Our World Our Art

find all info here

For all visitors who come to my blog via Lisa Swifka´s Our World Our Art international blogwide artistic event, here´s a little info about me:

I´m Marion from Germany, a self taught mixed media artist who loves to blog. I´ve been running my blog since 2006 and have met many wonderful friends and artists that way. Though there are other ways and places to meet people online, I´ve found out that nothing can beat your blog to show other people who you really are - you can make your own rules, design it just the way you want it to look like, and you can post whenever you want, plus posting doesn´t take more than a few minutes. I love to visit other artists´ blogs and often take the time to leave them comments because I know how much encouragement and joy they bring.
I´m even hosting annual ATC swaps on my blog - if you´re interested in taking part in my current one (just scroll down a bit), please let me know.

I´ve started my online activities mostly as a stamper but switched to mixed-media art very soon - you´ll notice that most of my artwork still features some rubber stamped images though. Nowadays I love to combine stamping with other techniques such as painting, cut and paste collage, and even digital collage - mixing these to find the perfect expression of what I want to say is my artistic passion.

As my gift giveaway, I´ve chosen three postcards that illustrate my favourite techniques and that have been published in one way or another:

Card 1 was published in an article about the Sunday Postcard Art challenge blog in Artful Blogging Spring 2009.

 Card 2 was published with my article about Postage People in Just Stamps 2/2009.

I demonstrate how I made this third card in my Youtube video about sanding here.

You can win one of the three postcards above if you´re a blogger anywhere in the world. Just leave a comment under this blog post with a way to contact you if your blog doesn´t provide an email link.
Winners will be announced on April 19, 2014, after the OWOA event was closed.
Can´t wait to get to know you all!

Announcing my 8th Annual Blog Swap: Bird People!

Yes, it´s that time of the year again: time for my Annual ATC Blog Swap! This year´s theme is Bird People, and I hope you´ll be inspired by it!
The idea is to mix birds and people to create bird people creatures. Here are a few samples from my old photo files that might give you a hint what all this is about - these are NOT my ATCs for this swap (though you´ll find a few of the creatures revisited on my new ATCs):

                                                                                                       As always, you can use any technique you like - you can stamp, collage, draw, sew, or work digitally (if you use at least one tactile element). You can use ready-made bird people from stamps or collage sheets, or you make new creatures yourself.

 For the very first time, this swap will be a sponsored one which means that there´ll be a giveaway - watch out for my next update for the details!

 Please sign up via personal email (just click on the link in the sidebar) and let me know your snail mail address. There´s no sign up date.

Then send 3 ATCs to my address (that I´ll send you when I answer your email) so that I receive them before June 1, 2014.

 As always, you´ll find updates on my blog with links to all participants´ ATCs. So when you´ve finished your ATCs, please send me an email with the link to the place where you´ve posted them online, and I´ll add that link to my next update so that everyone can go to your blog or other website to have a look at your artwork. And we´ll have a Pinterest board again as a swap gallery for all to visit and comment.

 I´ll send out invitations to all previous participants, but this swap is open to all my visitors. Have fun creating!

My Little Queendom

These two digital collages (Queen of my Own Fate above and Happyland below) have both been made with images from Tumble Fish Studio´s new kit "My Little Queendom" only. As always, the kit comes with collage sheets, so you can also use it for your cut and paste artwork!

Eggstravagant?

Last Sunday, we´ve had our annual egg painting event in my kitchen, and here´s my result: only two eggs, but I think you can see how much fun I´ve had drawing the Zetti inspired bunny with the long striped tail and the cat and mouse couple ...

London is the Place to be

These are my ATC for a London themed ATC swap in one of my groups. I´ll visit London for the first time in August and can´t wait to do some sightseeing!
I´ve used Transfer Ink for three of these ATCs, combined with rubber stamps and collage images. The magnifying glass has been made dimensional with Diamond Glaze.

Animal Crossing

Hidden Vintage Studios have a fantastic new kit out today called "Animal Crossing" - it´s really my new favourite of Tracey´s kits! Have a look at these wonderful animal people and you know why ...
My Llama Mama is only looking forward ...

Big Brothers are watching these cute owl sisters ... 

 Miss Rabbit likes to play in the park at night ...

and this is my hommage to Edward Hopper´s Nighthawks.
All other elements I´ve used in these four pieces are from Deviant Scrap designers Holliewood Studios, Beth Rimmer, and Hidden Vintage Studio kits of course.

Arrows

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme is "Arrows", and here´s my card for it - I´ve used rubber stamps from Stampers Anonymous, American Art Stamps, Unity Stamps, and Limited Edition for it (and can´t remember where these wonderful boots are from ...).

Sometimes - Zetti Time Again

These are my finished 5 x 7 journal pages for Sandy for our Teesha Moore Style themed tip-in exchange.
I´ve used a different colour scheme this time, and the smaller format forced me to write on the images, too. All in all, I´m not completely satisfied with the lettering this time, but as our project is a challenge to try new techniques, I think it´s o. k.

A Fish With A View

Often when I make collages, I´m in a silly mood - my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Fish" is no exception ... The wonderful fish man stamp is from Viva Las Vegas, the alpha is from Darkroom Door, background made of pieces from Tumble Fish Studio and ARTchix Studio.

