The last 2016 Mail Art Swap with Jo and Lenna was Weather Report....and as usual totally different interpretations (though Sun and Rain played a big part in all lol). First up is what I received from Jo...
who lives in the UK and knows my family roots back to England. Perfect collage...
and a cool envelope to go with it!
Lenna's art is truly fab - she experiments with different materials and techniques - I love the texture she has created on this piece...
...and my personal weather report on the back.
A close up from her envelope. Mine were both included in packages to my friends so no fancy envelopes. I dipped into my retro collection and found these two ladies (both are from ads for coffee).
Jo's is based on one of my favorite songs!
I found this lovely poem by Langston Hughes that inspired Lenna's card. So that's a wrap. Our first Mail Art Swap for 2017 is Alphabet Soup...meanwhile, enjoy. Jewels
I'm bummed - BIG issues with Flickr and I am unable to add pics there at the moment. Using Facebook and my much neglected Blog to "capture the memories".... Latest mail art swap was Found Poetry - however you wanted to create it. I chose to take a page out of a book and randomly circle words to get my poem. For my two cards I used an old Readers Digest book (the ones with the cool covers) and happened on a story that had lots of opportunities! I also used new techniques I learned from Tammy Garcia's Novel Approach class and I really love how they turned out.
First up - Lenna's card..
And her envelope - cool story about the back picture. It reminded me of paintings by Lenna's Great Uncle William Glackenswhich is why I chose it ...
I had a hoot with Jo's - I knew she would appreciate the humour - and the text really was on the same page LOL..
Same style for Jo's envelope - notice it's another woman reading a book which I think was a great tie in to our overall theme. Well our next theme will be a challenge for all of us! It's Dendritic Painting - never heard of it - neither had I and just accidentally came across it - check out this video...
looking forward to REALLY going out of my comfort zone... Enjoy!
The Three Amigos have been at it again - our latest swap was "Something Different" - the challenge was to use a substrate you have never used before for the base of your postcard. Well the gals were very ingenious - and none of them were alike!
The first to arrive at Maple Hill was Lenna's wonderful Yupo paper - never heard of it before! 100% polpropolene which gives a wonderful effect. This pic does not really do the rich, shiny colours justice - love it L!!!!!!
Jo's took a little longer to arrive - her's was a cool effect on acetate - you can read all about her process on her blog here. Awesome!
So... me being a librarian, I had to Google "postcard substrate". I actually had quite a few hits (and choices) but decided to go with this technique of using a pile of sewn together magazine pages.
Tear 10 pages out of magazines, apply a little glue to keep them together while running through the sewing machine...
...I did a stippling effect to freestyle around the surface (my poor old machine really get's put through its paces...).
The original article painted the surface but I loved the graphics so much I decided to let them show through and did a little painting here and there. Love the succulents in the shoes - making me thing of Spring (and a fitting postal stamp as well).
It was delivered to Jo with my 70's gal in green - I really enjoy arting up the envelopes as much as making the main piece. I always think how fun it will be for the person on the recieving end!
The flowers and china really appealed to me for Lenna's card - and "joyful friend" describes exactly what she is (hugs my friend). Another old stamp from my stash....
and fun envelope! So - Found Poetry is up next - stay tuned. Enjoy. Jewels
Last year I participated in Kat Sloma's annual Liberate Your Art swap where you create postcards of original art made by you, send in and get five postcards back in return plus an extra one from Kat. I had fun and got some lovely cards so thought I would do again this year. But this time I am submitting five different pieces courtesy of the company MOO that make it SO easy to get your work printed. It's cost friendly (I was really organized and took advantage of their sales right before Christmas) and good quality. I have already sent a couple of the extras I got back to friends and relatives....
This mail art was made a while back for my friend Jo - I think it was our very first swap! I've since done a better job "standardizing" my size. I do remember it took FOREVER to get to her in England - we agree it must have gone around the globe a couple of times - but fortunately it finally made it.
Mo and I did a "one staple" Mail Art Exchange which I first found out through Daisy Yellow'sTammy Garcia. I've done a few of these and they are sooooooo fun.
Collective Nouns was the theme of this Mail Art that I sent to Lenna. I loved using the old pattern graphics.
My mail art pal Leslie and I did an exchange on Renaissance Mash Up. I found this picture of three young girls and wondered what they would be like today!
Lenna hosted a big swap awhile back with a theme of Summer - I went with Summer Camp Songs and made my card based on an old Girl Guide song I used to sing.Can't remember who ultimately got this but I think it was another of my pals Beth.
I also sent an extra one for Kat - this was one of ICAD cards from last year that Tammy hosted.
