A Family Gathering

Yes, some kind of Family Gathering it was on my blog last week when some of my blog readers came by to celebrate my blogaversary with me - thanks for stopping by and leaving me a note!
I´ve drawn two winners today, and Johanna and Tamara are the lucky winners who will find a handmade card in their mailboxes very soon. I´ll contact you to make sure that I have your correct addresses.

For my digital collage above, I´ve used the wonderful Falloween kits from Itkupilli and Mary Bailey (Miles Beyond the Moon).

Want Mail? Come Celebrate!

On October 8, 2006, I started this blog with a couple of posts, and yes, that was 10 years ago! In the meantime, I have changed, and that is why my blog has changed - I´ve learned new techniques and learned getting better in those techniques I already used back then - but all in all, the journey just continued. My blog never changed its name or place, and it has always been there for me to post whatever I wanted to share, to come back to older posts for reference, to use it as a gallery for photos, ATCs, cards, collages and other projects, and last but not least, to stay in contact with my art friends all over the world with my annual blog swaps.
So today it´s time to say thank you to my blog readers with a little giveaway! I will send the two postcards above to two winners that I´ll draw next weekend. Just leave a comment here and tell me if you´d like to win the Halloween card or the Zetti card, and maybe something that you´ve always wanted to tell me (but that´s not necessary at all). I´ll draw a winner on Saturday, Oct 15, and will contact you if you´re a winner. Good luck and thanks to all of you!

Fail Better

DSD is over now, but I´ve got far behind with posting my challenge layouts here - this one was made for the "Words to Live By" challenge over at MischiefCircus, and I´ve used elements from Holliewood Studios and Finecrafted Designs for it.

The Sea of Wonders

Every new month, I´m looking forward to Jen Maddocks´ Bricolage Society challenges. She always provides a small freebie kit with a few elements, a colour swatch, two or three quotes and an idea behind it. You just have to take one element from each category and just go your own way with the theme. My collage above is for her October challenge, and all elements are from Jen Maddocks Designs.

The Wizard

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Wizard", and I decided to go with the Wizard of Oz, using elements from Marta van Eck and Altered Emporium.

Greetings from Wonderland

Here´s another challenge entry for the DSD celebrations at Mischief Circus - this one is for the "Where in the World Postcard Challenge" and was made with elements from MizzD, Rucola Designs, Krysty Scrap, Miles Beyond the Moon, Art by January, Finecrafted Designs and Tumble Fish Studio.

DSD Challenges

Did you notice that DSD = Digital Scrapbooking Day has moved from November to October for the first time this year? This means sales in all digital scrapbooking shops plus tons of games and challenges. Most of the shops have already started their celebrations.
In the Mischief Circus forum, you can find five games and six challenges right now, with prices to win of course. Here are my contributions for the first two challenges, "Reinvent This Classic" above, and "Stranger in a Strange Land Poster" below.
Dr Mona was made with elements from the September Monthly Mischief kits, and for my Stranger collage I´ve used elements from (sadly retired) Art by January.
Won´t you come and play with us in the Mischief Circus DSD forum?

Blackbird

For hosting this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, I´ve chosen "The Beatles" as our theme as their music was the soundtrack of my childhood. They had published their first single in 1962, reached world-wide success in 1963 and sailed on its peak when I was born and for the next four years or so. They split when I was schooled, but I remember their portraits in my brother´s room and their songs being everywhere. When I was about 11 years old, I had a phase in my life when I didn´t listen to any other music than theirs. I knew the lyrics of almost all their songs back then, and one of my favourites has always been "Blackbird" (today it´s probably "Come Together"). It has such a simple (but not at all boring) melody that you´ll never forget, and the lyrics invite you to think about them - it was discussed a lot whether McCartney´s later interpretation that his song is about the racial tensions in the U. S. in Spring 1968 and the blackbird is a symbol for a black lady has really been in his thoughts when he wrote the song in 1968 or not.

