A puzzle!

A number of years ago, one of my brothers-in-law designed some badges for a now defunct project. He has lots and lots of these badges but doesn't know what to do with them.  My sister would like to sell them, but who'd buy them, I mean there are LOTS of them? So here's what I thought, maybe I can ask you, dear readers, for some ideas that I could share with them about what they might do with these, or who might want them, and then I'll have my random chooser, choose someone to receive a set of these. Just like this, 3 sizes. Maybe it'd be like a merit badge you get for solving the puzzle of what to do with lots and lots of puzzle piece badges. Wanna give it some thought?

A BIG mail art day.

Road Trip

 I was so happy this morning to discover in my stash of paper, a "map" from 1998, for low altitude airplanes to use when flying over the carribean and Central America. Very cool document! I decided to cover a lot of cards (okay, only 5) with this as a base to work on. Then I decided to just look for 2 or 3 elements to add to each card.

Plane spotting blue birds

I read on someone's blog yesterday, a quote from an artist (can't remember blog, can't remember artist) that said something like "if you have 4 elements use 3." So I did. 

Plane spotting faun

 The background was busy enough, right?  I am really determined to use up my scraps during this project. Lucky me, found these airplane stamps, in duplicate. They work so well for this map.

What's your story?

I'd had this pair of legs for awhile, ditto the doll head. They form some kind of narrative, but you'll have to supply the story yourself.  The stamp came off of a package from Anke, photographer extraordinaire, from Germany.



This woman has a story, I'm sure. I liked the way the orange piece of paper made her pop off of the background.

Woman on Orange

 

 

Some mail art +

Darwin and Finch

Best grapes!

 These are #36 & 36a of my 365 project. I'm still not sure of my numbering system because I'm doing more than one a day, but if I numbered consecutively I'd have lots more than 365. Hmmm. Not sure. 

I tried a couple more packing tape pieces. I like the ways these turned out better than the last batch. I think I need to stay simple.

I've been asked to do another Mail Art workshop. Just one day, all day, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art Studio School.  I hope enough people sign up to make this a go. I love doing it and it's so much fun for me AND the participants.

This digital collage was created by a mail friend of mine for use on her blog. She did a blog post about ME! How totally surprising. It made me blush, really it did. I think I'd like it as my "business" card.

My mail box was happy today. I got mail art from Mad Madge. Don't you love that nom de mail art? I wish my mail box was this fancy. Alas, it's just a plain brass flap  opening in my front door. The mail happily drops into my living room.

Necessary Mail Art

Color experiment with 1963 Beetle

Color experiment with 1963 Checker

Happy Birthday, lil' Cuz

#9 Polbo

Stamped envelope

I had to keep making mail art today. I was feeling some acheyness in my jaw from my root canal and feeling sad about my friend. Mail art making was very soothing.





It was fun to try some more color experiments.


I was looking for just the right images for another birthday greeting today. I wanted something that reflected the interest of the receiver a bit. He has a fish tank so this worked out just right for me. I'm happy with the composition.

















The Polbo issue #9 is one that I participated in, a project of Carlos Botano in Galicia, Spain. His envelope had lots of good artist stamps on it, too.

Support the Troops & more Mail Art (of course)yum!Y

Yum!

Some of you may know that I'm a volunteer with an on-line group called Books for Soldiers. It's time for me to do more boxes as I have lots of books, donated to me by friends and neighbors. Plus, my neighbors, laid a big surprise on me over the holidays - a check to help with my personal project. I went shopping today, after having to do something sad (related to the Cremation Society, no more to be said on  that) and buying things for troops made me happy. Here are some of the things that I'll be putting in the boxes, along with books.

More Yum

 Beef Jerkey is a biggie, I'm told, though I never hear from the recipients themselves. I try to find candy that won't melt (duh) and stuff like hand sanitizer and razors. Gotta be needed, right?

Happy birthday, Nephew!

Happy birthday Mercedes!

I decided that today's cards (#35 and #35a) will be birthday cards. I was happy to find these 1970s American cars (huge!) I think I might have a few more 1960's and 70s in my stash, so you'll see more of these car cards.  Having fun, making more Mail Art.

Moving on with Mail Art 365 days.

Tuscan Landscape with eagle and smile

 Today I decided to do some more experimenting with packing tape. I used both the pull the tape off the page method and the soak it in water method. Such fun. Not sure of how the results turned out but I had fun doing it.

Man and Parrot (#34c)

Interstate 270 (#34b)

Coping in Southern California (#34a)

The image of the man that I soaked off of the page was kind of dark so I wanted the card to be colorful. However, it was too something or other on the right so I added the colorful parrot, which somehow works for me with the addition of the sheer circle.






This young boy came from an old National Geo. His face was just so solemn and his gaze so direct at the camera. Somehow, pairing him with calmer colors and a piece of pale map worked as a composition without taking away from his powerful image.







I gleaned these images from an old National Geo magazine of a mudslide in Glendora. A lot of my family  lives in Southern California so I think about the disasters there. Once I was even there when there was a bad earthquake. To say I was shaken up by it, is to put it mildly.

Mail art in the new year.

Tuscan Landscape with Elephant and vintage TV

 I had a nice calendar of Tuscan landscapes, but the spaces were too tiny to write in, so I'm using the images for backgrounds. What fun to figure out what to do with them. This series of animals and old stuff worked for me. They are kind of like little stories. You can make them up for yourselves. All three are going to people in the U.S.A.  I'm sort of randomly picking recipients from now ever-growing list of folks. Your name is probably on that list!

Tuscan Landscape with antique dresser and cat

This one with the field of sunflowers is going to someone who lives where the weather is very snowy.

Tuscan Landscape with vintage recorder & bird

This landscape was so chilly looking to me, that I had to add the bright yellow to it. The bird listening to the old recording machine put me in the mind of springtime.