Mail Art

When I have the time, and I feel my mail recipient will enjoy it, I love to send their mail addressed in a fun way.  I do this because I think it is/would be fun to go to the mailbox and collect an artful envelope mixed in with the dreaded bills.

You all know that I love making and sending fabric postcards.  I've only managed to find two postcard swaps  to participate in and both are finishing up right now.

First was The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap with the theme, Bloom.   The card could be made with any media or mix of media but had to have some stitching on it in some way.  My interpretation and creation with this

Always Look Your Blooming Best

I printed the woman from an add out of an old magazine onto photo paper then cut her out (except for her head).  I then rubber stamped the pocket watch, words, numbers and dots.  After that I stitched the photo in place, adding the fabric rose bud for her head and added some stitched lines.  This postcard was sent to New Zealand.

From my partner I received this beautifully sewn "Bloom" postcard that traveled to me all the way from North Yorkshire, England from Sarah.  It arrived marked "Royal Mail"...awesome, eh?  Thank you Sarah!

Also was the Fabric Postcard Swap with an End of Summer theme where we were to create in fabric our interpretation of what the end of summer means to us.  I stuck with a blooming theme with this postcard

The end of summer means the end of the explosion of color with flowers in the gardens that are everywhere we go.  I will miss that during the darker months (although those months won't be near as long here in California as they are in Wisconsin!)

And from my partner in this swap I received this one from Lisa, miniaturequilter.

She and her friend like to picnic and sew together in the summer.  She's got such cute fussy cuts added for the picnic but those marching ants really get my attention.  Thanks, Lisa!

I always send my postcards naked because to me, that's how postcards are meant to travel the world.  These little jewels of creation would be so fun mixed in with ordinary "bills" and "junk" mail.  But, alas, mine always come tucked inside an envelope, not looking much different than the rest of my mail.  I'm going to keep playing and one day I'm sure to get a naked postcard in my mail.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by,

Annie

Christmas Fabric Postcards

Christmas Greetings

I finally seem to have had time to sew several Christmas greetings as fabric postcards.  Every year I have big plans and every year I make all of one.  Once I got two made.

This year I have one for everyone on my "special card" list.  You know the ones...those who actually appreciate not only receiving your Christmas card, but appreciate your hand crafted greetings.

I have nine done this year!  Hurray!

Only three designs, but I thought that was pretty good for me. Sometimes I struggle with the small size blank slate and other times I get more ideas than I can apply. You wouldn't think a Christmas theme would be a struggle, but for some reason it was. I'll get plenty of ideas once it's too late to send any more. Ain't that always the way!

JOY Snowman

My favorite Nancy Halverson snowman on my favorite fabric background.

With bells on his toes...

(thank you so much Carol for sending me that binding fabric!)

Well, I wish I could blame old age for not sewing one of his legs, but shit like that happens every now and again. After having a personal but not so quiet hissy fit about it, I thought of my other dear friend Samm who would look for the bright side of this failure.  It can only mean one thing.....that when I become famous this card will be quite valuable with it's stitching flaw...right? 

Wishing you a good mail day!

Annie

--- A Fabric Book ---

of a sort

 

 

 

 

I've wanted, for such a long time, to create a fabric book ... of a sort.  I've been inspired by so many that I've seen.  So I finally set my mind to come up with a style of book that appeals to me.  Most I've seen are a soft, somewhat flimsy style.  While I love them made by others, I am not inspired to make one myself.  I finally looked to my love of scrapbooking for inspiration and, by george, I think I've come up with a style that will keep me inspired to continue adding pages when the inspiration strikes.

 

I went to Hobby Lobby in search of a "book" to start with.  I decided on this one. 

I did not save the paper sleeve it came with, so, sadly I cannot report the make and model of this book.

 

 

 

I "thought" originally I'd be able to stitch the fabric pages right to the paper pages without taking the book apart.  Nope, that didn't work.  So, apart the book had to come.  It has lined craft pages, photo pages and pocket pages.

 

 

I'm working with the lined craft pages and discarding the photo and pocket pages. 

I'm not really discarding them, just not planning on using them.

