Postcard Catching up...

I've gotten a bit behind with my Postcards for Darcy's Challenge and realised that as well as having been really busy, I was also stuck on the story aspect and this was blocking my creative mojo for the actual cards..so, rather than give up I decided to try and catch up with the postcards and worry about the story later - or not at all even...and here they are, they are all quite simple - with several to do I had to make life easy for myself!  |I've shown them n reverse order starting with this weeks destination -

The Netherlands  -  

This was created by stamping and masking a tulip stamp many times (there are only three flowers on the stamp) to create this 'field of tulips' and colouring with Pro-markers.

Canada

For this one I stamped and embossed the 'Maple Leaf' (hope that's close enough) in clear on to red card, then went over with Picket Fence distress stain and removed roughly from the embossed leaves. I then reversed it and stamped and embossed the leaf in red on white card. 

Switzerland

I enjoyed doing this one as I had a holiday in Switzerland many years ago and loved it. I've used a pic of the Alps that didn't make it into my hol scrap book, added some train tickets from my holiday that I still had stored away  (thereby confirming my need to keep absolutely everything because it will be useful one day!) and a pic from one of my fav childhood TV shows 'Heidi'. I loved that story, had the book and read it may times and have the show on DVD for nostalgia ! The finishing touch was a little glitter on the snow capped mountains !    

Wales

While going through some stuff in my mums loft I came across my childhood postcard collection - and among them a couple from Wales. I had obviously tried to do something with this one before as it had slots cut in it so I cropped the figures in costume and added to my stamped row of daffodils, that I'd coloured with water colour pencils.

The eagle eyed among you will notice Cuba is absent...I tried my best but it just wasn't working and I figured one missing wasn't too bad. So here I am all ready to move onto this weeks' destination and hopefully progress on my story will magic itself up too. I've made pages for the cards in my book too but to avoid an even longer post I've just added these to my seperate postcard page (button at top).

Thanks for visiting...hopefully I'll get chance to catch up on other's this week too...Have a good week..Esther xx

Postcard #5 - France

The next leg of Ellie's journey has taken her to France, she is determined to find out more about her past and has memories from her early childhood of playing in the Lavender fields in Provence - the sweet smell takes her straight back to her youth and she tries to remember who else was there and how old she was. She sends this postcard back to Twinkle to keep her updated -

While there she visits the La Mairie (town hall/mayor's office) to search the ‘registres d'état-civi’ for her family name and finds several entries which she will have to take some time to research further.  It’s her first step towards answering her long list of questions.

To see others postcards and follow their journeys take a trip to Darcy’s blog where it all began…Art and Sole.

The embellishment on my postcard was made by melting UTEE on a craft sheet, then pressing a stamp inked with stone grey Stazon into it while it was still liquid.   I left the stamp in place to let the UTEE cool and then peeled apart. First time I've tried this and I was really pleased with the result.  The Postcard is made from my one of my favourite paper pads – DCWV Olde World painted with a  thin layer of Gesso over before stamping.

Here is the postcard in it’s book page. I used another piece of the DCWV paper for the corner pocket and some stamped images. I’m going to share my postcard over at a couple of other challenge sites too this week -

Gingersnaps Creations Random Redhead– Favourite designer paper

The Stamp Man – Embellish it

Thanks for visiting, hope you’re enjoying the weekend – Esther xx

Postcard #3 - Brazil

Oh I had such fun making this weeks postcard for Darcy's Postcard Challenge - despite originally thinking I would avoid the obvious Carnival theme I couldn't resist the excuse to get the glitter and bright colours out. I hadn't quite realised how much of a rut I was in with my crafting and would never seen myself creating anything like this - it's such a  new direction for me and I'm loving it !!  

I hand drew some random carnival inspired images and coloured with inktense pencils and blocks before outlining with a black pen. I then used stickles to add some sparkle ! My freehand drawing and shading needs some practise I think, especially faces, but I enjoyed myself.  The inspiration for the face border came from a new book a treated myself too - Journal Bliss by Violette. Ellie sent this message to Twinkle -

Dear Twinkle, I saw lots of weather vanes in Spain -now I'm in Brazil and oh what heaven - all the music and dancing, the beautiful colours. I wish I knew where my passion for music comes from - maybe I will answer some questions on my travels...Much Love Ellie

And here is the Postcard in my book - I kept the page simple to show off the bright, busy postcard. Just applied a wash of Inktense block and some splatters (NB when splattering paint from a toothbrush, ensure you splatter in the right direction! Pearly paint splatters on your glasses doesn't work!). The Black panel at the bottom is stamped with Opalite Ink but it doesn't really show on the pic.

