letter writing and mail art

I've gotten into mail art and have shared the idea with friends who are now practicing it and sending it to others. Letters lift spirits, as they say. And, it's even better when it's got some art on it. :)

Since it's National Letter Writing Month (April - almost the end...) and I'm finishing up a set of Elevated Envelopes for a mail art exchange I figure I'll do a post about it. Besides the letters/mail art I'm sending for the Elevated Envelope exchange, I've sent letters/mail art to my daughter in Montana, to a friend and have a few more to make/write before the month ends.

Can't think of what to write? Find some good letter writing topics here on the 365 Letters blog.

If you like stamps like I do, the US Postal Service has a quarterly publication called Beyond the Perf that you might be interested in. It's free and I'm looking forward to getting my first issue soon.

If you are curious about how I made the envelopes, here's a summary - I used Canson's mixed media paper from a sketch book and sprayed on homemade alcohol inks (made with Ranger alcohol inks mixed in a small spray bottle with 91% rubbing alcohol). When I sprayed the inks on the paper, I used a variety of stencils to mask (and then immediately turned the stencil over and pressed the wet ink on the stencil back on to the paper so as not to waste it). I made my own envelope template by taking apart an envelope and then tracing it on manila folder and cutting it out. After I cut out the envelopes and folded them, I used a dip pen and india ink and drew/doodled on some scribbly flowers, then took a white water-based Sharpie paint pen and added highlights to the flowers once they were dry. I had a stamp that said 'Priorite' ("priority" or "important" in French I assume). I love the rolls of kraft paper they have at Home Depot (use them for a base cover on my table when I paint) and took a piece of that and used my vintage typewriter to type the names of the recipients of my mail art. I then tore the addresses out/off and glue-sticked them on the envelope. Then I stuffed them with a mini envelope with vintage/foreign stamps, some watercolor sprayed vintage dictionary paper I made, my business card, a little note about myself, and a few blank address labels I designed and printed. (I don't know if it's customary/mandatory to do so, but I always include a few little items to exchange in my mail art.)

So, now I just wait for next week to come (the deadline for this exchange) and I'll be sharing pictures of the mail art that I receive back! I'm excited!

Doodles Unleashed. Lesson 1

I am doing a free online art class taught by Traci Bautista and sponsored by Strathmore. Making time to make art is something that I want to do more this year. I have Traci's book Collage Unleashed which is great and also have taken an in-person art workshop with her. She is the first mixed media artist that I really started following.

The class is called Doodles Unleashed and here is the finished artwork from the first lesson.

I think you can still sign up for the free online art workshop and there are also a couple more to try if you want to learn something new (and why not?)

Here's to making lots of art and having fun creating it in 2012. Happy New Year!

What kinds of things do you want to do more of this year?

Pencil shavings art

A while back I got a bunch of Prismacolor colored pencils and sharpened them all, resulting in a large pile of very colorful pencil shavings. It was so pretty I took a picture of it (several pictures, actually with the shavings in different configurations). After seeing this art, I wish I had kept some of it in one of the cute little glass jars I have. Guess I can always sharpen more pencils...

This reminds me of the little game that I had when I was little - Wooly Willy where you had a board with a printed face and a magnetic 'pencil' which would pick up small black metal shavings that you arrange on the printed face to make eyebrows, beards, mustaches, etc.

Speaking of Wooly Willy, here are some instructions on how to make your own Wooly Willy table using an Ikea Lack table and Ribba frame (both pretty inexpensive). You could obviously change the image from the bald-headed man to anything else that would be fitting - how about a fashion doll and you use the magnetic shavings to design clothing on her?

See more of the pencil shaving portraits on Design Boom.

Yay! I got my first mail art!

Getting good mail when you go to your mailbox is the best thing! Today was a good mail day for me - I received my first mail art! It came from Pamela in SF, whom I sent mailart to about a week or so ago. She made a cool envelope that was Japanese themed - it had cute sushi tape on it and some washi tape. Inside was a collection of various Chinese red money envelopes, some joss paper, a vintage envelope and a couple of handwritten letters, one of which was written on the cutest stationery. I love it! I can't wait to get more mail art! Thank you, Pamela!

