ATC's adding texture- Swapbot

I was doing an Artist trading card for a trade for Swapbot and wanted to add some texture to the background of my zentangle design.  I had seen this technique on youtube and thought I would try it.

This is my result:

My photos were not that great, but I think you can get the idea.  I love using textured backgrounds with my artwork.  I liked the way this turned out but next time I will try using more alcohol.  I used a spray bottle because of the small size of this project.  I did the first layer in pink and the second layer in purple, because those were favorite colors of my swap partner.  As you can see I added a couple of my stickers and of course I can't leave the envelope alone.  I don't send out letters or packages without them being decorated anymore.

I also did a mail art swap.  I added a letter, two stickers from my photos and blank note cards again using my photos.  I send according to my swap partners profiles.  This person likes purple, zentangle and realistic frogs.  With these swaps; I send to one person and someone else sends to me.  This is kinda cool as I get to know more artists this way.  I am also learning to use my photos in different ways.  I'm now making stickers, envelopes, and note cards.  I've got a current swap making postcards, so I'll figure out how best to do those.  I have been using my photos for more than printing up and hanging on my walls.  I've discovered more ways to enjoy my photos and to share them with others. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have been up to and it helps get your creative juices flowing.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

PS the give away of my stickers is still in progress scroll down to Giveaway #3 for details and good luck.

  



Give away #3 Photo Stickers

I have so enjoyed sharing my art that I have decided to do another giveaway,  This time it will be two sheets of stickers with my photos.  Since so many of my followers are artists I thought this would be creative way to share my work.  Mixed media artists can use them in their art, or they can be used on envelopes for mail art, glued to a magnet or any way the winner wishes to creatively use them.

 The photos are 12 to a page which makes them about wallet size. The photo sheet above is one of them and the other one will be a sheet of photos with the choice of theme chosen by the winner. Some ideas might be fall colors, clouds, Christmas, landscapes or whatever strikes the winners fancy.  I have lots of photos with lots  of different themes so hopefully I can create a set of stickers from their theme.  I will post a photo of that sheet when the winner chooses their theme

Rules:

Winner will be chosen on Oct 15

The winner will be chosen using a numbers generator.

Each of the following will count as an entry

1- Leave a comment on any of my posts- please leave a comment on the post itself, you will be automatically entered for each comment

2- Sign up to follow my blog- if you already follow my blog leave a comment on this post

3- List me on your blog as a blog that you follow, then leave a comment telling me so- if you already have me on your blog list just leave a comment on this post

Good luck

and

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Art swap revisited

This is the mail art that I received today.  What a fun collage.  What a delightful surprise that it came from Brazil.  Of all the foreign countries I could gotten Brazil was perfect.  My son sent two years on a mission in Brazil and speaks, reads, and writes in fluent Portuguese so no translation problems.

I also got lots of loot and since I have been thinking of doing some mixed media art, these will be a great start.

These are a few of my favorites.  I love the little skelanimals, so halloweeny.  I delight in haloween decorations, books, and crafts.  To show my eclectic side I also love bookmarks and collect them; I also love Shakespeare and getting a bookmark of Shakespeare and in Portuguese is just to cool.

This is what I sent out this morning on the swap 'Send a letter, get a letter' off of Swapbot.  The sticker on the envelope and the sticker sheet I sent are all made from my photos.  All of the other items came from suggestions on my partner's profile and of course the Halloween theme paper came from my love of Halloween.

This has turned out to be lots of fun for me and I hope you

ENJOY

♥♥♥Johnina♥♥♥

PS: there was no entries and therefore no winner of my second giveaway so i am going back to the rules of the first giveaway (I had 60 something entries), but would like some ideas of what to give away.  More mail art, stickers of my photos, photos of mine with magnetic backing, a print of one of my photos (suggestions please) or any other craft that I could produce.  Any ideas would be appreciated.



Art swaps

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to color.  She loved to turn the black and white paper bright with color.  She colored carefully; making sure that all her strokes were straight up and down and always kept within the lines.  However she never showed her pictures to anyone; as there was always some kind of mistake.  Sometimes the crayon would slip a little and venture outside the lines or maybe the strokes were not quite straight up and down or a little space left uncovered.  So in spite of her love of the bright colors; she kept the books to herself never showing them to anyone.  It wasn't as if it would have done any good the books wouldn't have been shown off any way.  There were no pictures on the refrigerator at her house.  She continued to learn on her own; always in the privacy of her room.  She learned to fill in with circles so the stroke marks wouldn't show up as much.  Up and down strokes just didn't look right.  She then discovered how to curve her strokes to follow the lines of the drawing.  Experimenting with combining markers and crayons came next and she became more and more pleased with her finished pictures.  However she still kept them to herself, hiding them.  Hiding them because of the little gremlins who were developing inside her; telling her of her mistakes and telling her that her improvements were really failings because she should have known better.  Then she learned how to paint and a whole new adventure started for her; it was short lived but a step in the right direction.  One day she showed the paintings to her teacher who put them on the bulletin board and soon she had her own spot to display her paintings.  With a new teacher and a new year this stopped and she went back to keeping her art work to herself.  Once again hiding what she was learning.  This went on for years, while her little gremlins inside kept pointing out her mistakes and asking why try, if there was always mistakes and never acknowledging the progress being made.  Soon she was doing less and less art.  But the artist inside her kept trying to sneak out past the gremlins, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not.  As she got better and better she started to be noticed for her art.  Sometimes the artist inside would make it past the gremlins and she would share and be accepted.  After years and years of this now as a grandmother she is learning to love to share her art even in it's imperfection.  She is still learning not to listen to those little gremlins.  Instead she is learning to listen to the pleasure it brings to her to share, the compliments and pleasure she sees as others enjoy her work and the small voice that tells her she is making progress.

