LYA Side Swaps

Many of the participants of Kat Sloma's annual Liberate Your Art postcard swap get extra cards made and do side swaps. My plan was to just do 5 extra cards for the side swap but I had a number of requests so I increased the number to 12. I don't know how many of my cards have been received but I have had 9 land in my mailbox.

I thought about displaying them all together but decided that each is so special it needed its own photo. Many of the cards were displayed with my bedding plants, a few were displayed with some of my own art and quilling and one I stuck in an old half barrel that I use as a planter.

This super Chicago clock photo is from Kate Lehman

This vibrant mixed media piece is from Kathy McIntire

A fabulous "Peony Party" by Natasha Papousek

Kelly Warren does great pet Shelter Photography

This fabulous mixed media piece is by Stephanie Whiting

A charming vase of flowers from my blogging friend Sheila Delgado

The message LOVE says it all in this lovely photo from Lisa Comperry

"Old Barn" a super photo from Sweet Leaf Productions and Michele Matucheski

This lovely angel is from Janice Darby and I paired it with one of my quilled angel ornaments

My own cards for the LYA swap are cut down from the art cards I make to sell in my home gallery and a few local venues. Because my cards were home made and designed to go in envelopes I have wondered if they manage to survived the journey through various post offices. I have only heard from a few people that my cards have arrived so I am still guessing. Turning cards into post cards has one advantage - I can easily send out a variety of different pictures. Here are some of the cards I sent for the side swap.

Photos of my original watercolour paintings

I am still expecting few more cards and I look forward to seeing what other wonders I will gain for my collection of post cards. The LYA postcard swap is a great way to connect with new artists and I encourage my readers to try it out next year.

Thanks for stopping by - please let me know what you are up to!

Liberate Your Art Finale

 What a wonderful variety of art there is in the world! And, through the LYA Postcard Swap I get to see pieces from artists all over the world.

Each participant in the swap sends out 5 postcards and 6 return stamps so that when the final mail comes in we have all received 6 cards.  Many of us share photos of the cards on the Group FB page and it is so interesting to see how everyone showcases the cards.

My first card was from Sherry Harmes in Alaska. While some artists will add an interesting  quote , this year Sherry  added two: "Sometime you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" - Dr. Suess; and "There are always flowers for those who want to see them" - Henry Matisse. Because of the flowers I displayed Sherry's card with the flowers, dragonflies and butterflies that I made with wire, glue and nail polish.

Next was this lovely view of the night sky which is part of a painting by Beverly Leeck from Edmonton Alberta, Canada. I thought the card went well with my pen & ink fridge magnet.

The message on this lovely pastel painting is "you will find it" - a very hopeful phrase and one that resonates with me. This is from Kate McGee of Corvallis, Oregon and I displayed it with my arrangement of dried grasses.

This super painting of the red barn surrounded by fields seemed to fit in well with one of my quilled paper roosters. I don't know anything about the medium used or about the artist as the only information was an email address for Lorraine Rush and the message "You are Loved".

My fifth card is a mixed media piece called "Susie" and the message on the back is "May we all speak our minds". Again, I know nothing about the artist - not even a name. The email address on the card was hard to read and the note I sent came back as undeliverable - sigh!

The six card is a wonderful photo manipulation by Kat and her message is "Creativity take courage" by Henri Matisse

These 6 paintings are on the cards I sent out this year, They are all watercolour and are based on scenes around where I live. So far I have only heard from two of the people who received my cards and I am somewhat disappointed. Did my cards get lost in the mail? Were they damaged so badly people were unable to read them?  Who knows?

This is my second year of participating in the LYA Postcard Swap organized by Kat Sloma. Although I have enjoyed seeing all the different art, my disappointment is making me hesitate about participating again next year - we will see.

I hope you will take the time to pop over to Kat's Blog where, over the next few days, you will find links to many of the blogs written by the artists involved in the LYA swap. You will also find a video of around 70 of the cards that were sent out and all of the stats about the participants.

On Edge!

No, that is not a statement of my mental state. It is a comment about my latest quilling projects.

Last week my good friend Carrie gave me a bunch of quilling supplies that she is no longer able to use due to arthritis and other hand problems. As well as regular paper strips there were a whole bunch of 1/4" and 1/8" On Edge strips and a fringing tool.

A few months ago I ordered some On Edge strips from Little Circles but I haven't had time to work with them until recently. Getting more strips from Carrie made me itching to give them a try.

My first project was a Thank You card for my friend. I watched a few Youtube videos to get some ideas on how to use the strips. For the letter the glue was applied freehand and then the On Edge paper was added. The rest of the work was done adding the glue to the formed paper. The little flowers were made with the fringing tool and the big one with a crimping tool.

You know me - once I start something I just keep on going - lol.

I plan on doing a bunch of decorated letters  and I figure that by the time I am through the alphabet I should be pretty good at both the decorating and the letters. I don't know if these will sell but I plan to mount them 'shadow box' style with matting. This one with the matting will fit a 7 x 9 frame.

One last thing - a local artist friend is having a give-away on her blog. Win Dinn does some really cool stuff with mixed media and it is worth having a look, even if that media is not your style. -Win Dinn Art

Thanks so much for stopping by and I would love to see your thoughts on today's post.