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!

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

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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.