Crafty Moira: postcard swap

Showing posts with label postcard swap. Show all posts

06 April 2011

Postcard Swap 2011: Positive Intentions

As I was working on my postcards for this year's postcard swap hosted by iHanna, I was wondering how I would decide which postcard to send to which swap partner. It wasn't like I would know anything about the people who were my swap partners, beyond the fact that they also read iHanna's blog and had some interest in art-making. I decided that I would imbue my postcards with positive intentions.

What exactly does that mean, though, "imbue with positive intentions." It wasn't like I was going to lick the postcard stamps after a particularly gleeful day, or anything that literal, rather, at the risk of sounding all new-agey, that I would simply imagine the joy that each postcard recipient would feel upon finding my little card in her mailbox. Instead of trying to decide which postcard to send in any sort of conscious manner, I just picked up the postcards at random and addressed them by going in order down the list as sent by Hanna (though, at one point, I missed someone and had to swap order... I suspect that was the universe helping me out.)

Once I had all the cards addressed and my stamps purchased by the post office, it was time to think about what I was going to write in the message part. I love quotes, so I knew I wanted to add a quote to every card, but I also know that I wanted each card to be unique, both in design and message. When I sat down to write my first card, I wasn't really sure what was going to come out, but I ended up writing a message that said something like, "Here's wishing you many happy hours of art making and joy in all that you do - love, moira".

Below my little message, I added my email address and then a different quote on each card. I found a list of 25 quotes about creativity and just randomly picked from the list as I worked on each postcard. My idea, that I was thinking as I wrote them, was that somehow I would choose just the right quote and card for each person on my list. Silly, maybe, but I might been on to something.

Here's what one of my postcard recipients wrote:

"Thank you so much for the postcard that arrived today. It's really beautiful, and I love the colours. Strange thing this, I was just doing some research towards Aboriginal art and their symbols and your card shows up containing a lot of dots. (!)"

That was from this morning. A few minutes ago, I got this one:

"I cannot tell you HOW EXCITED I was to receive your card yesterday ... the first
one to arrive! Everything on it spoke to me ... Change, the quote from Renoir &
Jack London, the big bottomed goddess (how did you know?)"

I done good! Blessed be!

29 March 2011

Postcard Swap 2011: Two more postcards

I loved the vintage dictionary entry that I used as a window. I was glad to use it in my art. :) The backgrounds are all from a single sheet of water color paper that I colored using spray paints, inks, and shimmer powder. I love the graffiti style of the backgrounds! I'm very happy with how my postcards have turned out. Now I just need to address them, write messages, and send them out.

28 March 2011

Postcard Swap 2011: First two postcards

I decided to join in the postcard swap hosted by iHanna this year. I've never participated in an art swap like this, but I really love reading Hanna's blog so I wanted to try it out. I am really happy with the way that my postcards turned out, and I'll be sharing all of them here in the next week or so. Here are the first two:

I used two of the little ATC kits that I had leftover from this month's Hive-O-Clock for collage materials. For the backgrounds, I used a large sheet of watercolor paper which I colored with my homemade spray paints and spray inks, as well as a few sprinkles of Tro-Col powder. Nick cut the postcards to size (he's my official papercutter, mailman, and cookie baker, aren't I lucky?) and then I added collage using gel medium. Once they dried, I decided to round the corners with my paper punch, which I think gave them a great professional look.

It's entirely possible that I'll add some journaling to the cards before I mail them out, but I haven't decided yet. They are beautiful as is, so I might leave them alone. What do you think?