Send mail art to get mail art. Make Every Day a Good Mail Day is where I found out about mail art and found some mail artists to write to. Make sure to take a peek at Pamela's blog - she sends and receives a lot of mail art and you'll love looking at it all on her blog.
 

More street painting pics

 

 

 

 Here are a few more pictures of us out at the Temecula Street Painting festival doing the art thing. More details later...

Street painting festival

The Temecula Street Painting Festival is held in Old Town Temecula every June. We have been going for the past four years as spectators, enjoying watching the artists at work. This year I participated in the event and painted one of my "dolls" with a quote that I love: the eARTh without "ART" is just "eh".

It was a great day. Lots of fun and I especially loved that many friends came by to say hi, and a few even stayed to help!

I will post more about the actual process in a followup post when I am not on my iPad.

Have you ever been to a street painting festival or participated in any kind of art event?

Mail art time!

So, for a while I've been interested in the concept of mail art. A while back I purchased Good Mail Day and  Mail Me Art and have looked through and read both several times, enjoying the pictures of the cool mail art. I have amassed a nice bit of ephemera and scraps and yesterday made some of my very first official mail art which I promptly put in the post today. If you aren't familiar with mail art, one of the most important rules is that if you receive mail art you should send something back in return. So, I am looking forward to getting some cool mail art back in my mailbox. Hopefully soon!

The top photo shows two pieces that I am sending off to a couple of mailartists. Sometimes mail art is just that - mail art on envelopes with nothing inside. Sometimes you write a letter and include some ephemera. Both of these envelopes are filled with stuff from my stash. I hope the recipients like it. The top envelope was just a folded up map from our day trip to the San Diego zoo with an address label that I designed and stuff collaged on it. The bottom one is a security envelope from some junk mail that I undid and re-glued inside out. I put in a map of the San Diego zoo (yes, I grabbed a few sheets of those maps - perfect for collaging!) and some of the labels that I made, among other stuff. Below shows another envelope made from paper I designed with stuff collaged on it. The 'letters lift spirits' is from a vintage stamp (I think from the 70s or 80s) that I found in my postage stamp stash. I might make a sticker with those words on it to use in future mailings.

Paper is some that I designed and printed out, made into an envelope and then collaged on some images I had from a notepad and a magazine.

 I've already made several other envelopes that I am going to send to more mail art friends. If you are interested in learning more, check out Every day should be a Red Letter Day  - Jennie Hinchcliff's blog (author of Good Mail Day). She has links to more sites on her blog. Good stuff!

My daughter now wants me to send her some mail art. I told her she has to send me or someone else some first. :)

When was the last time you sent someone a letter?

Good Bot, Bad Bot

I'm a fan of Sharpies, especially nice pointy new juicy ones! I'm saving this idea for a rainy day - this artist named Gary Hirsch makes bots using oil-based paint Sharpie markers. They are cute! And I'm a fan of robots too - simply because they are easy to draw or doodle and you can use your imagination and create them any way you want - just like Gary has done! Read all about Gary and his art on the Sharpie blog:
Good Bot, Bad Bot

Mehndi decorated cookies

A canvas can be made out of anything - how about a cookie? This recipe shows you how to make a spice cookie in the shape of a hand and you decorate it with Mehndi designs! I haven't tried the recipe yet, but it looks pretty good. Maybe we'll do these next time there's a rainy day! See the recipe and instructions at Sprinkle Bakes

Hand-carved stamps to make

There are a lot of things that I'd like to do some day...and I just found another thing to add to my list. From Geninne's blog, I just found her tutorial on how to make hand-carved stamps.

Visit Geninne's Art Blog for more on the tutorial/how-tos.  She shows you what she uses to make the stamps and more.

And, here's another post from another artist, Margaret Oomen who learned Geninne's stamp carving and makes beautiful stamps among other things!

Stamp Carving from Geninne D. Zlatkis on Vimeo.