 

 

 

I haven't decided how I want the cover to look, so I'll wait for inspiration on that.  In the meantime, I've started on the pages.  Page 1 it seemed appropriate to dedicate my first book to the two people in my life who most influenced my love of stitching and crafting.

 

 

 

From there, my fabric pages will just be whatever I'm inspired to create.  Sometimes the page will have a special memory or meaning to me, and other times it will just be something I like to look at.

 

 

The child image is from Lisa's Altered Art but this little darlin'  triggers memories for me.  I have continually attempted to add her to a postcard, but then I want to keep the postcard...and I already have too many postcards.  Now that she's in my fabric book I'm completely satisfied.

 

 

 

This is a card I found that I very much enjoy looking at.  I printed it to fabric, added the words at the top and quilted it. 

 

 

And so, this is how my fabric book will progress.  At least I hope it will continue to progress.  It kind of feels like scrapbooking without the  pressure of keeping up with the time frame of life.  Now THAT, I like!

And... now that "Little Darlin" is in my fabric book, I was, without hesitation, finally able to add her to a postcard.  She's tired of me and yearns to go on a  postal journey.  Does her sweetness and innocence appeal to you?

 

 

Page 4 is calling to me....off I go.

Annie

Orange Collage Butterfly

There was a butterfly in my mind wanting to be stitched.  But what color did it want to be?  The Sunday Postcard Art challenge made a delightful decision for me.  Orange.  Yes.  Perfect.

I have made well over 100 fabric postcards.  Yes, most of them have been mailed out.  114 of those can be seen in my Fabric Postcard Flickr Album.

In the beginning the ideas for them came in masses.  Now I struggle for new ideas for stitched postcards.  The recipient of this one has waited quite a long time.  My waiting list is now complete.  Now I'm just waiting on new and more ideas for stitching more postcards.  

Happy Mail Day!

xxx

Annie

Mail Art

You know I love making postcard mail art.  But it doesn't become real "mail art" unless it actually gets sent through the mail.  I have a few postcards looking for good homes.  If you see one you like, let me know.  I'd love to turn these into "real mail art".

 

Bird's-eye View (paper)

 

No Postage Necessary (paper)

 

A Song in Your Soul (paper)

 

2wenty Thr3e (fabric)

(I'm finally ready to part with this one)

 

 I've agreed to a couple of Valentine card swaps and got a bit carried away with ideas, so I have these Valentine theme postcards to send out if you'd like to receive a Valentine.

 

Sissy with Red Flowers (fabric)

 

Valentine Collage (paper)

 

Valentine Flourish (fabric)

 

Sometimes I get brave and just send a postcard as a surprise, but I really prefer sending a card when I know the recipient wants it and already likes it.  Many people say they'd love to have "any" of my cards, but I don't really believe that.  They couldn't possibly like everything I make.  Heck, I don't even like everything I make!  So, hint: your best chance of getting mail is to be specific about which card(s) you like best.

 

I don't usually share on my blog anymore the postcards that are made specifically for someone.  To see all my postcards, they are posted in my flickr photostream and in my flickr postcard sets.

 

I can't wait to drop these cards in the mail for some 

good mail days!  Thank you all so much for your continued encouragement and mostly for your support in enabling me to continue making mail art.

 

xoxoxo

Annie

 

 

 

 

 

The Night Watchman

When I saw THIS POSTCARD by robertovnaelena (Instagram), I was immediately in love!

I wish she’d send it to me...(sigh)

I know that won’t happen, so I had to try making one myself.  Nowhere near as impressive, but he’s my version.  Not completely unfortunate, right?  I’ve had to call him a blackbird as he’s just not raven enough looking.  I used a bird Sizzix die to trace.  (I wish I could draw!)

I also wished I could figure out a couple of her techniques, but I didn’t really want to copy right down to every detail.....YES I DID!

He’s made from discarded jeans.  A couple of different denim shades.  The moon in this 2nd photo is closer to the actual fabric color.  It’s more a grayish white with silver metallic specks. I first stitched a spiral using silver metallic thread in the bobbin.  I used the wonder under paper that I peeled off the fabric moon to trace a spiral then stitched it from the backside of the postcard.  It needed more thread painting so I stitched between the spiral stitches with regular thread in a cream and then some outside stitches in the gold.

