It´s going to look like Christmas

Only five weeks are left before it´s Christmas, so it was time to start with my Christmas cards. These four cards have been made with rubber stamps, wooden tiles and collage images from Red Lead - more to come!

Heaven Sent

Here´s a digital collage made just for fun, using elements from Hidden Vintage Studios, Itkupilli and Marta van Eck.

Away

I hate shopping shoes, and I don´t think that I have more shoes than a man has, and none of them are high heels. Shoes are made for walking, aren´t they?
So here´s my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Shoes.
(credits: Quirky Heart Designs, Tangie Baxter)

Wanderlust

Marsha has come out with a wonderful new image kit at Mischief Circus, called "Wanderlust".
I´ve made two digital pieces for you that you can see above: "Dream Adventure" and "The Song of the Fish".
And below you can see that these images can easily be used in your cut and paste artwork - here they are used for a page in my Moleskine journal.

Celebrating Character Constructions

Five years ago, I´ve had a great afternoon together with my sister Sabine: We pulled out all our Character Constructions stamps and just started having fun making cards, not using any other brands.
Now you can find a few of our results published in the latest issue of "Just Stamps", these three of mine among them ("Celebrate the Earth", "No Homes", and "Tea Party", issue 3/14, pages 17-19; you´ll find them in an article about art dolls though two of these don´t have any art dolls on them). As always, there´s a lot of interesting stuff in that magazine, so if you´re able to, just flick through it or maybe order your issue online.

Out of the Chaos into the Light

Today I´ve been in the mood to try the new challenge at Digidares and create a page that is split into two halves - a dark one and a bright one, each with appropriate images and words; the quotes are from Nine Inch Nails and Friedrich Nietzsche.
(Credits: Holliewood Studios - Believe, Broken, Art Anarchy, Wish Upon A Star; Marta van Eck - Anatomy Lesson; Dawn Inskip - Stitched Messiness; Captivated Visions - Fluent in Sarcasm)

Colour Your World

just playing around a bit with a collective kit from Scrapbookgraphics called Mind over Matter ...

Nitty Gritty

You probably know that most of my artwork is quite colourful, but from time to time I love to work with black and white images and neutral backgrounds. Therefore I´ve always liked Tumble Fish Studio´s Nitty Gritty kits. Now Marsha has come out with part 4 of that series! I´ve made three samples for you to show how versatile these images are: The first two pics show two pages in my Moleskine journal, coloured with Bistre colours and with a stamp from VivaLasVegas and a stencil from Red Lead, and the collage below is digital. As always, Marsha´s kit comes with png as well as jpg images, so you can use it for both digital and physical pieces.

And while you´re in the shop at Mischief Circus, you shouldn´t miss the lovely freebie Tracey from Hidden Vintage Studios has for you today - look how cool these siblings are, just perfect not only for your Halloween artwork! (all images in this collage are from Hidden Vintage Studios)

Fright Night

I just couldn´t resist this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme "Orange and Black" - sooooo many possibilities for this one! I´ve made a digital card this week using images from Brandy Murry, Courtney´s Designs, Paula Kesselring, Tangie Baxter, JustJaimee and Lavender Designs.

Golden Fire

We´ve had a wonderful autumn day today (before the rain came in the evening), so I wanted to play with some images in autumn colours. This is how "Golden Fire" came to life.
(Credits: Rebecca McMeen, Tangie Baxter, Crafty Button Designs)

Darkness

This week´s challenge theme over at Tag Along is "Poe", and here´s my Poe tag using stamps and stencils from Red Lead.

MisFit Ladies Society

Marsha´s new image kit, Tumble Fish Studio´s "MisFit Ladies Society" has some very cool ladies´ images, all slightly out of order, and beautiful and colourful accessories and elements, mostly inspired by cloth textures. I´ve made three samples for you with this kit, but you should try yourself how versatile these images are.

Black Magic

The Spell 

(credits: Hidden Vintage Studios, Cryztal Rain, Holliewood Studios, Eena´s Creations)

Tracey from Hidden Vintage Studios has come out with a lovely new kit today called "Black Magic". I´ve made three digital collages with it for you, but as the kit also comes with jpg image collage sheets, it can also be used for your cut and paste work. And of course these black clothed ladies will not only look good in your Halloween art but also in  any other collage!

 Magic

(all images from Hidden Vintage Studios)

True Magic

(credits: Hidden Vintage Studios, Holliewood Studios, Tina Chambers)

Owls

We have an owl themed ATC mini swap in one of my groups for two one-on-one trades, and I couldn´t resist the theme ... 

The ATC above was made using two stamps from Red Lead, the one below with stamps from Tim Holtz and IndigoBlu.