Mission Federal ArtWalk San Diego

The ArtWalk is April 30 and May 1 in San Diego! I've never been but am planning on going to see the different artists and the events that they have planned. I'm sure I'll find some ideas to incorporate into my Art Liaison position on PTA. There are a few group collaboration drawing/painting events and quite a few art activities just for kids. It's in the art district downtown in Little Italy. Can't wait!

Mission Federal ArtWalk San Diego

Some new art- chick graphic mixed media

My good friend Alicia commissioned this piece as a 21st birthday present for her sister Nadia. It was so fun to make! First, I drew a chick graphic (hottie style) for her based on some photos that I had of her. She's so beautiful - and she has amazing talent doing makeup (the photo doesn't do her justice), especially her eyes. I did her hair wild and crazy as an nod to Medusa and resembles Nadia's hair when she takes it out of French braids. Silver paint brush strokes for highlights, bling, painted background, cardboard, mesh (from an auto upholstery shop!) and various papers and word strips finish it off. I got the frame from Aaron Bros. and even though the artwork was somewhat 3-dimensional, it still fit under the glass after I removed the extra piece of cardboard filler in the frame. Nadia LOVE LOVE LOVED it! It was so fun to make for Nadia and I'm so pleased that she thought it looked just like her!

I'd love to create more!

"Nothing is original..." quote

This is so true...I am doing an online workshop by Traci Bautista and this week we are working on our inspiration notebook. I've been making these since high school where my art teacher called them "reference books".  I spent half an hour this morning collecting things that inspire me from a stack of fashion magazines and taping them into a notebook. Part of the creative process...here's the quote:

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photos, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

- Jim Jarmusch
read the entire post

12 on the 12th January 2011

I mentioned that I got a new camera for Christmas and that I have been taking at least 1 picture each day so that I will have a daily chronicle of life at the end of the year... Another thing I am doing this year (actually it's the 3rd year in a row that I am attempting to do this) is taking 12 pictures on the 12th day of each month. Today is the 12th. Grab your camera and carry it around with you today. Take 12 pictures of anything that catches your eye, inspires you or that you want to remember.

so far so good

I got a new camera for christmas and have been taking a photo each day so far. I am also encouraging my two kids to do the same so we can have a chronicle of daily life at the end of the year. It’s only day 9 of 2011 so far and I am hopeful that my camera will indeed see a new picture each day.

I am also trying for the 4th or 5th year to take 12 pictures on the 12th of each month. This year, instead of relying on just my memory which has failed me so far in remembering about this, I have added it to my google calendar and set it to remind me to take the pictures. :)

Why am I taking these pictures? Besides wanting to have a no-matter-how-mundane chronicle of daily life events thru 2011, I am planning to make scrapbook pages in Photoshop each month with the photos and hopefully get a coffee table album/book printed at the year’s end. I think it would make a neat gift for the grandma and grandpa.

See more progress on: take a photo every day for a year

Chicken Stir-fry...easy and fresh

I'd like to share my chicken stir-fry recipe. It's a super easy recipe, budget-friendly, healthy and delicious! When I make it, I don't measure ingredients; it's really up to you what proportions of vegetables you use. The important part of this recipe is the technique.

So...the important things:

1. HIGH heat
2. Large skillet works best (the woks aren't ideal because they are designed for a commercial heating element which has a big big ring of fire)
3. Cut your vegetables not in chunks...but in smaller pieces, like slices
4. Get yourself a good knife. It makes a difference...trust me.

Ingredients (again, this will vary depending on what you like. I'll list what I typically use. I suggest that if you've never done this before, try my combination and then next time modify it based on what you liked/didn't like):

