ATC finally done

Thats right I finally did the 3rd and final ATC to be able to send off my 3 ATC's for Ellen's I love surprises part 2 swap. Only taken me like 2-3 months I do believe. But it is done now and after the postal strike I will be sending them off which makes me happy.

I made use of some of the cool old newspaper style adverts that were printed all over these paper pages that were sent to me by Sissy. They are for an art place I think and you can buy them in bulk - Sissy sent me like 15 and every now and then I have looked at the and thought, how can I make use of them to no avail. However when searching through the drawer yesterday I also found some wallpapers that I had been sent and I realised AH HA the adverts on top of the wallpaper would look fab. So i created the background of the ATC and the scoured the adverts to see what I could use. In the end I cut out two pictures of ladies of like the olden days, one appearing to wear a corset. Then I cut out some of the words of the adverts, layered the words on the back of different wallpaper and Alakazam I had an ATC!

Journal, postcards and more

Yes after much time of not finding any time to do art stuff I found time this sunday to do some serious art stuff. So much so that I actually finished my zines for serendipity's zine swap and I was very proud. I have had the photocopied pages lying around for a while but not cut up to size and not front covers for them. But I got myself on the job, cut all the pages to size which took some time but was totally worth it when I made the front covers and had finally finished them. I did the front covers in a variety of colours to make it more fun and i made envelopes for them all. I mailed them out this afternoon on my way between meetings so the 1st 10 are in the post heading to their destinatations. I make more copies of this zine to send to more people on the postal press list or I might think about making another zine. I am not sure as I had quite alot of trouble thinking of what to write about in my zine, plus there are so many people on the postal press list and I only sent to 10 so I may make another batch in the near future - depends whether I find some time to fit it in.

Apart from this I got round to making postcards for my swap on livejournal. These are my 2 summer themed postcards which I made for people and they went out in the post today as well. It was very satisfying to get so much mail in the post. Anything now I am going to leave until after friday so they won't get caught up in the backlog of post from the strike. I also had made my love postcard which went in the post end of last week.

Also over the weekend I did some work on one of the journals going round in our ATC group and I have nearly finished the pages for one. I was just waiting for some glitter and paint to dry and trying to find the sequins I have, that have disappeared. That was saturday and I was very glad to get that done as it means one more journal to do before I send them off. I am worried they have been delayed a bit but I have found little time in the evenings for art. I started a new work placement last monday and I have been super busy since then - this is a much more demanding job and so I have little time for others things during the day. I often don't get home until 6:30 - 7pm at which point I am knackered leaving me little inspiration and motivation to do some art stuff. Which is a shame and I am sure I will kind of have to force myself because once you get going you normally get into it but its that initial start. So once i have done the final piece of the journal page I shall put it on here for all to see. All in all a productive weekend!

Journal Page

I am away at the moment in the US and so have not been doing any art as have been spending time with my family here and visiting places. I went to the DC Holocaust museum which was depressing but very interesting. And tonight I am off to see a baseball game. However I did bring my journal with me and in the many hours I had at the airport due to being there very early I did create a page around what I could see and hear from my seat in the airport as shown above. Those were the seat across from me and there is a number of words based around what I saw, announcements made and just those everyday noises.

Zine and MailArt

I have finally finished writing my zine - it started as a typed zine but then when i received Serendipity's zine i decided I wanted to draw it and I restarted with all new topics. I have done all the pages and photocopied enough to make 10, i just need to trim all the pages and created my front pages. I am probably going to take the front pages with me to do in the states whilst on holiday as I can easily take pens with me to create them. Then when finished I can send to those who are in the states from there and it will cheaper althought possibly confusing to people. I am glad I finally have finished it as I do want to get it out to people. I am keeping the orginal colour copy so then I can make more once these 1st ten are done to send out to others on the postal press list. If you don't know what I am talking about check out http://www.serendipityart.squarespace.com as she is the lady that runs this list as such and the one that sent out the zine call. As for mailart I got a piece out to Em the other day is response to my colour call but I have been behind and need to get on this. I have people to send returns to and those who have sent me things, I have not forgotten I am working on it. The postcard I made Em i stitched and I thought the black background helped bring out the colours.

