Heart Wide Open

Nancy from Crowabout StudioB has come out with three new image kits today. For my cut and paste postcards I´ve used her Textured Collage Papers and the Heart Wide Open kit (plus rubber stamps from PaperArtsy for "By the Stars and Moonlight" and from VivaLasVegaStamps for "Feel the Rain"), and for the cut and paste mail art envelope the background is from the Artist Papers kit.
These kits come with png images for digital use as well as jpgs on printable collage sheets for your cut and paste projects. As you can see in my samples, you don´t have to use them as they are - collage is all about constructing and deconstructing, overpainting, and making your own marks!

Crows and Ravens in Gothic Arches

Crows and Ravens are among my favourite birds, and they fit in Gothic Arches perfectly, so I had much fun making my six arch shaped ATCs for a group swap. I´ve used rubber stamps from Cherry Pie, A Capella, Green Pepper Press, Scrollswork, Tim Holtz/ Stampers Anonymous, Red Lead, Carabelle, Viva Las Vegas, MadRat, The Old Island Stamp Company, Artistic Outpost and others here. My favourite one of these is the "Tower of the Blue Ravens", inspired by Franz Marc´s "Tower of the Blue Horses" that you probably know ...

Sisters

Sisters are important for my life as I have two of them, and both are very close to me though they are five and eight years older than me. For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Sisters I´ve used images from Hidden Vintage Studio, Marta van Eck, Holliewood Studios and Tumble Fish Studio, all available from Mischief Circus, to make my postcard.

Me as Queen Bee

Marta van Eck has posted a Bee challenge in the Mischief Circus forum, asking us to make ourselves a bee - fun! For my layout, I´ve used elements from Finecrafted Designs, Holliewood Studios and Marta´s own challenge freebie.

Halloween Pocket Tags

I´ve been busy this weekend, making my tags for this year´s Red Lead Halloween Swap themed "Halloween Pocket Tags". You can see the whole package on the picture above, and the scans below show the five tags inside the pocket; the last scan shows the pocket itself. I only show the fronts here, but the backs are also decorated. All stamps, stencils and images and most embellishments used are from Red Lead, I´ve only added a few tapes and embellishments from other sources.

Fish

I´ve always thought that this fish king looks a bit scared - now I know why ...
Here´s my fish postcard for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Fish.
I´ve used gelli prints for background and fish and rubber stamps from Cherry Pie, LaBlanche, Stampers Anonymous and Paper Artsy.

Whatnot No. 3

Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio came out with a brand new kit today called "Whatnot No. 3", available at Mischief Circus. I´ve made two digital collages to show it to you: "For what it´s for" above, and "The Best" below. There are many comics/graphic inspired images in this kit, and as always it comes with printable collage sheets as well as png images, so it´s really versatile.

One of those Days

When I saw this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme "Tattoos", I thought "oh no!" because I´m not a fan of tattoos and had no idea what to do for a card. The first thing that came to my mind was that old Rory Gallagher song called "Tattoo´d Lady" - do you know it? If not, here´s a video from 1975. Then it dawned to me that I have a great image of a tattooed lady in my digital stash, and then everything else was easy ... So here´s my digital postcard, all elements are from Crafty Button Designs.

Versatility

What makes you want to purchase a rubber stamp? For me, versatility is quite important. Just have a look at this lady from Dina Wakley´s "From the Past" set: You can use her as is with one of the sentiments that come with the set, or you can add a few accessories from Tim Holtz and make her a witch - fun!

Take Off

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is Butterflies, so I´ve used some new stamps that still lay on my desk - the detail below shows that this guy is really ready to take off!
The stamps I´ve used are from LaBlanche and Viva Las Vegas.

Postage People Revisited Blog Swap Update No. 15

As I´ve sent out all 21 envelopes for this swap on July 20, you might wonder what happened to them - well, on Thursday, August 6, the last one found his destination, so all our ATCs finally found a new home, none of the envelopes got lost this year.
Thanks again to all participants, and I hope you´ll continue making Postage People and will show them on your blogs for all to see. Me, I just can´t stop making them, so here are three more that I´ve made during the last weeks.

Cemetery Angels

I must confess that I have a faible for stone or cemetery angels - I love to take a walk on a cemetery and take some photos of these beauties, and of course I also own a few rubber stamps of angels. So I didn´t hesitate to join when I saw a cemetery angel ATC swap in one of my Yahoo groups ...

Some Mail Art

It´s been a while since I´ve had my last personal trade, so I´ve been happy about a request for a Postage People trade. There are 4 ATCs inside this envelope, two that I´ve already shown and the two below. Hope they´ll have a fast travel to Ohio!

