My Home is my Castle Blog Swap Update No. 2

Two weeks are over, and I´ve had 24 sign-ups for this swap so far - remember, there´s still so much time to sign up and join the fun because you only have to make 3 ATCs that have to be in my hands before July 15 ...

I hope you´ve all seen last week´s update and have clicked on the links to the first finished entries!? Here are two more for you as Birgit and Laura have finished their cards, too! Don´t forget to have a look at their wonderfully creative cards and leave them a nice comment!

I haven´t received much feedback about my idea of putting all entries on a special Pinterest board for this swap - have you visited it and do you like it? Please let me know! Even if you´re not on Pinterest, you´ll be able to see all entries in one place there. All images are automatically linked back to their online source, so you can either leave a comment on the board or directly on the artist´s blog.

Paper Sirens

 Down by the Sea

(credits: HVS, Finecrafted Designs, Beth Rimmer, Tumble Fish Studio, Crowabout Studio, Eena´s Creations, Cryztal Rain, all at Deviant Scrap

Jewels of the Sea

credits: HVS, PinkLotty, Beth Rimmer, Finecrafted Designs, Eena´s Creations, all at Deviant Scrap 

Today Hidden Vintage Studios have come out with a lovely new kit, Paper Sirens.  My first two samples are digital collages, but as you´ll also get jpg images with this kit, I´ve also made a cut and paste sample for you in my moleskine journal - hope you´ll like these lovely mermaids!

Friends Forever

cut and paste Moleskine page using elements from HVS, Crowabout Studio, Tumble Fish Studio

Party Time!

Yes, it´s Party time today because this is this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme - so let´s celebrate!

White on White

What a difficult theme Cathy has chosen for her tip-in book - at least for a colour lover like me! So I used white, cream and ivory scraps, lots of gesso, tissue tapes, paper lace, buttons, rub-ons and a bit of sewing to break up the dull surface. Personally, I prefer more contrast and a less vintage feeling, but as these pages look much better in real life, I´m satisfied with them, and they´ll be on their way to South Carolina soon.

My Home is my Castle Blog Swap Update No. 1

I´ve been busy working on my own ATCs for this swap last weekend to have enough to accompany each and every update, so here´s my first one to give you some more inspiration ...
I´ve had 21 sign-ups from 4 different countries for this swap so far, and two of you have already posted their finished ATCs, yeah! Please have a look at the fabulous entries from Sabine and Martina, get inspired and don´t forget to leave them a comment if you like their cards (if you´re new to my swaps: I´ll use your comments to know what you like when it comes to swapping all cards out ...).
There´s one thing I´m trying for the first time this year: If you are on Pinterest, you can have a look at my board called "My Home is my Castle" swap there, just click here. Please let me know if you think that this is a good idea or not!
That´s all news for today, I hope you all have fun creating your ATCs!

I Love Red Lead Stamps!

I´m proud to say that I´m a guest designer for Red Lead this week - and it has been such fun to play with their wonderful rubber stamps, collage sheets, papers and embellishments for these samples. Many thanks to Chris and Sharon for running such a great business and for always coming up with inspiring new art and with fun swaps at their Yahoo group!

Announcing my 7th Annual Blog Swap: My Home is my Castle

Yes, it´s time for my next blog swap, and this year´s theme is My Home is my Castle - hope you´ll like it!
Please think of a person or animal who loves her/his home so much that she/he carries it with her/him permanently! The building can be part of the human´s/animal´s body or a headdress, your decision.
Here are a few samples from my old photo files to inspire you - these are NOT my own ATCs for the swap:

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).

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) before July 15, 2013.

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.

I´ve sent out invitations to all previous participants, but this swap is open to all my visitors. Have fun creating!

Shades of Pink

I´ve been busy making samples with the new Tumble Fish Studio kit "Shades of Pink" last weekend, and though I´m not a pink girl at all, I must say that this kit really inspired me and I just couldn´t stop playing with it ... So here are three digital collages and one cut and paste moleskine journal page for you, all images are from this kit only.

Nests

ARTchix Studio is running a new swap themed Nests, and I couldn´t resist joining of course ... You can still  join if you want!

In the Clouds

In the Clouds

HVS kit AirHeads plus elements from PinkLotty, Mr Whiskers and Finecrafted Designs

Hidden Vintage Studios have some inspiring new images out that are called AirHeads. Have a look at them and let your mind flow to find out their stories and mysteries!

Imagination

HVS kit AirHeads, all other elements by Finecrafted Designs

The Little Zetti Instruction Book for a Creative Life

What a wonderful theme Beckie has chosen for her tip-in book over at Paper Traders!! I´ve been looking forward to these pages because I love everything Zetti, and I´ve had much fun making these - and for the first time I´ve finished my pages very early in the month ;-)) These pages will be on their way to California very soon! (please click on the images to see more details)

Artful Defined

... is the title of the latest Red Lead ATC swap. The three ATCs above will go to St. Louis tomorrow, but as I just couldn´t stop once I had started, I´ve made the two additional cards below just for fun.

