Protective Card Sleeves

I have been playing with papers lately, collaging, cutting, pasting...  It all started when I "lost" a bank card in the car and had to tear it apart until I found the card.  After that angst,
I determined that I would not allow that (carelessness) to happen again.  I went home,
designed a template, and began making protective card sleeves, which nicely fit gift cards,
I.D.'s, bank cards, hotel keys, etc.  If interested, they are for sale on Etsy and eBay.

Tree - Shadow - Roots?

This afternoon when the sun came out from behind the clouds, I noticed that the crabapple tree shadow looked like roots reaching out toward the house.  It was a bit eerie, like a sneak-peak at the hidden root system below.

Late Autumn Lupine After Rain

This droplet-outlined lupine caught my attention.

Who was to know that there were tiny hairs
along the edge of each leaf?

Repurposed Security Envelopes


 

Back of inside-out security envelope #1



 


Back of inside-out security envelope #2

I have had a lot of fun lately recycling and altering security
envelopes...



Nature Ramble

Note his unusual markings...

I love to wander the woods and fields.  This little frog, only 1" long, was taking great leaps toward the swamp.  I only detained him for a short while so I could grab my camera.  The colors of fall are around us already, also many fungi seem grateful for the damp forest floor. 

This was about 6" across...

Some Collage Post Cards

I really enjoyed putting these collage post cards together to share and exchange through the mail.  It is so fun swapping art and correspondence...

Entangled

While riding my bicycle the other day, I passed a house with a front porch. Hanging from the porch was this American flag.  I was dismayed by its condition:  bedraggled, ripped, tangled, disrespected, forlorn, hanging on by a thread.  And it reminded me of this great country for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all... and how far we may have fallen from our forefathers' vision and our earlier glory.  A sobering thought indeed.

Reptilian Star

This cute little creature has been starring in many different advertisements, even for a tooth whitening product.  Since he's sporting two of my favorite colors:  blue and green, I just had to make a collage.  The glass flower beads have smaller glass bead centers.  I do love bright colors!

Sneak Preview

Lily Bud About To Open

This bud showed the folded-up beginnings of a new blossom through a parting of petals.  I had never seen
anything quite like this before...  And the fragrance from this flower was amazing as it wafted on
every breeze.

Fish Swap

My online mailART exchange group held a FISH SWAP.  I received a brightly colored postcard from someone in France, and also a seahorse postcard with lovely poetry.  These were my contributions:

The top one I titled "Fish Behind Bars, but which fish is?  And the bottom postcard was "Peeping Fish."  You never know who, or what, might be looking in your windows!

Far Out Envelopes

I had some fun staining envelopes with bright colored rubber stamp ink.  Next was acrylic paint, covered with gesso and then decorated with rubber stamps and fanncy paper napkin designs.  WOW!

Green Visitor

I planted this lily a year ago, and it is doing well.  The other day I noticed a bright green kadydid on the open blossom.  It moved slowly and I took a lot of pictures.  Consider the lilies, they do not labor, they only bloom in simplicity and beauty where they are planted, and their Creator takes care of their needs.

While I Was Playing...

TYVEKISTAN

Bracketed by the Viscerian Sea, Tyvekistan is a land mass formed by numerous volcanic craters with a climate similar to Hawaii.  From outer space its topography resembles the moon's surface.  There is a diversity of animal life with few predators.  Coastal grasslands support large herds of zebrassa and antelopians.  In the hilly country, smaller mammals include rabbitis, lemurians, monkesha and mongooselin.  Corn, rice, papayas, pineapples, sugar cane, macadamia nuts, and a primary export, coffee, grow well in its warm climate.

Along the seashore, men and women fish from hand-hewn boats.  Natives in the interior are very artistically expressive in visual arts, music and dance.  Several worldwide not-for-profit organizations help to market hand-crafted wares.

