Powders. I love the worn effect they add to this card.

All Things Poe

... is the title of this Cherry Pie 4 x 4 swap. All stamps by Cherry Pie of course.

You are a Doll

The theme for our bi-weekly ARTchix Flickr lottery is "anything starting with a D" - so here´s my grungy ATC!

Paris

Today I had to make four Paris themed ATCs, one for a one-on-one trade at Creative Souls ...

and three for a swap.

Born to make your Fortune

When I was blog hopping today, I saw that my friend Mary from Green Paper has put a challenge on her blog: She has some lovely collage images for you to download and wants you to play with them. I couldn´t resist, so here´s my 5,9 x 6,6 card.

What?

There´s something mysterious about Mona Lisa - and no, I´m not talking about her smile ... Did you ever wonder what the other half of Mona Lisa looks like? The answer is my entry for this week´s TMTA challenge "Mona Lisa".

Flag Garland Swap

These last two weeks haven´t been a very creative time for me - too many things to do concerning my computer, my birthday, and at work, and the heat (up to 38 °C here!) and the soccer world championship took the rest of my energy.

But I´ve finished my flags for the next ARTchix swap; we have to use elements from a kit that makes a lovely garland of flags in the end.

Back online!

It seem´s that I´m back online now, and I´ll try to scan and upload again as soon as I´ve been able to create something new ...

Offline

It´s quiet here, isn´t it? My computer is down since last Thursday, and I don´t know when I´ll be able to scan and post again. Hope you´re patient and I´ll see you here soon!

Home is the Sailor

Sea Voyages is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

Water Stamping

Have you noticed the new Compendium of Curiosities challenge? If you´ve bought that book by Tim Holtz you´ll know what this is all about - every Monday there will be another challenge from this great book of stamping techniques. Have a look at Linda´s blog here.

This week´s challenge is water stamping. I like to combine water stamped images with regular stamping to get more contrast.

Beatles Swap finished - finally!

Maybe you didn´t notice, but this year my annual blog swap didn´t go as smoothe as in the past years. Four (!) envelopes to the U. S. got lost in the mail - so if you didn´t receive three thank you mails for your cards it may be possible that your ATC has been among the lost ones.

Those wonderful participants who sent an extra ATC for me made it possible for me to send all four patient U. S. players a second bunch of ATCs so that everyone has received three return ATCs now.

So let me say thank you to all those who sent an extra ATC - I wouldn´t have been able to send out 12 extras without your help!

Hope to see you all again in next year´s swap.

Sanding - two new videos

I´ve just uploaded two new videos on Youtube - both about sanding as a mixed media technique.
On the left you can see a postage person whose body was made by sanding a magazine image.


On the right is a 4 x 6 card which is completely sanded. The first video shows how it was made. Have a look here to see the whole process.

And this spread in my altered book themed "Untold Stories" also has sanded elements; the second video shows how the altered photo on the left and the postage person on the right were made using sand paper. Have a look here to see the process.

Steampunk

I´m going to attend a stamping convention in Hamburg tomorrow - it can´t be wrong to take a few more ATCs for personal trades with me ...

No. 39

Here´s another one of those lovely 5 x 7 chipboard houses - this time it´s not for the Red Lead Altered Houses swap but will be used as a gift I think.

Questions (no answers)

You may have wondered what happened to my Alphabet Discovery Book. I just haven´t had the time to work in it for a while, but today I finally got back to it and made my letter Q spread. It´s not my best work, but as this book is my personal journal, it´s the journey that matters in the end - and to finish a project that´s big fun.

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.

Insects

What do you think when you think of insects? Don´t bug me? Carpet Crawlers? Well, I´m not a big fan of insects in real life (I´ve been bitten too often - ouch!) but like to be reminded of another small world completely different from ours - so George Eliot´s words quoted here gather up my amazement when it comes to our small coinhabitants. This 4 x 6 card is my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art 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.

Home Sweet Home

... is this week´s Gothic Arches challenge theme.

Orange

Seems to be a week of special challenges for me - after having to do a yellow piece, now orange is this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s theme. I don´t like orange very much but like to use it for some special occasions and themes and mostly in combination with black and a little bit of pink. So here´s my orange 4 x 6 card for this challenge. The stamps I´ve used are by Cherry Pie, The Artistic Stamper, Beeswax, Stamp Francisco, and Flamingo.

