andrea's postcard swap is delicious. i loved every moment of considering my postcards and creating my postcards, and i am over the moon about receiving postcards in my mailbox. it is so very cheery to see my own name written in another person's handwriting amidst the computer generated labels and bills and junk mail i receive each day (i've been meaning to do something about that junk mail).
from the moment i signed up for this swap, months ago now, my brain was tick-tick-ticking with ideas. the theme for the swap was "summer" (i do love the summer) and there were no other ground rules. i was a bit hung up, at first, over the particulars - should the postcard go through the mail in an envelope? do i use purchased blank postcards or create my own? things like that. i also spent a bit of time worrying about whether i would make my postcards all the same or each one different, and whether they would be well received. thankfully, i made it quickly past all of my worries (phew!) and got down to the business of creating.
i had been wanting, for some time, to experiment with collage and this project seemed to be the perfect opportunity. i spent some time testing out papers and glues, playing with images of the beach - a favorite theme in my artwork - and then...i became obsessed with watermelon and the postcards practically made themselves.
i used watercolor paper and paint, along with scraps of various textured papers and mod podge to create fourteen watermelon postcards. as i worked, the images became more and more abstract - and i loved them even more.
i still don't want to share all of the images because i want my swap-partners to be surprised. but one has already been received.
and this is the one i saved for myself.
when i received the list of names from andrea, i focused on "14" as the number in the group. it wasn't until i sat down to address the postcards that i realized (of course!) that my own name was on the list. so i got to keep one, and i am so glad about that - to have a souvenir of my fun summer project.
far funnier (sadder?) though is this: on the way to the post office to mail my cards last thursday, i stopped to collect the mail from my mailbox and in that mail was my first postcard! (in an envelope, by the way, but i was no longer worried about the mechanics of my cards going through the mail.)
from kristen. and there, on the back of the card, was her name and blog address. i sat in the car for a moment wondering if i ought to run back inside and put my blog address on my postcards when i realized that...i hadn't even put my name on my cards! i had spent so much time considering the image on the front of the card, and what message i would write on the back that i didn't even think to sign the cards! thank you kristen for the reminder.
since thursday, i've received this from nina beana
this all the way from sanne in the united kingdom
and this from cathy
aren't they lovely? you can see more of the postcard swap here.
i've got to go check the mailbox. this is so much fun!