Egg People

Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio has come out with a lovely Easter kit today, called "Dozens". As always, you also get all images as collage sheets with the kit, but I´ve made two digital samples here using the eggs and paints from this kit. (All other images used here are from Tumble Fish Studio, too.)

It´s Zetti Time Again!

For our annual Zetti themed ATC swap in one of my Yahoo groups, I´ve only made 3 ATCs this time, but I like them more than those that I´ve made for our previous swaps.

Irish Family Reunion

Tracey from Hidden Vintage Studios has a lovely freebie image for you - you can download Lucky Liam for a limited time here.
I´ve used that sweet couple for my St. Patrick´s Day collage above, using additional images from PinkLotty, Krysty Scrap, Holliewood Studios, and Itkupilli.

Newspapers

I

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Newspapers was a great excuse to use one of my favourite stamps from Tin Can Mail once again - together with other stamps from Catslife Press and Ma Vinci and a stencil from Red Lead.

Dreams - Yonder

If you liked the recent Tumble Fish Studio kit "Funky Fairies", you´ll love Marsha´s new kit "Dreams - Yonder"! Here are three digital samples made with this kit to inspire you. Of course you can also make cut and paste artwork with it as there are 11 (!) collage sheets included in this kit.

Never Wear White

Black is the truth 

of my situation

and for those of my station

in life, all the colors lie.

What can I say - I immediately fell in love with that new song from Suzanne Vega as - really! - I never wear white!
(image credits: Itkupilli and Krysty Scraps, both at Deviant Scrap)

Stitched with Love

"Stitched with Love" is the name of a fabulous new kit from Hidden Vintage Studios. As there´s some hand-drawn stitching on the characters, they´re perfect for using them in your cut and paste artwork. As a sample, I´ve made the card above that also uses rubber stamps from Red Lead.
The sample below was made digitally: I scanned a library card from my stash and collaged it with images from Hidden Vintage Studios and Holliewood Studios and added some more stitching from Tangie Baxter.

Zetti Journal Pages

I´ve made these large (8 x 10 inches) tip-in journal pages for a swap in one of my Yahoo groups. The theme for our pages is "Teesha Moore Style" which means Zetti style of course. It took several hours to make these pages (front and back), but I´m quite satisfied with the result. Probably I´ve learned a lot of new things in Teesha´s "Artstronauts Club" lately.

Come to my MUSEum!

Deviant Scrap has opened the doors to their new store collab today that´s themed "MUSEum"! This includes very different kits, some leaning on distinct artists or art eras or art techniques, others leaning on museums dedicated to National or Natural History.
So my samples for you are very different, too! My first four collages have been made with the collab part from Hidden Vintage Studios: "Friends" illustrates a quote from Albert Camus, "My Dad and Me" works as kind of a St. Patrick´s Day card, "Nature" keeps its story simple to enhance its expression, and "Work in Progress" is a digital art journal page.
Keep reading on (just scroll down a bit) for my samples made for Tumble Fish Studio!

 (additional credits: Eena´s Creations, Tumble Fish Studio)

(additional credits: PinkLotty, Crowabout Studio B, Holliewood Studios, Marta van Eck, Finecrafted Designs)

And here are my samples made for Tumble Fish Studio´s part of the collab! If you need some inspiration to play with this kit and you´re in Germany, maybe you´d like to watch Ben Stiller´s "Night at the Museum" on Thursday and its sequel on Sunday? I´ve recently watched part 1, and it has inspired my third collage "My Visitors" ...

Mr Lemonhead

You do not often see yellow on my blog, and the reason is that I don´t like yellow for other things than flowers ... But as Caroline has chosen yellow as my theme for our "50 Shades of ..." postcard exchange, I had to take the challenge, and this is what I came up with. (Do I have to mention that MY card will be made in shades of green?)
All images used here are from Tumble Fish Studio, the eye stamp is from Red Lead.

She Loves Art Even More!

Do you remember that I´ve posted my She Loves Art ATCs for this month´s Red Lead swap recently? Right after that, the same theme was chosen in one of my Yahoo groups, and as I had received some new stamps and stencils in the meantime, of course I decided to play again. Here´s what will go out to Gloria tomorrow ... The frame, banner, and silhouette stencils are from Red Lead again.

Blue Valentine

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme is "My Heart is Blue for You", and I´ve made a digital postcard this time. (Image credits: Durin Eberhart, ViVa Artistry, G+T Designs)

Springtime Fairytales

I´ve had some fun evenings playing with Tumble Fish´s new kit "Dreams - Funky Fairies" - not the usual cute fairy stuff, but something more Zetti styled ... You can see a digital sample made only with this kit above.
The sample below combines Marsha´s images with the collaborating kit from Nancy from Crowabout Studio B; these kits go together well and can easily be combined. Nancy also has a paper pack that I´ve used for the background.
My third and last piece is a cut and paste journal page made with Marsha´s kit and a few rubber stamps.

She Loves Art

One of my favourite shops, Red Lead, has started to host monthly ATC swaps in 2014 (if you´re interested, you can click on the label in the right sidebar of my blog). The theme for February is "She Loves Art", and of course I couldn´t resist taking part ... Please click on the photo to see the details!

Italy - A Corner of Heaven

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, I revisited an old journal spread I´ve made about Italy that used some of my own photos taken in Florence. I added two Italian postage stamps digitally and used a few additional papers and textures to enhance the colours - in the end I felt the need to visit Italy again soon!