• Chicken breast - if it's frozen, thaw it out. If it's left slightly frozen, it's easier to slice. I usually use just one chicken breast when I make stir-fry for my family of four but I also usually make another dish as well. If you want extra for leftovers, use two chicken breasts
• Vegetables:
• Yellow onion - cut the ends off, then cut in half. Put the flat end down on the cutting board then slice from side to side (not from the end to end - you don't want big half circles)
• Green onion - maybe a couple and then cut in 1 inch or smaller pieces
• Broccoli - I just put in a few pieces per family member - not a whole lot. Cut in small or thinner pieces
• Baby Bok Choy - this is a Chinese vegetable that is mild and is good for you (being that it's a dark leafy green). Buy just a couple 'bunches' then cut the end off so they are loose and rinse them
• Carrots and Celery - peel the carrot. Slice these so that they are thin, on the diagonal. I just add usually one rib of celery and one carrot. The celery is for flavor and the carrot is for color
• Bell pepper - I might use 1/4 of the pepper just for color (if I have red) and flavor - slice in thin strips

Those are the basic vegetables. Here are some more. Basically, you can use whatever is in your fridge - there's no rule:

• Asparagus - rinse and make 2" slices on the diagonal
• Kale - rinse and chop up (I've never used kale, but my neighbor does)
• Green beans or snap peas or snowpeas - rinse, take the strings off and slice on the diagonal. You can leave snap and snow peas whole too
• Broccoli slaw - I've stir-fried just the broccoli slaw without meat and it was good too
• whatever vegetable you like - just cut in slices (general rule). But, don't use potatoes or tomatoes or artichokes...lol

Technique:

1. Cut the chicken into thin slices first. I set the breast down so it's long from left to right, then start slicing into thin slices (1/4 inch or less). After the chicken is sliced, I cut the slices in half so they are more or less bite-sized. 
2. Put the chicken in a bowl and add a sprinkle of cornstarch - perhaps a spoonful, depending on how much chicken you have. Sprinkle salt, pepper (optional) and some soy sauce-just a sprinkle (optional). Mix it together with your fingers so all the chicken has the seasoning on it. Set aside
3. Cut your veggies. If you wanted to do this super quick, you can purchase pre-cut vegetables, but I don't recommend buying frozen vegetables or the frozen stir-fry mixes. I keep old pie tins handy and just cut the veggies and put them all together in the pie tin so they are ready to throw in to the pan. The exception is to keep the onions by themselves.
4. If you want to add extra flavor with garlic cloves, get a couple and slice and cut them up. You don't need to mince them - just slicing will suffice. Add the garlic to the plate you have your onions on. Those both will go in first.
5. When all your veggies are cut up, start heating up your pan. Turn the heat on high and let it heat up before you add the oil.
6. Add oil - you don't need a lot - perhaps about 2 nice tablespoons. Swish it around the pan.
7. Add the onions and garlic and stir it around and keep stirring so the garlic doesn't burn - before the garlic turns brown (within about 10-15 seconds of stirring the onions/garlic) add your chicken. You are going to use a spatula or wooden spoon and stir fry the chicken and onions until the chicken is almost done. 
8. When the chicken is almost done (it will be all white and will be a little firm) toss in all the cut up vegetables. Keep stir-frying...mix and stir it up. You want to keep everything moving... When the broccoli and carrots are cooked then it's pretty much done. (That's why you don't want to have the broccoli too big) You can add a sprinkling of salt and soy sauce now and stir it around before you plate it.

Serve with steamed rice (the Chinese use Cal-rose or short grain rice, which sticks together). 

I'll post tips on heating up steamed rice next... enjoy the stir-fry!

Ink it Pink

Sharpies are my favorite! Have been for a long time. They are supporting cancer research at City of Hope and donating $1 for every signature uploaded to their Sharpie Ink it Pink gallery until the end of October. You can also view others' signatures including those of celebs. Be creative!

Group Drawing event

I have been looking at different art initiatives that I think would be neat for elementary aged students. You may have seen my earlier post on The Big Draw - I thought I'd check on youtube to see if I could find some videos of people drawing (I love to watch people draw). I found this one - it was interesting to listen and watch and get ideas on different things to do if I should ever have to plan my own group drawing event. I got quite a few ideas from watching this:

