Inspiring mail art friends

Of course, mail art wouldn’t work without having people who you could send it to. Nadine Wendell-Mojica is one of my best mail art friends, she even kept on sending me the most wonderful and entertaining ink sketches when I wasn’t getting around to do any postal art myself. It is thanks to her that I never forget to come back to drawing, painting and crafting for my dear mail art friends all around the world after months of inactivity.
Here is a collage of all the great encouragement I’ve received from her so far:
 Thank you, Nadine. I hope I can get something in the mail for you soon.
SARAH.

Catch up

#1) Just a quick intro to this post:
This is a potpourri of all the mail art and postcrossing cards that I’ve sent and received but haven’t shared with you yet. I don’t feel like I can go on with new projects, new mail art and new postcrossing endeavours while there are still things sitting around my desk that I haven’t at least mentioned to you. It would somehow go against what I set out to do with this blog: Share.

***

So now,#2) I share with you card 4 – 6 from the “Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap 2013“:

Card #4 from Michelle Ledesma

*

Card #5 from Valeria zenmindphotography.blogspot.com

*

and card #6 from the super-awesome Kat herself of course 🙂

The swap was a lot of fun this year too. Thanks everyone for your beautiful and inspiring cards!

***

#3) I share with you four postcrossing cards:

DE-1990441 sent to Vicky in RUSSIA

*

DE-2120755 sent to Goossina in THE NETHERLANDS

*

DE-1990429 sent to Stephan in New York, USA

Stephan’s reply to my postcrossing card

***

#4) I share with you wonderful mail art, big and small 🙂

Zodiac mailart from Julie aka Pucelilina (Belgium)

*

Two cards from Pascal Coupechoux (France)

*

Some really cool mail art from Susan McAllister (USA). She’s sent me this card as a surprise after I’d left a comment on one of her other works.
Thank you, Susan.

*

Mail art from E (France) for my participation in his “Show me your Soul” – Mail Art Project. (To see my contribution click here)

*

“Blue Moon” from BrisChris (Australia)

*

From Lestaret & Co. (England, UK). The tiniest piece of mail art I’ve received so far. The envelope is just a little bigger than a credit card.

***

#5) I will keep on sharing and spreading my love for art, especially postal art. And now that I’ve caught up, I can devot myself to new projects like this one:

My big Star Trek Into Darkness painting 😉
This is the first stage of it (I had to up the contrast in photoshop so you could see the pencil sketch on the canvas; in reality the lines are not as stark as they appear to be in this photo):

This is the refrence I’m using:

Hope to see you around,
SARAH.

Mailbox joy three times over

The first postcards from the “Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap” arrived. And I got the first three all at once! So, my mailbox was more than happy with the mailman today.
Well, here are the treasures:

#1 from Kelly Ishmael – mindingmynest.com
What a beautiful photograph! I also looked at the others on her site “Minding My Nest”, she takes such gorgeous photographs of flowers. Thank you so much for liberating your art, Kelly!

#2 from Snap – twistylane.blogspot.com
“be happy” and I SO am (!) because I’m the lucky recipient of this great postcard 😉 Thanks, Snap, for sharing it in this years swap!

#3 from Mandy Kopelke – mandykopelke.com
The colors! I can’t stop marvelling at these bright and vivid colors. Thank you Mandy for liberating it!
“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.”
– Paul Gaugiun

Your eyes are huge!

No, my eyes aren’t really huge but what I choose as image for my “Liberate Your Art” postcards this year has something to do with huge eyed cartoon figures. To be exact: Manga characters. Yes, I’ve been – or still am (?) – back to “that phase“. As I now have a roommate who is big into all things Japanese and a so-called “cosplayer“, I guess it was just a matter of time until the Manga-fever got me again. Here a small study of “Manga Fever” based on many subejcts. Not. Just one: Me.

WARNING!: Manga Fever is not a real disease. Just in case 🙂

Well, and this is my little “Chibi Pilot” postcard that I’m liberating in Kat’s postcard swap this year:

I hope the recipients will enjoy it 🙂

For a fresh (re)start

It’s been a looooo…ng time – and I can’t promise that it won’t happen again. For a while I was convinced I wouldn’t even make it back at all but then the “Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap 2013” rolled around. That changed my mind and now I hope it will help me get back into the flow of postcrossing, mail-arti-ing and – of course – blogging 🙂

Sonow, I’m right in the middle of this years “Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap” (organized by the wonderful Kat Sloma from Kat Eye Studio). Swap day was the 6th of April and I’m waiting to find the first cards in my mailbox. Uhh…, I’m so excited!

And then today, I gathered all the Mail Art and Postcrossing cards I hadn’t posted yet and added them to the galleries. It’s not that much but you are welcome to take a look. There are only a few images missing that I haven’t been able to unearth yet. Maybe I’ll find them as I go along reorganizing all my blogging files (or what’s left of them after the big “laptop-hit-the-floor-and-smashed-it’s-poor-little-brains-day“).

Tomorrow (I hope) I’ll show you the art I liberated in the swap this year.

