Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 9 Switzerland

I just want to thank Darcy again for hosting such a fun challenge!  Check out what she made this week as well as everyone else's cards by going to her blog HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 8 Cuba

Dance to the music at the
Casa de la Musica in Trinidad Cuba

I used Prismacolor Colored Pencils to draw this card.  Black India Ink stamp pad to stamp the letters and the stamp.  And black Micron pen for the writing.

Thanks again to Darcy for such an amazing challenge!  Check out what she made this week as well as everyone else's cards by going to her blog HERE.

More Bird and Butterfly Collages

I'm hooked on sewing collages.  My old Singer has a great zig zag stitch and I love the texture it adds to my mini collages.

This time I made folded cards:

You can find them for sale with postcards and mini journals at my Etsy shop HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 7 Wales

Used Prismacolor Colored Pencils and a black Micron pen.

Birds and Butterflies

I've become obsessed with sewing on paper.  I have an old Singer my mom bought almost 50 years ago and it has a really nice zigzag stitch.  So I got out some scrapbook paper - mostly 7 Gypsies Conservatory 8x8 paper pad.  And I've been making little 4" x 6" collage postcards.  They are turning out great!  Here are some of them:

I just love the stitching on the cards.  It looks cool and adds really cool texture.  Just love it!
So, some of these I have mailed out, some I have kept for my bulletin board, some I'm sending to Dede to give away on her UStream shows (you can find her HERE, she streams early morn Wed and Thurs), and some of them are listed for sale on Etsy.  You can find my Etsy by clicking HERE.

Thanks for taking a look!

Have a creative weekend everyone! 

Happy Valentines Day!

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 6 Belgium

 I used Derwent Inktense Pencils and Prismacolor Pencils.  Stamped letters with India Ink Black Ink Pad.

You can read all about the postcard challenge for this week on Darcy's blog HERE.

Bird Altered Book Stitched Collages

It's been awhile since I posted anything from my bird altered book.  I love birds and making bird themed art.  I've been working in this book off and on for a few years now.  Here's the book cover:

Lately I've been using the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine rather than glue.  Maybe that is because (gasp!) I am out of Golden Gel Medium.  I really need to find a coupon and get to a Michael's!  But in the meantime I am really enjoying sewing on paper!  I love the texture the stitching adds to the collage.
I used to work in and manage retail fabric stores and sewed all the time.  But that was before paper arts took over my life!  Now I seldom sew.

So, here's a couple bird collages I made using 7 Gypsies Conservatory 8 x 8" papers.  I love that their paper pads have multiple (I think 6) of each design so I can cut pieces out of the multiples.

 
The background on the book pages is two shades of craft acrylic paints sponged on.  I did end up using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to glue the bird cut outs to the collages and to glue the collages into the book.

Thanks for taking a look!
Have a creative weekend!

A Couple Cool Cats

I found a couple free info cards at a display at the grocery store for pet health insurance with these great cat images on them just beggin' to be fussy cut and used for something.  So I brought them home and made a couple postcards!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The backgrounds are K&Co Tim Coffey paper.  The butterflies were cut out of a gardening catalog.  I sewed a piece of cardstock to the back of the postcards to add stability.


I'm having so much fun sewing on paper!  I'll be sharing more postcards and some collages here soon!

Thanks for taking a look!

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 5 France

This postcard challenge is from the wonderfully creative mind of Darcy.  You can read all about it on her blog HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 4 China

In Taoism, the Red-crowned Crane is a symbol of longevity and immortality.

 

To make it easier to read the message:

Bind-It-All Binge

Okay, I admit it - I love most all art supplies.  But tools have a special place in my art supply heart!  And among the tools I currently have the Zutter Bind-It-All is one of my favorite.  You can check out their website by clicking HERE.  I have the older blue Bind-It-All (BIA).  Good thing I got it when it was blue as it is pink now.  I hate to admit I might not ever have got to know how much fun it is as I would probably have never bought a "pink" tool.  I'm just not too fond of pink. Anyway, I did get the blue BIA and I love it.  You can see it in the photo above. 
One of the things I like most is that you don't have to measure much.  For the book and covers you basically need the center of the side you are going to bind.  I use leftover paper from other projects in whatever sizes they happen to be and can go from there.  Once I decide on the book pages, I just make a cover using one of those as a guide and make it slightly larger.  Or, sometimes I have something I want to use as a cover, and go from there and cut pages slightly larger.
Recently I had my BIA and all kinds of paper out to make a Smash style scrapbook for my niece for her 12th birthday.  It is 8 x 10 and turned out great but I forgot to take photos of it so will have to share photos of it another time.
As long as I had all the stuff handy I got out some postcards to use as covers and made a whole bunch of books!  I even refilled a small book I had made awhile back and used up.  Most of my binding is 3/4" silver O-rings as I bought a huge box of them from an office supply store.  Alot (really ALOT) more reasonably 
priced than buying them in 2 or 6 packs.
The green "Nurture Nature" postcards are ones I had made from a collage of mine.  The rest are commercial post cards.  Here's a bunch of photos:

