Pink + Tape + Bird

 
For this bunch of ATCs, the swap theme was to use pink and tape and a bird - what a lovely challenge!
But it´s also a challenge for my scanner that didn´t show all the colour in the ATC in the lower left corner ...

Pixie Dust

 
I´m not a fan of fairies, so when it came to the theme Peter Pan for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge, I decided to use dragonfly wings as a symbol for Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.

I used Mica sprays for shimmer and rubber stamps from ArtJourney, Visible Image and Hero Arts, and I used Distress Watercolor Pencils for colouring.

Imagination

 
Dina Wakley´s stamp set Seeing is Believing is just what I´ve been waiting for - I have so many ideas to use this stamp set - here´s the first one, combining it with one of my favourite quotes from Catslifepress.

Sewing mends the Soul

 

Dressforms/Sewing is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and though I´m not a sewing person, I love this saying and thought it was perfect for a birthday card for a friend who sews a lot. And it was a good opportunity to use Tim Holtz´ lovely blueprint stamps.

I´ve used just a tad bit of colour this time instead of my beloved colour explosions ;-)

Twins

 

This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is twins. When I read it, I knew immediately that it would inspire me and I wanted to take part, but I had too many ideas for it ... 

In fact two old friends of mine have twins (that are adults now), so I have thought about the implications of being a twin a lot during the last 25 years. I´m sure that twins have a special connection that lasts for their lifetime, but I think that most of them feel the need to express their individuality more than most of us do.

Mark Making

 

When I read a theme for a challenge, I often think "Oh, I´m out", but sometimes I´m hooked and immediately see the stamps I´ll use. The theme "Mark Making" for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was one of these. 

I started with making my marks on a paper by using gesso and an old credit card. Then I loaded my black ink pad with more ink and used the credit card again to push the ink into the stamp pad - and then used the credit card with the black ink again on my background. 

Then Dina Wakley´s stamps came in perfectly, and I also added stamps from Red Lead. I hope and believe that the fun I´ve had making this card is visible in the final card.

Weather Forecast

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Newsprint" I´ve used the weather forecast in my daily newspaper as my background. I collaged it with some gesso and used stamps from Stempelbar and Klartext on it. And yes, I hope we´ll have some rain here soon because it´s too hot right now ...

Soap Bubbles

 

Sometimes it just takes a few new rubber stamps to get the inspiration for a card, and sometimes these stamps don´t need anything else to make a cool card. These stamps reminded me of my love for soap bubbles - when my friends´ children were small, I´ve loved to bring soap bubbles as a gift for them - you´ll never be too old to enjoy soap bubbles.

Metamorphosis

 

Anyone interested in literature should have read Franz Kafka´s "Metamorphosis" ("Die Verwandlung" in the German original) from 1912, edited in 1915. And it really pays to read it again and again because you always discover something new that you haven´t noticed earlier. Though Kafka doesn´t mention a beetle as the result of Gregor Samsa´s metamorphosis, most of us read this between the lines. 

This is the reason why I´ve chosen Kafka´s story for my card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Beetles". 

No Regrets

When I first read this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge "Femme Fatale", I thought that I´d skip the challenge this week. But when I started thinking about the theme, I began to like it: 

Usually we associate Femme Fatale with a fin de siècle woman that is manipulating and seductive - characteristics that I hate from the bottom of my heart attributed to women who influenced famous men.
But of course those women that were labeled with this term have lived in times when women had no choice when they wanted to live their own life - they could only live it as an attribute to a man´s life. The term Femme Fatale is one that tells us of a male perspective - an adventurous woman is described as one that causes the (bad) fate of a man. We should change our perspective and see the woman who just wants to live her own life as a free and independent human being.

Longing for the Sea

 
Lighthouses is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and here´s the card I´ve stamped for it. This lady is dreaming of the sea, beaches and faraway countries, there´s something romantic about the sea.

Lemons

 

Lemons/Oranges is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I wanted to illustrate the freshness and "splash" of those fruits, so I used watercolours and stamps from Makistamps.

Dance

 

You must dance Life - that´s a motto I must remind myself of daily as I´m someone who doesn´t take things easy. No matter how old you are, there are always things left to work on.

This card is my entry for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Dance".

Window to my Heart

 
This week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Windows". My card was made with rubber stamps from VivaLasVegaStamps, Stempelbar and Catslife Press.

Frida

 
Last weekend, I haven´t done anything creative, and though I´ve felt recovered the next day, I also felt that something was missing. So this weekend, I did some stamping again and already feel better! 
Here are my Frida Kahlo ATCs for a swap in a German ATC group.

How about you? Do you feel the need to create and miss it if you´ve been lazy for a while, or is it enough to make some art from time to time?

David Bowie

 
I´ve made these ATCs for a David Bowie themed swap. 

The first one is a collage of Bowie postage stamps, covered with gesso and overstamped.

The next two ATCs illustrate "Space Oddity", Bowie´s famous song from 1972. 

And then there´s that great collaboration with Pat Metheny from 1985, a song I really love, from the soundtrack of "The Falcon and the Snowman". 

I´ve had more ideas on my list for ATCs illustrating "Black Star", "Let´s Dance" and "China Girl", but as we didn´t have enough participants for this swap, I stopped here ...

You are my Sunshine

Your are my Sunshine is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge.

May I say that I don´t like this song at all? It´s a classic from 1939 (recorded then by the Pine Ridge Boys, but written in 1937), and there are about 350 cover versions, for example by Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Johnny Cash, but I really don´t like it ... 

I don´t like its musical simplicity, the simple lyrics and the fact that there´s nobody I could sing it for. 

If you´re alone, you have to find other things or creatures that enlighten you and are your sunshine - in my case, flowers and especially birds make me happy every day. How about you? Do you have someone or something who or what makes you happy?

Lost

 

Here´s my true story card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Keys".

Stamps are from Oxford Impressions, Ciao Bella, AALL&Create, Studio Tanja, Hampton Art/Graphic 45 and PaperArtsy/Seth Apter.

Blackbird

 

I´m hosting the Sunday Postcard Art challenge this week, and I´ve chosen "Song Lyrics" as this week´s theme as I always feel inspired by words and lyrics, and some song lyrics even accompany your whole life.

Blackbird is such a timeless song, and it´s one that can be illustrated in so many ways. For my sample card, I´ve used rubber stamps from Green Pepper Press (Michelle Ward) and York´s Little Art Studio (Wendy York).

Hope you´ll feel inspired to show us your interpretation of a favourite song!

Letters from the Past

When I saw this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, "Letters from the Past", I thought "What a lovely theme, I´ll take part" - but tonight, it has been more difficult than I had planned.

Do you own any handwritten letters from the past, your parents or your grandparents?

I own something handwritten by my father from the early 80s and a stack of love letters from someone I didn´t fall in love with myself from the mid 90s, and I treasure things like these. 

What about you? Do you keep old love letters, old postcards or letters? Do they mean something to you or do you believe that they´re worthless because they express feelings that are long gone?