Made It: iHanna's Spring 2015 Postcard Swap Part Two

Hello! As promised, here's the second half of the postcards I made for iHanna's Spring 2015 Postcard Swap. 

A numbers theme here. I stamped several crossed lines in olive green, then wrote numbers inside each line with pink marker. The large "1 2 3" numbers were stamped using a vintage printing set. And I used scraps from a vintage science textbook for the rectangle behind the owl and the words "change of kinetic energy" in the top right-hand corner. 

Above, this was the first postcard I made for the swap and I really liked it. I began by smudging pink paint on the background, then used a stamp I'd made to add olive green hearts. French text is behind the owl, and the other side of the postcard features a scrap of vintage wallpaper and a saying cut from a book. 

I really like the colors in that vintage wallpaper piece! 

I used a swirly-design rubber stamp in green ink to create the background, then added a stylized flower shape cut from scrapbook paper and the rubber-stamped "TODAY:" image. Above "TODAY" I wrote the date and below it, the words "laugh often" and "be creative". Maybe a simplistic message, but those are two good things to do every day!

Here, a painted pink background is accented with black lines, both stamped and drawn. The words "I am making art" are in the center, created by rubber stamps, a word tile from a vintage game, and a word from one of my husband's mid-1960's school papers. Another punched-out-hearts paint chip shows up as well, this time with the color name "Nurture Green" on it. I thought that was a nice, fitting touch. 

Last postcard:

It took awhile to get this one to work, but I think it turned out pretty good in the end. I just kept adding stuff until I thought it looked okay. I used lines and dots of paint to make the background, then added a pretty floral paper piece behind the owl. Placed yet another punched-heart paint sample piece opposite the owl but later on decided it didn't look quite right. But when I tried to take it off, I found it was glued on too well to remove. So I played around some more, adding some matching paint sample pieces at the top and bottom of the floral piece. Next, I glued on a pale pink diecut heart and green diecut flower. 

Still not quite right, so I grabbed a vintage rubber stamp with a bird image and stamped it on a piece of that vintage wallpaper:

Turned out very nice, I think! Glued that bird on the postcard and that meant I was officially done with the crafting process. 

A few details on the products I used:

• for the postcards, I used a blank set called Strathmore Kids. I bought them for our daughter when she was a kid, thinking she could draw and write about our activities during vacations and mail the postcards to her grandparents. Alas, she was never interested in doing so, so I reclaimed the set for my own use. Glad I finally found a use for them - I gave them to our daughter at least 10 years ago!
• I used Elmer's X-Treme school glue stick to glue the various paper images on. It worked very well. 
• Just the same, I was concerned that images could come off during transit, so to be on the safe side I put two coats of clear Royal Coat Decoupage Finish over the artwork. Hanna, the swap organizer, did not suggest this in the swap's FAQs, but I hoped it would be okay to do so.

I'd already discussed other products I'd used, such as rubber stamps, paint (acrylic), markers, and a variety of ephemera. 

So my postcards were all made - now I had to wait for Hanna to email me with the list of 10 names and addresses.  I was quite curious as to where my creations would end up. How many foreign addresses would I get? And among the US addresses, how many were in places I'd already been to? 

When my list arrived, I learned that I had two foreign addresses: one each from Norway and South Africa. 

From the US, I received three addresses from Washington state - the same town, and it looks like there's a family and/or friend connection between the three. I was also to mail postcards to people in Texas, Alabama, Illinois, Wisconsin  and Virginia. Didn't recognize the names of several of the towns, so I looked them up. Participants are encouraged to write a short greeting on each postcard, so I tried to personalize each message by saying a little something about the areas in which the recipients reside. 

We were also instructed to write our emails on the back of our postcards so that the recipients can thank us. Hanna reminded everyone to be patient, but to contact her if the number of postcards received is on the low side - then she can contact the people involved and remind them to get their postcards out.

Well, I did my part today -I mailed my postcards. I do hope the recipients like them, and I look forward to receiving postcards in return! This was fun to do and I'm glad I signed up.