Cats Rule

... at least over fish and birds ... so here´s my ATC for today´s TMTA challenge "odd creatures".

More Postage People

I promised to make more Postage People ATCs, and here they are! Did you ever wonder why James Stewart almost always played "good" characters? And if you already made postage people yourself, did you try postage buildings, too? In my sample, a church in vienna was topped by another church in Dortmund. And isn´t it surprising how modern the guy in front of the church looks - though he´s been painted by Albrecht Dürer in beginning of the 16th century!

Postage People again!

In one of my Yahoo groups there´s a swap going on themed "ATCs using postage stamps" - so of course I´ve made some Postage People ATCs again. If you´ve never heard of these, maybe you´d like to check out my video about making postage people.
I haven´t made these for a while, so I´ve found lots of new combinations, so come back, there will probably be some more during the next days ...

Asylum for the Chronic Insane

I´ve had a fun morning making this large (5,8 x 8,3 inches) card for this week´s Wednesday Stamper challenge themed Steampunk.
The stamps I have used are from Scrollswork, Creavil, Stamp Francisco, American Artstamps and Stamp Camp.

13 Odd Things To Happen ...

Something really spooky is going on right now as everything I make is turning out to be Halloween art, even my entry for this week´s Compendium of Curiosities challenge ...
The theme for this week is Tim Holtz´"Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge" technique. In addition to the dotted grungeboard that I´ve received as a RAK today and the inks I have used Tim´s hand, eye, and raven stamp, as well as the "things to happen ..." as part of one of his stamps.

Spooky Again ...

but I think this is the last Halloween swap for 2010 ...

My Studio

Did you ever wonder how my studio looks like? Well, if you´re prepared for a Halloweeny scary insight, then go to Seth Apter´s fabulous blog "The Altered Page" today and have a look into my kitchen ...

Gothic Arch Halloween Swap

There are quite a lot Halloween swaps going on right now - this 3,5 x 4,3 Gothic arch is for a swap at the ARTchix Sisters Yahoo group.

More Halloween Greeting Tags

And here are my second and third card for the Red Lead swap ...

As you can see, the bird shape is not a crow or raven, but this guy dressed in black just for Halloween - that´s why the card´s title is "Wanna be a Crow".

"The Witching Hour" shows our little witch after she´s finished with her funny games ... not so funny for the "cat" and "crow" she´s bewitched! There´s a lot of black sparkle here that doesn´t show on the scan.

Halloween Alice

This is my first 4 x 6 tag for the Red Lead Halloween Greeting Postcard Tag swap. And as you see polka dots made with sequin waste (aka punchinella) in the background, this card also qualifies for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge.

Shells

I´ve made quite a large card for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge themed "Shells". It measures about 5,6 x 8,3 inches.

Flight No. 85364

This week´s Three Muses challenge theme is Numbers, so here´s my Steampunk man from Hungary with his flight No. 85364 to London - looks like he´s arrived safely.

Back to School

An ATC for our ARTchix lottery at Flickr.

Famous

As this week´s TMTA challenge is "Famous People", here´s my tribute to John Lennon´s 70th birthday on Oct 9, 2010.

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!

In the Mood for Colour

... is what I´ve been tonight! So here are my Zetti ATCs for a swap hosted by my sister Sabine.

Finally finished!

Do you remember my Ravens & Crows book project with the Mixedmediamadams group?
I´ve recently bought a bind-it-all, and yesterday I finally put this book together - and I love it!
Many thanks again to Martha, Patti, Tamara, Xela, Barbara, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Megan, Peggy, Deborah, Heather, and Sandee for their wonderful pages!

Cats are people too

Today I needed an ATC for the ARTchix Sisters´"Cat´s Meow" lottery - but then I just couldn´t stop ... The lottery card is the one on the right.

On the Darkside

When I read this week´s theme for the SPA challenge, I immediately had an idea. Then tonight I tried it - and it didn´t work. But I had made some acrylic textured backgrounds a few hours before, and so I decided to just play ... and here´s the result that I like much more than my first, planned, card!

World of Zetti

The Three Muses have chosen one of my favourite themes for this week´s challenge and want us to show them a "World of Zetti". These ATCs are for a swap themed Zetti Girls.

CCC: City Lights

This week´s Tim Holtz technique over at Linda´s "Compendium of Curiosities Challenge" is Blended Batik - a quick and fun yet very effective technique! I love the crackled look of the embossed parts here! I´ve used a metallic dark blue paper for the main card with a lovely shimmer that my scanner isn´t able to show.

Beach Life

No holidays for me yet, so here´s my paper substitute.

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.