For my card above, I used a hand-dyed background, stenciled the Beatles´ faces, coloured them, and added the blackbird and the lyrics with stamps. (The stencil is from Stamp Attack, the stamps are from Visible Images and Green Pepper Press.)

What´s your favourite Beatles song and why? If you´re interested in other Beatles inspired art, you´re invited to click on the label "Beatles Blog Swap" in the sidebar on the right - but be aware that the title of the swap back then was Beatles or Stones, so there might be some Stones songs illustrated as well ...

Health

Here´s my entry for this month´s Bricolage Society challenge by Jen Maddocks; all elements are from Jen Maddocks Designs of course.

Tombstone ATCs

Autumn is here, and Halloween is at our doorsteps, so it´s time to post these tombstone shaped ATCs that I´ve made for a swap in one of my Yahoo groups. The shapes were inspired by masonite board ATCs from Retro Café Art, and I´ve used rubber stamps from Red Lead, Paper Artsy and Flamingo Art Stamps here.

Harvest Moon

This week´s theme for the  Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Harvest Moon". Well, I´ve tried to take a photo of the full moon yesterday, but ... 

So I went on with elements from Eeena´s Creations, Downunder Studios and Itkupilli for my entry.

Truth and Error

For this month´s Monthly Mischief challenge at MischiefCircus.com, we´re asked to illustrate a quote about knowledge with this month´s Monthly Mischief kits. Here´s my entry with a C. G. Jung quote - won´t you come and play with us?

Life is a Circus

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is Circus, and here´s my card for this week, made with rubber stamps and washi tape.

New ATCs

I´ve been on a one week vacation at my sister´s house, and as always, we´ve had some great stamping hours together. I needed a few new ATCs for my trading album because we´ll be going to a stamping convention this weekend and I hope to meet some ATC artists there.
For the first batch of cards above, I´ve used my new Tim Holtz Halloween stamps and other stuff, just having fun playing without a theme.

I also finished three more Postage People ATCs.

And finally I made two Cats & Dogs ATCs.

Knowledge

As I´ve told you before, Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio retires from creating digital kits, but before all things come to an end, she has made one last mini kit for us for Mischief Circus´ Monthly Mischief. "Knowledge" - and how I love this one! Just look at the great colour combination of yellow, grey and black and white, and then all those images talking about science and knowledge, great!
I just couldn´t stop playing with this kit, so I´ve made two cut and paste collages for you plus one digital collage.
The picture above, "Beautiful Mind", shows one more page in my Moleskine journal. The background was made with brushos and bistre powders in yellow and black that match perfectly with that kit.
The cut and paste collage below, "Lots of Ideas", was made on a piece of scrapbooking paper (from the brand new Back to School series), featuring a quote from Linus Pauling.

And finally, here´s a digital collage that was inspired by the saying that there´s a woman behind every great man ... well, why behind?

If you like non-cute stuff, sciences and a special kind of humour, this is your kit. As always, it comes with png as well as jpg images, so you can use it for both your digital and physical artwork. And of course this kit is easy to mix and match with the other Monthly Mischief kits for September ... and last but not least you can combine it with any other images you already have in your stash, like I did in my last piece (the other elements are from Finecrafted Designs retired kit "It´s all relative").

Mother Nature

My card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Mother Nature" is a digital one, and I´ve made it with images from Holliewood Studios, Jen Maddocks, and a StudioGirls collab from Scrapbookgraphics.

Good or Bad News?

Though I´m really sad to see Marsha´s retirement as a kit designer, her sale could be good news for YOU! If you have some of her wonderful kits on your wish list, you have 3 1/2 weeks from now to shop them with a great discount before they´ll be gone forever.
Marsha will stay as a member at MischiefCircus of course, and if you´re interested in her future artwork and images, you could watch her blog and etsy shop soon.