Witch Apothecary

If you´re a regular visitor of my blog, you already know that I like stamping and collaging as much as making digital art - I just can´t decide which technique is my favourite! So I decided to make two cards for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge "Potions" again, a stamped one and a digital one.
The stamped one above is called "Witch Apothecary" and features stamps from Oxford Impressions, Character Constructions and My Mind´s Eye on Glimmer Mist and Bistre backgrounds. Isn´t it amazing how well these different stamps go together?

But that´s something that can also be said about digital images: My card "Wicked" below was made using images from five different sources, and the challenge is to make them work together.
(credits: Lavender Designs, Julie Mead, Angela Blanchard, Brandy Murry, Cryztal Rain)

By the Light of the Moon

This year, my friends from Red Lead came out with some wonderful new Halloween stamps and stencils for Halloween that I combined with some older Red Lead stamps and my beloved bistre backgrounds. These first two cards were made that way.

The last card is very large (5,6 x 8,2 inches) and is a collage from Red Lead papers, collage sheets, stamps, stencils, and embellishments - I´ve had so much fun assembling it!

Spooky

It´s October, so Sunday Postcard Art has started with their Halloween challenges, yippieh! This week´s theme is "Spooky", and I´ve made a mixed media piece (above) as well as a digital card.
(Credits for the cut and paste card: images from Hidden Vintage Studios and Courtney´s Designs, rubber stamp from Deep Red, background paper from Tim Holtz; credits for the digital card: all images from Courtney´s Designs)

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

I´ve been playing with one of my own photos today, using Photoshop actions from Brandy Murry and a frame from Amanda Sok, plus words from Gertrude Stein - here´s the original photo for you to see the difference:

Apprehension

This digital collage was made using five of Hidden Vintage Studios´ Halloweeen kits that are ON SALE now at Mischief Circus (other elements are from Holliewood Studios and Altered Emporium) - save 50 % on them and have fun with the wonderful images!

Take a Walk

Here´s a card made with two torn backgrounds made with bister and rubber stamps from Carabelle and StempelBar.

Owl = Eule = Chouette

Here´s my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Dictionary": I´ve used a dictionary page with the French word "Chouette" for owl in English and Eule in German; the stamps are from Hampton Arts (Dictionary Alpha), Cavallini (Hand), and A Capella (Steampunk Owl),

Framed

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Use a Frame", I´ve framed the German author Thomas Mann (1875-1955) who emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 and to the U. S. in 1939 and who got the Nobel prize for literature in 1929 (but for his "Buddenbrooks" he had written in 1901!) I´ll visit his hometown Lübeck next week and will visit the famous Buddenbrooks House of course ... If you haven´t read anything from Mann or did it only in your school days long ago, I´d like to encourage you to do so again because his elegant style is so full of wit and surprises = sentences you wouldn´t expect from an author of his decades - in my opinion he really liked to step out of his frame from time to time and to think outside the box!

School Days

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme is "School Days", and my card includes two very personal elements: the building is my own school that I attended for 9 years at the age of 10 to 19 in the 70s and early 80s, and the pupil on the right is my father on his first school day about 1931. All other elements are from Manuela Zimmermann and the ColorSplash kit from Mischief Circus.

Proudly Presented

I´ve had fun today combining the new Halloween @ Mischief Circus kits from Cryztal Rain and Holliewood Studios with all those lovely images that come with the free add-on - I´ve mixed in images from Hidden Vintage Studios, Itkupilli, Tumble Fish Studios, Krysty Scrap and Mr Whiskers - look how well they all go together!

Magic Oddities

Maybe you´ve already missed my sample for Marsha´s great new kit "Halloween @ Mischief Circus" - I´ve been late becauce of my vacation, but here it is! Isn´t that lady´s face wonderful?

Witchy Women

This month´s theme for the Red Lead ATC swap is Witchy Women, and of course I´ve used rubber stamps and collage sheets from Red Lead for these - they´ve been so much fun to make!

Welcome to Mischief Circus!

Welcome to Mischief Circus!

I´ve been on vacation for the last 9 days but returned home just in time for today´s big news: Deviant Scrap, the home of so many fabulous digital designers, has changed its name to Mischief Circus, and they´ve come out with a lovely new store wide collab themed "Halloween @ Mischief Circus". And as always with their Collect your own Collab events, there´s a great addon kit to grab for free:

As I´ve been away, I haven´t had much time to play with the new kits from Tracey and Marsha, but I´ve made a cut and paste postcard with both their kits (at Hidden Vintage Studios and Tumble Fish Studio) that you can see on top of my post - welcome to Mischief Circus!