And the winner is....

Thanks to everyone who responded to my posting on Universal Letter Writing Week. We've drawn the winner and it's......

drum roll......

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.......Wabbit (Marilyn)

Congratulations, Wabbit/Marilyn! The "Art of Writing Letters" ATCs will go out in the mail on Tuesday.

And congratulations to everyone who took a few minutes and wrote a letter (or more) to celebrate. One of the posters has committed to writing at least one letter per month during 2008. A terrific goal, I'd say. And very do-able. How about it, everyone?

Artistamps

I collected stamps as a kid. I loved the colors and the countries and the little bits of art they carried with them on their journeys.

Those feelings still lurk inside, even though I haven't licked any gummed papers in a long time. (Do they even still use those little folded gummed paper bits to stick the stamps in the albums?)

Artistamps (artist-made postage stamps) tap into all those feelings. You can make them as simple or as complicated as you wish. They can simply be a piece of art in stamp form, with or without a denomination. Or you can create a whole postal issuing authority. Of course, that's what I've done...

My postal issuing authority is an imaginary island nation called Craneland. It's located in southern Lake Erie, near the other islands owned by the US and Canada (Pelee, Middle Bass, etc). It's similar to the other Lake Erie islands: there's a winery located there, a bird sanctuary, farmland, several marinas, etc. It's named after the rare Blushing Crane which makes its home on the island.

Along with tourism and fishing, one of the main sources of income for the island is the postage stamps they issue. The most recent one (above) celebrates one of the pleasures of late summer, the homegrown tomato, specifically an heirloom variety. I might just make fresh tomato sandwiches (thick slices of homegrown tomato and mayonnaise on good bread) an official national dish... yum.

Two of My Favorite Things

Forget about Raindrops on Roses.... I think Sharpies and Chocolate are much more fun.

I sat down earlier this week to come up with a few ATCs to send to the Sharpie Scouts' Sweet Thangs swap. I was already running late because I had gotten myself overbooked in terms of projects AND Saturday was Spa Day at the winery (I won't go into it... suffice to say it was fun but extremely high maintenance).

I figured I'd sketch a few chocolates (kisses, maybe?), make them super colorful, and send them on their way. However, my hands had different ideas. I have this happen to me quite a lot. I sit down intending to do one thing and my hands make something completely different. I figure it's a collaborative project between my head and my hands. Intellectually, I gather the materials. Sometimes I end up with a finished piece that looks pretty similar to how I originally intended it. Sometimes it's completely different.

This project ended up so different, really the only thing in common was the ATCs and the Sharpies. I sat down to sketch and didn't feel like sketching. Then I remembered all the chocolate wrappers I'd been saving to do a piece for Kate's charity auction project (it benefits Patient Services at the U of M Hospital where she works). She has an antique chocolate box that she's filling with pages of art. They can be autumn- or chocolate-related. I love autumn, but there's really no contest... Anyway, I'd been saving them to use on the chocolate page -- a patchwork border perhaps?

This is getting to be quite a long story... sorry!

So I grabbed the chocolate wrappers, chose a few and cut them into strips. Then I took all the Sharpies I have that remind me of chocolate and colored in a block of the colors. This I also cut into strips. I then wove them together, sewed them on the sewing machine, and cut into bite-sized ATC pieces.

It ended up taking me quite a bit longer than drawing a few Hershey's kisses, but I had the best time! When my hands take over a project, I've learned to shut off my brain and go with the flow....

Sewing Again

I've made fun of my dad becoming obsessed with his hobbies -- after all, that's the origin of our winery. But I am probably just as bad. Or maybe worse?

Last year I became obsessed with Artist Trading Cards. My garden didn't get planted and my knitting sat idle.

That obsession has now evolved. I've branched out into all sorts of arts/crafts as long as it's all about swapping with other folks via Flickr, Swap-Bot, or any number of private swaps. In fact, now I seem to enjoy doing lots of different things: paper arts (ATCs, artistamps, other mail art), homemade magnets, notecards, hand-carved rubber stamps, knitting... and I've even gotten back to sewing.

Actually, sewing was another obsessive craft I practiced long, long ago (in the dark ages) when I was a teenager. Almost every week I'd make something new to wear when I went out that following weekend. As is with SOME of my obsessions, I got burnt out on sewing. And I basically stopped doing it until now.

After getting into sewing on paper recently (I love it), left, and hand-sewing with felt, I've finally gotten back to sewing something with fabric on my sewing machine. Last week I made a tote bag for a swap on Swap-Bot called "Farmgirl at Heart." The swap called for four (or more) items with a farm/garden theme such as ribbon, buttons, or a tote bag.

I found some great fabric to make the tote bag: a heavy cotton printed with gardening tools like spading forks and shovels, another fun yellow cotton fabric printed with red roosters, and a very heavy yellow cotton canvas.

I've never sewed with a heavy canvas before, but my ancient machine performed well. I was feeling swamped because I'd committed myself to too many things that were due at the same time. But I still enjoyed making the bag. Because of the canvas bottom and handles, it ended up very sturdy. And, of course, I'm already thinking of the next thing to sew!