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.

thanks Connie!

My mail art pal Connie has been painting a lot lately and blogging her work. I like almost all of them but one of them really grabbed so I up and asked her if I could have it! The nerve, huh? But I really liked it and she and I have traded enough art that she knows I appreciate her work, so she said sure. In trade for a piece of mine yet to be created. If she spots something I post that she likes, she's say so, and I'll send it off to her. Kinda like a deal with the devil in that you don;'t know the cost until the time comes. But I'm good with that, I like having the things I create go off to live with with someone else who'll enjoy them.

Anyway, it arrived last week and I'm finally getting off my arse to blog about it. I still need to decide how to display it. Don't want to mat it cause I like the deckle edges so maybe need to just mount it in a frame on a dark background. Will play around and see what looks best.

This piece is smallish, only 5"x5" I think, or maybe 5.5" x 5.5". But look at all that's going on in it. The background has under layers of dark under the white that give it a lot of depth. I have no idea of her process to get it to look like this but love the result.

There are torn collaged papers, more paint, more papers, some rusty lines. It's all very cool, and the color scheme of bluey greens and orange is my fave. But the part the really does it for me is that grungy turquoise bit in the middle. It glows.

Just love it. Thanks, Connie, for letting me have it! It'll have a prime spot on my wall once I get the frame sorted.

asemic writing pt 2

Got my cards back from the MMSA swap, plus one from a friend. Asemic writing is definitely an interesting addition to a card. There's pretty much no way to do it wrong, and these cards each have their own sort of scribbles.

This one is from Carlene in TN. 

Gelli print, washi tape, patterned paper.

From J E Lichtenstein in MD.

Book text, handmade paper, paint.

This is a pretty one from Jo in Australia.

Painted paper, washi tape.

Pretty background on this one from Jan in AZ.
Love the heavy black marks on the delicate ground.

Lastly, a funny one from my longtime mailart pal Jewels in MI.
I think it's hard to see in the pic, but there are a few "bleep"s in amongst
the asemic writing as the cops have trouble figuring out their new gadgets.

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 mixed media ATCs

The ATCs mentioned in the previous post. These already had background on them, so I worked on adding at least two more techniques and creating some sort of interesting collage. I haven't made ATCs in a while and was struck again, as I always am, at what a perfect art form they are. Compact, doable in a short amount of time, just enough space to tell a little story.

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.

MMSA paperbag book - incoming

Received my paper bag booklet today. Actually, it's prolly been out in the mail box for a few days but only collect the mail a couple times a week, despite the fact that it's about 50 feet from my front door. Just seems like too much trouble at the end of a long day at work. #lazybroad

It's from Laurie Morris and it's great. I love the colors. I'm not sure if Karen knows that or not but she more often than not sends me just what I wanted in the swaps. It's difficult to tell in the photos but the splotches of what looks like brown are actually metallic bronze which contrasts marvelously with the blues and greens. Each page has a flap that's either blank or with a quote on it. And each pocket held several pieces of painted papers to use in my art, last photo. Thanks, Laurie!

 

MMSA paperbag book - outgoing

Another fun swap from Karen. Four lunch bags, decorated however you like, bound into a small book. The one I sent out is up first. I gelli printed both sides of four bags. Takes longer than it sounds cause I did several layers on every side. I made four small collages, one each for the four open ends of the bags that become pockets to tuck things into when you bind the bags together. I also glued on half an envelope and stuck a small booklet into it, made from Pamela's tutorial. It's a cool little booklet. I've since made 8 or 10 of them and had to force myself to stop tearing out likely magazine pages to fold up into covers. Give it a try.

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.

MMSA envelope swap

It wasn't until I was completely finished with these and slipping them into the envelope to send them off to Karen that I realized the swap was for "hand made" envelopes. As in, fold your own. But Karen waived the you-must-fold-the-paper-yourself part of it since mine were every bit as decorated as most of the others will be. A few days ago I posted group shots of all 20 I gellied that day, but then I chose 5 for the swap and did a bunch of pen work on them. Here's three fronts and two backs. The black dots and splats are a bingo marker from the dollar store, either pressed gently or smacked down hard onto the paper. Love the splats!

back of above envie

back of above envie

gelli envelopes!

MMSA recently announced a hand made envelope swap. Last time she had one, I made extras and really enjoyed using them, so this time I made a bunch. Twenty, to be exact. Took about 90 minutes of thrashing with paint and brayers and stencils and envelopes, and it was a blast. Nothing like some time with the gelli plate. (did this after I came home from blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast, so I was already in a good mood lol)

The black dots and splats are a black bingo marker from the dollar store.

