Bird postcards

Finally got a bit inspired by a swap on Mail Me Some Art - bird postcards. Had some unattractive gelli printed cards so drew birds on them and colored with oil pastels. Much better. I like the way the paint specs from my filthy gelli plate show thru.

tastes great

Just a postcard, done in the 3 elements style of some previous ones, but with doodles this time. The black splat is a bingo marker banged down hard. Gelli print background.

Post cards

I've been tearing out images that grab me for years and filling boxes and file folders with them. What I haven't been doing with them is using them for anything, so this weekend I zipped thru a box, used some and threw the rest away. Felt good. I may work my way thru a few more boxes.
Meanwhile here are the cards I made. They're all on cardboard cut from a shoebox I was about to throw away.
I'm doing this post on my tablet using photos I took with the tablet camera, which I think might not be all that hot, so if the whole thing sucks when I look at it on my puter later, my apologies and I'll redo it.

posted from Bloggeroid

just one

Last nite, while flipping thru an old LIFE mag I bought at the library book sale (more on that later) I spotted this opera singer with her mouth open wide. She was just begging to be on a postcard so that's what I did. One of my gelli print backgrounds, some old book text, and 'look out' from my little box of fun words. The great splat is from a bingo marker, banged down hard on the card.

epic gelli print session

I was overdue for a gelli printing session, so this morning, I turned on football, got all my stuff out, lined the kitchen counters with newspaper and went to town. 3 hours later I had 12 deli papers (last 2 pics), 14 typing papers (second 2 pics), and 18 postcards (first 2 pics) gellied to a fare-thee-well and I was done. Too much fun. Some of each will be going to my gelli print swap group as each person's name comes up on the rotation. The rest I'll use myself. Or just look thru now and then, cause I love most of them. All that color. Yowza!

2 postcards

Got fired up and made a couple postcards over the weekend. Acrylic paint backgrounds with some gel stick and oil pastel blending. The photo is one of the houses I lived in as a kid. I'm gradually using up most of my old family pictures. There's no one to leave them to after me and I'd rather get the enjoyment of arting with them than have them end up in a junk shop or the trash.

That's me on the porch in one and by the swing set in the other. I look about 7 or 8 there and don't remember much about it except that we had a German shepherd named Jim Bowie. Added a torn strip of book text, some circles from a magazine, and a few words from a large print book.

oy... so behind

Cleaned up the studio a bit and found a pack of paper frames that I bought years ago and never used. No more of that, I'm going on a use-it-or-lose-it campaign, so I found a pic and made a post card. It's on the way to a mail art pal who shall remain nameless but will now recognize this card when it shows up in her mailbox.

The background was a fail from a painting experiment, if I remember correctly. Or might have been the newspaper I use as a table covering while I'm working. In any case, I added some more color with Distress Stain, used some Tangie grunge stamps, stamped some circles with the cardboard tube from something or other (I save pretty much every cardboard tube I come across cause they make such good stamps), did some doodling. Wa-la - art!

circles, blue, one word

That was the theme for my latest postcard swap with Connie. As always, 

I'm intrigued with the differences between two cards made to the same parameters. We didn't use any techniques in common and our colors aren't particularly similar. Very fun.

Next we're doing 'neutrals'. Stay tuned...

This is the one Connie sent me. Torn, collaged blue papers
with a few punched circles and the single word "graphic'.
The post office kindly added the black smudges in the center. 

I sent this one to her. Scraped paint background with various
white stamped circles and the lettered word 'concentric'.

Peggy's purple and green

When Karen announced the purple and green postcard swap, I thought to myself "eh" and didn't make any cards for it. Then she began posting the incoming cards and of course there were several that looked great and so I briefly regretted not entering.

Then what should arrive in the mail but a close cousin to one of the cards I'd admired - a doodled and colored flower card from Peggy, a member of the art journal round robin that wrapped up not long ago. (That I still haven't posted about yet. I'm not sure when I developed such a lazy blogging habit but I think that two weeks I spent at the kitchen table making art and watching the Olympics broke my habit of sitting down at the computer every day. I'm on the puter constantly at work and sometimes when I get home, it's the last thing I feel like doing. I finally cleaned the kitchen table off but then junked it up again with new projects. Thank God we rarely eat at the table.)

Anyway, back to Peggy's lovely card. She used a mint green with the purple and it's so pretty. It makes for a softer feel than grass or lime green. She also used silver, and left lots of white, which gives it a light airy feel. I love intricate doodles, something I rarely have the patience for, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive her card. Thanks, Peggy!

incoming, batch 3 horses

More MMSA cards. What in the world would I do for fun mail if it weren't for her great swaps??

The blue horse is cut from sparkly embossed paper and glued to the painted card and it's all just lovely. The horse is so fanciful and the color contrasts are great. Thanks, Carroll! 

The black and white image of two wind blown horses looks like it's from an old book, and the contrast against the colorful hand painted card is cool. Thanks, Dawn!

This one is very Byzantine with its gold flecked curlicue background paper, knightly stamps, and baroque horse image. The horse and the card are edged in gold, altho it doesn't show in the scan. I like the subdued palette. A very pretty card from Rose. Thanks!

kitchen table art

Trying to catch up on a few things, so here's some unfortunate phone pics of art I've done at the kitchen table while watching endless hours of Olympic coverage. More on that in the next post.

stamp head ATC

bird ATC that got swapped with an online art acquaintance

silly Renaissance themed post card for mail art pal Jewels

another stamp head ATC that went to art pal Connie

catching up

The day the Grow Your Blog party started, I caught a head cold and left for 4 days in San Diego with my long-time art friend Julie. It was a great trip and deserves its own blog post, but when I got home, my head cold got worse and work got crazy, so I got behind on the fun stuff - arting and blogging.

