Fairy Whispers

Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio at Deviant Scrap has come out with a wonderful fairies kit today called "Fairy Whispers". As always, the kit has loads of images both in png and jpg format so that they can be used for all your digital as well as physical art.
I´ve made a cut and paste journal page in my Moleskine journal, shown above, and a digital collage, shown below, that also uses the new FREE Tumble Fish Studio font called "Paper Lady".

In the Garden

In the Garden is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge blog, and what a great excuse to use one of my favourite stamps again! That quote stamp is from Inkadinkado/Dawn Houser, and I combined it with image from Paper Whimsy and a background paper from BoBunny for my postcard.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 9 - Congrats to our coupon winners!

Yesterday has been the due date for our swap, so you can see me sitting here closing my lists and putting all the info together ... (the bird stamp is from Lost Coast, the background stamps are from Red Lead).

In the end we´ve been 35 participants from 9 countries, and 12 of you have taken part in my blog swap for the first time - thanks to all of you!

Here are the last links to finished ATCs from Brigitte 1, 2, 3 - you won´t be able to comment, but at least you can have a look at her lovely ATCs. I couldn´t pin these ATCs to our swap board, so please follow these links directly.

As you all know, this swap has been sponsored by Tracey from Hidden Vintage Studios at Deviant Scrap who generously gives away three coupons for her great shop here. Thank you so much, dear Tracey!
I´ve used Random.org to draw our winners Bevlea, Sherry, and Karla - congrats to you, I´ll email the coupons to you soon!

I´m still waiting for the four swap envelopes from Bevlea, Lay Hoon, Michele, and Dale, but as these have all been sent early and have been in the mail for weeks now, I´m sure that they´re held up in the customs and will arrive soon.
(A little tip for your next international swap: if you can, try to use a regular, unpadded business envelope without a customs declaration because it will not go to the customs.)

So we all have to be patient for a while - I´ll keep you posted!

Shakespeare

I´m hosting this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and as we celebrate Shakespeare´s 450. birthday this year, I thought Shakespeare would be a great theme ...
We don´t know much about him, but it seems that he really existed (which wasn´t clear even in the 80s when I learned about him at school!) and that he was baptized on April 26, 1564, so he was probably born in April 1564 (and died in April 1616).
For my card, I used a background with red ink splashes running down like blood, and a real postage stamp and a quote from Shakespeare´s drama "Hamlet", one of my favourites (besides "The Tempest" and "Richard III.") - the red ink stands for all the blood shed in Shakespeare´s dramas.
I have used a popular image of Shakespeare that I´ve found in a newspaper, and drew over it with pencils and charcoal, then added several rubber stamps from Cherry Pie.
Can´t wait to see what you will create for this challenge!

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 8

Yes, our swap has almost come to an end, but not now - I´m still waiting for five international envelopes, and as I´m afraid that some of them got held up in the customs, I won´t be able to swap out all cards next week.
The good news about that is that this gives you all more time to comment on all those lovely ATCs that have been created for this swap, and today I have some more links to finished ATCs for you - please have a look at the lovely Bird People from Barb, Ilka, Ingeborg, and Glenda and leave your comments on those you like!
My own ATC for this week´s update has been made using a body from Inka Heaton = alteredartifacts and a bird head from Itkupilli, a suitcase from Tumble Fish Studio plus a few scraps and stamps - hope you like it!

Welcome to the Odd Show!

Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio has a new Dreams kit out today that´s called "Dreams - Odd Show" - and as always it also contains collage sheets to print out and use in your cut and paste artwork!
I´ve made two digital collages with this kit that you see above, and one cut and paste postcard shown below - hope these pieces will give you some inspiration.

Rain!

 For days and days, we´ve had nothing but rain now, and I think that´s it´s time for the sun to show up again ... But in the meantime, the new kit from Hidden Vintage Studios, Bumbershoot Babes, provides some lovely images for your cut and paste or digital artwork!
The postcard above was made using a paper dyed with easter egg dyes, vellum, tape and a rubber stamp from Tim Holtz, and a piece of a real map.
The two digital collages below combine Tracey´s images with elements from Finecrafted Designs, Holliewood Studios, Tumble Fish Studio, and PinkLotty, all at Deviant Scrap.

Best Friend

Do you remember when you were a child you weren´t able to chose your friends but had to take those childeren as friends that were close at hand, like neighbours or pupils from your class? So I wouldn´t say that usually you have real friends when you´re a child ... no wonder that you need a doll or a teddy bear to feel less alone.

Personally, I didn´t like dolls but preferred teddies, but "Dolls" is this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme, so I´ve picked a Zetti girl stamp with a doll and a label from Red Lead to illustrate my thoughts.

Number Three

For a postcard exchange in one of my Yahoo groups, the theme was to make a card with the favourite number of your swap partner - as Sandy has chosen the number 3, I´ve made this card for her, using rubber stamps from Lost Coast Design, Paperbag Studio, and Limited Edition on a gelli print background. Hope she´ll like it!

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 7

My ATC for this week´s swap update was made with a gelli print background, an image from Itkupilli, a stamp from Lost Coast Designs, and a hat brad. Hope you like it!

