Empty - Gone

A Scary Place

This week´s Wednesday Stampers challenge theme is Nest, so I thought that one of my ATCs made for my own Mona & Friends swap would qualify here.

(If you´d like to play in my swap, please let me know, there´s plenty of time left.)

The original painting is by Piero del Pollaiuolo.

Stamps used are from Cherry Pie, Scrollswork, Invoke Art, and Artful Illusions.

At Home

When I saw the new SPA challenge theme Storks, I didn´t like it at first - but then I remembered a photo I had taken last month, and I decided to alter it a bit.

Grungy Monday No. 8

This week´s Grungy Monday technique is one of my favourite ones that I´ve learned from Tim Holtz, and it gives this stamped bird collage a dreamy springy feeling.

Update No. 1: Mona & Friends

Hey, it´s already time for the first update on my Mona & Friends swap! On the left, you can see my first ATC for that swap using a woman drawn by Andrea Mantegna - you can see that woman (known as Barbara Gonzaga) in the middle of the painting below.

Let me tell you that I´ve already had 17 sign-ups from six different countries!

And some of you are unbelievably fast - here are the links to the first finished sets from Bine and Peggy; go check them out!

There´s plenty of time to join this swap, so come on and play with us!

5th Annual Blog Swap Announcement: Mona & Friends

I know that many of you have been waiting for my annual blog swap impatiently, so I´m happy to be able to announce it today!
You all know Leonardo´s Mona Lisa, and most of you probably have used that image in your art like I did in the sample on the right. Well - I must confess that Mona is not one of my favourite Renaissance paintings ... I prefer portraits of women painted by Botticelli, Bronzino, Ghirlandaio, Holbein, Rogier van der Weyden, Pollaiuolo and others. This is the reason why I haven´t chosen "Altered Mona" as my theme but want to include any Renaissance women to alter (you can see a variety of them on the left).
Let´s face the word "Re-naissance" and give these ladies a new birth by altering them and their surroundings!

And here are the rules:

Please sign up via personal e-mail (just click on the E-mail me 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 e-mail) before July 15.

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 e-mail with the link to the place where you´ve posted them online, and I´ll add that link to the next update so that everyone can go to your blog or other website to have a look at your artwork.

I´ll send out invitations to all previous blog swap participants, but this swap is open to all my visitors. Have fun!

Make Room for DADA

This week I´m a guest host for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and I´ve chosen one of my favourite art styles, DADA, as this week´s theme.

Artists like Kurt Schwitters and Max Ernst have not only been among the first collage artists, but have also introduced mail art to the scene, and they even made some collages we´d call Steampunk today. And don´t forget the female DADA artists - Hannah Höch made some of my favourite DADA pieces!

DADA could be just anything, pure fun and nonsense as well as political statements as in John Heartfield´s artwork. So: Make Room for DADA this week and just play!

A Dog´s Life

At the stamping convention in Zeist I´ve found this lovely dog stamp in the bargain bin for one Euro - how could I resist?

My Garden Journal

I´m not a scrapbooker, so working with templates is not my cup of tea at all. Nevertheless I wanted to try the Creavil challenge template - and finished my card today which is one day late ... But look, there´s a butterfly on the left, and the new challenge theme is Butterflies, so here´s my card for it :-)