Postcard Swap 2010 Postcards

Long time no see, folks! I’ve been really ill with the migraines and we’re in the middle of trying something new for them. So far so good, I’m happy to report!

I finally got my 10 handmade postcards done for iHanna’s swap! Whew! So they are going out in the mail ASAP. But before I send them I made sure to scan and photograph them for you to enjoy! Here’s a peek:

The bases for the postcards are heavy watercolor papers. I cut them down to 4" x 6". Then I glued down random paper scraps with matte gel medium. After that dried I painted each card differently with craft acrylic paint. They still just needed something, you know? So I stamped the birds in black Archival Ink by Ranger. Great ink for stamping on things that are not porous. The little birdie above got her own crown as I added details with fine tip Sharpies markers.

I signed and dated the back of each card and wrote a special note to the mystery recipients. Some cards are going to Australia and Sweden! I've never sent mail there!

Click image above to go to flickr where you can see each postcard scanned individually. Tell me which is your favorite in the comments!

The postcard swap project was conceived at the Twitter party called #craftsocial. They have a website at CraftSocial.net. Read more about this Twitter party on their "About" page. It's a bunch of crafty tweeple chatting up artsy craftsy things on Twitter!

The next Craft Social will be on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 3 – 5 PM, EST. The first hour of the event will be dedicated to craft #fails – they dare you to show your worst! See you on Twitter!

Postcard Swap 2010 and #CraftSocial

Recently I've been getting myself into various art swaps. It started with the artist trading cards on flickr and has now grown to more and more swaps! I'm hooked! It's just too much fun!

I came across a tweet about a new swap a few weeks ago. I have not done any postcard swapping yet so I thought I would give this one a try. This is also quite a large swap. I have to make 10 original postcards to send. But that means I get 10 original postcards from who knows where in the world! For me, it's really more about the giving than the receiving. Receiving is just the icing on the cake of getting to share my work with someone. Plus who doesn't like snail mail (besides bills)?!

I started on my postcards yesterday. So far I have three in the early stages of paper collage. They measure 4" x 6". I just cut them out of 140 lb cold press watercolor paper. I think that's a nice weight for mail. They are all getting an extra thick coat of gel medium to protect the artwork. Stay tuned in the weeks to come for pictures of them.

Click the banner above to go to the blog post to join! The last day to sign up is February 7, 2010. The postcards are due to be mailed out by Valentine's Day on February 14th. The swap is hosted by iHanna. She will be emailing me 10 addresses for the swap. They could be going anywhere! Fun!

The postcard swap project was conceived at the Twitter party called #craftsocial. They have a website at CraftSocial.net. Read more about this Twitter party on their "About" page. It's a bunch of crafty tweeple chatting up artsy craftsy things on Twitter! The next Craft Social will be on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 3 – 5 PM, EST. The first hour of the event will be dedicated to craft #fails – they dare you to show your worst! Yikes! I'll be there! But that also means I have to go photograph some art fails! Double yikes! See you on Twitter!

Domino Charm Swap

For the December swap in the flickr group Altered Dominos & Other Altered Game Pieces.

This is a vintage wood domino altered with paint, paper, pen, vintage text pieces, beads, and wire. It’s sealed with Mod Podge and spray acrylic gloss sealer. So now it is off to the Post Office to ship to prpldy15. I’m a bit late for this swap due to my wrist injury.

I know I have been a bit lax on the blogging. Not much has been going on so you have not missed anything. My wrist is slowly healing and is almost pain free. I feel like an athlete on the bench with an injury… cannot work the way I want to and for as long.

My holidays proceeded with much fun and joy. Our New Year’s was a bit low-key and made me feel, well, old. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve was filled with rock bands I have not heard of before. Is that how you know you are out of the pop culture loop? Is this how my parents used to feel when I was a teenager? I mostly listen to my CD collection of mostly independent musicians. I rarely hear pop radio because I cannot stand listening to ten minutes of commercials between songs. Maybe I’m just too cool to listen to pop radio. Yeah, that’s it. If you need me I’ll be rockin’ out in the studio to something obscure.

Vintage Tag ATC Swap

photo by nayski - used with permission

I received my vintage tag artist trading card (ATC) swap from nayski on Saturday. Isn’t it lovely? So sweet, so vintage, so pink! The butterfly is such a nice touch. I’m a sucker for paper lace, and this one has some at the bottom. Now I really need to string my line up to display my cards! This one is too wonderful to just leave sitting on my desk.

I should note for all you ATC traders out there: please put your cards in a plastic bag or sleeve when you mail them. My mail got soaked from a bad rainstorm, and this card would have been ruined were it not for the plastic bag in which it was shipped. I just ordered some ATC sleeves that seal up for this reason.

Nayski included some extra goodies for me as well. She sent printed paper, little playing cards, a ticket, ribbon, and some words that are little brads. Joy! Thank you, nayski!!

The rest of nayski’s flickr photostream has some amazing artwork. Her paining style is unique, and I love it.

Dreamer by nayski

First Swap Arrival!

My first Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap arrived today from the United Kingdom. shadfan66 created this card. I really like it! The theme was “home sweet home”. This swap was part of the Maggie’s Monday Musings (MAMMA) flickr group.

I was really honored today to discover that Maggie had given my vintage tag ATC an award! All of the entries this week were out of this world. The members of this group really shined.

I’m sending my vintage tag ATC to nayski. I already peeked at her photos to see the card I am going to get from her, but she entered two. I don’t know which one I’ll be getting. Looking up my swap partner’s card is killing the surprise for me, and I’m going to stop doing it!

Road Trip, Anyone?

I was invited to join a group on flickr called Altered Dominos & Other Altered Game Pieces. This group has some very talented people involved, and group forum discussions are lively and helpful. To be totally honest I had not altered a domino yet when I joined. The invitation to join was based on my bingo collage pendant, as it is an altered bingo card.

One of the group discussions was that of a swap for an altered domino keychain. The theme for the swap was “travel”. I signed up because I had yet to participate in a swap of any kind and have really wanted to connect with other artists like this for a while. I guess I jumped into this group with both feet being new to both domino altering and swaps. But I needed a challenge so I went for it.

My grandmother gave me about 700 very old black wood dominos to work with as well as some plastic white dominos. But they have collected dust in my studio for years. Now I had a reason to bust them out and get to work!

When I think of travel I think “road trip”. My parents had this huge old station wagon when I was growing up and we would take road trips all over the place in it. I practically grew up in the back of “Old Blue”. So my travel domino needed a car image.



I found a clip art piece I really liked and colored it in using Photoshop. The words came from an old book. The back of the domino has a map collage. The Route 66 charm is actually a button I’ve been hoping to use in my art for some time. It was just waiting for this project! I ordered the little license plate charm from theginghamgirl on Etsy as well as the keychain part from SimplyCrafting, whose shop has since closed. The domino is sealed with Mod Podge first then a generous coating of clear acrylic spray sealer. The blue on the domino is made with alcohol inks.

Off into the mail it went yesterday to takeabreak, the organizer of the group on flickr. I hope she likes it as much as I had fun creating it! I have signed up for more swaps in the future so I’ll have more dominos to share!