Cards and Calendar Journal

So many birthdays this month.  But I’ve only made a couple of cards. 

Supplies: Card base, inks, acrylic paints, modeling paste, stencils, rubber stamping, die cuts.

June 2018 is complete.  The year is half gone already!

Working on July

The usual supplies:  scrapbook paper, modeling paste, watercolors, rubber stamping, stencils.

Calendar Journals and Father’s Day Card

My May 2018 Calendar Journal is complete.

There’s a lot of cycling going on these days.  Bicycle LOVE!

Working on June now.

Father’s Day card

The envelope

That’s the extent of my creativity lately.

I’m getting back on my bicycle now as that is what I love doing most at the moment.

Altered Photos

Another technique I have admired and long been afraid to try is altered photo art.  Dive in, I told myself.  What’s the worse that can happen...it lands in the trash bin?  Exactly.  

Begin with a photo.  (This can be done with any size photo). I like postcard art, so I began with a 4”X6” photo of my parents house where I grew up and also spent several years recently.  If you sent mail to me in California, this is where it landed.

Here it is altered using Gesso, sand paper, rubber stamping, Washi tapes Distress Inks, Tombow markers, a water brush and Tim Holtz Paper Dolls. 

I’ve done this technique twice now.  The above postcard was my second try.  My first go at this technique started with this house photo.  A house in my neighborhood.

Here it is altered.  This one was intended to be on the creepy, spooky side.  I think I achieved that somewhat.  Same supplies used as mentioned above.

It was hard for me to have an actual plan for these altered photos.  Even though I tried to have one.  They came together just one step of trying and experimenting at a time.  Not the easiest process I’ve ever tried, but it was fun.  Especially using photos that I took of real houses.

Postcard Mail Art

A few postcards that have been sent out as mail art.

This first one is spray inked with Distress Inks for the background.  Stamped with words and a butterfly.  Then die cuts from white cardstock.

Next is my most recent abstract with acrylic paints, Washi tapes, stamping and my favorite supply, modeling paste.

Last is this postcard stamped on scrapbook paper with this awesome type writing machine stamp.  I just love this old type design.  

All I added was Washi tape pieces of alphabet and the woman is also Washi tape trimmed very close.  I have a pen pal friend who loves typewriters as I do.
Wishing everyone a happy mail day!

April/May 2018 Calendar Journals

Let me see, which day block shall I write...

“I’m becoming a lazy blogger” ?

April is history already!

I became officially old a few days ago... I am now on Medicare.

Living through May now.  

It’s my fault that it does nothing but rain now.  I had my bicycle readied for riding and rode only one single day to work and now it will rain waaay too much to please me.

Bird Challenge Postcard

At the Sunday Postcard Art Blog this week, the challenge theme is BIRD.

I love birds in my art.  I had plenty of notice and time to play.  Birdie gave me fits though.  He’s on a rubber stamp and I decided I wanted to give him a little more color than what was on the background.  He began to turn into such a mess.  Although I’m not completely pleased, he finally reached a passable appearance which saved him from a trash bin time out.  Lucky little fellow.  That was a near miss.  

I used inks on this postcard, so my attempt at adding some white backfired.  I’d so quickly forgotten that the modeling paste put on top of inks takes up the ink colors while drying.  But, added texture is good.  Right?

Happy Mail Day!

Abstract Postcards and Art Journal

I’ve a great passion for mail art and am having loads of abstract fun.

This postcard changed since being posted previously.  The postcards seem to appear a bit dull without some white.  

And that’s usually when the modeling paste comes into play.  When the paste is put over acrylic paint and Archival Ink, it stays white.

This is the last art journal page I have for now.  I haven’t been painting with large amounts of paint where there would be some left over.  The postcards are small and they don’t take much paint.  Also no new techniques being tried at the moment.  I’m too hooked on the postcard art.

This was a hard page to find a design for.  I did one element at a time then let it sit until something else came to mind.  So many times I just wanted to tear the page out and toss it to the trash.  And not just for a time out either.

I’m hooked on modeling paste.  I love the stuff!

It’s an icy mess outside weather wise.  The perfect excuse for indoor art play.

March/April Calendar Journal

March 2018 was a bit hectic life-wise, compared to how mundane my life normally is.  Still nothing exciting.  Some crafting fun though.

I’m surprised that I find a little something to write about everyday.  I always expect there to be lots of blank blocks.  I was so excited to stumble across that envelope closure Washi tape!  As well as a lot of other new rolls of Washi tapes.

And so April begins now.

What do you want to bet that something really exciting happens on the 12th and 19th and I’ve no room to write it.  The design of this month is definitely lacking. My first plan for the word “April” was a fail but the tree was already there.  I couldn’t just toss it out and start over.  I’m so enamored with the effects of modeling paste.  It’s such fun.

I also sometimes forget to put the date numbers on my master before I copy it to the design paper.  Then I’m punished by having to do them twice.  Argh!

  Having filled in blocks will take care of the lack of designing creativity.  It’s sometimes hard to remember that and visualize it through the entire calendar page.     

Wishing everyone happy April days!

Abstract Mail Art

More mail art...my current passion.

(Shared in Sunday Postcard Art)

This one spent 15 minutes in the trash bin.

Let me show you why...

It starts out like this.  I started with trying Distress Oxides Inks.  My first try with those inks. I tried to control those, but they would have none of that control stuff.  Plus they weren’t bright enough for me.  So I went over the inks with acrylic paints.

Not real pretty.  That darker green wasn’t the color I thought it would be.  But I hoped I could improve on it.

Then I go over the top with some white here and there.

Yeah, it’s still pretty awful.  That’s when I stopped taking photos and put it in the trash for a 15 minute time out.  Not really...I threw it out intending to move on.  But I took it out and added some darker red over the awful green, then some bright orange, then some stamping and washi tapes and finally some modeling paste.

And that’s when it turned from trash to mail art.

This next one is done with spray inks.  They’re less predictable than acrylics are but blend on their own better.  This one went out in the mail to encourage a young artist to continue to follow her art.

Happy Mail Day!

Envelope Postcard

Every week I watch the Sunday Postcard Art themes.  Once in a while they play right into my artistic play that I have happening right at the moment.  It’s what happened for this week.  The theme this week is to make a postcard as an envelope or faux envelope or add an envelope to the postcard, etc.

That is exactly what I have been trying this week.  The front of my postcard is the “envelope” side with the postage and the address.

I saw actual envelopes similar to this on Pinterest and thought to give it a try as a postcard.  I finally made an address thingy to show how my mail art might look with the address.

I was so pleased, I had to give it another try today.  

I really struggle with this sort of thing as I generally DO NOT like the piece with just the paint on it.  It’s all I can do to keep myself from wasting any more of my life on it and toss it to the trash.  But when I start stamping and adding Washi Tape, I fall in love.

Both postcards look the same on the back for now.

I can write a lot more on these postcards than I can when the address is on this side (like a normal postcard).  I’ll decorate this side more when I know where these postcards might be going.  

Thanks so much, Rosie, for this great theme.  Perfect timing so that I can play along.  It’s been quite a long time.