Letting Go

 
Letting Go is the hardest thing. There´s a "small" letting go when a relationship ends, and a big one when a person you loved leaves earth forever. Both are hard, and I´ve never been good at letting anything or anyone go.

Making a sympathy card is always a hard thing, and I remember that it made me happy when I´ve made one for a stamping friend years ago when her husband had passed away, and when I met her again, she hugged and thanked me for my card. 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge Rein asked us for a sympathy card, and it was the hardest thing to make one for a future farewell. When I make a sympathy card, I usually have the person on my mind that has left us, and making the card is part of the process of letting this person go.

I love to use images for sympathy cards that aren´t made for this purpose. Of course you can use falling leaves, bare trees etc., but there´s so much more. I´ve even made sympathy cards with images expressing love only, and they can bring hope, I know. 

The German sentence on my card above means "Letting go costs less strength than holding on, but nevertheless it´s so much harder."

Lavender

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art theme "Lavender" I thought about lavender and what it means to me. I´ve always had lavender on my balcony that I loved to touch and smell, and it seemed to have sort of a therapeutical effect. So I created a story about a woman searching for calm and peace of mind. She´s standing in front of a book shelf, drinking tea and enjoying the smell of lavender. What does bring YOU down?

Stamps used here are from PaperArtsy and Makistamps.

All Things Alice

 
I thought it´s time for another Alice challenge as we all love Alice, don´t we? So here´s my sample card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge "All Things Alice". I´ve chosen it as my sample as I love this Madhatter stamp from IndigoBlu, but wait, I´ve made more ...

The Queen of Hearts is another interesting character in "Alice in Wonderland", but instead of letting her yell her usual "Off with their heads" I let her insist "A Rose is a Rose", an iconic sentence from Gertrude Stein. 

(Stamps are from Penny Black and PaperArtsy)

And finally we have Alice herself in a nature setting, combined with a wonderful quote that is not from Lewis Carroll - but I don´t care as I really like it and I always collage pics with words that don´t come from the same source (both stamps are from IndigoBlu again). I´m not a Lewis Carroll curator in a literature archive but an artist, so I chose quotes that fit in terms of content, not history. 

Other people DO care if a quote used with Alice illustrations really is from the book - for those of you here´s an interesting blog post where you´ll also find my quotes that aren´t originally from the book - so what? A Rose is a Rose is from Gertrude Stein but seemed appropriate, and so I used it. As I have studied literature, I love words and literature and care for history, but as a collage artist, I`m free to combine whatever I want.

What do you think about Alice quotes? 

I´m curious to see your Alice cards this week and read about your opinions.

Live in the Present

 

My sister Sabine picked "Playtime" as this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. 

I´ve always loved playing, as a child I loved Hopscotch and the skipping rope and all kinds of parlour games, today I prefer a lovely evening with friends having fun with our monthly pub quiz. Having fun doing things that you do just for fun is very important for your soul, I believe, and so playtime should be a fixed element in our calendars.

Like Friedrich Schiller said: "Man is only truly human when he plays." Life is short, so live in the moment, live in the present and do things that you don´t have to do but that make you happy.

For my card I´ve used stamps from Andy Skinner and Visible Image on a gessoed magazine background, coloured with watercolours.

Blue Monday

 

When I read this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge theme "Blue Monday", I had New Order in my ears immediately. Their song came out when I finished school and became an adult, so it will be always on my mind. 

How does it feel to treat me like you do?
Tell me how do I feel?

It´s interesting that the song title "Blue Monday" doesn´t appear in the lyrics of this song, but this is just part of the mystery of this great song.

I´ve made my card with stamps from Visible Image and an alphabet from AALL & Create.

Feathered Friends

 

In my opinion, we´ve had enough winter, and I´m longing for warmer temperatures and listening to the singing of my favourite feathered friends. 

Feathered Friends is this week`s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and my card was made with stamps from Hobbycompleetdeduif and Red Lead Paperworks.

Winter Woodland Life - Snow

Winter Woodland Life is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. I´ve made a collaged background with a few paper scraps, then added stamps from Tim Holtz and Penny Black.

Professor Santa

 This week is an open theme for Christmas at Mandy´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge. So I tried something new and combined our beloved Tim Holtz "The Professor" with some Visible Image stamps and got Professor Santa as a result - now we know what the professor does during the next days.

Angels

My sister Sabine has chosen the theme "Angels" for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge. 

Do you believe in angels? I don´t, but I do believe in online friendship. 

An online friend asked for a Christmas card today, so this card will go to California on Monday.
Most people I know in real life don´t have any real online friends and don´t believe in online friendship, but I do. I have a few online friends found in former Yahoo groups more than 20 years ago who feel like near friends and who know almost everything about me, plus they have shared their art and life with me for decades. It´s not their fault nor mine that they don´t live where I do, so they really are my friends.

Sending handmade cards is an important part of staying in contact, not only with online friends but with everyone you know, so I hope you´ll send a batch of handmade Christmas cards this year to make your friends happy. 