I also created a foot postcard for Michael Leigh's call for Feet were made for walking. My idea is based around all the surfaces our bare feet might touch as we walk places and i try to capture some of them on the foot. His blog with this call on is http://stickerset.blogspot.com and he has had a number of feet in so far. There is plenty of time left on this call so be sure to join in. I also discovered Keith Bates website where he is collecting pictures of all Mail Artists to include on his site - its very interesting as you can look for people you have traded with and see what they look like http://www.keithbates.co.uk/cameraderie.html People are listed under the country they are in. Add yourself if you haven't already.

Its been nearly a month ....

since i last posted which is terrible - plus its not like I haven't done stuff in that time.

I finished my butterfly swap and got it all sent out. You can see which 6 cards I kept for myself in seuss's cat's post. I have worked on pages for a 2nd journal and I still have another to do. I am not sure what to do for the journal pages but I am going to have a little think tonight.

For Tandy's journal I was just hit with inspiration when I found papers with the different months on. This immediately made me think of how Aprils showers are supposed to bring May's flowers and that was it, that was the idea for me. I used cotton pad and cut it into a cloud shape to make the cloud, there was already an umbrella on the paper so fitting. Then for the ATC i had the flower paper so knew that would be the focal point for the flowers. I wasn't sure what else to put on the ATC so thought stitched butterflies would be nice, I stitched 3 originally thinking I would put them all on the card but they were quite big so I put 2 on the ATC and then the extra one on the April side to join them a bit better. Flower looked best written on the ATC so as not to get in the way of the word MAY and also to add something extra to the card as it seemed slightly empty. To me the page still looked empty so I looked through my box of things and found the flower metal plate - this looked good and gave something extra to the may page.

I am a bit behind with some of my ATC's and need to have them done before I go to the states on friday so its going to be craft to the full these week, with packing as well :) I created 2 Cat ATC's for a kittie swap and I like them. I drew the cat for the black and white one and was impressed as turned out quite good. For the 2nd one I saw the stickers in Hobbycraft and the idea just came from that and thinking what stuff I had that I could put with it. Makes me think of the Jazz cats in the Aristocats. I love that film!

Art Journal

In one of my ATC groups we are doing an Art Journal round robin as such. Each of us created our own journals and have sent to the next person, then we will keep sending each journal we receive to the same person until we get our own back. Well I did my workings on Pats journal last night. We get 2 pages in the journals and they are somewhere between 4 x 4 and 6 x 6. The only other thing is that you must include an ATC on at least one of the pages.
Well inspiration hit me as such and I started by painting my 2 pages with green acrylic paint. Now this was going well and I had managed to not get much on the next person's pages until I had finished. Then was it that I realised that the paint as such had soaked into the twine binding the journal so there were green rings round the twine on every page, only a couple of millimetres but I felt bad about it as not my journal. Pat was cool with it and hopefully other will be able to cover it up on their pages. So then with black pen I drew leaves on the pages, medium sized until I had a pattern across the 2 pages as such. I then made a pocket for the right hand page for putting my ATC in. I glued it on and re-drew in the leaves so it looked the same! I had previous from Pat in my Yak Pak some metal ivy leaves which are on a chain of them but I took some off individually and glued them onto the page as well. For my ATC I used the same acrylic paint for the background, used cloth flowers and put them onto the card using brads and then drew on leaves. I then put an ivy leaf in each corner.

Words or No Words?

I was having a discussion with my friend Frances last week and I was saying about ATC's and what she thought. She liked those without words and said about the quote she had heard - If you need words, your image is not strong enough? I thought this to be an interesting concept because obviously we want the image we create to speak to the person who is looking at it and so is it lacking if we need to add words? At times when I have added words, it has partially been because the ATC feels empty, like it needs something else on it and at other times kind of like a title to the piece of work. But then alot of the ATC's I have created do not contain words but does the image bring across what it needs. I do not know the answer and I am not sure what I think but thought it was a good topic of discussion! Especially to bring up into the ATC world as it seems quite different to the art world, as they are so minature. Opinions welcome!