Paint it Purple!

Do you love the colour purple? I know I do! So I´ve been thrilled to see the new Tumble Fish Studio kit called "Shades of Purple". I´ve made three samples for you with this kit, one digital one and two Moleskine pages with the collage sheets included in this kit. And don´t forget to check out the lovely new purple and pink journal cards that I´ve used in the first Moleskine sample.

Mail Art Postcards

For this week´s SPA challenge I´ve made two cut and paste postcards - both use images from Tumble Fish Studios, the one above combines them with images from Hidden Vintage Studios, the one below has an additional image from Crowabout Studios. Tape, real postage stamps, hand-dyed paper and several postage stamps finish my cards that will go out as mail art very soon ... if you want to get one of them, you should join the mail art challenge at Deviant Scrap until April 30.

My Bonnie

Amanda´s theme for her Paper Traders tip-in book is "Ocean". Here are my pages for her, and as California is definitely over the ocean from here, I hope that my pages won´t get wet on their way to her ...
(please click on the image for more details)

Viva Mexico!

For my Mexican themed postcard that I´ve made for our postcard exchange, I´ve based my design on the Mexican flag and added elements that I associate with Mexico: Dia de los muertos, a Mexican pyramid, a map of the region, and Frida Kahlo of course ... This card is already on its way to Michigan!

And the Winner is ...

JoAnne!
I´ve just drawn her name as the winner for my giveaway at last weekend´s Paper Traders´ Blog Hop. Congrats to JoAnne and many thanks to all who hopped with us and left me those lovely comments!

Tape It!

If you´re a stuff hoarder like me, you have a huge collection of tapes of all kinds: tissue tapes, washi tapes, masking tapes, you name it ... That´s why I´ve chosen Tapes for the challenge that I´m hosting this week, and these are the tapes I´ve chosen for my SPA card:

What do you do with yours? I like to use mine for mixed-media backgrounds like I did for the card above. I took a dyed paper from my stash and put down pieces of several tapes totally randomly. To unify the background as well as to fix the tapes (that would easily peel off otherwise) I brushed some gesso on and removed parts of it with a paper towel.

Then I stamped my images (stamps by VLVS and Madrat) ...

and coloured them with watercolour pencils. I decided to make the words stand out by using even more tape and coloured the hands on the tape, drawing over the tape borders to blend the strips into my design. As a last step I added shadows and highlights.

Now it´s up to you to show me how you like to use tapes in your designs! Hope you´ll have fun with this challenge!

Paper Traders´ First Blog Hop

This weekend, one of my favourite Yahoo Groups has its first Blog Hop - it´s Paper Traders! I´ve been a member from the beginning (in fact I joined the group on day three of their existence which was Nov 19, 2005), and you´ll find so many ATCs, book pages etc. on my blog that I´ve made for projects of this group. Former group members have even inspired me to start my own blog in 2006!

If you´re here for the first time, let me tell you that I´m Marion from Germany, and I´d call myself a mixed-media person. I love to combine collage, rubber stamping and other techniques and also like to make digital collages. I don´t really have one favourite technique, so you´ll see various techniques, media and formats on this blog constantly.
I don´t sell my work, but I´m a member of the creative teams for Tumble Fish Studio and Hidden Vintage Studios (both at DeviantScrap.com) right now.

I am excited to participate in the First Paper Traders Blog Hop. I hope it will be a way for you to get to know me and a few of the other group members better, see our art, and get a chance to win some nice prizes that are being offered along the way.  Maybe you'll even be inspired by what you see and want to join the group.

The Blog Hop will be open the entire weekend of April 19-21, 2013.  Be sure to start at the Paper Traders Art Blog here http://papertraders-art.blogspot.com/ and follow the blog hop list of participating members below:

Paper Traders Art Blog

Bockel24

Art and Soul

Sunshine,Lollipops and Butterflies

Creative Solace

Art Beckons

Scrap Panda

Creative Musings

A Surcee Life

Textile Delights

Stamp Gram’s

Glenda’s Art Escapes

Fairy Rocks

Each member will share a little bit about herself and offer either a handmade art piece or other quality prize that will be randomly awarded to blog readers who leave a warm, fuzzy comment.  Just comment below and provide a way for me to contact you and I will pick a randomly drawn name from those who leave a comment.  One entry per person, please.
I`ve decided to give away my card for last week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge as it´s quite typical for me:

The winner´s name will be drawn on Monday April 22. 

Have fun on your journey and I hope you'll come back to visit soon!

Do You Like Dalí?

Of course I had seen a lot of Salvador Dalí´s paintings before, and some of them in real life, but I´ve never been so very impressed by them before I saw more of Dalí´s work at the latest Documenta in Kassel. If you think you know a lot about him, I´d like to encourage you to take another look at his work - maybe you´ll discover some new facettes.
I´ve made these ATCs for a Dalí themed ATC swap and can´t wait to see the ideas the other participants will come up with ...