Postage People Again

You know that I love to make Postage People ATCs from time to time ... these two ("The Royal Catch" on the left and "Book Lover" on the right) are for a personal trade with one of the participants of my Postage People Revisited Blog Swap, Gina. Hope she´ll like them!

Conquer Fear

I really like Jen Maddocks´ monthly Bricolage Society challenges over at Digital Scrapbooking Studio - she always gives away a free little challenge kit to play with and a few rules for the challenge. This is what I´ve made for her August challenge, all elements are from Jen Maddocks.

Famous Fictional Detectives

What a difficult challenge this was! Sheila from Canada has chosen "Famous Fictional Detectives" as the theme for her tip-in journal pages (each single page measures 4 3/4 x 7 inches). Maybe you think, "why difficult? think of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and so many others!" Well - yes, but ... this is an international tip-in pages swap, and as I´m not the only one who has to make pages for this theme, and the other participants are from the United States, England and Australia, I decided to go with fictional detectives from German literature. Sheila probably will have to google Nick Knatterton and Emil Tischbein, but I think that most German people have heard of them: Nick Knatterton is a detective from a graphic novel by Manfred Schmidt that was published in a German magazine between 1950 and 1959, And Emil und die Detektive is a childrens book by Erich Kästner published in 1929. I know that Sheila taught Canadian literature, so I hope that she´s interested in finding out more about German literature, too.
The pictures don´t show that the strip of criminals in the Nick Knatterton spread above can be pulled horizontally in order to change the face shown on the "Wanted" poster.

Roll On!

About two weeks ago, I´ve been on a short vacation in beautiful Prague, and every evening my feet needed special care - so what about you: did you ever wish you had wheels instead of your feet?
Here´s my card for this week´s  Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Wheels", made with elements from Mr Whiskers, Itkupilli and Tumble Fish Studio, all from MischiefCircus.com.

Pets

Today I´ve read in the newspaper that Germany´s No. 1 pet is the cat - so when I was thinking about this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme "Pets", I heard a loud barking in my stamps stash, and here they are, asking you to give them shelter.

Perhaps I should explain that I´ve never had a dog nor a cat but only canaries in my childhood ...

(The rubber stamps I´ve used here are from Carabelle, VivaLasVegaStamps, Catslife Press, 100 Proof Press and Stampers Anonymous.)

The Raven Shirt

For a T-Shirt stamping contest over at Heindesign, I´ve made this shirt illustrating Edgar Allan Poe´s famous poem "The Raven". The shirt itself was sold by Heindesign and already had the red Stempelmekka logo printed on (the Stempelmekka is the biggest German stamping convention).
I decided to go with black and red only, not only because that colour scheme went well with the logo, but these colours also fit the poem´s atmosphere. I´ve used fabric stamping paint (also sold by Heindesign) and a foam brush to put the paint on the rubber stamps. For my design, I´ve used rubber stamps from Carmen´s Veranda, LaBlanche, Lost Coast Designs, Green Pepper Press, Cherry Pie, and Red Lead. I think it´s amazing how well stamps from 6 different companies work together here to form the final design.

Spirit Art

I´ve made two digital samples for you with Nancy Baumiller´s new Crowabout StudioB kit "Spirit Art Element Pack" - but as always, you can also print out the collage sheets that come with the kit and use them for your cut and paste artwork.

Eggs

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Eggs", I´ve made a digital card with images from several older Tumble Fish Studio kits (Dozens, Dreams - Yonder, Nitty Gritty 2, Etcetera, and Journaling Pieces 2).

Picnic

Again I didn´t have the appropriate stamps or collage elements for a cut and paste or mixed media card, so here´s my digital card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Picnic". I´ve used images from the Family Reunion Picnic kit from Mischief Circus by Cryztal Rain, Eena´s Creations, Itkupilli, Tumble Fish Studio and OWTF as well as the Vagabond Adventures kit from Krysty Scrap Designs.

