Sunday Postcard Art - Graffiti Style

This card is 4X6 and is all hand drawn using sharpies and hi-lighted with the ever elusive sharpie white permanent marking stick with an extra bold tip. If anyone knows if they have a fine tip or ultra fine tip white sharpie, please let me know where I might find one. 

This week's theme for Sunday Postcard Art is Street Art! I was a little stumped creatively at first, but I started doodling and the next thing I know I had a bright colorful card that reminded very much of graffiti. I don't live in a big city, but little bits of graffiti have popped up around my own home town, colorful cartoony characters and puffy words that the city is slowly painting over.  And occasionally when I get stopped at the RR tracks in BC I am able to sit back and admire the graffiti art on passing railway cars and wonder what city the car was in when the artist created such colorful work.

I hope you enjoy my little submission as much as I enjoyed making it. It has really inspired me creatively and I think I am going to spend this afternoon making some ATCs.

Thanks for the artistic jumpstart Sunday Postcard Art!

RUBBER STAMP BOGO 50% off SALE

Here is just a sampling of some of the Hand Carved Rubber Stamps ON SALE NOW at The Star Box on Etsy. Buy One Get One of equal or lesser value 50% off.  If you love cardmaking,  rubber stamping, collage or making altered art, this sale is a must see! Check it out - and Happy Stamping :)

Snail Mail Stamp

5pc Art Doll Stamp Set

Marie Antoinette Art Doll Accessories Stamp Set

Chandelier Stamp

PostCard Stamp Set

Skeleton Keys Stamp Set

Collage-a-thon ATCs and a Postcard

This weekend I have really jumped back into creating ATCs and Postcards. I used to trade regularly on ATCsforall and am really excited to get back into it again. I have joined a few swaps that are due in March, but since my nieces were here with me this weekend I spent some time doing art with them on Monday and this is what I made.

This is a postcard I made for my Aunt Mary. It is a little more sedate than most of my other artwork. I did not want to shock my Aunt Mary with the clown cheeks and crazy embellishments of my usual style, I thought I would ease her into it. Even with all the color and embellishments on this one, I really did restrain myself a little bit. My Aunt Mary taught me how to knit, so I thought it would be fitting to create a card that resembled a group photo of a ladies Knitting Society or Guild. This postcard was created using images from a 'Vintage Victorian Ladies" Collage Sheet I purchased from DKMRamay15 on Etsy. Basically I used every lady on the sheet for this group photo.

I think I should mention right away that these cards were made courtesy of some free ephemera I found here on Flickr. Her username is Autumnsensation and you can also check out her blog

Basically I downloaded the Cabinet Cards Images I liked, opened them up in my PictureIt program and printed a sheet of them at Trading Card Size 2.5 X 3.5 on matte photo paper. Then I cut them out and glued them to lightweight cardboard (cereal boxes I had already cut down to 2.5X3.5 ATC size). This gave them a good weight reminiscent of real cabinet cards, and then I sanded them lightly to give them a more worn look and then I altered them as I would a traditional Cabinet Card. It makes it a little more challenging than just using clipped images and piecing them together for a collage. For the Elephant Rider, I actually used an exacto knife to cut around the face and then gently peeled the layer off the cardboard, so the card stayed intact and I just lifted out the face area leaving the backing in place. then I covered it with decorative papers and continued as I normally would in creating a background. The images shown here were printed in B&W, but I also printed them in color, which gives them a more authentic look.

The Elephant Rider ATC

This is an interactive ATC. The elephant and rider are all one piece and it is attached to the card through a slot and then a piece extends over the top and connects to the tab on the back. I glued a big button to the back for easy gripping and you can slide it from side to side and make the elephant and rider move along the card. I really like it and will definitely be making more in this style for trading.

Portrait of a Woman

This one is just a standard ATC. It was made using a cabinet card image and various collage papers, sharpies, BIC mark it pens, gel pens and some ephemera.

This was the first ATC I made yesterday. I thought her facial expression was rather somber and I had some book pages with text that seemed very fitting. I embellished the card in a whimsical way to give it more of a dreamy effect, like she has withdrawn into a dream rather than face a harsh reality. Maybe it is a little deep. But it was what got me started again. My final card was the Elephant, so you can see, the layout and ideas just got better as I went along.

Please check out the links I have noted here and have fun creating your own ATCs and Postcards!

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge

This week's challenge is all about EYES! This is the perfect challenge for me. I am very well known in the trading circles for my BIG EYE girls, birds, and anything else I can put ONE GREAT BIG EYE ON!

Here is my entry for this week's challenge.

The Queen Bee Society - the EYES have it!

I am really glad to be getting back into my art again. This week my nieces are here visiting, and so they also made postcards for this weeks challenge.

Abigail's Entry - Age 8

Jordan's Entry - Age 10

The girls had so much fun making these that they are working on two more postcards right now. We are going to be mailing ours to family later this week!

This Dog's Life!

My Entry for the Sunday PostCard Art Numbers Theme for May 24 2009

The other day while I was browsing thru a book in my collection called "Pockets, Pullouts, and Hiding Places", I came across a design for a simple flip book I wanted to make. Since My Etsy has been pretty busy this week, I thought I would take today off as a short break from carving stamps and make some art. In preparation for today's dedication to the creation of art, I stayed up until 1am cutting and assembling the peices for my flip book. Early this morning I arose, made a pot of coffee and sat down to go over my ideas. At first I had thought to make a scrapbook style book documenting my dogs' trip here to SC with me. I planned to call it"How I spent my summer vacation", and I would fill it with cute little pics of my dogs Isabella, Loki, and Princess. And Maybe my mother's dogs would make a guest appearance here and there.

Well, the plan has changed a little bit. I started a page showcasing Loki and the theme was derived from a newspaper clipping advertising 'All You Can Eat Pancakes 99 cents". I thought to make a caption that read "My mom's Pancakes Beats I-HOP any day". I liked this theme for Loki since she is an obsessive FOODie and will eat practically anything.......and she is very vocal about it if she doesn't get what she wants.

I pulled out the paints and papers and started on the backgrounds. When I finished painting the basic elements for 5 pages, I printed out the pics I had already chosen for the project. While I was waiting for the pics to print I browsed a few of the sites I frequent and noticed that last week's theme for Sunday PostCard Art was Numbers..........HMMMM, I thought since I already had the 99 cents on there I could go a little further and turn this book page into a Postcard. It was the right height and I would just need to add a border on each end to make it the right length. One thing led to another and I can honestly say I am pleased with the results.

I have decided that I am even going to type up and print my HomeMade Pancake Recipe and glue it to the back. Maybe then I will send this postcard to my daughter along with a dogbone cookie cutter to use as a mold for making her own little doggie some super yummy pancakes for breakfast!

Debi:)