Busy Busy Busy

I apologise greatly as I have been a very busy person and so much of my life has been neglected and this blog included. But I created an ATC last night in some of the little time I have, I was looking for some stuff and was checking through all the stuff I have been sent from the emphemera swap, found the image, found the backing paper and knew they'd look great together - though I need something to go with it and I continued I found the stickers that look like typewriter keys - It was like it was meant to be p- Wish everything was that quick but then sometime its nice to know you laboured over something. So anyway enjoy the ATC and hopefully I will find some time for some creativeness real soon.

Egg ATC

Good afternoon. Just a quick one to show the egg card I made for a 1/1 swap with a girl in the states. I think it has quite an easter feel to it which although was not originally the intention at least we are at the right time of year. This was the 1st time I has used ribbon which I think went well although was worried about the blue swede type ribbon fraying making the edges look rubbish. However it seemed to stay together ans I think looks quite nice. Quite a simple ATC but they cannot all be complicated masterpieces otherwise we'd never get any finished.

Sunday Creativity

Having had a lovely weekend in Bristol with my man I came back sunday afternoon to find my YAK PAK from pat containing loads of wonderful wallpapers and embellishments so of course what better way to spend my afternoon/evening than being creative. So I spent some time finishing off and starting new cards for the butterfly swap I am hosting. I finished off my reflection card, reflecting the word reflection by filling in what would normally be empty - I am not sure you can tell it says reflection on the other side but I know it does :) Then I used some wallpaper that Pat had sent to make the base of the card for the stitched butterflies. I designed the butterflies quick on paper and then stitched 3, each in different colours to add on. I put PVA glue on the backs to harden them up so I could cut them off the aida and then in the morning glued them on the card. I think they look cute and its a way of incorporatin my love of cross stitch. It also means that i feel i achieved something with my stitching because being small, they are quick to finish.

The final card here I had already completed sometime last week but forgotten to put on here so I though I would add it on now. I have actually i think 9 butterfly cards in various works of progress and seeing as the swap is a 6/6 I will have a few extra to swap with people. And all this whilst watching lost.

A bit more work

I finished off my other ATC for the March image challenge. I had done most of it the night before but i needed something to put the other side and wanted text so it looked like the girl was thinking/saying it as she looks very wistful and in deep thought in the picture! What i got is Japanese and it says "Fallen blossom doesn't return to the branch, a broken mirror cannot be made to shine". It along the lines of there is no point crying over spilt milk. I though it was an interesting thing to be saying. I love the background, I got the paper from a nice little website online and just love it - this is the 1st thing I have used it for but I know I will be using it again.

Then this ATC is the one i sent to Lia that I said I wouldn't put on here until she had received it. It got there safe and sound so now you can all see it. I loved the idea of this, I saw the umbrella's in a stitching magazine and made them knowing I would use them for an ATC but not quite sure how. Then with them on the card it almost looks like it is raining in the background - i love the corrugated card! Immediately this made me thinking of the phrase April showers bring out May flowers and shazam the card was born.

ATC'S

Last night I finally got some time to myself to do some ATC's which is good because i have a few I need to get done so it's all helping. Its been busy busy of recent. Anyway so I created this butterfly one for the butterfly swap I am hosting. I bought a butterfly punch and just started punching some out in colours and then the inspiration came - I like the idea it makes me think of the fun there is with butterflies flying!
My swap is going well, sign up has closed and I have 24 players at the moment including myself. So far I have had about 5/6 people's ATC's but alot of people have updated me saying they are in the post.
Its been so fun of recent - so much post coming through what with this swap, winning the WTA on the blind swaps yahoo group I joined and having penpals and such - my mailbox has never been so happy and it gives me great joy getting home of an evening and having fun packages to open and see what great stuff has come through!

This ATC is for the blind swap groups March Image competition, you make an ATC based on an image (which was the girl) and then everyone who creates one gets a number, random number wins all the ATC's. I like what I have done with this ATC but am unsure whether to add anything more to it - I am going with the image she is a geisha, considerations are putting something in her hand (many people have done this so am not keen) or putting words either side saying Geisha Girl. Anyone's opinion?


This one I just made off the cuff having looked through some of the things I have been receiving from my WTA round. The Background is printed from an images CD that lovely Pat sent me, then I put the words on that I had been sent. The ticket bit in the words made me think of the many admit one token people had sent me in a variety of colours and I thought the Blue tickets would go best as some of the words are in Blue!!! I did a few other little bits but they are WIP's so still working on them but hoping to do some tonight after I have been to the gym!