Ships

My ATCs for a Ship themed swap.

Yellow

... is probably my least favourite colour, but as I love a challenge I´ve had fun making a yellow ATC for the bi-weekly ARTchix lottery. Looks like we´ll have some sunnier days from now on!

Swapped Out!

It´s over now - 21 envelopes are packed and waiting to be put in the mail tomorrow. Please let me know when you receive your return cards! Hope to see you again in next year´s blog swap!

Beatles Swap Update No. 8

Look at these great buttons that Tamara sent as an extra with her Beatles ATCs - aren´t they lovely?

Then have a look at the last two entries from Tamara and Ingeborg 1, 2, and 3.

Today is May 15, the due date for my swap, and I´ve just found the last two envelopes in my mailbox, so yes: this swap is complete and ready to be swapped out! I´ll do this over the weekend and put the returns in the mail on Monday.

We´ve been 22 participants this year, 8 from Germany, 8 from the United States, 2 from Australia, 2 from Canada, 1 from England, and 1 from Malaysia. Thanks to all of you, you´ve made the last weeks much more colourful for me!

ARTchix Tag Swap

For this swap we were wanted to use Helga´s most recent collage sheets on our 2 1/4 x 4 3/4 tags. I have used her lovely sheets about moons, tea, cats, and poppies here.

Beatles Swap Update No. 7

Time for another swap update, but as you can see I´m running out of ATCs for these updates, LOL! So here´s a 4 x 6 card just to illustrate the theme ...

Last week I´ve been watching a DVD with the musical "Across the Universe" - do you already know that movie? I like it a lot and sang and whistled half of the time because the soundtrack is a compilation of songs written by The Beatles, but sung and arranged quite different from the originals. The DVD extras show that the actors sang all the titles themselves, sometimes live, and that´s what makes this movie so lovely. I even recognized Bono as Dr. Roberts :-) If you still need some inspiration for your Beatles songs ATCs, just go and watch that movie! But hurry up, your ATCs should be in my mailbox before Saturday!

Since my last update, I received ATCs from Charlotte, Katrin, Debbie (sorry, I e-mailed you twice to say I got them, but my mails both came back to me!), Linda, Marnie, and Sabine D. So there are now 16 entries in my swap box, but I´m waiting for 5 more - hope théy´ll arrive this week!

And here are more links for you to finished ATCs from Fatma 1, 2, and 3, Charlotte, and Sabine D. - have fun looking at them!

Sunnier Days, Please!

It´s May now, but it´s still cold and rainy - can´t wait for sunnier days!

This week´s SPA challenge is Umbrellas, and this is just the right theme for the weather we have right now ...

My card goes to Barbara D. , my partner in the ARTchix sisters postcard swap. But though my naked Steampunk postcard made it to Illinois in two days (!!!) I don´t dare to send this one naked again - it´s just too wet outside!

Flying Home

Here´s my second 5 x 7 chipboard house for the Red Lead swap. It features four Red Lead stamps as well as two of their collage sheets and one of the lovely Patina birds flying on the roof. I have fixed the bird with wire and also used that wire to make the hanging.

Beatles Swap Update No. 6

Today the mail man didn´t come at all, how disappointing!
But during the last days, I have received Beatles ATCs from Trudi, Fatma, and Elizabeth H. - thanks, ladies!

Most of you participants have their cards finished and mailed, so here are more links to beautiful ATCs from Glenda, Julia 1, 2, and 3, Sarah, and Katrin.

Those of you who haven´t mailed their ATCs should hurry up because there are only 9 days left! Or if you have to drop out please let me know so that I don´t wait for ATCs that will never arrive ...
Please remember that all your ATCs should be in my hands before May 15.

In & Out

This is my first house for the Red Lead "Fly Away Home Altered House Swap". It´s made from a 5 x 7 inches chipboard house. I thought it would be nice to have the bird inside and the boys outside the house this time.

Green Beach

Green is this week´s TMTA challenge theme, and as I´ve made a green beach themed ATC just yesterday, here it is ...