Tulips in the Mail

I started on the envelope with watercolor and colored  pencil working from an old photo from my garden.

I decorated the card with the photo, a used postage stamp with one of my paintings on it, and a small drawing.

I did a lot more flowers around the inside but since I did them around the letter I'd written that I didn't take pictures of it.

People are amazed that I'll put so much into a letter but it gives me a lot of  time to really relax and explore my drawing and painting techniques without worrying about results.

In that way it's a gift to both of us.

Fresh Sunflowers

A friend brought me these Sunflowers yesterday.

I think I'll start by painting sunflowers on that birdhouse.

After I've done them in acrylics I'll either try pencils or watercolors next.

On the envelope I started with a sticker that came in today's mail from another friend.

I started the card with a photo, some pencils and watercolors then finished it with ink.

Here's one of the flowers I painted on the inside of the letter. I also started this one with a sticker.

Feeling good about the week

I finished making 3 hats and donating them to a program for the homeless.

I finished the painting I'm doing for my sister's Christmas present.

I finished more drawings to base designs on.

I designed 100's of new products to go into my stores at Zazzle and Cafe press

I made a lot of amazing mail for the special people in my life that keep me going through all my troubles.

I'm sure there are things I've forgotten to mention but these are the things I'm proudest of and I'm looking forward to an assortment of projects next week.

Scrap Happy Projects for everyone

I just love "playing " in the paper bits here and challenge myself to use whatever comes in the mail to turn into that days out going mail. sometimes it's just in decorating the borders of letters I was writing anyway and sometimes it's in creating new designs for my stores. Most of the time I just make little cards for friends and send them out without ever posting them here. It just depends on the mood I'm in, the time available and what shows up to work with. For me, the combination of all of those things is what keeps it fresh and interesting.

I often send the originals out the same day too. People that don't craft find it interesting to see how the bits come together and there was a time when my letters would get passed around the nursing home as people tried to guess which parts I'd drawn or painted and what bits were glued on. Sometimes I'd make it really interesting and cut up some of my drawings and glue them together in different ways just to keep everyone guessing and make it more fun for everyone.

playing with the outgoing mail

We finally splurged on some colored envelopes but I'm still working with cheap pens and short pencils.

A few scraps of card stock and some garden photos made things a bit more fun but I'm still not in the mood to do some serious drawing.

That's the great thing about mail. No one's going to mind if these aren't perfect, most of them just appreciate me taking the time and trouble to put things together and write.

Being able to do this helps me unwind and get ready to do better drawings and paintings so it does us all good and remains my favorite part of the day.

Recycle, collage and a bit more drawing before sliding into a painting

The first two images here are a combination of cutting up and pasting bits of the last drawings and filing in where needed by doing some new drawing. I'm hoping that will shake out the cobwebs and get me thinking about something new.

I thought it was a good sign when I sat down and drew this on the back of one of the other letters. I kept switching back and forth between between pencils and markers to see which results I liked better and all I really decided is that I'm ready to go back to painting. Now that I'm ready I just need to decide between watercolors, liquid or tube acrylic paints and knives or brushes.

So far I'm leaning toward heavy body tube acrylics and painting knives, it just feels SOOOO good!!!

Project updates

The week slipped by quickly as I worked on designs in the stores. The letter and number designs became stationery, coffee mugs, Birthday cake picks, party balloons and many other things. It was a good opportunity to find out which sorts of designs and drawings work best on them and gave me ideas of what sorts of things I'd do with the idea in the future.

As always, there's mail. I drew this on a postcard one lovely morning when I got to sit by the fireplace at the bagel shop and indulged in some drawing and letter writing while my companions chatted about other things.
Yes, I know, we cold have that conversation about the lack of social skills in the world today but I simply chose to enjoy a rare opportunity to sit by the fire as spring approaches.

Another fun thing in the mail this week is that I spent about two dollars american on a set of markers so they'll brighten things up for a while.

I didn't get around to scanning a lot of it but thought I'd answer a question the I get a lot. Yes, I do draw a little something everyday. Much more often than I paint.

With the design work I've been doing lately I'm trying to decide which types of media work best. Each seems to have it's own benefits and challenges.

I started designing products on Zazzle with one of my Dads drawings and am currently getting more of my sister's paper cutting ready to join him there.

Envelope Art

Another envelope corner

Front corner of a different envelope.

