thankful for FB friends

i do not remember why i was so resistant to join FaceBook, but, i have to say....i have met even more wonderfully creative people! i cannot believe it took me so long to get with the program...i was so missing out!

in the past week i have received 2 very wonderful packages of mailart and i am feeling so very thankful to have met these wonderful women! the package below even came all the way across the sea!

my studio space will be adding both of these to my space....brings me happiness and smiles! and again....feeling just so very thankful! happy tuesday!

happy mother's day

#mothersdaywishes #mailart #filefolder

some mailart.....

i had a couple of people that i needed to send notes to and decided plain-jane notes just would not do. i went to the studio last night to whip up a couple somethings to send.....

 i actually started the mailart on a purple cardstock and used my gelli plate to do some printing. on the bottom mailart, i used one of my own handmade stamps for the circles.

documented life- challenge #3

i have been playing along with the documented life project and the third challenge was to create a page in our moleskin with papers that had come in the mail....envelopes, stamps, etc....

i loved the idea of making an pocket out of an envelope. i liked this one with the words- "important- do not discard"- well absolutely not! i cut the envelope down to fit into my moleskin and sewed the edges up. i loved the black and white fabric i had used on my Christmas fabric houses and had saved all the scraps; which found a home on my pocket. the circle is from another envelope that i liked the security pattern and punched into a circle and another security envelope paper along the bottom edge. add a little stamping and some color....poof! i liked the window in the pocket and had to make sure it showed my message- "an important message about...." ART.

i had found the adventure note in a vintage magazine and had been patiently waiting for the right project to add it to. yesterday, it found its' home and it was perfect!

here is my pocket in my moleskin journal with the rest of the page i had put together. i had used my gelli plate to print the top pink edging and a couple more mail paper with the US postal service brown edge and the upper white postage paper collected this past week. i like how the pocket does stick out from my book just a bit, like a tab. easy to find to add extra items to my pocket for safe keeping.

have you been playing along with the documented life? let me know so i can stop by and visit you!

christmas gift bags and a winner

i will actually start with my winner for the fabric house.....and that was Gill! Congratulations!! i used randompicker to determine a random winner with this link.when you have a chance- send me a email message (found under "my complete profile") with your address information and i will drop your house into the mail for you! thank you all who participated! i had painted on a cupboard door from a salvage store to answer the question.



now....onto christmas bags.! Roben-Marie had shown how to make these cute mailart bags and i decided to give mine a christmas twist. i actually sewed my pages onto to my bag first and then i used my gelli plate to print onto the bags.

my gelli plate is a little "seasoned" but the arrow shows the reddish-pink that i used on the bags. so here are all my bags sitting all in a row- waiting for their tags.

i will be finishing up the tags today for the bags. i made the full size bags and then, i decide to make smaller ones to be used for gift cards and such. but, here is a finished bag.

honesty and mailart

my honesty comes with a very pleasant surprise of a sale in my etsy store.....here is my scoop...i am only techy enough to be dangerous and especially when i first started my store, the resizing of pics, and all the steps required to get something posting was almost more than i wanted to do. so, my store sat empty for long periods of time. i did not give it the time and patience that it deserved. i did not do my part and work harder to do the research and learning to get my store up and going.

but, this year one of my goals for my artsy self was to work harder on my etsy store. so, i gave it a bit of a facelift and freshened the pics and updated the wording; and i pledged to myself that i would post current work to my store and if i had a sale- perfect....and, if not, at least i was giving myself a fair chance.

i have been making "softie" ornaments that i of course, think are so darn cute, and decided to post those in my etsy store for sale. on monday when i got home from work and checked my email....i had a SALE!! from my etsy store!! i have sold paintings in the galleries, done commission and private requests; but, nothing from etsy.

a little squeak came out with pure joy and then, i did the happy weird momma dance in the living room! this continued throughout the evening and every half hour or so, i would tell anyone close to me at home that i had an etsy sale. my family was tired of me by the end of the night....

but, with this sale, i wanted to make sure that the package was shipped appropriately and in some proper mailart fashion. so i went straight to the studio to whip up a package.

 i started with a file folder that i had gelli printed and worked on building my layers from there. this is one of Roben-Marie's famous mailart preferences for paper and i would agree. love printing with my gelli plate on file folders. the other thing i used was Roben-Marie's Art Pops for my address label. her Art Pops line of cards has been a main staple of supplies in my recent mixed media pieces- the cards have been easy to slip into use.

i loved how this piece of mailart turned out, but, with all my packing to ensure that my ornament's vintage dangles would not break- my package would not safely hold together during shipping. so, next best thing, i placed the mailart and ornaments into a boring plain shipping folder that will arrive safety- but, when she opens it....poof- mailart and ornaments happiness will come out!

anyway- if my buyer stops today....thank you so very much for your purchase! you made my night and week!

mailart- thank you

a short time ago i did a give away and sent postcards and envelopes to blog friends that left me a message. when i sent their postcards, i included an extra postcard and envelope so they could mail-it-forward and send one on to a friend.

i received a postcard thank you back and was so excited- thank you Connie! i loved her stamp that she used on the postcard. i am a recovering stampaholic and am not sure that i have seen this stamp before. i love getting mailart!

gelli plate and mini mailart

last week i finally could not take it any more, and had to order a gelli plate. it arrived safe and sound at my home, and i immediately ripped it open with gusto! it barely survived!

down to my studio i went,....eager to see just what this plate was capable of. i picked some of my favorite colors and went to work.....i was not prepared for the amount of paper that i would need to have close at hand because i didn't want to waste any paint- i could roll off the brayer, and then, there was the stencil that i was using to put texture and shape onto my gelli plate- that had paint on it and who wants to waste that- this girl did not! so i quickly grabbed book paper to "wipe" off my stencil making this cool paper below that can now be used for something else.

 then, there was actually still the paint and pattern on my actual gelli plate.....don't forget about that. i used RobenMarie's idea of a file folder and printed my plate onto my folder. then, for some interest- added a little more paint with another stencil, some stamps (you can find the stamps here), washi tape, and a few paper circles. oh, and i added that small strip of a security envelope along the right edge. and poof! mailart! i did cut this one down to a smaller size so i could get 2 out of one file folder. then stitched it up to mail.

i got mailart!!!

yes-yesterday was a monday and typically i would say- monday's are not my favorite day of the week. except for yesterday because, when i got home i saw that our mailbox seemed to be a little fuller.

and so unsuspecting i checked the mailbox and quickly realized that this stuffed mailbox was holding some very special mail with my name on it! i waited until i was in the house before doing my "happy dance!" all the way to find some scissors to carefully open my mailart.

check out my mailart from Roben-Marie! i am such a sucker for circles- there was instant love for this mailart!

thank you so very much Roben-Marie! Love, love, love......