I think if I had stitched the raw edge of the bird a little farther in, I might have been able to ravel the denim edges a little more so they’d look more feathery.

Are you curious about how my postcards look on the Peltex side?

I normally sew a binding around the edges of my postcards.  That’s because I have felt it looks better than zig-zagging. But this artist’s satin stitching on her postcards looks so great, I decided to try that myself too.  Hoping my satin stitch would fill in as nicely as hers did and only going around the outside edges once, I was not disappointed.  My corners need a little work.  I’m okay with that.

Secret ingredient:  At times, satin stitching doesn’t always cover completely or a stitch length will show.  I go looking for a permanent marker the same color as my thread and I camouflage those tiny areas.

Because I am not mailing this postcard to anyone, I used miracle fabric on the correspondence side.  Very adaptable to rubberstamping and writing (if I were to mail it).  I also did not want to test the satin stitched edge with paper after all my work on the design.  But I will be testing it with paper soon!

I have a lot of discarded jeans left, so I’ll be thinking up more denim postcards.

Happy Mail Day!

Halloween Hauntings

Some Halloween sewing has been happening.

In the stash was a Halloween panel that I bought because I liked “parts” of the designs.  I took a couple of years to get to it.  I don’t always know what I’m going to do with a piece of fabric when I buy it.  Since I’ve been trying to use what I have, it was time for this piece to come out into the light of day.  I have cut it apart and used some of it.

First I made a couple of Halloween potholders.  I framed them with fabric from my massive (to me) Halloween stash.  Mitered corners are not the funnest to do and I’m not sure it made much difference with this particular striped piece.

This was a small image block that I added side borders to make it postcard size. Quilted just following lines in the image.

Then I took a “section” from one of the images I wasn’t overly fond of to make another postcard.  Again, quilting is just following the image lines.



This is the original panel piece (I had already started cutting it apart).

I have yet to make the crows, the skeleton and the tree into something.  Probably potholders/hot plate mat.

Hooray!...more stash reduction!

This next postcard is a section of a Halloween fabric and a section of paper piecing that I didn’t use for the Chillingsworth Wall hangings.

This Bat postcard is my usual style for fabric postcards, raw edge applique.  He is a Quilt Doodle Designs pattern called Going Batty Mug Mat.  I shrank the pattern to fit a postcard.

This spider I have made before but it has been many years.  This pattern is a Patch Abilities, Inc. called Eeek!  The pattern is a wall hanging of 3 spiders.  The medium spider is just the right size for a postcard.

This is my version of the pattern done several years ago.

It’s time to get my postcards in the mail!  Time flies by so fast.  Now that I am officially retired, dates and what day it is means nothing.  I have to make a point of paying attention to that now.

Happy Haunting!

Snowman Challenge

Thanks to a new challenge I found, I have my first Christmas card for December 2022!  

This is a monthly themed challenge at the blog of   The Joyful Quilter. The link to the challenge rules: https://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.com/p/2022-table-scraps-challenge.html.

January’s challenge is snowmen/red.  

I loved the Christmas tag I made in December, shown here, with the snowman and wondered how well he’d make into a Christmas card.  I’m combining my fabric scraps with my paper crafts to make cards this year.  At least that is the plan.  It will depend on how well the monthly challenge fits with that plan.  Fabric postcards are always an option too.

I began with fabric scraps backed with Wonder Under and cut using cutting dies.

    

I then chose a background fabric (red) cutting it and a piece of cardstock to a 4X6 inch size.  I fused the pieces to the background and stitched them down.  Adding a section of selvedge for a scarf.

    


I then began embellishing with foil paper punched circles on the holly and paper punched circles for buttons, a snowflake punched from glitter paper and a heat embossed message. I stitched the finished panel to the front of a folded card.

I sprayed ink through a stencil for the envelope.

    

Inside the card is a heat embossed message stitched to a background paper then taped to the inside of the folded card.

I love mixing sewing with paper crafts.  I can’t wait to find out what the February challenge will be.

December 2021 calendar journal

I don’t normally show progress photos, but this is what has been keeping me quite busy for the past month.  A massive cross stitch.  350 stitches X 349 stitches.  I have completed the first 39 rows...13,650 stitches.  Only 108,500 stitches to go!

Happy stitching of one type or another!