Over the weekend, I got a few things done and crossed off my endless Excel chart of art projects. I love that it's full because it keeps me dialed in to making art. This year I'm also keeping track of everything I make. A few bloggers I follow listed all their 2013 accomplishments and they were impressive, so I want to be able to do that next year. We'll see how well I remember to keep track.

Mixed media postcard for a mail art buddy.
All images and text from an old art history book.

A goofy stamp head ATC that I put up for grabs on Instagram.
Someone claimed it PDQ.
Gelli print background, magazine man, postage stamp,
book text, doodling, Bingo card number.

A pretty little bird ATC for Carolyn (@cfalbro) on IG.
She's making a batch, one of which I'll get in trade for this one.
Dress pattern tissue, images and text from old bird watching book,
watercolors, doodling.

Another stamp head ATC with all the same ingredients as the one above.
Trading with a mail art pal, Connie.
Go take a look at her blog. She's been doing a couple online classes
with Jane Davies and the work coming out of them is great.
I may have to sign up.
And if you like hand made books, start with this post and the subsequent ones
about the class The Thread That Weaves.
She made 3 very cool books.

MMSA outgoing

Time is the theme for this one.
I only made one card for this swap cause
I didn't have any other good ideas.
I like this one with the different words
having to do with time, instead of numbers.

Karen of MMSA fired up her swaps for the new year and I spent this afternoon getting the first couple done.

These next three are for the Aqua and Orange swap.
Talk about perfect - that's my favorite complimentary color combo.
I used gelli prints as backgrounds, then did various things on top.
This one makes me think of Aboriginal drawings.

Love how the orange dots leap off the card on these two.

oddball

This postcard began life as a punched out part of a corrugated cardboard marketing display that arrived at work a few weeks ago. I liked the shape, so it sat on my desk for at least a week. Every time I started to throw it away, I hesitated, then put it back on my desk. After a week or two of that, I put it in my back-and-forth-to-work bag and hauled it home where it sat on my art table for another week or so.

The other day I was casting about for something to work on, not too involved, not themed - just something I could throw some art at for a while until the washer finished the load of whites. I spied the cardboard piece and decided to collage it with... with... <lots of thinking at this point> with gelli printed deli papers! I have a huge box of them, so I rummaged thru and began to paste down random strips across the card.

I liked it when I was done but it needed something else so I added some vertical strips, then more little bits here and there. I loved the colors but it sat on the table for a few more days cause it just didn't feel 'done'. Then I came across the text in a magazine - glued it down, scribbled a border around it and was satisfied.

It's fairly large, almost 8" across, and it's going off to an occasional mail art friend who has sent me a few really neat cards. I'll do a post about them one of these days.

outgoing, eventually

Been making batches of mail art but my head's been in a odd place lately and when I look at these the next morning, it feels like someone seriously off their meds broke into my studio and made a bunch of postcards. Weird postcards. Postcards that sorta make me scratch my head and wonder what in hell I was thinking.

But at least I'm making art. 

More or less lol.
 

This one and the two below it are for an MMSA swap
where you need to use recognizable pieces of security envelopes,
the insides with the little patterns. 

outbound mailart

My husband looked at this one and said 'why the ha ha?'
Really??
It seems so obvious to me that she's not soft and fluffy.
She looks like the badass radical feminist mamas from the 60s.
To me at least.

Postcards going out in the next few days to private swappers. I get home from work an hour or two earlier than my husband and I use that time to make art. These were last night's production. The gelli print backgrounds were already done. I have a box with a big stack of postcards with backgrounds that are ready for collage or whatever. Makes it real handy to sit down and get a few cards done fairly quickly.

Gel medium transfer of my mom's family from a  1944 Christmas card.
She's at bottom right in the striped top.

Wild and crazy girls at the lake around 1942.
from left - aunt Carolyn, my mom, cousin Barbara, cousin Kaye
(I think)

summer of color - week 1

There are so many challenges and play-alongs out there in bloglandia that it's hard to pick and choose which ones to do. Mandarin Orange Monday, Glue It Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Paint Party Friday, Show & Tell Saturday, Sunday Stills. I'm sure there's one for Thursday - I just can't think of it.

One that looked like enough fun to actually get me to join in is the Summer of Color over on Twinkle Twinkle. Each week the participants vote on the next week's color combo from a list of options. So you can vote for your fave, and also anticipate which one it might end up being as you look at the list. By the time this week's colors were announced - citron and turquoise - I'd completely forgotten which one I'd voted for. But I like prompts, regardless of the color choices, so I got to work.

Since I have a million and one gelli prints, they're my go-to when I need to rustle up a project. I rummaged around the gelli box and pulled out 6 or 7 likely ones, then found a piece of scrapbook paper in citron for my background. I scored some heavy cardboard circles in the close-out bin at Michaels one day and decided to make a round abstract postcard. So I did.

more postcards

ingredients: gesso washed cardboard, vintage picture of
my aunt Helen, magazine text, used tea bag overlay,
doodled border. The back is a gelli print on deli paper.

Just can't stop making them. 

Love the size. 

Love the fact that they go out into the world and have a life making smiles. 

ingredients: kraft card stock background, corrugated cardboard
stamping, hand carved scallop stamping, edge of about-to-run-out
adding machine paper, vintage photo of 2 kids, square frame stamp
made from flip-flop on photo, definition from cross word puzzle
dictionary, dress pattern tissue, free motion machine stitching.