I have a stinky cold so may now retreat to my bed with the laptop to do some visiting...thanks for passing by..Esther xx

Medio Pollito (Postcard Challenge #2)

Well I finally made it - here is my postcard for week 2 of Darcy's challenge. This weeks country is Spain and I found a traditional Spanish folk-tale called Medio Pollito (meaning Half Chick) which I based my card on.

'Medio Popllito is a little black Spanish cockerel chick born with one leg, one eye, one wing - hence the half chick name. He got bored with life on a dull farmyard, with nothing but a dreary maize field to look at and headed off to Madrid to see the King.  The tale describes how on his journey he came across Water, Fire and Wind who needed his help but he rudely refused them all.  Eventually as the story progresses Medio Politto needs the help of these elements in retun but of course they remind him of his earlier rudeness and leave him to his fate. The story concludes with the wind swirling Medio Politto up onto the highest steeple in Madrid and there the wind left Little Half Chick standing on his one leg and looking off over the world with his one eye. Whichever way the wind blows that way must Little Half Chick turn. He can never step down, for this is the story of the first weather-cock.' 

And here is how my postcard looks in my book - I have written a synopsis of the story over the page which I painted and stamped on first.  The Postcard is held in the photo corners I won last week form Darcy - they were perfect for the job!  

I had a blonde moment and forgot to take a pic of the back so until I get round to that it reads -

Hi Ellie,

The Little Darlings have been very naughty but they enjoyed the Spanish fairy tale Medio Pollito you told me about.  You will have to look out for him when you are in Madrid. I miss you, write back soon... lots of Love, Twinkle xx 

Postcard challenge

So - Darcy has announced the first country on our year long Postcard challenge adventure and I have spent a glorious day getting inky and messy and creative.  We're not allowed to share the finished Postcards til Friday but I can show you the book I've made to keep them in. I did share this a while ago but I have done some work on it since as I wasn't happy - so here it is (again).

I've also got some pics of my characters  - the first is Ellie. She's an aspiring musician who wants to travel the world to make her name playing her tunes...This is an altered doll I made some time ago that was on my desk and inspired my Ellie character.

I've used a Crafty Individuals stamp to represent my second character - Twinkle. She's a dreamer, always lost in her thoughts wishing she were  somewhere else.

And here they both are on the inside cover of my book, ready to start their adventure. The introduction says -

I am leaving on an adventure to follow my dreams. I take you with me in my heart as I will not be home for some time - but I will write. It is hard for me to leave and I will miss home, but I must live my own life now and play my music... all my love..Ellie..xx

I've had a great time today making my first postcard - I'm a stamper at heart and was really challenged by the first country  - Austria,  as I didn't have any stamps suitable, but this was so freeing...I had to research images to inspire me and then create from scratch. It was tricky but I loved it, it's not the most impressive piece of art but as a first attempt I'm quite pleased. I can't wait til Friday when I can visit everyone else taking part and see their creations, and of course read the first installment of the stories...if you want to visit Darcy to learn more about this fab challenge you can find her here.

I wish you all a Very Happy New year - back to work tomorrow, am almost looking forward to normality, though the early morning will come as shock !    

Postcard challenge

I spotted a post the other day about a fabulous challenge Darcy will be running on her blog during 2012 with a Postcard theme based on the idea from Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine books.  .Simply explained the Challenge is to create two characters who communicate via postcards - Darcy will blog a different location each week and we will create a postcard with that location theme and add ongoing communication between our characters each time. You can visit the introduction post here to read all the details, Darcy explains it much better. Now for the last what feels like a hundred years I have been studying and working but the time has come to have a study break (though I can't give up the day job) and with the extra time on my hands already being promised to my craft desk I thought this would be a perfect challenge to get stuck into.

So I went about altering an old unused 2010 diary to store my completed Postcards in - I always said there was a reason to keep it. I covered it in ordinary brown parcel paper and then went to town with my stamps - including 'Antique Map' from The Stamp man and 'Italian Script' from Judikins, and some postage themed bits and bobs.  

Inside I stuck some map themed DP on the inside covers and then after sticking a few pairs of pages together to make them sturdier (it was a cheap diary) I painted the first few with Gesso. I will probably do more to them but want to wait until Darcy announces the first destination so I can theme the page with the postcard. Each page will have a pocket - not sure if I will do them all the same yet, will have to wait and see how it develops but this first one is just a simple corner pocket of map designed paper.

I'm sharing my book here -

Allsorts - Brown and Blue

Fashionable Stamping - Travelling around the World

Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Am really looking forward to starting something different that's just for me - rather than obsessing with a word count for a University lecturer to pick apart - so thank you Darcy for such a great idea.   Esther xx