Naked Postcards

I'll bet that caught your attention, huh?  Actually, it just refers to mailing art without an envelope - such as in the case of these postcards I made:

The theme for this Paper Traders swap was one "zetti" postcard and one "steampunk" postcard.  I'm not sure I quite captured the themes in their true intent but I'm not unhappy with the results.  A big thanks to Lorna for hosting this one - it was fun!

More Funky Art

I decided to try making more art in the style of Teesha Moore's tutorials. These are both ATC's which I found much more challenging due to their small dimensions (about the size of a playing card). Still it was a fun project, even if the results are a bit odd =)

Blue Christmas & Red Hot Thanksgiving

This week, my parents came to visit for Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have them come here! My mom is by very best friend and usually I only get to see her once or twice a year. My dad is a cool guy too and I love doing things with him. When I go home, we often go fishing together. This weekend, we took a drive up to the Florissant Fossil Beds and took a short hike - although the melting snow made the trail alternately slick and muddy. We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and did some Black Friday shopping too.

My mom shares my artistic interests and we do a lot of projects together, often participating in online swaps through Paper Traders or other groups. As I posted earlier, our Paper Traders group puts together a CafePress calendar each year. We had to come up with one more spread for December so mom and I watched a few of Teesha Moore's tutorials and then put our heads together for this collaborative creation using magazine ads:


I had so much fun with this! It is unlike anything I've ever done and was very freeing... I think I'll try doing an ATC this afternoon in the same style. Take some time to watch Teesha's how-to videos... she's so easy going with her art - I love it!


UPDATE: Our extra calendar page wasn't needed after all but there are still many lovely pieces of art to display, including my pear mosaic. If you're interested in a calendar, you can order one here: http://www.cafepress.com/PaperTraders.324251835

A Number of Zettis

This is the spread I made for Marion's tip-in journal on Paper Traders. Her theme is "A Number of Zettis." I hope this is zetti-ish enough =) It's difficult to tell from the scan but the feathers all have pearlescent accents and the golden egg has been spritzed with MoonGlow. The number 2 also has gold paint brushed around the edges.

I used Bernie Berlin's technique for painting over magazine images to make the lady. I used a sea sponge to create the bushes. I hope Marion likes it!

Zetti Newbie

Connie is hosting a zetti ATC swap on Paper Traders. This is my very first attempt at this quirky genre. My mom, her friend, my sister, and I all went in together to buy a couple of grab bags of rubber stamps from zettiology rubber stamps, which I used on these cards.

I really LOVED my backgrounds even though they got pretty covered up by the images and pen art. I took colored card stock and attached some vintage german text and then applied a light coast of gesso, then smeared some watercolors over the top; finally, I distressed everything. I also used some very lightly inked rubber stamp images to add a little depth to the backgrounds. You can't really tell from the scans but the pen lines are opaque, glossy, and raised - I used Souffle pens for them. The images are simply rubber stamped in black ink on white cardstock but I like the contrast between the stark imagery and the other colorful elements.

The most fun thing about zetti is that it seems anything goes... it's just fun and funky!