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.

Pish Posh

Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio came out with two lovely new kits today, Pish Posh and Pish Posh Add-On. While the first one has some very ususual ladies faces (as you can see in the two samples below), the add-on kit has some great male stuff (used for the two samples above, the words are from Marsha´s Journal Words 2). Both kits are great for telling unusual stories, so have a look at them and then have fun playing! As always, you also get loads of colourful printable collage sheets with these kits.

Gingham

When I first saw this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, I thought that I couldn´t do it - I knew that Gingham is the English name for what is called Vichy-Karo in Germany, but I had no idea how to put that into a postcard. Then it dawned to me that my friend Marsha had some lovely Gingham patterned pieces in one of her older image kits, and this is how my card started ... all images are from Tumblefish Studio this week.

Free Spirit

These two digital collages have been made with the three new Crowabout StudioB kits from MischiefCircus, Free Spirit Alpha, Free Spirit Elements, and Free Spirit Papers.

Imitating Nick Bantock Mail Art

It´s always difficult for me if I`m challenged to mimic someone else´s artistic style. Shelly asked for Nick Bantock styled tip-in pages with a typical mail art look, and they have to be made on book pages in a 4 x 6 format which makes an 8 x 6 spread in the end. I´ve only used a few of Nick Bantock´s own rubber stamps but tried to mostly feature other collage elements and stamps. I´ve left open one line of the original book text in each spread, and that´s how each spread is titled: God speaks in her (above) and Something rare (below). These will go out to Florida next week, so they´re not only travel themed, but will also go on a far journey themselves.
And as both spreads contain pieces of maps, they also go with this month´s Art Journal Journey challenge theme "Maps".

The Raven´s Tale

I´ve made this collage just for fun, using elements from Cryztal Rain, Xquizart, Rucola Designs, Eena´s Creations, and Beth Rimmer.

All Things Alice Swap finished now!

(digital ATC made with elements from Hidden Vintage Studios, 

Crowabout StudioB and Crafty Button Designs)

After three weeks in the mail, yesterday the last return envelope was delivered in Australia, so I´m happy to be able to finish our swap now. None of the return envelopes got lost "down the rabbit hole", and I haven´t heard any complaints about the return ATCs this year.
Thanks to all participants for making this swap a successful one again!

Altered Postcards

Be honest, isn´t this the dullest postcard you´ve ever seen? I can´t remember if I´ve received it as a gift from a fellow artist or if I purchased it on a flea market, but when I found it in my stash recently, this one begged to be altered. (The back of this card says that it was sent from Pequot Lakes to Boston in 1954, by the way.)

As I´ve picked "Altered Postcard" as the theme for this week´s Sunday Postcard challenge, I´ll show you what I´ve done with it and hope that this will inspire you to take a look at your own stash of cards and join our community this week with your own approach.
You can use a store-bought card or a vintage one, then paint it, stamp it, stencil or collage, whatever you want. And if you´re a digital artist, you can even scan your postcard and alter it digitally - and if you don´t own an actual postcard, you can even download a digital one and alter it afterwards. (I don´t know how long this link will be working before it expires, but Stampington had some nice cards in one of their latest newsletters.)

I´ve altered the card above in two different ways for this challenge, one mixed media and one digital version.
Here´s what I did for the mixed-media card: First I gathered a few things that looked like I could use them for a card with a lake image; I´ve found a magazine photo, brads, gesso, stamps and embellishments.

Then as my first step I sanded the original card to make the surface ready to receive some paint.

After that, a light coat of clear gesso helps to make the surface even rougher. And as I wanted to use my magazine cut out, I put the gesso on that one too in order to make its surface workable.

Here´s my finished card using crayons, Prismacolor pencils, rubber stamps from BoBunny, Hampton Arts and Sommerabend.com, and several brads:

But I´ve also used the above scan of the card to show you a digital version that I´ve made using images from Miles Beyond the Moon and Eeena´s Creations:

Now I´m really eager to see which cards you will use and what you´ll make with them!

Wild One

Nancy Baumiller from Crowabout StudioB at Mischief Circus came out with two lovely new kits today, called Wild One and Wild One Paper Pack.
I´ve made two digital collages with both kits, and I hope they inspire you to make your own art with these kits. If you prefer cut and paste artwork, you can print the digital collage sheets that come with the kit and have fun with these colourful images!