Our swap is coming to an end, and as there´s only one week left before all cards are due to be in my hands, your entries keep arriving in my mailbox. Some have been in the mail for a while now but haven´t arrived yet, but if you´ve let me know when you´ve sent them, I´ll wait for them! (Right now, I´m waiting for 9 more envelopes, and some of you haven´t even sent me the link to your finished ATCs.)

As I can´t show you the fabulous ATCs from Lucy and Brigitte (as they aren´t able to post their ATCs), I only have one new link this week to Sandy´s fabulous cards for you. They arrived in my mailbox today, and I really love them!
Last week I´ve sent out another swap reminder to those of you who haven´t contacted me after signing up, but not all of you have answered my email - if you read this, please do or I´ll have to delete your name from the swap list.
I know that some of you are Queens of last minute, so I don´t worry too much about receiving your links and envelopes if you´re from Germany ... but if you´re not, it´s too late now to send your entry.

Altered Photos

Back in your schooldays, did you ever doodle on the images in your school books, like drawing moustaches or glasses to the famous persons in your history book? This is how I felt when I made my ATCs for this month´s Red Lead ATC swap themed "Altered Photo"! Instead of drawing moustaches, I used moustache brads, and the hat, glasses and tie are also brads. With those accessories, an honest man changed to a mafia guy, and it was fun "writing" his story ...

All images and rubber stamps used here are from Red Lead of course.

Nature´s Beauty

I´ve made a card today for someone who isn´t able to see the flowers and hear the birds right now - hope this card will remind her of nature´s beauty ...

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 6

It´s time for our weekly swap update, and today I have an ATC for you that I´ve made with an image from Catnip Designs, a real postage stamp and rubber stamps from Red Lead and Stampington - hope you´ll like it!

I`ve had some more sign-ups lately so that now we´re 37 participants from 9 different countries!
21 envelopes have already been in my mailbox, and I hope that the others will arrive in time before June 1st - I´ll then draw the winners of the coupons for the Hidden Vintage Studios shop that Tracey so generously gives away, and I hope to be able to swap out all the cards soon after that date.

Today I have some more links to finished ATCs for you from Solvey, Michele, and Dale 1, 2, 3, 4). Please have a look at them and don´t forget to leave comments there or on our swap board on Pinterest.

Only 2 1/2 weeks are left before all cards have to be in my hands, so if you´re not from Europe, please put your cards in the mail NOW!

Feathers

I´ve made these 3 ATCs for a "Feathers" themed swap and tried to make them as different as possible. The right one with the Emily Dickinson quote scanned a bit blurry because of the bulky feather I´ve added to the stamped heart. The ATC in the middle was made with a feather stenciled background, stamped over with three different feather stamps.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 5

Almost half of your entries for our swap have already landed in my mailbox now, and there are three weeks left before all cards have to be in my hands ...
24 of you have sent me the links to their finished ATCs, so I know there are more envelopes already in the mail. I hope that the other 9 artists are still working on their cards and will get them in the mail in time.
Today I only have one more link to finished ATCs for you, those from Lay Hoon.
Have fun creating and visiting the other artists´ online galleries!

Life is (still) a Circus

I´ve been celebrating Deviant Scrap´s 4th birthday for the last days, so I decided to make my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Life is a Circus" with images from several Deviant Scrap designers - I´ve used images from Hidden Vintage Studios, Eeena´s Creations, Crowabout Studio B and Finecrafted Designs here, plus a top hat from Pixel Music.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 4

Envelopes keep arriving in my mailbox (11 so far), and our swap board on Pinterest is growing with lovely art, so it´s time for my next swap update with the links to more finished cards: Please have a look at the ATCs from Karla, Martina, Lynda, and Fiona and don´t forget to leave them some nice comments if you like what you see!

If you´re not from Germany, please don´t forget to include an extra ATC or some ephemera in lieu of postage, and please keep your ATCs "sendable" - if they´re too bulky or if you add gifties for the recipients of your ATCs, you make my job really hard when it comes to swap the cards out ... plus it will be very expensive for me to send that extra stuff.

Have fun with your Bird People!

New Kits on the Block!

Deviant Scrap is having a big party this week celebrating the site´s 4th birthday. The designers have packed a wonderful freebie collab kit themed "Out of this World" that you can grab at the Deviant Scrap blog. I have used the Hidden Vintage Studios and Tumble Fish Studio parts of this collab together with the new Hidden Vintage Studios´ kit "Alienated" plus additional images from Nancy Baumiller, gelli prints, vintage postage stamps and  tape for my cut and paste postcard above and the cut and paste journal page below.

And Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio also came out with a new kit today that´s called "Dreams - Peculiar". I´ve made this digital collage with it as a sample for you, but to see the variety of images, you should have a look at the whole kit here.

