Look Inside

It´s that time of the year again when a well-heated living room with a comfortable armchair or sofa becomes more and more enticing ... and if you´re like me, the pile of books on the floor makes it even more attractive! (I´ve been surprised to find out that the English language knows the German word "gemuetlich" - what about you? do you know it?) For me, being outside in the cold dark hours is only acceptable if I can relax in a cozy atmosphere afterwards, and a comfortable chair is just what I need to feel at home. So here´s my ATC for this week´s TMTA challenge themed "furniture".

The Quiet Beauty of a Winter Day

I´ve made this digital collage for this week´s Take a Word challenge themed "Umbrella".

Image credits: Cottage Arts, Manuela Zimmermann, Finecrafted Designs, Tumblefish Studio, and Carole Harden.

Texture Playing Again

For Nancy´s Texture challenge I´ve chosen this photo this week, rotated it, changed brightness and contrast, added her bottle texture, her wp texture, a copy of that one, her bench texture, and her 2b texture from the last challenge, using several blending modes . In the end the result was similar to an abstract painting, and the whole process has been a fun experience.

Grow

The November theme for our monthly 4 x 6 Zetti page exchange is "Flower", so I tried to let one grow in a Zetti way ...

Point of View

The theme for our monthly bird page exchange is Artist´s choice in November, so I just played with what came to my mind tonight.

It´s Grungy Monday Again!

For this week´s Grungy Monday challenge Linda has chosen another sparkling Tim Holtz technique, so I decided to make another Christmas card using one of Tim´s masks, Grungeboard and two colours of Perfect Pearls with Distress reinkers.

As always, my scanner doesn´t show the sparkle, so here´s a close-up photo.

Christmas Tags

I´ve made these 3 x 6 1/4 tags for a swap in the ARTchix Sisters group.

Shrine No. 2907

I´ve just been playing around tonight making my first digital shrine ...

(Image credits: Finecrafted Designs/Holliewood Studio, Tumblefish Studio, Pixelmusic, Angela Blanchard, Nicole Young)

On My Window Sill

Here´s my entry for this week´s Three Muses challenge themed "Window".

Image credits: Elisha Barnett, Manuela Zimmermann, Laurie Anderson, Mary Bailey, Syndee Nuckles, and Jerry Jones.

Anatomy

Six ATCs made for an Anatomy themed swap hosted by my sister.

Shabby Chic Christmas

Shabby Chic is this week´s theme for the SPA challenge, and as I´ve had this nice deer head in the (junk) mail today, I just had to use it for my second Christmas card, together with some ephemera, tissue tape, gesso, and stamps ... and a pair of chic antlers of course!

Far Far Away

I´ve been away for a few days but not THAT far away ... enough though to be able to make some Nick Bantock inspired ATCs about traveling to exotic places.

Wild Women

It took a while before I came up with an idea for this ARTchix lottery theme, but here´s my ATC for it now.

Memories of Spring

Last week I´ve shown you how one of Nancy Donaldson´s textures completely changed the expression of one of my own photos (the one you find as a background of my blogheader right now). Well, this week I´d like to show how 8 layers and even 4 different textures from Nancy´s challenge can be used to alter a photo just slightly. I´ve used the blackbird photo I´ve taken in spring, added texture 2a, made a copy of the background with opacity of 67 %, changed brightness and contrast, added texture 2 with a layer mask for the bird, changed brightness and contrast, added texture 2 b with a layer mask for the bird and finished adding texture 2 c with a layer mask for the nest.

Is it already that time of the year?

Well, no, it really is a bit early to make my Christmas cards, I think. But as this week´s Grungy Monday challenge is Tim Holtz´ Perfect Distress technique I thought that a little shimmer would be perfect for my first Christmas card ... Other than usual I haven´t used Tim´s stamps here but have chosen Crafty Individuals´ lovely Rudolph, a text from Magnolia, and a snowflake border from Flamingo Art. Of course the scan above doesn´t show the shimmer, so I´ve made a few additional photos for you.

I´ve stamped with Distress Inks in Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky and added Perfect Pearls in Blue Patina and Pewter.

Nevermore

This week´s theme for the SPA challenge is "Bats", and here´s my card using elements from Finecrafted Designs and Tangie Baxter.

Monochrome

... has been a difficult challenge for me because I usually prefer contrast - but when I saw the other participants´ bird pages for our monthly exchange, I knew I could use a few other colours, phew!

More Halloween ATCs

You´ve already seen the "Spooky Witch"; now here´s the finished set of 9 Halloween ATCs for a swap.

Haunted House

I´m sure you know Bates´ house ... it´s my entry for this week´s SPA challenge. All stamps by Cherry Pie, only the text is by Oxford Impressions.

A Holtz-ian Halloween

... is the theme for Grungy Monday No. 22, so I´ve made this Halloween tag using the following Tim Holtz products: Kraft Resist paper, Seasonal Distress Inks set (wiped on a sanded black tag), Halloween tissue tape, Distress Stain picket fence, and cat die cut. The spider net is an IndigoBlu stamp, so this tag also qualifies for the new Creavil challenge themed Halloween.