Postcard swap

Well not only have I stuck my head up above ground, and rejoined the two arty crafty forums I enjoy, I have also taken another step and joined in the Post Card swap on UK Stampers

It really is such a friendly forum, and a number of members are designers for well known magazines in the UK and USA - as well as lots of suppliers.

Everyone is generous with their knowledge and help and support, and there is so much inspiration on the forum and it caters for all craft related hobbies - as well as stamping, collage, altered art, polymer clay, beadmaking, metal work - so many talented people on there and so many blogs too.

Soooooooooooo  after a long absence, I decided to jump in feet first and join in the monthly Postcard swap
What is even better - the postage is just the price of a postcard - so not expensive at all!  This month didn't have a theme, which suited me to start off with.

Joanne kindly offered some magazines on the forum, so I took her up on her offer and used one of the free stamps that were still attached to each of the magazines.

This first attempt at a postcard was inspired by the snow covered fields around the village where I live and the 'Mad March Hares' who do not care about the weather.

 

This looks rather pale on here but it is more colourful in real life.

I painted and stamped it straight onto the postcard which was a bit of a risk (understatement) and was quite pleased with my first attempt.  But in hindsight, I think that it would look better if the hares and the trees had been stamped in brown.  (The black marks in the sky are off the scanner screen and do not appear on the card)  I got lots of nice comments when I posted it on the forum, and some really good tips and advice on a better way to attempt the post card.  i.e. create your art work on a postcard size piece of card or watercolour paper if you are painting some of it - then glue it to the postcard - Eureka why didn't I think of that - so less risky!

So taking all the 'tips' on board I had another go today - it was far too cold and wet to go out so it filled a few hours for me - and avoided the dusting and ironing nicely!

Again this one is better in real life than the one dimensional and harsh scan.

The background is painted on thick watercolour textured paper, in soft hues of pale blue and lavender, so not these harsh colours at all.  The big butterflies were stamped onto painted smooth watercolour paper, cut out and collaged onto the card with finer details drawn on in pen.
The 'half a heart' is collaged on too, and it's not white - it's smooth water colour paper painted in the same pastel colours as the background but watered down.

I've been advised that I need to find a way to seal these as they need to be sent 'naked' as postcards, which I hadn't realised as I was going to pop each one in it's own envelope, but write on the actual postcard and attach a vintage stamp!  I painted them with watercolours so I can quite understand that if they get wet they will be ruined.

I'm on a learnng curve - so it's good to find out these things