Rules-?-I think NOT -!!

i received this fun postcard in the mail yesterday~!!~ it is oversized (measuring approximatly 6+ inches by 9 inches) and chocked full of wonders. not the least of which is that the "title" is stitched right into the card front~!~ believe it or not, that was actually one of the latest things that i noticed. if you click on the above image (to enlarge it) you may find it easier to see. i love the black fabric with the white spots as it reminds me of the center of a sunflower. the maker used a technique that i'm unfamiliar with to make the base of the card. i know it had something to do with solvents and magazines and i'll have to try doing something like it at some point.
on the back side of the card the fun goes on and i really LOVE the way that she used the whale cut-out as the center divider in the postcard~!~ also a collection of some very cool stamps used for postage. this card already has a place of honor in my studio as a daily reminder to just loosen up and make some art. if your heart's in it, it just can't go "wrong"~!!~

and here is the wonderful synchronicity part of this story: yesterday i did some more thinking and reading and looked through some of my favorite art books and made a decision that i MUST do a bit of playful collage on every day that i possibly can. then i received the card . . . just another tiny push to get active with my art on a regular basis rather than let a million little things get in my way. THANK YOU FARSTARR~!!~ for the card and the nudge~!!~


so i got out a sheet of watercolor paper and some paints that i had purchased and never used and even a bottle of nail polish that i have in with my other paint supplies and i just splashed around. it probably didn't take me longer than five or ten minutes (clean-up included) and i felt so happy with myself for just having done something.

and today i tore out a section of an L. Ron Hubbard advertisement and glued that down onto my painted base. easy peasy~!!!~the thing about collage is it has to dry between additions anyway so you can only do so much before it's time to set it aside and wait. this should make it a simple daily process for me to continue on with. and just for fun, i will document my progress with this piece that i have started.

one thing that i did not like was that i couldn't seem to get the paper to lay flat . . . maybe i need to be more careful with my gluing or use a different glue or . . . i don't know . . . any advice out there? i did use the side of a used gift card to try to flatten it but don't think that helped much . . .

i'm still looking for the small cache of watercolor bases that i began some time ago, and then put in a "safe" place . . . no idea where i thought "safe" was for those damn cards~!!~ but i wish that they would turn up soon~!!~ i vaguely remember thinking that they needed to be stored somewhere with some flat heavy weight on them (books) but that's the last thing i do remember . . . (to many glue fumes~!?!~) there's a lot of possibilities around here as there's a lot of books . . .



i also have managed a few spare minutes over the last couple of days to start another fiber art postcard. i had a few small shoo-fly quilt blocks that finish up to one and a half inches square once sewn and so i decided to give them a postcard audition. added some tiny prairie points and some festive ribbon and a few embroidery stitches and voila, it's almost done~!~ once i get the back done, i'll meld the two together and bind with a bright red binding. i think.




this one is looking somewhat traditional with a fun summer attitude and a twist of patriotism . . . what do you think?