How Does Your Creative Process Work?

My Journey  Exploring the Creative Process

I have decided that I want to work on my (lack of )  watercolor skills!  I thought simple projects would fit the bill....and so the humble postcard it is.   I mainly get my ideas for watercolors from what's around me...or good ol' Pinterest!  Until I learn the techniques...I will need to study other works and then go from there.

These are my favorite from the last bunch that I did.  I did spray them with a water color sealer. Warning:  It takes a few weeks before the odor evaporates,  These were painted on Cotton Arches and credit goes to Pinterest.

I'm trying not to waste my watercolor paper and so I "practice up" first.  My first attempt at the study  is in my  mixed-media sketchbook.  After sketching the picture,  I work on painting it.

I do another run of the same painting in my Traveler's notebook.  

Haha...I make mistakes everywhere!   Seems I don't know how to spell "December"!

But, three attempts is not always a charm!  My post cards of my winter catus...turned out to be quite disappointing.  I totally forgot what perspective I was working on...haha!   I even  tried covering up my mistake with a label!  It's all good...I send them to my twin sister and ya know what?  She doesn't care!!! ;-)

I thought I would share with you some of the books that I find helpful for learning to sketch and watercolor techniques.  This book is definitely a keeper!  You won't waste a cent on this book.  It's also a great primer on plein air painting as well.  I am not in the practice of carrying around a sketchbook, or doing a "sketch-a-day" but I would love to start getting into that habit. What about you?  Do you add watercolor or other medium to your snailmail?  

A Sketch A Day

Will Keep

Mistakes

Away!

Pam 

Envelope Watercolors...Autumn

The air is cold and crisp.  The trees are losing their leaves faster than I can rake them up, and I find myself drinking hot tea by the gallons... It's time to get out the paints and start dabbling away.  First, I must caution you.  I am a complete amateur, I really don't know what I am doing...but hey!  Watercolor is a friend to all.  I must warn you also, that trying to do any blending on regular paper is next to impossible.  If you try your hand at watercolor (and I completely urge you to do so...) you might find yourself a bit frustrated because if you work on anything but watercolor  paper you will have a big puddle of wavy paper.  So, this is about the best I could do with the paper envelopes I had.  I did find a link to watercolor envelopes, but they were outside of my budget for now.  If anyone wants to go in halvsies let me know!  :-)  

Here is one going out to Sheryl!  The nice thing about pumpkins...they are so naturally irregular that they are very forgiving to budding artists. :) I love the postage on this letter!

 

 

 This particular study.... I'm pretty sure that I overworked it a bit.  Ah...there is always next time!

I love this sweet little watercolor birdie with its cauliflower bloom  on it's breast!  haha.  Oh the joys of watercolor!  I think that the postage on the birdie envelope is my favorite!

Here is some of my top pics of  washi tape that I am using right now on outgoing snailmail!

 

 I do almost all of my work at my desk.  It's not usually so neat and clean, I think I dumped everything onto the floor for this picture  so you wouldn't see how messy I really am.  

Well, I think that wraps up the autumn themed snail mail that I sent out this week.   What are you sending out?

Happy Snail Mailing,

Pam

P.S.

Free Shipping on all my letter writing kits through December!!!

Pen Pal Kit

Add Some Quick Mail Box Happiness With PostCrossing!

Is your mailbox sad these days?  You peer into the metal box....only to find, ugh, junk mail? Well, one way to quickly make that sad little mail box happy again is to sign on to postcrossing.com. 

Be sure to have your international postage on hand.  I have been a member for awhile, although, with long dry spells.  It doesn't matter, you can pick right back up again, anytime.  I have 8 going out right now, all heading to Germany, Russia, and the good ol' USA.  

I had to go online (Amazon.com) to purchase some postcards as my stash is still somewhere in my moving boxes...I still have not found them, but these will do for now.  So get busy and turn that sad little mailbox into a happy one!


Happy Snailmailing,

Pam

Pen Pal Kit

I've Got The Blues: Snail Mail Flipbook

This is one of my small, simple to make flip books ....you can find more examples of this style of flip book here.  Need some more inspirations?  Try this link...  

Just a few things I put inside my flip book...actually I should probably call them "fold overs"...what do you think they should be called?

Happy Snail Mail Inspiration!

Pam

*Available In My Shop*

Pen Pal Kit

This Little Mail Man...Snail Mail Postal Theme

Who Wouldn't Like to receive this cutie in the mail? 

