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!!)

sneak peeks...

...of the latest creations to arise from the chaos of my art studio. I barely got it straightened up from the last project, and it's already a shambles again--so is the kitchen table and island at the moment, too! (I've tried, really I have, but I can't find anyplace better to heat-emboss than the kitchen counter.) These close-ups are all I want to show of my valentine mail-art, till the recipients get them- I want them to be surprised, after all, and I know some ofthem read my blog. Hopefully all the cards will make it to their destinations safely- I never know what the Post Office thinks about this kind of mail, but I will find out tomorrow! (can you guess from the photos what I used for the base of the cards?? It's something that you can find pretty much everywhere, but it's not a "traditional" papercrafting supply.)

Paper, paint, stamping (and embossing), glue, and scissors- it was definitely my kind of project!! I will be really interested to hear what the recipients think of them; they're certainly not the usual "pretty" Valentine's Day cards you can find in a store, that's for sure!

Mail Art... now, all can be revealed.

Since my mailart postcard made it safely across the miles to my sister Jackie, it's now safe to show it in public. I gotta say- when I finished it, I almost didn't want to send it, because I really like how it turned out... but, I really thought she'd like it, so I did it... I let it go, out into the world... amazing, how that's so hard to do with some artwork, isn't it??

It's a 4 x 6 inch postcard featuring a heat-embossed image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The background is one of my new favorite techniques, which starts with heavy paper, strips of magazine paper, masking tape, and paint. I found it in a Somerset Studio magazine article by Gail Russakov. The magazine paper and masking tape are affixed to the background (in a starburst sort of pattern, on this one), and layers of paint are applied. The different textures and colors of the tape and magazine paper "hold" the paint differently, to give really neat effects. There was also lots of scrubbing with baby wipes, gold acrylic, and gold Lumiere paint on this. The image was stamped and embossed onto cream-colored paper, then painted with thin washes of acrylic paint. The back of the postcard started out as a vintage map out of an atlas (I picked it up at last year's used book sale at the state fairgrounds, and have only used a couple pages out of it). This also took lots of gesso, paint, more scrubbing, and ink to distress it and bring out the wrinkles. The quote on this side (and the word on the front) were stamped onto manila shipping tags, cut out, attached, then distressed with ink. I like it a lot, but I know if I tried to re-make it, it wouldn't turn out the same... so, I just need to come up with more mailart ideas. I like the format, and the size... sending them to people is pretty fun, too!

In other news, I finally had to turn on the AC here- the high today was forecast to be 97 F, five to 10 degrees above normal. I know I don't like cold weather, but this is a little ridiculous! (It's also been dry- they reported yesterday on the radio that it was only 2% humidity... I'm pretty reluctant to touch a wire hanger, a door handle, or even the pets- that static electricity hurts!)

cat postcards- first "mail art"

cat postcards Originally uploaded by crimsoncat05

If you google the term "mail art" you can find some really elaborate, even unusual, art that people have sent thru the mail. Apparently you can mail pretty much anything, from a message in a bottle (mailed in an actual bottle) to a rubber koi. (I found those examples on the internet.) These cat postcards were my first attempt at sending something decorated thru the mail; they were stamped and painted- the mouse and heart are cut paper. The heart includes glitter, and the yarn is real. They were sent out for a swap-bot swap, and made it to their recipients in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada just fine. I think I'll work my way up to the message in the bottle, though!

mail art sneak peek front

mail art sneak peek front
Originally uploaded by crimsoncat05

Handmade art postcard, now on its way to a lucky someone! I'm interested to see if this makes it to its destination in good shape... when I mailed it at the local PO; the woman working the counter thought it was really pretty. Maybe they take better care of cool-looking mail?? I hope so!

art project pics as promised...

...although a little late. Life intrudes at the most inopportune times, doesn't it?? I was planning on posting these pictures yesterday, but I had an extra-long day at work (FDA auditor + Monday... 'nuff said!), and didn't feel like doing anything once I got home except falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV after eating Filiberto's leftovers... it's a sad way to spend the evening, isn't it? I agree, but sometimes, it's just what happens. Today is another day, I left work at the normal time, and the audit is now over, with no observations- yay! Anyway, these pictures are from this weekend's crafting... I spent the afternoon cutting, pasting, and painting (I still have some acrylic paint underneath my fingernails... note to self: be extra careful with the black paint!) I am still not comfortable working with overly-large projects, so these are 4 x 6 inches, postcard size. These first two pics are a technique I saw on Flickr (I think from Jeannine P, although I don't remember for sure- there is such wonderful inspiration everywhere on that site!)

The colored sections are regular old Crayola crayons, scribbled onto a piece of watercolor paper. While I was doing this, Tom had to smell them, to reminisce... I think I heard somewhere that crayons are one of the most recognizable smells anywhere- I know they are for me. After the crayon scribbling, I covered the entire thing with a coat of barely-diluted black paint, then wiped it off the crayon areas, to create a "resist" effect. The circles are "stamped" with white acrylic paint, using lids off a couple drink bottles. (I have quite a collection of these odd things going; unfortunately, sometimes Pandora finds them, and we're woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of her shooting them across the kitchen tile...) The quote is a rubber stamp- that portion of the card was covered with a clear sparkle glaze, which was done to cover up a bit of a smudge, actually... but don't tell anyone!

These two pieces of paper were just to test out a couple of my newest toys, Heidi Swapp masks... they're cut-out images made of adhesive-backed plastic, and you use them like a stencil (only it's the opposite: the paint ends up around the image, leaving the image itself blank). I just realized this combines some of my very favorite things: books, the color blue, and plants and birds- funny how that happens, even when I'm not trying to do it. These bits of paper will be used for something- not sure for what, though...

This picture is also pieces of 4 x 6 paper, and it's another technique I've been wanting to try , seen in a recent issue of Somerset Studio magazine. It uses torn strips of regular masking tape and torn strips of magazine pages. The strips were attached to the background paper in an alternating pattern- the lighter strips are the tape, and the darker strips are the magazine paper. After attaching them, you get out the acrylic paint, start painting, and see what happens- the colors of the magazine paper are affected differently depending on the paint colors used... I also added some clear glitter glue for added interest, too. It was a bit futzy to do, but I like how they turned out. Here is the pink piece, finished off with a bouquet cut from a catalog and an edging of blue watercolor crayon. Now, I'm off to work on inchies for a swap, and maybe cut a few more pieces of 4 x 6 inch watercolor paper... (maybe I'll even mail some of these, seeing as they ARE postcard size!!)