Spoiler alert!! Valentine Mail-Art

I forgot about President's Day (no mail, darn it!), so some of my Valentine mail may be really late in getting to its destination, but I can't wait any longer to show my postcards to you!! I started them out with a large piece of corrugated cardboard and peeled off the outside layer to expose the wavy insides (every once in a while I go thru the recycle container at work, looking for cardboard boxes... not every box is the same type of cardboard- some tear apart easier than others).

After I exposed the corrugated layer, I painted the whole piece with acrylic paint and gesso- dry brushing gesso, red, pink, light blue, and green over the entire thing. Then, I cut 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 pieces for the postcards, and went from there. (fyi, these pics were done using the scanner, not the camera, so the colors definitely look better in person.)

For these two, I used a Stampington rubber stamp (Scroll heart) with heat embossing in pirate's gold... The paper and stickers are all from the Basic Grey Sugared line... I love the look of Basic Grey papers, but for some reason I've always been afraid of using them- maybe because there's so many patterns, it scares me a little. I really like the way it turned out on my postcards, mixing it up with the paint and the rubber stamp.

The tickets came from my favorite store, Frenzy Stamper. Debbie has rolls of blank tickets on tons of colors; since they're blank, you can stamp anything you can fit onto them! (Frenzy Stamper is definitely one of those stores that I can't go into without spending money, but she has such good stuff, I can't help it!!)

After getting the basic design elements together, I brushed gold paint on the edges to finish them off. On the reverse, I glued watercolor paper for writing the sentiment and address... (since some of the cardboard still had the box company logo on... I figured that wouldn't really add too much to the romance of the design.)

I also mixed it up on a couple of them with manila shipping tags, ribbon, fibers, and more of the Basic Grey stickers. These tags caused some consternation for the postal worker at my local PO... she looked at them, made a face, and said "ooooh, this isn't good..." What, I can't mail them?? Everything's glued! "oh, but these small tags aren't secured; they'll get torn off- wouldn't you like to tape them down with scotch tape??" Heck, no, I wouldn't! I spent all this time making them, and now you think I want to plaster scotch tape all over them??

And yes, I know I was taking my chances, but I have faith in our Postal System... thru rain, sleet, snow, dark of night, and all that, right?? I think they can handle a few little cardboard postcards! (PS- please let me know if your postcard got to you in one piece, so I know whether or not my faith was justified!! LOL!!)