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 

How To Make A Calendar Envelope

Re-Purposing Calendars into Mail!

I was in Dollar Tree today and I happened to see the boxes of calendars for sale.  I like making envelopes from calendars so I took a closer look.  try to find pictures that have a small to repeating design, so that it will be able to be used on an envelope. Florals usually work well, and I have made some with landscapes.  The problem with land scape calendars is that they are hard to get the center of the picture where you want it. I I liked what I saw so I picked up two.

My smaller template for envelope making has been missing for some time, so I decided to make an envelope template out of this thin sheet of cardboard.  I took an envelope size that I thought would work with the size of my calendar sheets, then opened it up to trace around the envelope.

Here is the finished template.

Don't forget to make the folding guide piece for your envelope. This is the template that is the size of the finished envelope.   It will help you to make the folds where they need to be.

You can use a creasing tool to make sharper folds.

Then a little glue to glue the flaps in place.

First batch of envelopes are just about finished!

Since the envelopes are so flimsy, I decided to add a liner to the envelopes.  Just use any paper that compliments the envelope's primary color.   A.C. Moore carries the sturdier , thicker paper calendars for a dollar , but I haven't seen them out yet...check that store after the New Year.

Here is the second batch of calendar envelopes.  I really like how this one turned out, a very nicely centered yellow rose!

All done!  24 envelopes made in just one sitting!

I thought I was done, until I noticed the back of the calendar pack.  I thought maybe I could do something with the mini pictures of the calendar pages...

I'm rather undecided as what to do with them...book marks?  Tags?  What would you do with them?

Hope this gets you interested in making your own calendar envelopes.

Happy Snail Mailing,

Pam

*Available In The Shop*

Sunshine Mini Kit

Flipping Out With Flip Books!

This is a good way to flip out....

I guess this is my signature flip book style.  I like it because it is a nice simple project...not overly involved, and something that I can approach without  hesitation.  I usually set aside time to make the skeleton's  and then they are ready to decorate  when I am ready or when inspiration strikes!

Here is what it looks like when unfolded.  I make them all different, none of them are the same.

Ha, ha, I love this rubber stamp!  I know.  Random.   Do you have a collection of stationery, note cards?  I am a huge stationery fan, and miss the days of wandering through the Japanese stationery shops in my youth.  They were so interesting, fascinating and just a wonderland!  This summer , I plan to make a few discovery ventures to the local stationery shops in my region.  What summer plans do you have?  

One last thing!  I am having my BIG , all-store , SALE!  This starts today at 10:00 !  So head on over  to the sale!  Etsy: LostArtRevived 

Happy snail mailing!

Pam