The Song in your Heart

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Music", I´ve chosen one of my gelli prints as a background again. I added stamps from Dina Wakley and Red Lead and stenciled a heart with red ink, then added the words to the printed circle and a few white accents with pencils.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 3

I´m back home from my Easter vacation, and this bird lady (image from Itkupilli) told me that it´s time for our next swap update!
In the meantime, I received 6 envelopes full of goodies from you, and many more have already sent me the links to their finished ATCs. I´ve just pinned them to our swap board on Pinterest, so please have a look at the new cards there or visit the blogs/ online galleries of Jo (first 4 ATCs), Daniela D., Ann, Melissa, Johanna, Sabine, Stephanie 1, 2, and 3, Daniela R., Dagmar, Ulrike, and Sirkkis.
Right now, we´re 33 players from 8 countries, and I´m sure there´ll be more sign-ups as there´s still enough time to join the swap and send me the ATCs so that they´re in my hands before June 1st ...
I´m happy to hear how much fun you all have with your birdies!

Medieval

What a great leap from modern Street Art to the Middle Ages - but here they are, my ATCs for a medieval themed swap this month ...
Watch out for our next Bird People swap update coming on Friday!

Street Art

I´ve been very interested in Banksy´s Street Art since I´ve been watching the DVD about him, "Exit through the gift shop" about two years ago. So of course I was thrilled to see that the German stamp shop "StempelBar" has come out with a collection of Banksy´s images as rubber stamps.
For these 3 ATCs, I´ve black embossed the images on Gelli print backgrounds and added some drawn details and other stamps from Stamping Fairies and Red Lead. I´ve already ordered more Banksy stamps and can´t wait to play with them!

Bunnies

These are my ATCs for a "Hares" themed swap - happy Easter to all my blog visitors!

Home is where the Light is

This is my postcard for this week´s SPA challenge themed "Lighthouses". I´ve used a design paper, added "water" and "landscape" with stencils and ink, and stamped the lighthouse (Graphic 45), compass, and text (Red Lead), then coloured with watercolour pencils.

OWOA Winners!

And here they are, the winners of my OWOA giveaways: Birgit, Singtatter, and Linda! Congrats, ladies, I´ll email you soon and will send each of you one of my postcards as soon as you´ve answered me with your snail mail address ...
I´ve had fun with this year´s One World Our Art event and hope there´ll be another one next year.

Life is a Circus

With Hidden Vintage Studios´ new kit "Send in the Clowns", I decided to show you how nice these images could be used for your cut and paste artwork - I know I´m not the only one who has several circus themed rubber stamps in her stash! I´ve also used lots of colourful washi tape for these pieces and have a lot of fun making these samples for you.

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 2

For this update, I have a stamped ATC for you as a sample made with a clothed bird rubber stamp. (It´s from Loast Coast Designs, as well as the text on the top, the books are from Stampendous.) If you´re a stamper, you might have some other bird people in your stuff - I know I have!

There are two reasons for this new update: First some of you have been very busy and have already finished their ATCs, and I want to share the links to inspire all the others. And then I recognized that although there are 13 pins on our Pinterest board already, there´s only one comment so far - so maybe some of you haven´t found the board yet!? Please remember to leave some comments on those ATCs you especially like.

I´ve had a few more sign-ups in the meantime, so right now we´re 24 players from 6 countries - thanks to all of you!
And here are the links to the ATCs that have been finished since my first update. Please have a look at the beautiful cards from Birgit, Peggy (the first 4 ATCs in her post), Bevlea, Eugenia, and Sherry.

There´s still much time to sign up and play, just be sure that your ATCs are in my hands before June 1!

Home Sweet Home

These are my ATCs for this month´s Red Lead ATC swap themed "Home Sweet Home" - all images and stamps are from Red Lead of course!

Bird People Blog Swap Update No. 1

It´s time for our first swap update with more info and inspiration!
This Paris Girl ATC is my first one for the swap, and I´ve made it using a lovely bird lady from Hidden Vintage Studios´ latest kit "Animal Crossing":

When I first spied this kit, I already had decided about the theme for this year´s blog swap, and when I told Tracey how perfect this kit was for my theme, she generously offered to sponsor my swap - thank you so much, Tracey! So here´s the good news for you all: You can win one of three coupons for Tracey´s Hidden Vintage Studios shop at Deviant Scrap, just by taking part in this swap - you don´t have to use her images to be in the drawing!

(While you´re at the Deviant Scrap shop, you´ll notice that there are other lovely bird people images from Itkupilli and Finecrafted Designs that have found their way on other ATCs that I´ve made for this swap and that I will show you in future updates - just saying ...)

Do you still need some inspiration for the Bird People theme? Then you maybe want to have a look at this board on Pinterest that I´ve found. 

I´ve also have set up another Pinterest board for our swap here. You´ll already find the first finished swap ATCs there from Liz and Nancy, and as always, I want you to have a look at their beautiful pieces and leave them a nice comment on their sites or our Pinterest board if you like their artwork! 

(If you´re new to my blog swaps, I need to tell you that I´ll use these comments as a hint when swapping out all the ATCs in the end, so the chance to receive your favourite ATCs is much better if you post some comments!)

I´ve already had 20 sign-ups from four countries for this swap, and I´m sure that many of you will feel inspired and join the fun soon! There´s no sign up date, but don´t forget that your ATCs have to be in my hands before June 1. Can´t wait to see your Bird People ideas! 

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!