Art last week

Thats right I actually managed to create some art last week. I made a lovely ATC out of some of those bits I bought a week or so ago. I have yet to have made use of the papers yet but I do have some plans for them. I made R is for Retro. When i saw those 3D stickers I immediately had any idea for this ATC, thinking of the colours and what I had that I could to add to it. I like it. Now I just have to think what I can do with the rest of the stickers. I am sure inspiration will hit me at some point. I finished off the work I had done for Bonnies Journal and this has now been safely sent off. I love the patterned paper I had and I like the things I used for texture. For the final E, I was orginally going to use sequins but I could not find them so I used felt instead. The felt probably has a nicer texture anyway. The theme of bonnies journal was favourite things and so I chose colour and texture. This is because I love colourful things and am always buying colourful stickers and stationary but as the same time i love feeling the texture of things. Thats right I am a toucher - I have been told of many a time by my fiancee for touching things as we walk around shops and such but i like feeling them - it makes a much more fun experience! The final thing I worked on was my 1st inchie - thats right I have finally created an inchie - it was to swap with Sherrie as we did it to encourage eachother to make one and I had received hers weeks ago so am happy to have finally made it. I like this but I found it very hard to work on such a small thing. The background was easy but in terms of picture and such I found this a real challenge so am unsure as to whether I will make more of these in the future. Depends if I can think of something to make that small. However with the limited time I seem to have to spend on crafting at the moment, this will probably fall on the back burner for a while as have journals to complete, ATC's to make for swaps and need to continue making pieces to send out in return for my Mail Art Colour swap! Maybe a free weekend or such will pop up soon. Who knows!

The Contortionists Call

No I don’t mean those people who can move themselves in some very interesting positions but in fact my friends band – The Contortionists. Having attended their gig on Saturday night they had a number of left over flyers, which gave me the idea to start this call. This is an altered image call – I will send you a copy of one of their flyers and I want you to take aspects of the flyer and make it into a piece of mail art.
The only rule is that you must use the bands name The Contortionists in the piece. What else you use from it is up to you. If you want to get a feel for the band www.contortionist-manifesto.com but it is totally up to you.

So to sign up for this wonderful call email: seussscat@hotmail.com

Size: No larger than A4
Media: Free
Deadline: October 15th 2007
Documentation to all.

Once you have received your flyer and looking to send your piece back, send to:

Seuss’s Cat
103 Rydal Drive
Bexleyheath
Kent
DA7 5EG

I look forward to seeing what wonderful things you all come up with which you will be able to view at: www.seussscat.blogspot.com

100 art things to do

My friend amy sent me an email with 100 art things to do in it at least 2 months ago and I saw it at the time thinking - fab this will be some fun things to do. I however forgot about the email in the depths of my inbox knowing I would get back to it at some point but not sure when. So I dug it out today and printed off the list to have another look at some of the things on it and which one's I might do. One's I am thinking of doing
1) Draw an image, copy it three times and colour each differently/with different colours - I always like this effect on things and love colour
6) Draw a short comic of 3-7 panels - could be interesting as never really done a comic before but could be a laugh
57) Draw an imaginary/existing building - I like castles!
68) Listen to a song and illustrate what it reminds you of or what visuals it bringd to your mind - love music so this is right up my alley
69) Close your eyes and draw 5 scribbles on a piece of paper. Then try to make a drawing or character out of each scribble. You can add on to each as much as you like, but you can't erase any part of the scribble - all the time I make dots and then join together to make a character, often a monster but its fun.

There are many others obviously but i think these are the ones I am going to start with - maybe you also would be interested to try?

Grace RAK

I originally started this ATC ages ago when running my butterfly swap, I drew the flower and added the butterfly stickers but was not happy with it. It looked empty and lacking. So it has sat on my bedside table for quite a while. However sometime last week i saw it again and decided that I would make use of it and finish it off, then I would have a card to send to Grace as a return RAK. So I looked at it for a while and decided to add the sun in the corner - this instantly made it feel more like an actual picture rather than just my drawing as such. I felt inspired by one of the other butterfly cards someone did for the swap where they did like a sunset background. Then I added the ladybird in the bottom corner to give it a garden feeling. I felt much better about the ATC after these addition and it has been sitting all sealed in the envelope to send to Grace since last thursday. I am planning on stopping in the post office today on the way to catching my train to rugby so fingers crossed for me getting it sent out!

Music is a helper

So thursday night I think I'll do some crafting before watching House at 9pm. I put some music on - Animal Collective and start thinking about what to create - I'm looking at some of the mailart I have received for my colour call and looking at Fabio Sassi's popart piece inspired me to make an abstract postcard. So I try and think about what I want to do which was when I got thinking about Lia's post about leftovers and little bits so I decide to use tiny pieces to make up a bigger all over piece - so I've got the music m,otivating me along and in spiration has hit me, I work quite quick, cutting little bits here and there, seeing where I think they should go and then gluing it down and the postcard was what came about of it. I really like it, makes me think of the sun but I like the colour and the way it all plays together. Its about 9pm by this time and I think I could watch house but I don't want to stop whilst I am on a roll. So i decide to follow on the same theme because I joined an abstract ATC swap and although I was going to doodle them having been inspired I go with what I've got and so I create the pieces on normal ATC sized card and I like them but feel something is missing. Thats when it hits me to cut bits of the backing card out and I think that makes them look even more abstract. I love them and I hope Ellen who is hosting the swap does too. So it was a motivated thursday and I feel like I am catching up and back into my art rather than feeling like I am behind.