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!

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

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. :)

Custom senior yearbook ads

My daughter is now a senior in high school and I'm excited because I am going to purchase a senior yearbook ad to tell her how proud we are of her. Of course I am going to design something totally cool for her since we think she's totally amazing so I thought I'd also do this for anyone else who wants a really nice senior yearbook ad. I mean, why not? If you are going to spend the money for the ad, it's nice that the ad looks good to, right? I am busy with quite a few projects, but I've managed to squeeze in some designs that I just uploaded to my store at ClaraWallace.com. Right now I have 10 designs that are more geared towards girls, but I'm working on some that are for the guys too, so check back soon. All the graphics were made by me and I can further customize the layouts with additional photos, quotes, etc.

Deadlines for our school yearbook's 'early bird' pricing is October 5 and we just got a letter home from the yearbook company with details on purchasing a senior ad so now is the time to order! Please pass this along to your friends who have graduating seniors! I'll post on my Facebook fan page too...

See the designs/layouts I have done in my store

Publish your own magazine!

Okay, I've always loved reading and looking at magazines and I just found this site called MagCloud (from the HP people) where you can publish your own magazine and it's easy and not expensive at all. You design your magazine in PDF format, upload it, they send a proof, you approve it and then you can purchase copies to use yourself (think portfolio, calendar, etc.) or it can be listed on the MagCloud site for others to purchase. So cool! I'm thinking it would be a cool project to make a 'magazine' and have it be the yearly holiday family newsletter.

IDEAS: For fun or fundraising, you could use MagCloud to do print-on-demand recipe books, complete with full-color beautiful pictures of your yummy recipes. Stylists - use this to create a before and after portfolio of your work. Writers and authors could use this to write short stories. You could design a calendar showcasing anything you love. I love it!

How much does it cost?

The cost of your issue to end users will be the production cost (currently $0.20 per page), plus shipping, plus your own publisher markup (if you specified one). MagCloud will pay you the markup for each copy that is purchased.


You can also go to their site and browse all the magazines that others have published - there are so many topics and of course it's a great way to get inspiration. Check it out!

Eye-popping email blasts

It's been awhile since I've felt like I had anything worthy to blog about - my friend mentioned that I hadn't been posting and that made me think about things that I should be blogging about so I've posted a few posts already this week - yay me!

So...I like to get email blasts that have eye-popping visuals - images that are well-designed that sell product/s. I'm on Sephora's email list and I have to say that they do an amazing job at making their products shine in each and every email they do. While not everyone can afford to have professional product shots of their merchandise, there are things that you can do to create your own email eye-candy.

Many times you can find product pictures on the manufacturer's websites and sometimes they even will provide downloads of their products for their distributors and retailers to use. Take advantage! Your graphic designer can take those images and collage them together. Then, come up with just a few phrases that are calls-to-action and you got yourself a visual email blast. If you can't get images online, and have to take photos, you should invest in a camera that will take good pictures. Part of making that happen means familiarizing yourself with some basic photo-taking techniques. (In a future post I'll share some sites and tutorials on this topic.) Then, if you don't know how to use Photoshop or an image-editing program, find yourself a graphic designer who does (or contact me!) who you can work with to put together your graphics. You really will feel more confident about your products and selling them knowing that you have a pro on your team to help with marketing like this.

If you are going to do the email blasts regularly (and it's good practice to do so) then come up with a header design that will be consistent with each blast. You can change the colors and even the style of the collage/image and as long as you have use the same header you will be branding yourself or your company each time you send out your blasts.

If you want to start collecting inspiration from sites that do a good job with their marketing, start with signing up for email newsletters from companies/websites that you personally shop. Fashion and beauty industry sites are inherently good ones to follow. Study the emails when they come to you and save the ones you like. You can give them to your graphic designer as inspiration and reference, or use it yourself if you DIY.

I enjoy comments - let me know what you think!

dorothy and alice

dorothy and alice
Originally uploaded by mike r baker

I just came across this wonderful illustration by Mike R. Baker while browsing all the beautiful and inspiring artwork by artists on Illustration Friday. I have been wanting to draw my own version of Alice and her various friends in Wonderland. Hopefully I will soon when I finish the various projects I am working on. If you have a chance, take a look at the other work that Mike has done in his Flickr gallery. It's fabulous!

Illustration Friday - Detective

This has happened at our house on more than one occasion...hhhmmmm doesn't take a whole lot of detective work to figure out Who Ate All the Cookies...

I've long been a fan of Illustration Friday and have many times started drawing to do the challenges, but never finished anything. Today I am brave enough and confident enough to finish my drawing and post it. Thank you for looking and please feel free to leave your comments for me!

so much amazing art!

David-Barneda
Originally uploaded by Darren Di Lieto

I wish I had come up with this idea! I'd love to receive all the artistic and amazing work that artists all over the world create on envelopes to send to the Mail Me Art project. I could spend all day browsing this Flickr gallery and not get anything 'real' done...of course, I'd be so full of creative energy that I'd probably go nuts and have to paint all night long. Take a look here Enjoy!

abc-a | Art by clarawallace · 365 Project

I am discovering lots of new things via Facebook. Here's something called 365 project - you upload a photo a day. I'm participating in a challenge where you upload a photo for each letter of the alphabet. Today's letter is "A" and my photo is of "art". I uploaded a photo of a painting I did on Saturday for my daughter, who is the inspiration. 

Thanks for looking!

abc-a | Art by clarawallace · 365 Project

If cooking could be done in Photoshop...

So creative! I've often thought what a neat world it would be if reality were able to be manipulated with Photoshop. You could color your hair whatever color, look skinny, have a tan, and undo stuff! I wonder how long this video took to make?


Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.