Crafty weekend

Thats right another weekend of craft. That is when I get the most time though I need to fit it in during the week more as I need to get a crack on with some Colour art to send back out. I am slowly working through the list and then i get more in which makes the list longer :)

I actually did a page in the journal i bought a few weeks ago. I was inspired by the sunshine outside my window and the feelings that felt good to get down. Hopefully my next pages will contain more art and less writing - that is the plan anyway.

I made a start on the ATC's for my butterfly swap I am hosting on one of my yahoogroups. I actually had the 1st entry arrive monday morning but I will not post them all on here as they won't all be my ATC's but I will post the 6 I end up keeping myself. I also got some interesting bits with it, some acetate tags and some jelly blocks as well instead of postage. They will be interesting to play with. Most of the butterfly ATC's are works in progress and so are not finished but thought I'd show what I did. On the left is like butterfly reflection which took alot of hard work to move all the little bits (I know you can get cool paper that holds it all for you but I did it the hard way. Then on the right is the very colourful butterfly. I enjoyed thinking about which sections to colour in. I do not know yet what I am going to add to either of these but I have until April 1st so maybe inspiration will hit. The sequined butterflies are done, I put them on a mottled looking blue background so it looks like they are in the sky. It was hard work gluing all the sequins down and making sure they stayed but i like the shiny effect.

I finished little boy boxer off last week and I like it, I sent it as part of a blind swap. I also created another ATC which I am sending in a swap with Lia and so I will not be posting a picture about it until after she has received it, but I really like it, it was fun to make and incorporated other crafty aspects I like.

Fun at the weekend

Thats right I got the creative juices flowing this weekend and created a few things. I amde this sunset building postcard. I have seen things like this before and i like the dark of the buildings standing out against the colour of the sunset. I sent this out as a piece in return for one of the colour pieces sent to me. I also sent out some extra bits with it as Matu had sent me some bits to play with. I also made a postcard fro my friend on a similar theme, using purple and blues for the background and only one building, it was portrait postcard. I however forgot to take a picture.

I also did some ATC making over the weekend which I have yet to have taken pictures of yet, these are to send out in a blind swap and just before the weekend I received my 3 from Satu. You can see them in Seuss's Cat's Post - there's a link to the side. Where I had made some acrylic paint background's I used a mixed colour one as a duck kind of look and then used black card to make tree branches so its that effect you get of tree's in dusk. Its a effect that I love when you are looking at tree's so though it would make a nice ATC. I also made a small well on a hill one which says, make a wish over it. I will post pictures of these over the next couple of days before I send them off.

Another weekend gone

and I did managed to get a piece done to send out in response to a piece for my colour call. I had however sealed the envelope before i remembered to take a picture so no picture. And now my brain has gone completely blank on what it was so if it comes back to me i'll be sure to let you know. I did some painting of ATC backgrounds with acrylic paint. I have a plan for a dusk scene with a tree over it so was trying to fix the paint to get a dusky looking blue but it went it bit more grey but shall see how it looks when i put the tree over it.

It came back to me, I made a butterfly masquerade mask card - simple but in nice colours to send to Jan Robson as she had seen I liked masquerade masks and sent me a couple so I wanted to send something back of the same theme. I had it in Purple and red on a green card with yellow points in the corners to make it look like it was framed as such. I put a silver jewel in the middle of the mask as well to give it some sparkle.

Productive Evening

I actually got quite alot of stuff done last night and I rediscovered some stuff I had forgotten about which made me quite happy. This colour wheel was an idea I had at work yesterday but it is a work in progress as I want to put it on top of something with a brad so it spins but am not sure what to put behind it at the moment so I nedd to have a think!

Anyway I remember about some thing I had bought a while ago, in most some oriental papers and so i fished the small box out with the stuff in and looked at the other stuff I had bought. Well I had also put in there some images that Cheryl Novey sent to me when she sent my Moon Goddess ATC's and i had forgotten about. They are not images i usually have because I don't have many, I do need to get more and I found this one of a little boy with boxing gloves (he makes me think of my cousins little boy) - I had some whimsical wallpaper looking paper from a scrapbooking magazine that I knew would go well and thus the ATC was created - its not quite finished - i want to put the words Little Boy Boxer along the side and bottom for finishing touches.

