in celebration of St. Nicholas day this weeks theme is all about the jolly St. Nick~!~
this week for my Sunday Postcard Art challenge i once again started with a fabric postcard of my own making. i imported an image of it into pse7 for some further digital manipulations.
to see many more fantatstic postcards with a St. Nicholas theme go to:
www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com
~!!~happy St. Nicholas day~!!~
this weeks Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Let it Snow". i recently finished a fabric paper postcard for my daughter and i used an image of that card to create this one by importing it into photoshop elements and adding some additional layers, artwork and text to it. using the pencil and various brushes was challenging for me today and my lines look shaky which i was upset by at first but have now decided that i rather like the childish look of it in this piece . . . i even drew my own primitive little snowflake~!~ 
to see many more postcards from some very talented artists go to:
congratulations Lesley Ninnes of: http://www.sea-blue-sky-abstracts.blogspot.com/ ~!~
this is my digital postcard creation for sunday postcard art (halloween). my very first digital creation and if you ask me how i did it i would not begin to know what to tell you because it was a whole lot of experimental trial and error. it's not perfect or anything but I DID IT~!!~ 
this week i was so inspired by the theme for Sunday Postcard Art that i decided to make two paper postcards. both cards use plants/flowers that i pressed myself and a bit of map that is from a nearby area. i aged the map with tea/coffee and added faux postmarks as well as some brick colored ink to the edges. on the second card i created a tag with "Ephemeroptera" on it which i thought was wonderfully serendipitous: read my previous post regarding the mayflies discovered in my pond.
a detail of the yellow squash and the purple basil. i thought that they looked so pretty together.
and this is an "after" shot of the harvest. i roasted both yellow and green zuchinnini, tomatoes, both kinds of basil and the eggplants in a hot oven with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt. added a small grind of black pepper to the food once on the plate. i wish that i had done a better job on the photo . . . i was sort of in a hurry to eat it, i guess. it was delicious~!!!!!~
and now for just a couple of "whimsy" shots:
and an early morning moth on the screen door
i finished this fabric postcard yesterday and am pleased with the final results.
i've begun to distress some sheet music for another paper collage.
i have some of the rudebeckia flowers picked and in a small vase on the dining room table. i spent a few minutes framining them up in different ways and did a few in black and white. they are such a pretty flower that it's hard to stay away from them with the camera.
while out in the pea patch, i snapped a couple of shots; one of a new little pod growing and one of a larger pod that i opened up so the peas could be seen. btw: these are quite tasty~!~
i put the finishing touches on my Sunday Postcard Art challenge card today but won't show the card in it's entirety until tomorrow.
this afternoon i went into the back garden and by the pond grows a group of one of my favorite summer flowers; the rudebeckia. 
in these photos, the rudebeckia gets to play the starring role of "sunshine" in the summer sky.
this is a photo of the alyssum that flowers bright yellow in the early spring and unlike most varieties of allysum, comes back every year all on it's own. by this time of year it is going to seed and the ultra teeeny tiny seed pods are just empty vellum envelopes. they remind me of a much bigger plant that i think is called a money plant but i'm not positive. i don't have any money plants growing in my yard but i adore these miniature look a-likes.
i added some words to the postcard that i've been working on. i found them in an old magazine as part of an ad. for furniture polish. i swiped a bit of gesso over the top to give them some "age".
this next shot was taken a bit further back so you can see more of the whole stem of flowers. love that water/flower bokeh in the background and the drops clinging to some of the flowers in this one~!~
this afternoon i made it into the rose garden and this opening bud was so pretty but did have some spots on it so i tried to frame it up so that they weren't so noticeable. i also did some in camera adjustments and liked what happened with the exposure and slight softening of color.
as far as collage work today i cut my newest watercolor paper background into 4" X 6" card bases.
and i discoverd that i could store them neatly in an old photo album that i had laying around. i'm fairly certain that i can't be the first person to discover the convenience of this organizational trick but i'm very pleased with the way it will work out. i have finished or almost finished cards in the front and backgrounds in the back. now if i could only find those missing backgrounds . . .
i also spent a while cutting out lettuce bits from my paper napkin and arranging them into the latest fairey fashion statement. no glue yet but a definate plan of action now.
today i added some light green watercolor pencil to my current background (collage) piece. i brushed it with a dryish brush and let it dry.
a detail
now as much as i love that lovely brown tatted skin look, i figure she's going to need some clothes . . .
