dear diary: part 14

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24/03/20
A month since I last blogged, a lot can happen in a month, eh?
Some of my handmade postcards have reached their destinations, so I am free to share them with you. I don’t like to share them until they arrive, no spoilers. The first one was actually a collaboration , it arrived with me like this..

and left me like this after I had added the 2 figures and a few other bits…

This was an interesting one, I received some “mystery supplies” which I had to include on 2 postcards. Daftly, I forgot to take a photo of the supplies, but they were a piece of plastic mesh and a stencil of the letter “G” and some blue rhinestones. I used the stencil and the mesh as stencils, and stuck some of the rhinestones on them.

This is an Artists Trading Card (ATC) rather than a postcard , it was sender’s choice which meant I could do whatever I wanted. I used some of my handpainted and stencilled paper and a fabric button that I drew on.

This one is February’s effort for a year’s worth of “Facetime” – a portrait of a human or animal in portrait orientation. It started off as a human, but I made a mess of his hair so he got a head replacement.

I heard from the recipient of my February Facetime that it arrived minus the sheeps head, it must have fallen off on route, the card she recieved had the bloke whos’ hair I messed up on it! I’ve asked for a photo, if I get one I’ll share it here.

So the recipient of the card sent me a photo of it in it’s decapitated state, this is the hair I messed up and was trying to hide. Must invest in a stronger gluestick!

This is an ATC I recieved on the theme “Black and White Hand Drawn”, the person who made it said they had tried to emulate Mr Doodle, but it was way more difficult than they thought it would be.

This is the ATC (Artists Trading Card) that I sent in the swap.

I took part in a postcard swap with Donna Mulholland , heres what I sent her

and here’s what she sent me, it is more substantial than a postcard, more like a canvas, I think it is lovely.

You can see all of the cards she made for the swap here

Here’s another collaborative postcard , I received it like this..

and it left me like this…

Here are a couple of postcards I received, this one was for the monthly “Facetime ” theme. I asked how it was done and the maker explained “The card that I made for you is actually a napkin collage. I used a napkin by Jane Davenport. I used Decou-page napkin by DecoArt to adhere it to the card and then I used DuraClear gloss varnish to seal it. The DuraClear is by DecoArt also. I love using decou-page napkin glue when collaging napkins. “

I also received this one , which is very lovely..

25/03/20
Today I received back an envelope containing a swap I had sent to America marked “Return to sender, not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward”
Personally I prefered Elvis’s version, much catchier.
I will re-send it when life has returned to normal.

I was relieved to hear that another one I sent at the same time did arrive, this time it an Artist’s Trading Card (ATC) on the theme of vintage stitching, I used some scraps from an Indian scarf.

Here’s another one I sent, an example of my new favourite thing: “Stampheads”…

06/04/20
This was my March effort for the “Facetime” theme..

and I received this cool card, it is a blind contour drawing, which I recently tried myself, you can see the results here

Today the postie delivered an envelope containing these 4 “Stamphead” Artists Trading Cards, they were part of a swap I took part in with “Mail Me Some Art” you can read about it here

Tomorrow is the beginning of  The 100 Day Project you can read all about it here . Last year I put lots of effort into it, and it spawned numerous blogpost, you can read them here
I wasn’t sure if I was going to take part in it this year, my mojo’s at an all time low, but I thought it might be just the thing I need to get me back into the groove. So I’ve decided to do #100Daysof_25_Brooches.
This is a piece of fabric that I had printed with a photo of some of my Made on Monday 2019 Mixed Media pieces

I’m going to cut 25 circles out from it and spend 4 days embroidering and embellishing each circle. 25 circles x 4 days = 100 Days. I will then make each circle into a brooch. Well that’s the plan, watch this space .
EDITED TO ADD : see my first 50 days worth of brooches here