A Heart needs a Home

I´ve had fun with my book page yesterday, so I´ve made another page today plus the cover for my book.
Do you know the song "A Heart needs a Home" by Richard Thompson? "The world´s no place when you´re on your own/ A heart needs a home", it says, and that´s oh so true. If you don´t know that song, maybe you´d like to take a moment and watch a video from 1975 here.
This page is my second entry for this week´s Wednesday Stamper´s challenge themed Hearts.

And on the right you can see the book cover with this page lurking through the window.

Home is where the Heart is

If you´re reading my blog from the beginning, you might remember that once I hated hearts - really! Well, today I own some lovely heart stamps and like to use a heart brad from time to time, so it´s obvious that your likes and dislikes don´t have to be carved in stone ...
This week´s theme for the Wednesday Stamper´s challenge is Hearts, and I´ve made a chipboard book page (about 4 x 7,6 ") here using some favourite stamps from Stampington, Darkroom Door, Paper Artsy and Stampers Anonymous.

Steampunk

It was a surprise to find out that Steampunk and Zetti have one thing in common: when I start making ATCs for a swap I don´t need any ideas in my head but just play with the things I have and get results I´d never had thought of in the beginning. These Steampunk ATCs were made for a group swap.

A is for Architecture

It´s been a while since I´ve posted the last spread in my own Alphabet Discovery Altered Book. Here´s my letter A spread illustrating not only the word architecture - the German words mean "I do not know my town any more", and this is the feeling that I know too well and that inspired these pages. Have you ever moved to another town and found that you´ve lost contact to what and whom you´ve left behind? Have you come back after years and years to find out that you don´t even remember the names of the streets in the quarter where you´ve lived? Have you ever mixed up streets or buildings or shops of the cities where you lived? (Well, this didn´t happen to me yet, but my mother does this all the time, so I´m sure it will happen to me when I´m over 80 ...) Did you ever walk along a street you believed to know well and then discovered that something had changed, but you couldn´t name it? You´ll find some places of my life in this spread - a map of Bremen on the right, a few silhouettes and a faux postage stamp of Cologne - but where is the home that I´ve posted in the left corner? Did I leave it behind somewhere or is it where I live now? Maybe it got lost on my way, or I´ll find it one day, or it´s just in my mind.

Alone with Trees

Again, I have tried to illustrate a text by Rainer Maria Rilke that I like very much, not only because I have lived near the place that he wrote about for ten years ... this is from his book about Worpswede:
"For let it be confessed: landscape is foreign to us, and we are fearfully alone amongst trees that blossom and by streams that flow. Alone with a corpse one is not nearly so defenceless as when alone with trees. For however mysterious death may be, life that is not our life is far more mysterious, life that is not concerned with us, and which, without seeing us, celebrates its festivals, as it were, at which we look on with a certain embarassment, like chance guests who speak another language."
I have written these words on the back of my 4 x 6 postcard and hope my swap partner will like them though they may seem strange for many people who like trees and maybe even feel familiar with them.

Two Bookmarks

I´ve made two bookmarks for swaps in one of my groups, one with a Zetti theme and the other one (front and back shown here) with the theme "Hot Air Balloons".

This post is for you, Bonnie!

I´ve had several comments on my blog during the last years asking where to buy or get appropriate postage stamps for making postage people. Most people commenting don´t leave their e-mail addy, so I´m not able to answer elsewhere than in the comments. But as I doubt that readers come back to find an answer to their questions there, I´ve decided to make an extra blog post.
I´ve received most of my stamps on envelopes from swap returns or as ephemera with swaps. But sometimes I´ve purchased some great stamps in the department store.
When I sent out the returns from my own Postage People blog swap, I sent a little bag with head stamps to everyone. I´ll do that for you, Bonnie, and other people who told me that they´re not able to find the right stamps. Please send me an e-mail with your address, and I´ll send a few stamps to you; just click on the "e-mail me" link in the sidebar of my blog.

School Days - the finished book

So here it is, my finished tip-in book themed School Days. Many thanks to all artists who have participated: Lorna, Jeannie, Beckie, Janne, Letha, Debra, Connie, Colette, and Sharron.
Many of you have included personal memories into your pages, and some have sent some personal ephemera from their own school days.

School Days

Do you remember my tip-in project themed School Days? After I have received the pages from the other participants and have showed my covers here, I´ve finally made my own spread tonight. I´ll show you the finished book in the next days.

My school days have been from 1970 to 1983, so you will remember that there were NO stylish satchels or clothes as pupils have nowadays. The building you see here was my actual school from the 5th to the 13th year. It had closed a few years after I´ve left school, but I´m happy to hear that it will soon be used as a school again! Isn´t it a lovely building? It was built in 1905, and it has been so nice to learn in such an old building and not in one of those new ones where each floor looks like all the others.

The boy on the right is one of my favourite photos from my family album, but I don´t know the girls on the left - this image just spoke to me, and the reason why I painted their cardigans in blue for the younger girl and red for the older girl is because during my first years at school I had to wear the same sweater design in blue first (which I got from my five years older sister) and then in red again three years later (from my eight years older sister) ... do I have to mention that it always had been out of fashion when I got the first one? Well, I´ve been an ugly child, and these clothes made it even worse. I´m happy to say that things like that didn´t really matter in those old times.

The words "Don´t do this and don´t do that" are from a song of my school days, Supertramp´s "School" from 1974. Whenever I hear that song or that LP (not CD of course!), it reminds me of my own school days.

Asia

... is a theme that´s interesting for me. I´ve read some Chinese books during the last years, have tried Chinese calligraphy, and I like old Japanese wood carvings. If you´re a regular visitor of my blog you know that I´m trying to tell stories with my ATCs, so these are an exception - as they are just decorative.

A Trip to Paris

This 6 x 6 collage is my entry for Mary Green´s October challenge - please visit her site and see what the other participants did with the nice collage sheet Mary has made for us to download.
The scrap in the top right corner is talking of "my first trip to Paris about 1900 age 10", so I just enhanced this idea by giving the girl her luggage, a Paris map, an Eiffel tower as her guide, and a vintage French postage stamp. When first I saw the collage images for this month I thought they wouldn´t inspire me because I missed some colour, but hey - I added a lot of colour and that solved my problem, LOL!
My printer didn´t work for a few days, so many thanks to my sister Sabine for printing the images and sending them to me so that I could join on time!

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.

Away from here

no words necessary

House Challenge

Have you seen Helga´s latest blog challenge last week? She sent a goodie bag with every order, and you can post what you´ve made of the items she has sent ... I love house shapes, so I couldn´t resist to play!
If you´ve seen or received her goodies and wonder why I haven´t used the word "for" but stamped the "4" instead, just have a look at my "studio" which is my kitchen table ... and you´ll know that I just couldn´t find that little snippet that I´ve had in my hands five minutes ago, LOL!

Poe Swap ATCs

I couldn´t resist joining another Poe swap - these are my six ATCs plus an extra card for our hostess Teri.

CCC: Wrinkle-free Distress

This week´s Tim Holtz technique for Linda´s Compendium of Curiosities challenge is Wrinkle-free Distress.

For my tag I have used Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Broken China, and Chipped Sapphire.

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.