early September postcards

I'm finally back in the making art mood. Don't where it went all those months. Actually, I do know. I was reading my way thru all 5 available Game of Thrones books. What a great saga. Looking forward to the last two books, along with 47 million other people. Haven't watched the HBO series for the simple reason that we don't get HBO. So far the world hasn't ceased to turn, but at some point we'll need to sign up for a 3 month special or something cause I would like to see it.

Anyway, been knocking out postcards. Techniques and subjects have no discernible relation to one another, just whatever catches my eye. Seems I make art like I live my life, no real plan. Prolly not the best way, but a bit late to change it all now. This is the batch with a vintage feel.

These are all available if you'd like to trade. Just email me.

The bit of text cracked me up. Tried to find a photo it fit
but ended up liking it as the only element.

Misc gelli prints background with a bit of vintage photo.

Security envelopes, a few other papers and a photo of two kids.

Bird images from an old book, colored a bit,
old book text, Stabilo All pencil marks.

f-bomb on a postcard

Read no further if the f word offends you. I used it on a postcard to someone I knew would appreciate it and am showing the card in this post.

These three went off to specific people who should have them by now so I'm posting them.

This went off to a girl I've been friends with since
we were in 7th grade. 48 years! We met the first day
and were inseparable thereafter. Grew up in
each other's houses. Barely kept track of one
another for decades. Now we write back and forth
a few times a year. Not a whole lot to say.

Scored a couple how-to-type books at the library sale and
made this for a typewriter loving person I know.
Hi, Pamela!

I freely admit that I have a crude sense of humor and
swear way too much. That said, it's no wonder I couldn't
stop giggling over this postcard.
I know the recipient will enjoy it too.

postcard re-do post

As I suspected, the photos I snapped with the tablet camera were pretty bad so here are the postcards again but scanned this time, the only way to go with flat items, IMHO.

And since I'm sitting at a regular computer with a normal keyboard, I'll even do some commentary.

These are all available so if you like one, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll send it off to you. Don't be shy - I made them to send, so claim one if it grabs you.

These 3 elements were all random things that I kinda liked
but couldn't figure out exactly what to do with. Then I came across the
"growing old gracefully" in my words box and the three stages
of a woman's life zipped thru my mind - child, woman, old and gray.
The dog seemed fitting as stage 3 since it's
what I see in the mirror some mornings lol.

The school girls shot was from a calendar and the silly knocked-kneed
lady is from a park brochure my traveling friend Julie-in-SD gave
me a while back. Whistler Canada, maybe? Julie, are you reading this?
I liked the images together and found some words that fit.

These two odd images of men kept turning up as I sifted thru
the box looking for things to use. Normally I like things in
threes - the golden rule of thirds - but I had nothing else that
went with these so did them like this and ended up liking
it well enough. Bizarre words to go with them and
played with drawing frames.

This woman is actually hanging from gymnastic still rings.
It was an add for something or other, no idea now, and I just
liked the long image. Added some color to perk it up
and an enigmatic question.

There was a series in a magazine of this man making various faces.
They all looked about like these and I've used a couple of them
on cards months ago. The newspaper phrase seemed perfect.

MMSA round postcards

Round postcards are fun. Makes me think about the space totally differently in terms of what I want to use on it. Last year, I worked with the circles in two different ways - a round photo on one and words around the edge on the other.

This year I wasn't as inspired. Long day at work or something. I layered both cards with old text, always a good neutral start. Leafed thru my old pics until I found this round baby, cut him in a circle and layered him on torn circles of dress pattern tissue and a used tea bag. When I came back to it, I did some pen work which led to the pic looking like a flower, which led me to the flower child caption. So simple is my thought process.

Decided to use stamps on the other one, and as I was sifting thru them, I kept coming to vehicles of various types. It wasn't much of a mental leap to planes, trains and automobiles. But I think the actual movie title is Trains, Plains and Automobiles, right? So I'm out of order. What a surprise.

MMSA paint chip postcards

Rhonda came down on Sunday and we worked on making stuff for two upcoming MMSA swaps - paint chip postcards and mixed media ATCs. She brought a pile of paint chips but I sat and looked at a blank postcard for 5 minutes with zero ideas. Finally got out some that already had a background on them and then it clicked. Two have stencil and spray ink backgrounds, one is a gelli print, and one is strips of gelli prints. I managed to find paint chips that were exact or close matches to the colors on the cards and did some doodling with gel pens. The chunks of solid color stand out amid all the colorful patterns.

collaged postcards

Made a batch of cards to replenish my stash. If you haven't gotten a card from me in a while, maybe one of these will show up in your mailbox!

more stamp heads

Finished up another batch and that's enough of those for a while. As before, if you'd like to swap for one, just let me know in the comments or via email.

stamp head postcards

Contrary to the lack of posts on this blog, I actually have been making some art lately. Got in a slump there for a while cause I had one good book after another and wanted to do nothing more than sit and read.

My mail art pal Connie made a batch of stamp head cards using images from a children's book that were cool and I remembered I had one also, prime for cutting up. It's a 1953 book of children's stories and poems. Some of them are a hoot, so politically incorrect and bordering on racist. I steered away from those and mostly just went thru the book looking for images that stamps went well with.