I absolutely LOVED receiving this super creative , vintage postal themed envelope and long, chatty letter. This was from a pal  I met at the DC Postal Meet Up, organized by Global Pen Pal!  Carrie is a great creative talent in the snail mail community.  You can follow her work on Instagram:  

Carriejojo212. She pumps out mail like no one's business, and ALL of it good mail!

Urgent!!!  I needed to get something out to Carrie...and I decided to  continue the vintage postal theme!  I grabbed one of my vintage children's readers and  was thrilled to find a picture of "Mr. Postman"!!   Then I had to get out my post office stamps, and vintage stamps...and here you have it!

And this cute photo  as a pair!  Yay!  We LOVE our post women AND men!

Happy Snail Mailing,

Pam

*Available In My Shop*

Pen Pal Kit

Pen Pal Letter Set

Hey Girl, Hey...Snail Mail Antics

Hey Girl!

Michele always sends such wonderful mail to me...I needed to get busy. As cappuccinoandartjournal would tell us..."to get good mail,  you gotta send good mail"!  The pressure was on.  The group from the " D.C. Postal Meet Up" are some serious mail artists.  And here I am just doing my cutesie, crafty little thing over  here in my corner of the world...but not these folks. They are into all their cool artistic techniques churning out mail nearly EVERY day.  I'm slow folks. And the pressure was on.    So this is what I came up with for Michele who sent me this GREAT mail pictured below...

Isn't her "stamp head" spot on?  She is just oozing talent in very direction!!  So much fun to receive such great mail!  Thank you Michele.  You can follow Michele on Instagram:  mbcano1.

My son , Benji, went off to camp for a week this summer.  I tried to find something that a teenage boy would not be  too embarrassed to receive.  I think I asked him weeks after he was home from camp (when I remembered to ask) if he ever received the letter... he said, "oh yeah, mom".  Ha, I guess he appreciated it.

Have fun with your outgoing mail...put a smile on the postal carrier's face!

Pam

*Available In The Shop!*

Pen Pal Letter Set Kit

Incoming Happy Mail from Patti!

Incoming:Vintage, Postal Themed Mail!

The envelope was only the start to a wonderful what was to come!

Just look at this gorgeous hand made, zippered pouch from the Tim Holtz postal fabric made by my new instagram friend, Patti! Super for keeping a stash of postal goodies , especially good for on the run letter writing! You can find her on instagram as:  pmarti5.  You'll want to check her out, she makes fabulous mail art!

The note card is so amazing!  Made of thick , cotton-y like paper...lovely!  And write back...I did!  You'll see my letter to Patti in a future post.

Coming soon!  A photo tour of my recent trip to the National Postal Museum  (Washington DC) with new friends that I have made on Instagram.    Stay tuned!

Happy Snail Mailing!

Pam

Philately Love ...

Literally, all over the place!

Here is some outgoing to Global Pen Pal (You can follow her on Instagram:  Global Pen Pal--that is if you are already following me:  Lostart_revived ;-)  ha, ha. ).  I think the stamps amounted  to $3.02.  I always wonder what the mail system does with this type of mail...Do they manually count up all the postage?  I forgot to show you what I enclosed (besides the letter).  The die cut of the globe, was actually a package of paper globes-- 20 or so in a package. So I included a package of paper globes.   I thought she might find some interesting uses for them.  I also found a nice blank note book (think traveler's notebook size) with a vintage map cover.   

* I met up with Global Pen Pal over the weekend in DC and she told me that there was not a single cancelation on any of the stamps when it arrived !  Do you think they were respecting my work of art?

  I believe Global Pen Pal's mission is to write someone from every part of the globe...  I keep pestering her with mail from Virginia!  I remember the first time I wrote her  (I think I made a blog post about it, but I couldn't find it.)  that I wanted to be SURE that she knew that my letter was from Virginia and that VIRGINIA was accounted for in her mission.

The top photo was the cover of the shaped letter.  You could do this for any state or country you live in.   I basically just downloaded a map of the state of Virginia and glued it to some card stock paper, and then cut it out, along with a few sheets of writing paper.  

Here is a another picture of the letter. And  oh, the envelope, that I MADE SURE had some map pictures of Virginia. Sheesh...  Do you think that she got the message that Virginia had responded to her mission?  Silly me.  