Beach Life

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Beach Life" (and a seashell should be somewhere on your card), and even though I prefer to visit big cities when I´m on vacation, I love this theme, especially for postcards.
I´ve made two postcards this week, a stamped one and a digital one. My stamped card (above) follows the rule "Less is more", combining two self-dyed watercolour papers with rubber stamps from VivaLasVegaStamps and Crafty Individuals.
My digital card (below) shows how easy it is to combine the new Mischief Circus Relax Designer Mash-up with some older sea themed kits; I´ve used elements from Tumble Fish Studio, Marta van Eck, Eena´s Creations, Finecrafted Designs, and MizzD.
Where do you like to spend your summer vacation - at the sea, in the mountains, or in the big cities like me?

Fun in the Sun 1926

For the new Monthly Mischief Challenge at Mischief Circus I couldn´t resist using this beloved photo of my grandparents at the beach from 1926 again. All other elements are from the Designer Mash-up Collection Relax.

Monthly Mischief: Relax!

Mischief Circus came out with something new today, the Monthly Mischief - several designers made kits with the same theme (Relax) and the same colour scheme, and there´s also a kit that combines elements from several different designers. So you can mix and match all these kits and always get a nice result!
My two samples above were made with Marsha Jorgenson´s Tumble Fish kits Relax 1 and Relax 2 (the first one combines them whereas the second collage was made with kit 2 only).
Below you can find my samples for Nancy Baumiller´s kits Relax Elements and Relax Papers.
As always, all these kits also come with printable collage sheets, so you can use them for your cut and paste artwork as well.

Breakfast at Tiffany´s

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Audrey Hepburn", I would have prefered to stamp a card, if only I had the right stamps ... but as I haven´t, I switched to a digital design.
"Breakfast at Tiffany´s" from 1961 has always been one of my favourite Audrey films, and I´ve even read Truman Capote´s book when I was very young. Brainstorming the theme, I immediately had 5th Avenue with Tiffany´s on my mind, but also Holly Golightly searching for her unnamed cat ("played" by Orangey in the film) in the rain, having phone calls with that Mafia guy in Sing Sing, and I´ve been singing Moon River all the time while I´ve been making this card - what a song, no wonder it got the Oscar for the best song ... (if you need a reminder, here´s a short one).
(For my card, I´ve used elements from Courtney´s Designs, Rucola Designs, and Holliewood Studios.)

Snark Challenge

There´s a new challenge in the Mischief Circus forum for July which is called "Snark", and Hollie gave us the link to the great site "Wititudes" to find some really snarky quotes. I´ve had fun browsing them, and now it seems that I can´t stop making collages to illustrate them ...
My first attempt was "Alone Again" above, and the second one below is called "Safety". Both were made with elements from Miles Beyond the Moon and Mr Whiskers from Mischief Circus.
Won´t you come and play with us this month?

It´s Zetti Time Again!

While watching the soccer match between England and Iceland tonight, I´ve made these ATCs for a Zetti swap. I´ve used a lot of self-dyed book pages and other dyed papers for these and had fun putting parts of several stamps together in new combinations.
Oh, and ... congrats to Iceland!

Titanic

When I read this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, Titanic, my mind began checking my rubber stamps and stopped when I remembered I have a sinking ship. But then I´ve found a paper that showed exactly the route between Southampton and New York, so I could let my ship sink near Newfoundland like the original Titanic. I added ephemera and more stamps, and here it is, my shipwrecked Titanic - I´m sorry but I had no idea how to include an iceberg ...
All stamps here are from VivaLasVegaStamps except the alpha, date and postal stamps.

I Believe In ...

Nancy from Crowabout StudioB came out with two new kits today, I Believe In ... Elements and Papers. I´ve made two digital samples for you this time, "Butterfly Fairy" above and "In Love" below, but as these packs include printable collage sheets, you can also use them for your cut and paste collages.

Between the Lines

This week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme is Asian/Oriental, so I decided to go with one of my favourite stamps from Tin Can Mail plus several Asian text stamps.