Watercolor and Ink

Back of envelope in marker and ink.

Fall colors card and envelope sets

This started as a photo of the trees, bushes and vines outside my studio window...OK, we never did get the studio put in so it's really what I see when I go to the coffee machine in the dining room where I do most of my art and crafts these days at the table.

I bordered the photo with card stock and mounted it to a watercolor note card that I drew and painted on.

This is the design that I came up with on the corner of the envelope.

I'm experimenting with additional borders and treatment ideas on my products on Zazzle.

This one started with the centerpiece left over from the Halloween Tea, a blank watercolor envelope, watercolors and ink.

 

 

Painting and cutting paper decorations for fall

The photos I'm working with were taken right from my studio window, the fake flowers are from dollar tee and the cardboard leaves were 25 years old torn on the back and poked full of holes. Somehow I needed to take what I had and decorate a whole building.

I started with some marked and stained watercolor paper and traced around the cardboard leaves, being careful to lay them down in a way to take advantage of where the existing bits of color were. It was fun to relax and just paint a few random bits of color to fill them in.

The fun came when I cut them out and put them in the copy machine. I got lots of different effects by making a copy on photo paper, some on regular card stock  and a few on different colors of card stock. The assortment of different looks are kind of nice together and will be mixed with plain/solid color card stock in orange and gold.

I hate to think what the ink and various papers cost me but i had them on hand and it will brighten things up a lot in the building I'm decorating.

Now that I've got all of this made I can move on to some watercolor paintings based on my photos so that I can decorate the envelopes and get these cards out in the mail.

The next project after that will be to do some drawings based on the centerpiece before I give that away too.

Today's Card and Envelope Designs

As always I start with a blank watercolor card and envelope then begin to look for odd bits of paper or photos around my work table and studio space.

1. Add photo and bits of scrap paper to the card.
2. Fill remaining space with drawings or paintings inspired by the photo.
3. Do a matching drawing or painting in the lower left hand corner of the envelope.
4. Give it away as is, sell it or do what I usually do - write a letter on it and drop it in the mail.
5. Enjoy both personal satisfaction and a few comments or compliments from others.

Any way you look at it, it's time well spent and a great use of the resources on hand. This one just took an old picture, scrap paper, watercolor paints and a marker.

I don't know where this little scrap of floral paper came from but I thought I'd have a little bit of fun with it. I used pencil and marker on the card and watercolor paints and marker on the envelope. Yes, this is already in the outgoing mail. It's been quite a day around here and it was nice to be able to share it with a couple of people who really know what I'm going through these days.

Lost at the worktable

I've been designing a lot of things in my Zazzle stores and am still spending a lot of time sorting through things in the dining room and of course I wind up sticking a lot of odds and ends together to decorate mail as I write letters which of course is much more fun than cleaning and sorting anyway.

Here's the corner of one of today's envelopes. the flower on it was done to coordinate with the postage stamp I'd used on it.

I'm really wanting to get started on a new painting but there are so many other things I need to be doing these days. One of the more urgent ones is watering in the new plants and getting the water barrel emptied before the weather starts to freeze.(yes, it's one of the plastic ones)

The animals seem to be having a lot of fun, we spent part of our teatime in the garden today just laughing at some of the antics of the squirrels and a chipmunk in the front yard.

I'm doing a bit of sewing at the table tonight and will let the painting wait until the morning light.

Stargazer Lily Card and Envelope, photo and watercolor

Orange, yellow and gone

The watercolor brush markers are gone now, the yellow and orange were the last to go and I couldn't resist using them to the very end whether there was enough to really do anything with or not.

Yes, it's another note card and envelope which just goes to show that the mail is interesting even when the art is not.

With the watercolor brush markers gone I'll go back to colored pencil and regular watercolors to keep the mail interesting and try drawing and painting a number of different subjects.

...as soon as I get those pencils sharpened...

Summer Scrapbook

You've seen many of these pictures before but I'm putting them together old school for some of the people that I know that don't use computers.

There's something nice about sitting down with just a pair of scissors and a roll of tape and trying to make something interesting out of it.

I've also made photocopies of some of these pages to add to some of the letters that I've been writing.

This one might frame nicely and hang on the wall some day.

The fun thing about these photos is that I'm a BIG fan of anything bigger than I am.

The next post will have more pages devoted to painting this sunflower. You'll be able to follow it through and see what a project it became on the way to completion.