P.S. My laptop got a brand new brain aka hard-drive and is up and running again.  My roommate is now lovingly calling it “Zombie” because it was raised from the dead. I guess the condemned really do live longer after all.

Backing up one’s files…

It’s definitely important to back up one’s files regularly. A broken hard drive and no back up – that has happened to me more than once in the past. You might think I should’ve learned from my own mistakes – well, I didn’t and now it has happened to me again: My poor Dell notebook had a fatal encounter with the hard floor on tuesday. It didn’t only damage the hard drive, it also affected so many other components that I will probably not be able to get it to work again… the chances are very, very slim.

Besides having to buy a new computer, I might also not get my files back either. It’s especially tragic for my little blog here since amongst many personal files my notebook’s hard drive also contained all my blog-files: Photographs and scans of the mail I’d sent and received, graphics I’d created, post drafts and completely finished posts (including the ones for this week I didn’t get to publish 😦 ). A classmate’s boyfriend is trying to rescue them though and I really hope he’ll be successful. Please keep your fingers crossed, everyone!

Slowly coming to terms with the loss of my beloved red Dell, I went into town and bought a new computer (a desktop not a notebook; I don’t trust myself with portable computers anymore. I only seem to break them). I also forced myself to finally make the change from a PC to a Mac, so I’m the proud (?) owner of an iMac now. We work with Mac at work and in school, so it makes sense to switch to Mac at home as well. Even though I’ll probably add a Windows partition to it too. Growing up with Windows it’s kind of hard to let go of it completely. Old habits die hard or so they say…

I guess this is probably all the computer misery you can handle right now. I’m longing to be able to return to a normal blogging schedule. I’ll try my best and stay optimistic :), just stop by again in a few days if you’d like to stay updated on my situation.

So, the moral of the story is: Back up your files, people – I mean it!

An extremely busy but mind-bogglingly awesome week!

“Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. N0 matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are all the same.”

~ John Denver

Okay, I did it again, I neglected my poor blog and especially you my dear reader but I simply couldn’t resist the call of the music…
…well, and I wasn’t home for the past week:

We had a week long workshop at work that took up most of my time during the day and in the evenings – oh, my gosh, I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much fun – in the evenings some of my colleagues and me came together to make some music. We played “Radio” by the Corrs, “Like the way I do” by Melissa Etheridge, “Ain’t no sunshine” by Bill Withers, “Have you ever seen the rain” by CCR and a few others. I’m still extremely flashed and we all agreed that it would be mighty awesome to meet up more often in the future for more jamming sessions. It will be quite difficult to organize it all but I really hope we can make it happen.

Tonight I’m gonna start working on the new James Bond song “Skyfall”. It would be great to play that with everyone together; it’s such a beautiful song. I bought the sheet music for vocals/piano/chords online and now I can’t wait to get my fingers on the piano keys…

… so, to wrap up today’s post and introduce you to that wonderful musical gem sung by the incredible Adele (in case you haven’t yet heard it 😉 ):

SENT CARD #27: Look me in the eye…

Eyes are fascinating. Especially cat-eyes mesmerize me time and time again. I’m so used to the dephts of a dog’s or horse’s eyes, they’re so open and telling. A cat’s eyes seem almost shallow in comparison – mysterious. It took me a little while to be able to read my cat as easily as my dog. I’d say felines are definitely of the rather sneaky kind – and you can already tell by looking them in the eye!

(#27) DE-1262982 to Stas (RUSSIA)

-+-+-+-+-

Don’t forget the GIVE-AWAY!!!
Don`t miss your chance to win one of my “fabulous fanged postcards”. Entries will be open ’til Wednesday (Oct. 10th 2012)!
So, what are you waiting for?! Head on over and make sure you’re in it to win it! Good Luck!

Le Mysterieux Carnival: Beware of the fangs…

Come in! come in!

I don’t bite – at least I will try not to ; )

…even though:

“The blood is the life… and it shall be mine.”  ~ Dracula by Bram Stoker

I hope you all remembered to bring your silver ticket!

Now, what I offer you is the chance to win one of these fabolous fanged postcards you see below:

And if that weren’t enough, one of my silver tickets will be included as well!

How you enter:

(A) If you don’t mind your e-mail address publicly displayed you can simply leave a comment (including your e-mail address!!!) below. Then you’re definitely in it to win it : )

or

(B) If you prefer a little more discretion when it comes to your e-mail address, you can enter by using this form:

Email(required)

Yes, I want to win a fabolous fanged postcard and silver ticket!(required)

Submit

Δ

Just put your e-mail into the top field, check the box and you’re also in it to win it : )

General Info:
– The prizes: 3 x 1(ONE) postcard and 1(ONE) silver ticket shipped to you by snail mail. –> So, there will be three winners!
– Entries will be accepted until 11.59 pm CET(GMT+1) on Wednesday the 10th of October 2012.
– I will ship worldwide!
– The winners will be chosen by using “random.org”.
(-  and yes, it’s allowed to double your chances by leaving a comment and using the form.)