The backs are cardboard or chipboard I covered with paper on both sides.
The Nurture Nature books will be available for sale soon on my Etsy as mini sketch books or journals.  Great as a small journal to have with you, a good travel size!  I'll post a notice here and on Twitter when they are available.
Thanks for taking a look!
Have a CREATIVE week!

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 3 Brazil

I used Prismacolor Pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils for the postcard.  Wood laying on the jungle floor was shavings from sharpening my pencils.  They were just laying there and looked like they should be used!  Words are hand stamped with India Ink Black stamp pad (my very favorite black ink pad).

Learn all about Darcy's great Postcard Challenge by reading about it on her blog HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 2 Spain

Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Artist rendering
At Dusk

Used watercolor paper
First layer of background and sky - watercolor
Finished with Prisma colored pencils and black Microm pen

To make the back a little easier to read:

Learn all about Darcy's great Postcard Challenge by reading about it on her blog HERE.

Postcard Challenge 2012 - Week 1 Austria

My first ever Coptic Stitch Book!

I finished my book for Darcy's Postcard Challenge 2012.
It's the first time I've ever done a Coptic Stitch binding and I really like how it turned out.
The pages are alot thicker at the bottom because of the pockets I added to each page to hold the postcards so to accommodate for that I used pretty thick thread for the stitching of the binding.

The binding is one inch strips of tyvek that I painted a copper color with acrylics.
I got the idea and instructions for making this"Coptic Stitch binding for individual pages" book from watching Barb on UStream.  You can see the recording of how to make the book HERE.  Thanks to Barb for always being such an inspiration!
Below are some pictures of the completed book:

I have my postcard started.  I think for me, the hardest part will be figuring what to write on the back.  This creative writing is pretty far out of the norm for me, but always a good idea to get out of one's own normal, right?

Thanks for taking a look!

Postcard Challenge 2012 - The story Begins...

As mentioned in my last post, I am taking part in a really fun challenge for 2012 that Darcy has created for us and explained on her blog.  You can read about it HERE.  The idea is based on Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine series of books where mysterious characters correspond.

One of the first things we need to do is create our own story and characters.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

The story begins…

The Characters

#1 is Sabrina.  She lives in a small town on the Oregon Coast but does not spend much time there.  Sabrina is a photo journalist and travels the world photographing interesting locations for the various travel magazines she freelances for.  But she uses a P O Box in Oregon as her mailing address and has friends manage her mail and forward it to her. 

Her address is:

Sabrina Harrison

P O Box 251

Rockaway Beach OR  93137

USA   

#2 is Declan.  It is thought that Declan lives in London.  However he is somewhat secretive.  As the saying goes – he could tell us where he lives and what he does but then he’d have to kill us as we’d know too much.  So, better not to know, don’t you agree?  His mailing address seems to indicate he works for the British Government.  Perhaps he is some sort of spy?  Is there a real life James Bond?  And is he it?  Wonder if we’ll ever know…

His address is:

Declan McCabe 73179

c/o The O.I.C.

Number 17 ½ Downing Street

London

IM2 YR1

UK

As the story begins, Sabrina has received a small package in the mail with a strange London address.  What the heck is “The O.I.C.???

Inside the package she finds a packet of photographs and negatives she had lost on her last adventure.  They were lost somewhere in South Africa.  She had been quite upset she had not been able to locate them as the negatives are irreplaceable.  Without them she would not be paid for her trip all over South Africa.  So you can imagine how relieved and grateful she was to find them in the mail!

A note inside the package states “Dear Ms Harrison,  I found this packet of photos under a bench near the Bull & Bush Pub in Gaborone, Botswana.  Inside was your business card with your information and address inside so am sending them to you.  Yours Faithfully, Mr. Declan McCabe”.

 

Sabrina feels compelled to respond to this Declan McCabe, wondering what is inspiring her to do that.  Perhaps the same feeling that compelled Declan to return the found photos to her in the first place.

 

So, the postcard correspondence begins…

Stay tuned, much more to follow as the year progresses and these characters communicate with one another from locations yet to be revealed.

Thanks for taking a look!

Have a creative week!