INCOMING!!!

Mail art, that is. 

From the round swap. This one is hand painted on a
collage background.  I love original paintings
since I can't paint worth a hoot myself, and I love the
 colors and shapes in this one.  Made by C Sadier.

From the green swap. Loved this one as soon as Karen
posted it on the blog and whooped with joy when I
saw it in my mailbox. We had an old Amazon parrot
for 17 years. Sadie died a few years ago at age 45
from cancer and I miss her still. This card reminds
me of her. Made by Tine Wittmer.

I've been doing about 80% of the weekly swaps over at MailMeSomeArt. As I've said before, I like her themes and I tend to get good-to-great cards back with only an occasional dud. And lest you're frowning at your screen and thinking "but if they tried their best, you shouldn't call it a dud", the keyword here is 'tried'. 

When I get a card, I don't judge it by how good the actual art is, or whether I even like the art. My dud comment is based on the technical aspects of making a decent card, like making sure all the layers are stuck together well, and that the edges line up (if they're supposed to), and that the elements are cut out neatly. 

From the blue swap. I like the circles - the squishy dark blue ones
made from large bubble  wrap, the smaller white ones cut from a
chemistry book, and the larger blue curves of the painted paper
doily. Made by Amy.

From Mandy's collage sheet swap. Purple
and gold were my high school colors but I
also like it for the simple design, the
vintage guy, the cool caption, and the
book text background. Another one by Tina Wittmer.

You can tell when someone slapped something together (if you do a lot of swaps, don't tell me you've never gotten one) and those are what I object to, like the one with big hunks of clear packing tape here and there where things wouldn't stay put. Really? Sorry, but packing tape isn't someone's 'best work'. Just use enough glue and weight them under a book overnight. 

Ok, opinion over - this post is all about the great cards I've gotten recently. Technically good, artfully cool, appealing to me in one or more ways. See captions for details about each card. 

If these look like fun to you, go check out the open swaps at MMSA and make a few postcards. It's so much fun to get ART in the mail instead of bills and junk!

From Mandy's collage sheet swap. First off, I love
 the caption, "eye, eye, eye..." Cracked me up cause I say that
all the time at work instead of something much worse. Also love
that paper as the background of the eye, like an alien eyeball of
some sort. Also like the outer space looking designs on the card.
Made by Gina Visione.

From the green swap. I was thrilled to see this in my mail because
it's a watercolor, which I'm very lame at. Love the subject and the
colors - most of my house is green with dashes of pink and cream,
so it fits right in.  It's on maybe 140lb watercolor paper and went
thru the mail just fine as an unprotected postcard. Made by
Lucinda Howe, who is an actual painter of no small talent!

From Mandy's collage sheet swap (and made by Mandy herself!).
Can't look at this one without smiling. Karen commented
how cool it was when she posted it on the blog, and again,
I was very happy to find it in my mailbox.  Such funny little
fish dancing along.  Love the colors and the creativity.