I’m trying to play catch up. I’m three weeks behind in sharing mailart365 postcards. The top two are brand new, but the ones below that are all postcards I made years ago but never sent out until now.
Postcard No. 71/365 – The list on the back “Patterns”
Postcard No. 75/365 – Things I can see outside my window
Postcard No. 69/365 - Things I can see on my work table
Postcard No. 70/365 – Things I’ve done in the last 24 hours
Postcard No. 72/365 – A few things about myself
Postcard No. 74/365 -Things I do every day
Postcard No. 73/365 - 10 Great Movies
I finally got around to making some fabric tape. I’ve been wanting to make some ever since I saw this tutorial by Annekata online a while ago. It was fun and easy to make and I can’t wait to use it as well. I didn’t have any wax paper at home, so I used parchment paper instead. It was okay, but the tape didn’t really want to stick to it, I wonder if the wax paper would be better. Some people have suggested trying double faced tape, but I’ve taped and glued fabric enough in the past and knew I wanted my tape to be very permanent and not eventually come apart from the adhesive.
FYI – It took me a while to hunt down some of that paper packaging tape, but I finally found it at Office Max.
Oh, and I guess this is as good a time as any to share my pinterest craft board. I’m trying to remember to pin any craft tutorial that I see online and want to eventually do. I love pinterst for keeping track of things online. Do you have a pinterest?
My mom is retiring from teaching 8th grade English this year. The last several weeks my sister, brother, my mom’s coworker and I have put in a lot of time working on a surprise video for her retirement. Last night was the school district’s retirement program where they honor all the retiring teachers and our video was shown. It was great and the video had an excellent reaction from the crowd; some awes, some laughs and apparently even a few tears as we were told later. I’m excited for my Mom. I definitely inherited her love of making and creating and now in her retirement she will have a wealth of time to get at all those projects she’s had to put on the back burner. Both of my parents were DIY before DIY was DIY.
At any rate, all of this is to explain, or give excuse to the fact that I’m a week behind in my mailart365 project. I know you probably don’t care, but it is weighing very heavily on my conscience. I realize that all it takes is a week to fall behind, which then turns to two weeks, and next thing I know it spirals out of control until I feel so overwhelmed that I throw the towel in on the whole project. I’m just worried that this summer is going to be one of those where every single weekend is spoken for weeks in advance and I have no free time. I don’t want that to happen, so this is my plea. Please Life, stop throwing things at me. I’m only one person with precious time and I already work a full time job. Please, and thank you!
So, now onto another round of little mailart books. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE these books. I’ve already received thanks for a few of the books I sent out and I’m thrilled.
To read more about the concept behind the books, see this post. The above picture is the collection’s front, sealed and ready to be dropped in the mail. Below are the books open and without mailing addresses, to protect the recipients from ruined surprises.
The grass area is pencil and watercolor and the binding has fabric over it.
The background image is a picture I took of a framed yoyo set I made in all white fabric. The “OK” is chalkboard paint with white pastel and spray fixed. Which reminds me, yesterday I had another piece complete and I went to spray fix it and accidentally grabbed the adhesive spray. The piece was ruined, so I had to scrap it and start over. Yeah, I’m the genius who keeps her spray fixative (2 cans) next to her spray adhesive (2 cans). It’s a surprise this hasn’t happened sooner.
This background image was a camera phone picture I took of our lawn before the first mow this season. The grass drawings over it are done in gesso, pencil and watercolor and the green plaid is fabric.
the zigzag pattern bit is the only paper that I designed on this book. The rest is just little scraps from my paper hoard.
More chalkboard paint with fixative. The zebra is from the packaging of our copy paper at work.
I was going for a quilt like pattern on this piece.
Vintage map, gesso, collage and pencil.
And once again, all the pieces have been matte varnished to protect them against wear and tear through the mail.
I have been running across some pretty sweet things on the internet that I have to share them here.
This Simon and Garfunkel cover song playlist by Miss Moss.
When I was in college I made a hammock covered in growing grass for a sculpture class. That hammock would fit in perfectly with this line.
Check out this video of kites that Mim just shared. The end is mesmerizing. It looks like it is being filmed in slow motion, but if you notice the people and the kite tails are all whipping around at normal speed. Beautiful.
I really liked this article by Diane at the Dew Drop Inn. My relationship with music changed (in good and bad ways) with the addition of the ipod.
Sitting down is killing me, although while I’m at work I find way too many reasons to get up and walk around for a graphic designer. It would probably do me good to not sit so much once I got home from work.
Ooh, the possibilities with this shower curtain!
I posted on Andy’s wall… his real wall (not to be confused with a facebook wall)
AND, I’ve saved my favorite for last…
How have I not heard of this yet? Sell customized moleskines! Yes, Please! I’ve been listing my grass journals forever on Etsy, and while I’ve accrued plenty of favorites, and several front pages, they just don’t sell. Maybe I’ll have better luck on Moleskine Artist Marketplace.