I always like to have fun with the envelope I send everything in. For some reason Liberate your Art reminded me of the French Revolution (have no idea why) - but it was all about freedom! And that certainly is the spirit of Kat's swap.
And of course I had to let Marie Antoinette have her say on the back (hee hee). So there you have it. There is still time if you are interested in joining so be sure to check it out here. Enjoy. Jewels
Wow time to dust off the old blog! So many highs and lows this year plus I find I play more in Facebook and Flickr... ...that said I was inspired by Carolyn Dube's new Let's Play where you share something you have done for the week and visit to see what creativity others have gotten into... I'm still doing Mail Art with my two favorite online peeps, Jo and Lenna. Our latest challenge was Song Lyrics - that is actually kinda tough. I found myself listening to all my CD's and Pandora thinking, ohohoh that would make a great image. Everything from Gordon Lightfoot to Kate Bush lol. But I found myself constantly coming back to my all time favorite band ELO. If you are not familiar with them (hard to believe there is anyone not!!!) they are definitely a 70's band. Jeff Lynne wrote wonderful lyrics that I can still recite to this day (Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Lancelot, they don't envy me). Sigh. Once I decided to stick with Jeff I still hemmed and hawed - Mr. Blue Sky or Evil Woman (which for years I thought was Medieval Woman - don't ask lol).
Lenna's was done first. I knew I wanted to use a statue for "Turn to Stone" and found one that did the trick. Background was from an under paper from another project. Used a black glitter "paint" I found in Target.
The matching envelope which I had lot of fun with...
Jo's was "RockAria" - really really wonderful lyrics. I have to say this is the third version of this piece. I kept changing my mind about the graphic and the text till I realized I was overthinking it and just slapped this baby together in an hour. Need to listen to Carolyn more :)
I found the envelope picture in a travel magazine - she is AWESOME!!!
Anyway, still waiting on Jo's to arrive so I can share what she and Lenna did. So fun to see how we interpret our themes. Next up is "Something Different" - we have to use a substrate we have never used before - should be interesting! Enjoy. Jewels
Has it really been that long since I posted (April???). I must say I lost steam with DLP - lots of other things going on that took my focus away from it. I am happy to say I am very much into ICAD 2015 and so far have met my daily commitment to myself to make quick art...still time to join if you are interested. Meanwhile back at Maple Hill...Jo, Lenna and I decided to try reconstruction collage for our latest swap. Lenna had taken an online class with Randel Plowman and it turns out all three of us have his book, The Collage Workbook (check out pages 58 and 59 if you have it). Here is what we came up with!
Lenna's arrived first - she did a mix of strips from magazines then did some stamping and a light dose of gesso - very nice.
And a lovely envelope to go with it - she has some of the coolest stamps I have ever seen!
Jo's finally made it over the pond from England. I would love to see the stash of old National Geographics she keeps dipping into! She took a different approach in how she cut up her picture - she has a shiny gold paint around each block.
And then she did a reconstructed face for her envelope...which she slipped into a plastic sleeve to send (hence no address). Another bang up job from both of my peeps!
I seem to recall it was a pretty cool day when I made mine - it has taken forever for summer to finally get here (which it has I am happy to say). My card for Lenna and Jo started with this advert from one of my old BHG mags (1950's).
I forgot to take a pic of the second picture I used for Lenna's card - but I think you can figure out it was flowers in a garden lol. I told Lenna this would have been her and hubby Steve in the 50's enjoying the outdoors!
Using the same picture I was able to get Jo's collage also! But I combined her's with a 7-Up ad for summer drinks!
The colours were a great match! And I am still chuckling about that little dog admiring the man's hot dog (ahem).....
I was stumped at first about the envelopes but found this picture which I cut in half and crossed over the two - a nice way to "connect" my two friends :) Next challenge - collective nouns - oh the possibilities! Enjoy. Jewels
Iparticipated in Kat's Liberate your Art 2015 Swap - send her 6 copies of your art in a printed post card format (I used MOO to make mine) and you will get 6 in return - kinda cool...Unfortunately I can only account for where 3 of my landed, oh well....
I decided to use my Mail Art card that I submitted for What's Your View earlier this year. Love how this turned out.
This is what I received in return. From Snap...
From Deanie Houghtaling...
From April Roco...
From Kate Lehman...
And from Charlotte Prado...
And all together including my 6th card from Kat. This is their permanent home for now. I enjoyed the process of getting cards done by MOO and will definitely do that again so I can send my friends "art" (if they want it lol). Thanks to everyone who participated and also to Kat Sloma for organizing. Enjoy. Jewels.