According to verbal history, the tribal inhabitants have always been a peace-loving people.  Infrequent visitors have witnessed a communication network of drums from hilltop to hilltop by which long-distance messages are sent and received.

The tourism trade has virtually ignored Tyvekistan which for the locals is probably a good thing, allowing them to preserve their family values and simple way of life, and to maintain a stress-free environment.

Company, Crafts

This stylish model appeared in my mailbox wearing a yellow dress.  I thought I could do better, so I cut out a black and white dress from a catalog, custom fit it, gave her a hat to coordinate, and changed her earrings and necklace..  Oh, and I added an orange and purple stole.  Now, she has pizzazz!

   

While  some nieces and nephew visited this summer, we had an indoor craft session which resulted in feathered rock creatures and decorated boxes.  What would we ever do without hot glue?

Something Fishy

I had some wacky fish birthday napkins which I just couldn't throw out...  Decided to cut off their party hats (boo) and collage the fish onto food-coloring-stained coffee filters.  Then I covered them with sparkly netting, which didn't stay put.  Today was the first time I had ever run cardboard through my sewing machine.  I stitched the edges down, using a heavy duty needle.  And it worked!  The googly eyes are my favorite embellishment because they roll around as you jiggle them.

Orange You Glad...

I saw an opportunity for an ORANGE swap on Mail Me Some Art, and so decided to put some orange images together.  This was my glowing result. 

Collage Envelopes

 

After I dried my dyed tags between the pages of a book, I took a look at the pages.  Not wanting to waste the ink, I incorporated parts of the colored pages into collage on post cards and envelopes.  Wheeeeeeee!

Taglets?

These are some tiny tags I decided to dye with rubber stamp ink, then embellish with dyed papers, rubber stamps, ribbons and fancy yarns, and stickers. Lots of fun!

More Spring Blossoms

The blue garden is looking lovely!

 

Tag, You're It!

Making ART projects for some Mail Me Some Art exchanges is so invigorating!  When I began dipping tags and book pages into cups of diluted rubber stamp ink, I was thrilled with the color combinations.  But not with my fingertips.  It looked like I had been blackberry picking.

 

 

Move Over, Rorschach

Recent post card creation took the form of "ink-blot" tests, only I used acrylic paint.

What do you see?  Aliens?  X-rays?  Auras?

Cairn

While hiking along the Apalachian Trail in 1980, my traveling companions and I noted the white blazes painted on an occasional tree trunk to keep us on the right path.  Sometimes in the middle of a field there was a marked fencepost, or a rock on the ground with a white blaze.  But high up on the bare, rocky mountain tops, piles of stones would sometimes show the way.  This was especially true on Mount Katahdin in the northernmost part of Maine.

I gathered these five small flat stones from a creek near where I used to live four moves ago while waiting to meet a friend for an adventure.  They now sit atop my dresser and prompt memories of hiking, and of adventures, and of friendship.

Fooling Mother Nature???

Since the robins' offspring either flew the coop before I expected, or the nest was raided- I decided to experiment a little bit.

 These are the eggs of a clay pigeon.  No, not really.  They are marvelously smooth marbles from an old brick factory in Georgia.  I wish I had picked up a bag full, but were they ever expensive in that little gift shop.  Don't you think that the sun-lit marble looks like a lightbulb?

These colorful "eggs" will hatch into glass birds.  You know, the knick-knack type.  I also purchased them in the lovely South.

I was dismayed to find the nest completely dislodged later on, as if a bear's paw swatted it from its perch.  Was it a cat, a raccoon, or in fact a bear that destroyed this avian architecture?

One-Of-A-Kind

 

 

My recent projects include one-of-a-kind postcards with some serendipity.   

In The Pink

Besides admiring the bright green of new spring leaves, I find the vibrant pink of crabapple buds and blossoms such a cheery sight.  This gnarly old tree is robed in beauty, despite losing a major branch last spring in a heavy, late snowfall.