Also in this box of goodies were some stamps I had bought and in them was this yellow/orange stamp which I think is quite colourful - this inspired me to use it in a colour piece and then using the corresponding card to match with the colours in the stamp the piece below was created. I was very precise in measuring to make sure I would have the same gap each side but more rough when sticking it down. Art is not about precision :) This piece is going to be sent to Denise Hunley, I even have a premade envelope to send it in - a creation i did a while ago, it just has lots of writing on it - me getting my thoughts out and then I have turned it into an envelope to send those thoughts out into the world.

So then I got back to my oriental papers and I made 2 ATC backgrounds. I am not sure what I am going to put on them yet but I knew they would make great backgrounds so then next time I want to do come working on them, the backgrounds are already done. So as you can see lots of work done last night - it made me very happy and I hope I am as productive tonight.



Also i decided to send out some of the postcards / stuff I had already made and so am sending this black and white postcard out to Laura Ray on the Postal Press List - my hope is one day to have sent something to everyone on the list!

SQUARES!!!

Thats right i made some bases for squares on Saturday afternoon. I had lots of left over card so I wanted to make use of it - some bits i made into ATC bases and then if edges were left I realised I could make them into 1" squares. So i painted some the other day with acrylic paint, which are the ones at the bottom and the others i coloured using an inkpad. I dabbed the card on it and where I was trying to push it onto the card was where I ended up with the brighter patches of colour. On other bits it is more faded but where the flash went off it makes it look like there is no colour. I have yet to have found images to put on them yet but it was fun just making the bases. I am think of maybe doodling on a couple but I do want to find some images to go on them.

More Its Only Words ATC's

Thats right I finished off my last 3 it's only words ATC's and got them sent off - so hopefully soon people will be able to see what lovely one's I get in return.
I finished off my Brown Eyed Girl one, I did a Time Warp one from the Rocky Horrow show which is on Black card and has what looks like a vortex on it and then in pink are the words to the chorus - running along, its hard to see them in the picture (to be added later) but thats why bits of the vortex stop so as not to go over the words.
And then my last one is raindrops on the card with the words I'm only happy when it rains running along with them - this is Garbage's - I'm only happy when it Rains and although its quite a simple one I really like it. My last 3 are quite simple as they were a bit rushed - needed to get them in before the deadline but I like them none the less - this last week went really quick and i suddenly had less time than I thought!

Its only words ATC swap

I had a busy day of crafting yesterday - I made 4 more ATC's for the its only words swap which I have to have in for the 19th February which is fine - I only have 3 more to make and I am going to try and get them done today. The thinking behind its only words is that each card must contain song lyrics or song title on them and so I have gone with song lyrics. Each card has some lyrics on it and the pictures relate to either the lyrics on the page or the title of the song

. So far I have done Kaiser Chief - I predict a Riot, Green Days - Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Money makes the World go Around from Cabaret, Placebo - Pure Morning, The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba and Everclear - I will Buy you a New Life.

I have Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl as a definate one I am going to make and then I am still deciding on the other two. Its fun as I love music so making them based on the music I like has been great.

Yesterday I also started to make some squares as inspired by Lia - I only did the making them in terms of painting with acrylics and making them then into 1" squares - I haven't decided what kinds of images I am going to put on them yet. I also made a 2" square to use as a base for making something for the Small Art Project on www.mailart.org but again not sure where thats going to lead yet.

Sunset

Yep I made the effort Wednesday evening and although I only made one thing, it is one thing more than I might have done. I made a nice sunset postcard to send out to one of the people who have sent me something for my colour swap. I did the sun in pen and then blended pencils together to create the sunset effect coming from the sun. I found it fun and although simple I still think it looked lovely and was a good use of colour. I sent it to Miguel Jimenez who's work you can see through my links of what people have sent me.
Yesterday evening I was out with a friend so no art yesterday although I have over the last few days at work been writing bits for my mini journal I am going to do for serendipity's swap on her website - that also can be found on my links. I'm going personal with this zine because thats what I feel like doing - it can be alot easier to tell things to people who don't know you.

Photo of sunset postcard to follow