My Angel card was made with stamps from Pink Ink Designs and Tim Holtz/ Stampers Anonymous.

Mona Lisa

 

Mona Lisa is an icon, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I´ve seen her in the Louvre in Paris but wasn´t impressed much to see her behind all that glass, and did you know that this painting measures only 77 x 53 cm? Leonardo painted it from 1503 to 1506, and he still owned it when he died.

Mona Lisa is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and my card was made using stamps from MaVinci and Visible Image.

Moths - von Kopf bis Fuß

 
Moths is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and while I didn´t want to make a card featuring brown moths on a dark background, I thought of Marlene Dietrich´s famous song from "Der Blaue Engel", "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt" from 1930. In my eyes, Marlene is one of the very few persons from this time Germans can be proud of as she was emotional and intelligent enough to chose the right side and fight against fascism, no matter what her country thought of her. 

That famous song was written by Friedrich Hollaender for the movie "Der Blaue Engel", an interpretation of Heinrich Mann´s novel that made Marlene Dietrich a movie star, so let´s celebrate her for her courage and character - she deserves it.

Autumn Melancholy

 

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren lass die Winde los.
Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein. 

Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr. 

Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben, 

wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben 

und wird in den Alleen hin und her 

unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.

Rilke´s poem "Autumn Day" is one of the most beautiful German poems, I think. And it contains everything I´m thinking of when I think of Autumn. It means farewell, accomplishment, loneliness and contemplation. It has its own dark beauty but usually makes me sad.

When I was younger, autumn was my favourite season. Now I prefer spring with all its hope. And you?

My card for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Autumn" was made using stamps from Carabelle, IndigoBlu and PaperArtsy.

Full Moon

 
Full Moon is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. My card was made with stamps from Dina Wakley and Red Lead plus a die cut from Stamperia.

Note to Self

 
What a great theme Cindy has chosen for this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge! I had more than 20 ideas for this but finally went with this girl from Andy Skinner, accompanied by stamps from Dylusions and Badass Stamp Studio.

There are so many things I should remember every day, most important of all: live and don´t think too much and don´t care about what others think of you.

What are the things you want to note to remember every day?

Poe

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed Poe I´ve stamped this card using stamps from Carmen`s veranda, IndigoBlu, Stampotique and Funkelkram.

Be yourself please! I´m quite old, but people always try to make you think you´re wrong, seems this doesn`t ever stop. Please be strong and fight because you´re just right as you are. You don`t have to fit in but just have to be YOU. As I`m not very successful in this, I´d like to think that you are much better in this.

Museums

 
Do you like to visit museums? I really do because they always give me some important input for my brain, even if I don`t like the art that is exhibited. When going on a holiday, I prefer big cities with interesting museums - not that I wouldn´t like a walk on the beach, but I´m usually bored there after about two hours.
How about you? Do you like museums or do you prefer to see art in a different surrounding? 

And what do you think about calling something "art"? I´ve been surprised when my US friends first called my collages art and some even asked if I´d sell them because here in Germany nobody would do that - you have to have a degree to call yourself an artist, and you probably wouldn´t sell something you´ve made without an art degree. 

My sister Sabine has picked "Museums" as this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge. My card was made with stamps from VivaLasVegaStamps only.

Peace

 
If you´re interested in politics in any way, you know why I picked "Peace" as this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art. The date of course was chosen by Mandy as September 21st is the International Day of Peace as declared by the United Nations in 1981.

For the last two years I´ve been singing Christmas songs together with 10.000 people in the centre of our city, and the event always ends with John Lennon´s "War is over (if you want it)", and it´s very impressive to be a part of this choir.

Recently I´ve found out that John Lennnon´s and Yoko Ono´s art piece "War is over" is in the Kunsthalle in my former home town Bremen, so I collaged the poster into my card, combining it with some lovely stamps from PaperArtsy, Darkroom Door and VivaLasVegaStamps. So there are some very personal elements in this card which I love. If you have a moment, please visit my Instagram Account (bockel24) to see the real colours as my scanner dimmed the colours very much - I prefer the photo version with much brighter and darker colours and more contrast.

What comes to your mind when you think of Peace? I can´t wait to see your interpretations and read about your thoughts.

(I don´t have any problems with the internet in general but only with commenting on WordPress blogs - as I´m constantly asked for my WordPress password that I don´t have. So I´ll be able to comment on all posts but WordPress blogs.)

Squares

 

For this week´s Sunday Postcard Art challenge themed "Squares" I´ve made two cards, "Shakespeare Squares" and "In Your Head".

Friends

 
Friends are what you need in every stage of your life. Most people believe that it´s easy to find new friends when you´re young and that it gets harder every year - I don´t think so. Regardless of your age, finding a new friend is always something rare that provides happiness.

"Friends" is this week´s theme for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and my card was made with a single Dina Wakley stamp set.

Sea Turtle

 
This week´s Sunday Postcard Art theme "Turtles" was a great excuse to use this wonderful turtle ship stamp designed by Redmer Hoekstra.