• I liked the yellow paper ties that the women had on - I don't know the significance but perhaps it was to show they were the organizers? That would be fun - making paper ties to wear and then even letting others write/draw on your tie as a way to get to know and mingle with others in your group drawing event.
• The cards that they were wearing (and had participants and observers fill out and wear) were a neat idea. I liked that they had everyone do a little self-portrait drawing and that the cards asked some random questions like "Your favorite book" and "Guilty pleasure". I think to fit this to an elementary-school age group, you could have "Favorite cartoon character" as one of the questions.
• I liked that they had different 'venues' for drawing - one was the long connected butcher paper that was hung on the wall - everyone just picked a spot and started drawing. I think that drawing on a vertical surface is definitely a different experience than drawing on a horizontal surface and having a large canvas such as a roll of butcher paper is cool. There were also large single areas that people were drawing on as well as individual single sheets of paper. 
• The above idea with the butcher paper canvas could be done and you could add music. I'm thinking...having different mural areas set up and consecutively students draw from one canvas then move on to the next and at each canvas there would be a different genre of music playing. At canvas #1 there could be classical music and drawing for 20 minutes. Then move on to canvas #2 where there could be popular music/dance music for 20 minutes...then on to canvas #2 and Flamenco guitar (or whatever!) Then everyone could look at the canvases displayed and see if there were differences in the energy of the drawings. interesting...
• I saw where people where drawing on skin - my daughter does this with Sharpies (she actually does tattoos with Sharpies and they are so cool!). I don't know if this would be something that would be good for elementary aged kids but it was a neat idea.
• Along with the above idea - you could draw on things other than paper - cardboard boxes, bananas and oranges, fabric/textiles, etc. 

Makes me want to go get my sketchbook and draw. :)

Fun drawing - celebrating the Big Draw

I like to draw even though I'm not all that great at it. I found out about The Big Draw yesterday and went browsing around to see what it's all about. It's pretty cool! Started in the UK, there are drawing events throughout the month of October.

 

THE BIG DRAW 2010

"October 2010 is Big Draw month in twenty countries and on five continents. Launched in 2000, this annual initiative has grown from 180 events in the UK to over 1500 worldwide. The Campaign aims to use drawing to connect visitors with museum and gallery collections, urban and rural spaces – and the wider community – in new and enjoyable ways. Every Big Draw season offers unlimited scope for those who love to draw and those who think they can’t."
They have all kinds of neat events (see their tweets about them) mostly in the UK but also some internationally.
From their website I found Draw and Foldover - it's this really cool and fun flash-based site where you draw something straight from your computer (you get to pick from different pens and can even undo) and then it gets virtually folded over and passed on to another friend, again online, who adds to the drawing and so on. Each person adds to the drawing from head to torso to legs to feet until it's complete. Do you remember playing that when you were a kid? Ha! Of course when I was a kid there were no computers yet...lol! This is cool and you should try it! Then you can add it to the gallery and view other drawings and even vote for them. I love this! If you try out a drawing feel free to send it to me to add to. :)

Cute stationery

Last week we enjoyed a day out at the Japanese department store where we had some delish ramen and browsed the bookstore which was filled with lots of fun stuff for people who like stationery. Everything in a Japanese stationery store is cute! It was our first time there - they had lots of origami paper, cute cute cute little stationery items, lots of nice pens, notebooks/composition books that are ruled/lined for writing in Japanese, trinkets, cool Japanese magazines. Many of the Japanese magazines came with swag - here, all I ever see packaged with magazines are CDs or DVDs. They had cool tote bags, purse/bags and more in the women's fashion and beauty mags. The kids magazines came with various toys - kind of like our Happy Meals do, but with better stuff.

I've never picked up a graphic novel, but they had tons of them there - big thick books full of anime/manga. There was a group of non-Asian (read: white) teens there admiring the manga titles - apparently they were longtime fans. Being that the novels were in Japanese, I had to ask them if they were able to read Japanese. The anwer...was no. Apparently you can get the gist of the story simply by looking at the pictures...no reading necessary! :) I thought that was amusing.

I bought a super cute Japanese Hello Kitty diary (agenda/planner) which I'll take a pic of and share. I also got a couple of folders (for lack of a better word) that have cute graphics on them...oh! and a cute pencil case that I gave to my daughter.