I couldn't face the thought of scanning both sides of every one, so I took group pics. First pic is fronts, second pic is backs. Colors/patterns used on fronts and backs mostly have no relationship to each other, I just grabbed envelopes at random as I changed colors and stencils.

RR folio for Carroll

Same story as previous post, except Carroll's theme was Color. Well, what artist doesn't love that open-ended theme? I got out all the colorful mark making stuff I don't use much and went to town. This one wraps up this RR. Actually, it was really a swap but who's counting? I've sent all mine out but not received all 4 yet.

I did the front in black gesso, the added a variety of colorful shapes cut from various magazines. It's amazing how much color you can find when you just need a small piece. The flower was cut out for Laurie's but not used, and I couldn't resist adding it here, even tho it didn't fit my original plan of geometric shapes. I love the surprise of the organic shape amongst the more regular pieces. Did some pen work with white and black gel pens.

This is the center spread. I used Dyelusions spray inks and colored India and acrylic inks on it. The Dyelusions I sprayed thru several stencils, then dripped and blew other inks all over the place till it appeared balanced to me. Added "color your world" to it, plus the word "color" here and there.

I did the back last and almost had to scrap the entire folio because I was so unhappy with it. I started out with 3 water soluble sticks - Neocolor II, gelatos and oil pastels. I made marks here and there, then took water to it and made a real mess. Very bad words came out of my mouth. After it dried, I began to use only gelatos and my finger to rub them in and blend them. It began looking better and I quit when I was just barely no longer embarrassed by it. Still not thrilled, but it is colorful. I had very tender red finger pads the next morning, not quite blistered from all the rubbing. 

RR folio for Laurie

The same ladies who did the art journal round robin with me decided to do a swap where we each make one folio for everyone else. Then you can bind the folios into a book yourself, adding more or not as you like. Laurie's theme was flowers, a theme I love, so I didn't lack for inspiration.

This is the front, covered in a collage of green and aqua gelli printed deli papers. Then I stenciled over the top of it with black gesso thru a floral stencil. I'm in love with black gesso lately - it's so *black*. I've just been brushing it on and it leaves such a uniform surface - no streaks or uneven color. Then I did a lot of doodling on the black with gel pens. 

This is the center spread - as tall as the other two pictures and twice as wide. I put down the top layer of a floral paper napkin as my background, then added more flowers and butterflies from other napkins to fill in. Thought about adding a poem or quote but couldn't come up with anything I liked, so I just left it blank. Laurie can add to it if she likes.
(I had already done this spread once with magazine images and loved it but when I folded it closed the images wrinkled and lifted. I cut them down the center, thinking they'd lay flatter, but that was worse and had to rip them all off the page. Argh. So annoyed that I forgot to take a pic.)

The back cover has an acrylic paint background with a collage of images and text from two old garden books. I love pansies and was able to find enough things to make a nice layout. Did a bit of dot work with a black gel pen. 

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 found poetry

I enjoy doing found poetry when I'm in the mood. For this one, you could either cut out words, as I did, or use a page from a book and black out all but the words you want to show as your poetry. I find that pretty difficult, so I did it the easy way and made nonsense haiku.

All the words and phrases are from a large print book I bought solely for the larger type, but then ended up reading and loving, and then reading a few more by the same author. It was Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson, a British writer. She definitely has a unique quirky style and some reviewers didn't care for it at all but I found her delightful. I also read Case Histories and Behind the Scenes At The Museum. Need to find a couple more.

The first one is a paste paper background, the second is watercolor, and the third gelli print. Didn't especially mean to use such varied backgrounds but they're what appealed to me when I flipped thru my pile of ready-to-go-background postcards.

MMSA transparent layers

Two of mine have a gelli print background, the third is a page from an old magazine. Then an overlay of gelli printed deli paper, and a final strip of a packing tape transfer of a phone book page. Added a little bit of doodling.

On the first one, the leaves were the only thing printed on the deli paper, so the turquoise background is showing thru.

On the second one, I cut around the hand before I glued it down, so you're seeing the background as is and also thru the unpainted areas of the hand.

On the third one, the silhouette of the girl was masked off when I gelli printed the page, so you see the old book page thru her.

I was surprised at how difficult the phone book paper was to rub off the tape. I do packing tape transfers a lot and by far the easiest to get really clean are glossy magazine images. They practically slide right off after they've been soaked a few minutes. Even after 10 minutes in water, I had to scrape with my fingernail just to get the phone book paper started, then rub like crazy for several minutes to get it all off. I like the way it looks but it was a pain.