If you see one that blows your skirt up, email me and we'll swap!

asemic writing

This was something I'd never heard of until Karen/MMSA announced the swap. Asemic writing is scribbles that look kinda like they might be words but really aren't. That's my half-assed definition, by the way, not an official one.

I flipped thru my ready to go postcard backgrounds and chose 4, then fiddled around finding images for them, and finally practiced my asemic writing on a piece of scrap paper before doing the actual cards. The people are from old magazines, 1941 Popular Science and 1946 American Home. The bottom one was a Drano ad.

I'm pretty pleased with them and will use this technique further, maybe some postcards that look like postcards that you can't read lol. Anybody wanna swap an asemic postcard? Can be any kind of art, just needs to have some asemic writing on it.

MMSA houses

Got inspired at the 11th hour and made a couple postcards for Karen's house swap. Misc paper backgrounds with gelli print houses, roofs and windows. A bit of text, paint, and some doodling. Pretty simple when you state it like that but they came out cute.

me & Connie & found poetry

One of the recent themes in my ongoing swaps with Connie was found poetry, something I really enjoy. Ours are both ridiculous, just how I like them best.

I started off with a gelli print background. I had the fish already in my goody box. Found the lady in a 1946 American Home mag. The text came from various magazines, and the scallop was cut freehand from a carpet catalog. Did some doodling and mailed it off.

Connie's is great, and I got it before I made mine, so I sort of riffed on hers for inspiration. Crazy poetry. Love Eva Peron flinging her kitchen gloves off while wearing her heels. And that apron belongs on a French parlor maid.

postcards

I haven't made a batch of postcards in a while, just for the heck of it, so last night I got a few done after dinner and as a mental bribe to myself before getting up and doing a couple days worth of dishes. Yes, I'm not proud of it but I don't do my dishes every day. My name is Leslie and I always have a sink full of dishes. Not that I truly mind washing dishes - there's just always something more fun to do instead. And for only two people, we generate a lot of dirty dishes.

Anyway, I digress.

These aren't assigned yet, so if one of them grabs you, speak up in the comments and I'll send it your way.

The background is two different deli gelli prints, flowers and words cut from magazines,
some pen work and a little shading with gel sticks.
This was a case of liking the background but being unable to decide what to do next.
I finally tried what I've read that some folks do and that is to just pick up the first thing that catches your eye and glue it down. That's how I ended up with red flowers and orange letters on a turq and lime background.
Not normally something I'd do but I like the finished product.

Background is a telephone book white pages, book text and deli gelli paper.
I've had the man cut out for a while just waiting for inspiration
and this particular background worked for him. Same with the words.
Found them while sifting thru my little box of words and phrases and they just fit.
Some pen work and shading.
Also stamped some circles with black paint and the top of my glue stick.

Background is book text. The stamp of the girl came on an envelope.
Words from my word box, a bit of deli gelli, pen work, shading, circles.
So pretty much the same recipe for all three of these
and yet they're all quite different, which is why mixed media is my fave art form!

icad 1 thru 8

Yes, I climbed onto the icad train this year. I've started it before but never made it to the end. I'm just not good at things you gotta do every day. Well, I mean, I brush my teeth and change my undies, but with non-essential do-it-if-you-wanna-the-world-won't-quit-spinning-if-you-don't type stuff I pretty much always fall asleep somewhere along the way.

Also I just don't like doing art on index cards. They don't hold up well to wet work, they aren't large or sturdy enough to send as postcards, the lines bug me, etc, etc. While digging thru my drawers of stuff I don't use much, I found a box of tabbed manila cards, 4" x 6", nice and heavy, perfect for daily art. So I began, and made it thru day 3 before completely forgetting about it in the crush of working 45-50 hours a week and trying to keep the house somewhat under control, food on the table, the garden watered, the dog walked - all the things you gotta do as a semi-responsible tax paying adult.

So I caught up yesterday and here they are. I did the first one to the foreign language prompt cause it was fun to pretend I knew Italian, but the rest are all mostly collage cause that's what I enjoy doing. These will be going out as postcards as I feel the urge, long before icad ends.

MMSA the letter S

Postcards needed to portray at least 10 items that started with the letter S. Interesting swap but not one of my favorites because you had so many oddball images that it was tough to make a cohesive, pleasing card with them. All part of the challenge, I suppose.

I paged thru magazines, naming each item on the page by as many names as I could think of trying to find ones that started with S. Rhonda was here and we'd look at a page of a beach scene. I'd say "water" and "ocean". She'd say "sea" and "sand". How differently our minds work.

skull (background), sockets (eye), shutters, sheep, stamp, squares,
shrub, suitcase, statue, silverware, spectacles, scallop border

swatches (background), stars, stripes, swan, statue,
sailboat, sea, skyline, soldier, sisters

MMSA blue & brown

A color combo theme at MMSA this time. My art buddy Rhonda has about a billion postage stamps and she's been sharing the wealth with me lately. When she was down a couple weeks ago, we sorted thru a big box, loosely separating them into a dozen or so categories with the non-starters going back in the box. We sorted blues and browns out while we were at it, knowing this swap was coming up.

I made a loose symmetrical grid on each of my two cards, then filled in the background with gel sticks smeared in with my fingertips. Added a few faux cancellation stamps to the ones already on the postage stamps and called them done. (my spell check doesn't like "faux", wants it to be "fax". seriously, whatever dictionary they loaded didn't include faux??)