Postcards and Placemats

The first two postcards were made for a mail art swap. The lady I made the top one for said her favorite colour was Orange. I don't have a lot of orange in my stash but luckily the power company put out the (orange) pamphlet and I was able to use it for my background...wheew!
The postcard below was made for someone who likes blue, purple and teal....and I didn't really need much of an excuse to use that nest image! Or the teasel:) This one's printed onto tracing paper, which I quite like the look of. The blue weave is the inside of an envelope and I thought the weave completed the nest to well not to use!

The 3rd postcard is my 5th postcard for the postcard book I mentioned a while back. I've got a bit of a 'thing' for pears at the moment...but there will be more about that later all going well!

This is not any ordinary placemat! This is a currently-being-altered placemat! I scored 6 this size for $1.00 at the second hand shop (op shop, thrift shop, charity shop...same thing) and I nearly left them in the shop. I actually went back to them 3 times before deciding that I did actually 'need' them and it wasn't just because I might use them! I've taken over more than my fair share of space in the garage as it is! I thought I would use them as bases for collage..but as I type they are drying in a nice painted shade of "pohutakawa". Tomorrow I hope to paint pears on them. I havn't painted in a very long time. I put so much pressure on myself for every painting to be great that I ended up being totally uninspired and dried up. (Much like the brushes!) I hope to put an end to that tomorrow...and I think even I can cope with pears! I just need to take a deep breath and do it. Tomorrow.

Even the biggest Oak tree starts life as a tiny acorn.

The new lino cut after it's first cutting..I look forward to finishing it tonight and printing it tomorrow!

I read a quote somewhere that said 'Even the biggest Oak tree starts life as a tiny acorn" and it came to my head again yesterday when I was doing the sketches for a new lino print. I think it's a message of hope...no doubt others have their own interpretation. I enjoyed the process of making the last lino print that I did (the teasel) so I took the bull by the horns (so to speak!) and decided to create another cut that I can use in my collages. It's important to me to use as much of my own imagery as I can and it's good to extend myself a little past nests and teasels! lol. Don't worry though...I won't stray far! Here's a link to an acorn photo I took at the beginning of Autumn and posted on my Tauranga Daily Photo Blog.

Thanks for all the comments on my new blog layout. The birds were my take on an Autumn Inchies swap. The group is a mix of hobby artists, mostly scrapbookers as opposed to the type of things I usually make but as you can see I make things in my own style anyway!

NZ Mail Art postcard book swap

I'm currently doing a NZ Mail Art post card book swap and these postcards are the first 4 (of 5) that I am sending out. In return I will get 5 postcards back from the other players. The postcards will become the pages of the book. We picked our own themes and mine was 'collaged ephemera'. They're shown here in the order I made them.
Gold serviette, raffle tickets, lino cut teasel, rescued encyclopedia images. I made this one before the DIS-CO cards and I can see how it was influenced by the space I was in at the time. To me the others are quite different. I made the bottom 3 in the same day.

Rescued bird images from an encyclopedia, raffle ticket numbers, old ledger paper (thanks Debrina!) paper scrap (the black and white paper is from the inside of a business envelope.) Butterfly image.

Leaf prints, dictionary definition for "natural..." rescued wild flowers from an encyclopedia and recycled fantail from a children's fact book. I love that bird! This is my favorite out of the 3 I made that day!

Vintage cigarette card, raffle ticket numbers, ledger paper scrap, serviette, recycled book images, dictionary definition for 'nature.' Those cigarette cards were such a great score!

So there they are. I will make the last card when the muse takes me, although these are being sent out a one per week so I have plenty of time!

Today's the last day to enter the LUCKY DIP draw for the DIS-Co postcards....check back here tomorrow to see who the lucky winners are!