Welcome to my Funny Farm!

It´s collaboration time at Mischief Circus again, and the latest collab theme is "Funny Farm"!
I´ve had so much fun with Marsha´s new Tumble Fish Studio kit Funny Farm, and I believe that you can see that fun in my four samples I have for you; Cool Seeds!, Language Lessons, Garden Farm, and Welcome.

Of course there´s also a Funny Farm kit from Crowabout StudioB, and I´ve made this digital collage with it with two Shakespeare quotes, "A Shakespeare Play":

There are so many lovely Funny Farm kits that you should keep in mind that of course there´s a free add-on kit as always:

Black and White

Usually, my cards are really colourful, but for a recent mail art project, I´ve made a black and white card that´s also my entry for this week´s Take A Word challenge themed "Black and White".

Strength

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Strong Women", and of course my first question was: What is strength? For me, it´s kind of an inner power, no matter if you look weak or if you´re small or shy or are underestimated by others. You may even be surprised to find out about your own power sometimes if you haven´t used it for a while ...
I´ve used images from Holliewood Studios and Marta van Eck for my collage.

Book Nerds

"Books" is this week´s theme for the Three Muses Challenge, and it´s one of my all time favourites. I´ve made these three reading themed Postage People ATCs after my blog swap was over.

Postage People Revisited Blog Swap Update No. 14 - All Swapped Out!

Today I have good news for all participants of my Postage People Revisited Blog Swap: Sandy´s cards finally arrived on Friday so that I could swap all cards on Saturday, pack and weigh them today and will get them all into the mail tomorrow!
- So watch your mail box and please don´t forget to let me know immediately when you received your envelope.
- And please send a short notice to the artists whose ATCs you received. If there´s no email addy on your ATC, you can just ask me and I´ll send you the address.
- I now have beautiful ATCs in my own Postage People collection from Marita, Liz, Gina, Judith, Sabine, Daniela, Trudi, Sandy, Peggy, Birgit, Lillian, Jo, Brandie, and Glenda, as I´ve traded a few ATCs myself and received some extra ATCs from you - thank you so much!
Thanks for playing everyone, let´s hope that all those beauties arrive at their new homes soon!

Go Messy!

No matter how organized we are and how clean our designs look like, sometimes we all need to go messy, I think - that´s why I invite you to pull out your paints, stencils, and gesso and do whatever comes to your mind for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge.
For my sample card, I´ve used stencils and stamps from Red Lead, spray paints, acrylics, structure paint and a black pencil. Won´t you come and play with us this week?

Whatnot No. 2

Whatnot No. 2 is the name of the new Tumble Fish Studio kit, and I´ve had much fun playing with it. I´ve made two digital collages for you, but as always, the kit comes includes most images on printable collage sheets so that it can also be used for your cut and paste artwork

Postage People Revisited Blog Swap Update No. 13

After four weeks, the postal strike in Germany is over now, so I hope that Sandy´s ATCs will arrive in my mailbox soon (they´ve been sent on June 9).

Some of you have taken advantage of the additional waiting time by commenting on other participants´ entries - thank you!

All we need is a little patience before all envelopes will be here and I´ll be able to swap.

Ballyhoo - Mail Art Pack

Nancy from Crowabout StudioB at Mischief Circus came out with a lovely new kit today called "Ballyhoo - Mail Art Pack".
I´ve three cut and paste collages with the included collage sheets for you, the journal page "A Dog´s World" above, the collaged envelope "Silly" below, and the mail art envelope at the bottom. Hope you´ll feel inspired to make some collages and mail art yourself!

Roses

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Roses", I´ve made a card using a handpainted watercolour background, a door torn from a BoBunny pager, and three rubber stamps from Red Lead.

Postage People Revisited Blog Swap Update No. 12

It´s Wednesday today, and it´s July 1st - that means it´s time to have a final update as our swap ended yesterday.
In the meantime, I´ve been contacted by everyone who signed up. I´m waiting for the ATCs from Sandy and Daniela (which will be late because of the ongoing postal strike but both have been sent in time), and then I´ll swap out all cards according to your comments. (I think that Sandy and Lillian disabled the comment function on their blogs, so don´t worry if your comments don´t show up there. You´ll be able to leave comments on their cards on our Pinterest board instead.) There haven´t been as many comments as usual, so swapping will be a bit like a lottery this time.
I have some more links to finished ATCs for you today, so please have a look at the lovely ATCs from Glenda, Polly (at Facebook 1, 2, and 3 or on our Pinterest board), and Daniela, and leave them a nice comment if you like what you see.
Thanks to all of you for playing in the swap, I can´t wait to see all cards together!