In case you couldn't tell that little girl was me and sharing my art now brings me great joy both on the Internet and in person.  I recently found an art swap site (http://www.swap-bot.com/) that I have joined.  It is free and they have various avenues in which to share your artwork.  Some are for newbies and some are for more experienced individuals for which you must qualify just by doing a good job of keeping your commitments.  I picked a mail art swap and the above is the envelope that I did.  They also asked to include something in the envelope, since I am best known for my photography I sent a photo with a letter.

I am looking forward to receiving mail art from the person assigned to me.  I plan on doing more swaps and maybe you would like to join me and know the pleasure of sharing in a new way.

Enjoy

♥♥♥Johnina♥♥♥

Give away #1 revisited

This is going to be short and sweet.  I gave myself my IVIG last night which always leaves me achy and then I had physical therapy first thing this morning.  Big mistake.  I hurt. With the help of my husband;  I did however get my act together enough to get the first giveaway gathered together and mailed. 

I hardly ever delete my photos no matter how bad they are.  The background for the CD and cover is a very badly out of focus photo of a Nasturtium.  I think it made a great background; much better than a solid color.   Going to the post office after my afternoon Doctor appointment (long day) turned out to be a pleasant experience.  The winner lives in Thailand so I had to deal with international mail; which I haven't done since my son served a 2 year mission in Brazil several years ago.  The postal worker was very helpful and because it was international mail it took longer to mail it.  While I was filling out the paperwork this delightful postal worker and I had an interesting conversation on mail art and the photo I had placed on the envelope.  Even with as tired and in pain as I was, this discussion lifted my spirits and made me glad that I have decided to share my art with others.  Not so long ago I would not have felt that my art work was worth sharing much less believed  it would  bring pleasure to other people's lives.  Even at 55 I am learning and growing not just in my artist endeavors but also personally.  Once again serendipity brings joy into my life.

Enjoy

♥☺♥Johnina♥☺♥

Zentangle Everywhere

This another book I got for my birthday.  Didn't have to ask for it; it was on my Amazon wish list.  Yoga for your Brain is a fun little book with lots of zentangle designs in it.  I do my doodling and zentangle on envelopes instead of my sketchbook, so I can share them.  After I went through this book this is the first envelope I did.                   It was fun to do. Although it was not perfect it was still bright and cheerful to send.  I send out quite a few cards with my photos in them. While the person who received the cards may have enjoyed the photos I decided that doing art on the outside let more people enjoy the cards I sent out. Years ago I would do some art on my envelopes that I sent to the kids and grandkids, but had stopped as I put a lot of effort into the finished picture on the envelope so that I was not sending out as much mail. Now using envelopes instead of my sketchbook; I may not send out my most perfect more elaborate artwork but it is always bright and cheerful and fun for me to do.

This book also pointed out all the zentangle designs all around me.  It gave me a new perspective on some of the photos I was taking and using them in another art form.  Suddenly the close-ups of architectural details that I had been taking were giving me ideas to use in this new (to me) art form.  I think this really came home to me when I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 with the grandchildren.  This movie start out in Zentangle style,  but all through it is ideas in the background for zentangle designs

Look at the windows, columns, floors and ceilings and all kinds of other archetecual details for amazing designs.

I've also found some pretty amazing blogs and websites with zentagle and doodle designs in them.

http://lifeimitatesdoodles.blogspot.com/

Draw, Doodle and Decorate

The Daily Doodle

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/

Terri's Tangles

ENJOY

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

PS to participate in my give away please click here

Small and simple things

'....But behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass....'

Alma 37:6

I've  had reasons to send small packages via snail mail so I have been doing mail art.  It is excellant therapy for my hands (my hand orthopedic doc says it's the best therapy) as it has enough repetitive motion to build up muscles but enough changes in motions not to aggrevate my carpal tunnel.

I used to do these in my sketch book, but now I do them on envelopes so that not only can I enjoy them ( I scan them before I send them), but everyone who it passes by can enjoy them also. 

   I love the reaction everytime I take one to the post office, it never fails to put a smile on their face.  Hopefully it will put a smile on everyones face as it makes it's way to it's destination and make their day just a little brighter.  You never know who's life you will touch by even the small things that you do.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