I wish you “Good Luck!” and have fun visiting all these beautifully spooky carnival boths across the blogosphere : )

Here is your link to the link-list of all booths.

SENT CARD #14: The bookish postcrosser (a book recommendation)

(#14) DE-1079605 to Kylie (USA)
(The photo on the card shows the summer flora in our backyard that normal people call weedy and that I call pretty; and picture-worthy if nothing else ^^ )

Amidst all postcrossers there are quite a few booklovers, like me and like Kylie from San Francisco, the recipient of my fourteenth postcrossing card. Besides telling her what I did during the day (spending a great time at the barn with the horses), what made me smile that day (the fact that my seventh postcrossing card had arrived 🙂 ) and what I dream to do one day (writing a book), I also included a book recommendation.

My recommendation for her:

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans

The story in a sentence:
After losing everything Alan Christoffersen holds dear and everything he’s ever lived for, he sets out to cross the entire country, from [Seattle in Washington] to Key West, Florida, on foot and essentially find his way back into life.

And why I like this book so much:
Of course it’s a very traumatizing situation for a person to lose everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – it’s also incredibly fascinating to see how it also liberates them to do things they otherwise wouldn’t have been able, wouldn’t have dared or even wanted to do: Like crossing the entire country on foot. And most important of all: “The Walk” let’s the reader hope by showing that there is a road – literally! – that can lead you out of the deepest depths and most depressing situations in life, all you have to do is take the first step and walk.

 

Today I received my parcel from amazon containing the second installement in the series: “Miles To Go”. I’m really looking forward to reading it and will let you know if it’s any good 😛 like the first.

If you’ve also read “The Walk” and maybe “Miles To Go” too, I’d love to hear what you think about it. Feel free to leave me a comment below 🙂

It’s October my friends…

…and you all know what that means ;D

I’m giving you a hint:

“Hi, my name is Jack! Jack O Lantern to be precise :)”

Print me happy

A passion I rediscovered a while back is print making, especially lino-cuts. So it was a pleasant surprise to receive this woodcut print from Michalis Kotsaris:

It only seems to be a piece of a larger print. I wonder what the whole image looks like…
Oh, and just take a quick look at the envelope he sent his print in. Aren’t the stamps wonderful!?

Of course I replied by sending him a print myself. Since Michalis is Greek I took the idiom “bringing owls to Athens” as prompt and started working on an owl-print.
It was a great opportunity for me to give the “Speedball Speedy Carve” I’d bought a try. I’d heard so much good about it from other artists. The blocks are made out of a rather soft rubber which makes it easy to carve your images into it and it doesn’t wear down your tools as fast as linoleum or wood. But I noticed that it’s also easy to become carving-happy when working with it; it’s just so easy. Well, the rubber definitely has one advantage over the linoleum: You can keep the finished rubber-stamp and reuse it over and over again while lino kind of changes its shape once you’ve printed and cleaned it.

Now, this is the final piece of mail art I sent to Michalis. Besides the idiom I also added this nursery rhyme to it:

“A wise old owl lived in an oak

The more he saw the less he spoke

The less he spoke the more he heard.

Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?”

I made it a trifold, I hope you can see how I folded it. The black kind of swallows the folding lines and edges.

Carving my rubber stamp was a lot of fun and I’ll probably stick with the “Speedy Carve” for smaller stamps. Have you ever used the Speedball rubber blocks? What do you think of it?

RECEIVED CARD #24: I love horses :)

I received another cute horse postcard via Postcrossing 🙂 This one’s from Elżbieta (Elizabeth). It traveled 454 miles (731 km) from Poland to Germany.

(#24) PL-332049 from Elzbieta (POLAND)

SENT CARD #34: Wild Words: DACHSHUND (Wild Words Part 5)

I lost a dog in the mail. Of course not a real one but my “Wild Words: DACHSHUND” didn’t make it to its recipient Marieke in the Netherlands. I send it to her as postcrossing-card but while in transit the image side of the card got seperated from the backing with the address. Marieke only found the back side in her mailbox but not the front 😦

The poor dog that didn’t make it to its new home 😦

This is all Marieke found in her mailbox.

I’m so glad now that I always scan and photograph my outgoing mail because that way I was able to at least upload an image of it for her. I’m also having this postcard featuring the Dachshund-image printed at moo.com. I will be sending to her once I get it.

Art print of the “Wild Words: DACHSHUND” I’m having made at moo.com right now together with a few other pictures.

Well, in the future I’ll probably not send out any more selfmade postcards without an envelope – at least not the ones that consist of more than one piece of cardboard…

“THE green DRESS” … or: not so trashy trashpo

Do we call this art or is it simply trash? In case of trahspo it’s both! I’m not much of a trashpo-artist but sometimes even I like to save something from the garbage can to incorporate it into my art. In this piece of mail art I made my fair lady wear a candy wrapper dress ; )

The recipient of “THE green DRESS” is Viviana from Argentina. I hope she doesn’t mind me sending her trash ^^