The Mail

Checking our mailbox in America has become a singularly boring and depressing experience. Letters and cards from loved ones have turned into emails and facebook posts, packages have become our own internet purchases and there are virtually no surprises in store. Most of what shows up in my mailbox are bills, junkmail and letters from the school. The United States Post Office is floundering in the wake of electronic communication and online billpay.
There is, however, an answer. Mail art! There is nothing I love more than the expectation of art coming in the mail. Many artists and groups online participate in mail art swaps. Not only do you get a little piece of someone else's art, get to interact with people all over the world, but you can once again look forward to your mail! If you have not joined a swap group online I highly recommend it. It helps me to focus by giving me a specific assignment and goal, keeps me on task through mail deadlines, enables me to try new techniques and projects and gives me a look at others people's creative ideas. It reminds me a lot of  being  back in the classroom without all the stress of grades, criticism, and failures.
You can find many online art groups through Yahoo. There are also online websites dedicated to mail art. Two of my favorites are Red Lead Swap Sisters on Yahoo and artfortytwo.org. The swaps are varied in project and media. I have swapped everything from dottee dolls to artist trading cards (the most popular art swap). People swap craft supplies, cards, paper dolls, art dolls, chuncky pages, inches, twinchies, mini albums, mini zines, altered books, tag art, envies and ATC's. If any of these terms are Greek to you then jump into the wonderful workl of mail ar. So be creative, support your local post office and for goodness sake begin to look forward to your mail again

Red Lead Cottage Swap

One of my favorite websites is Red Lead Paperworks. They do a lot of altered art, have a great selection of vintage stamps and papers, and a yahoo group in which different artists participate in swapping their art. Their latest swap was to create a collage art piece using a set of three cute chipboard cottages. (Click on pictures to enlarge). 
In looking through my collection of old photos I noticed how many pictures were taken on front porches. It seemed so appropriate to use them on the litte cottages. I chose one picture of my Dad as a little boy playing happily on his front stoop with a new toy, one picture of family ancestors sitting on their porch with a picket fence in the foreground, and one picture of an old friend playing his banjo in the doorway of an old house. I can remember taking family pictures on our own porch when we lived at the beach, and while I do have a porch on my house here in Minnesota, it is enclosed and does not have the same feel as an open one or serve as a family gathering place. I miss that. So these little cottages are my homage to friendly front porches perfect for pickin', playin' and sittin'.

ATC's and what to do with them...

ATC's - what to do with them? Artist trading cards are fun to make and swap but what can you do with them beyond storing them in notebooks or framing them for your walls. While you do have to part with most of the artwork created for swaps there are a few methods for preserving a piece for yourself. I always scan or take a picture of the artwork I send off. This week I was finishing up eleven Valentine ATC's for a swap at artfortytwo.org. Before mailing the cards out I scanned a few of them for use in my own Valentine's. I cut out the scanned ATC's and mounted them on brown and purple cardstock to frame them. I attached the framed pieces to the front of 4x6 cards in pink and cream. Then using the metal foil from last week's make and take I framed the ATC's again on the cardstock  after coloring the foil with alcohol inks.

Add a Valentine verse inside and you have your very own Valentine's - just in time for February.

Winter Swap

Over the weekend I finally had the opportunity to create a white on white ATC cards and a white on white chunky page for two swaps on the artfortytwo.org site. And while I love white on white it is hard to come up with a project that has no color at all. In the chunky page I did incorporate a silver tone which I think still qualifies (?). A white on white project is also hard to scan and produce a good image for uploading. That said here they are:

Minnesota Monday

Well this week, especially today, has been about snow, ice, and WIND. But let's put all that out of our minds.

Last week I was working on ATC cards for a Very Vintage Card Swap with the Red Lead Swap Sisters on Yahoo groups. Swap groups are easy to join and fun to be involved in. Yahoo has many groups which share and trade art through the mail, which is a good way to support the post office in this electronic day and age.

Artist's Trading Cards have been around for awhile. The idea is to create a card sized piece of art to be traded with other artist's around the world. The ATC standard size is 2.5" x 3.5". That is the only real rule other than they are never to be sold but only traded. The medium, method and variety of cards are subject only to your imagination, though many groups will set up a theme in order to stimulate creativity and to focus the swap. The swap I am currently making cards for is a Red Lead Paperworks swap. The theme is Very Vintage and uses 2 Red Lead images and one Red Lead word stamp.

Artist Trading Cards allow for small scale creative exploration of techniques and mediums, are fast and easy, and are fun to collect. On these ATC's I took a printed bag I picked up some time ago shopping and used Tim Holz's Distress Ink "China Blue" to colorize the background. I used the color "Corduroy" to further age the background. Distress Inks are easy to use by rubbing the transparent ink onto paper or cardstock. You can combine the colors for many different looks. They can be further enhanced by misting them with water for a variety of effects. I brought out the photo by using a slide mount punch to cut out a frame from a very glittery blue paper. Some vintage lace ribbon, Red Lead vintage bottle image and there you have it - a Very Vintage ATC.

To learn more about Red Lead Paperworks swap sisters or to join the group visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/redlead/ and enjoy.