Snail Mail can be FUN, so think about it, and send out some really fun mail!

Happy Snail Mailing,

Pam

Snail Mail Frugal Finds...

Dollar Tree Score!!!!

Ok.  I'm all about FRUGAL finds and I'm sure you are too!  I recently found these  items at the Dollar Tree, and quickly snatched them up.  I love the washitape...it is so vintage-y, right?   The calendars are nice and have a retro feel, great for envelope making.  The thing about the Dollar Tree is this:  get it when it is there, because the following week it won't be there!

Look at this spring-themed washi tape!  The labels are so cute....love!

My last great find at the Dollar Tree was this book that has been on my NTB (need to buy) list!

Don't pass up the book section at the Dollar Tree....they sell NY Times best sellers there for a dollar.  This book is a gorgeous hardback with dust jacket, 463 pages, great photos...retails for $27.50, and I got mine for $1!!!  I can't wait to read it all from cover to cover-- will do over Christmas break.

Enjoy the nice cold blast of ARTIC , Canadian (a nice gift from our friends to the North!) weather that is headed our way!  I find that letter writing is the BEST indoor activity to do when looking for ways to unplug from your devices.  It would be a great time to get a Letter Writing Social organized.  So gather your friends together , ok maybe after the holidays,  and gather supplies and have a great time pumping out letters.  

And for all you lovers of a good deal, ALL of my letter writing kits are ON SALE now through Christmas.  If you purchase a complete kit (excludes the mini kits) you will receive  a free pencil bag/pouch.  You can just message me a description of any of the pencil pouches ( I have more that are not in the picture) in my Etsy store and I will include it in your order.  This is good until the 20th.  

So keep on writing letters.  And for all of you waiting for a reply to your letter that you sent me, it is in the Que, I am working and getting through them.  I will be all caught up by the end of the year, to get my slate clean.

Send a Letter today!

Pam

More Out Going Snail Mail!

Dear Elaine....

Some long over due Elaine mail... Do you have a long time pen pal?  I have a few.  They are great! 

This was a little flip book with an autumn theme.  Some people say that I have an "illustrative" style of letter writing.  I fill the boarders with little tidbits.  Just a "side note" :) but the pen pictured is a rather nice black gel pen from the Dollar Tree.  I'll try them out...seriously, you can't go too wrong if you are just paying a dollar.  This pen wrote decently.  

Map themed envelope for Miss Ella.  This was made from a sheet of scrapbooking paper. I hope she enjoyed some of the older stamps.  Oh, and another plug for the Dollar Tree store:  the middle washi tape roll was purchased there.  So cute.

Happy Snail Mailing!

Pam

*Available In The Shop*

Pen Pals Letter Writing Kit

Snail Mail in the NEXT GENERATION!

We can teach them...

And they can teach us a thing or two!

I have received some mail lately from some of my campers that were in my cabin.  I love to post what they have been up to in their very crafty styles.    Here is an envelope crafted by Ella, and I love that she used her wax seal that she got for her birthday!  

Lovely Ella!

And just like a seasoned snail mailer, she included a nice chatty letter and some goodies.

This letter is from Miss Grace!  She made a lovely watercolor impressionistic  sunset...I love this!

Grace attended my paper crafting class at camp, She included a craft that I taught this summer..."Flying Letters".  I need to do a blog post on these...they are adorable!

Here it is , gently unfolded.  But look!  She included a mini envelope  (which she made) inside the  one of the folds.  Nice touch, very nice--Grace!

So cute... a little letter is enclosed.  

I am so impressed at the creativity of young people today.  I have letters going out to Ella and Grace.  I am so sorry it took me so long to get back to writing  to everyone.  Thanks for your patience!

Let's get the younger generation writing and sending letters too,

Pam

Banner mail...calendar mail

Colorful Flags waving in the air...

I was the happy recipient of the Flow magazine banners.  Thank you Limner!  So it was time for me to send my "endless banner mail" on.  There are no letters in these envelopes yet...Just working on the envelopes which takes time.

Here's a little fun with some of the vintage stamps in my collection.

 And have you noticed that AC Moore had their 2016 Calendars on sale for $1 each?  They are those thick , thick textured paper too! So I snatched up several and made some envelopes from  these as well.  

Now that the envelopes are crafted, it's time to write some letters to PUT inside these envelopes.  That's the next step.

Happy Snail Mailing!

Pam