But My Darling, What if You Fly Postcard Art
I knew the quote below would inspire a piece of art the moment I read it in Reverie: The Poetic Underground #1 by Erin Hanson. When I saw that this week’s challenge at Simon Says Stamp is “spread your wings,” I thought what if you fly postcard art would fit the bill to a T!
Isn’t Erin’s poetry beautifully put? For all the times that fear of failure keeps me from trying something new, I want to say to myself, “Oh but my darling, what if you fly?”
For an artist — or artist wannabe — there doesn’t seem to be much risk. You could waste a piece of paper or get paint on your favorite shirt. But the upside — oh my — what if you fly?! The joy of creating something that pleases you (and maybe others as well) is food for the soul.
Now I had two reasons to make this postcard: the SSS challenge and to make a postcard for a mail art swap partner using the butterfly sticker she had sent me.
Making My What if You Fly Postcard Art
I was practicing a new technique for Life Book on a scrap of watercolor paper that was just big enough for a postcard. So I already had my background.
The background is wet on wet watercolor splotches. Then sprinkle rock salt and allow to dry several hours.
Then you (try to) rub off the salt and end up exfoliating your fingertips and palms. I was surprised that quite a bit of salt stuck around to give the finished card a lot of texture.
This is where things really got messy! Next you splatter black watercolor paint. Let dry. Then drop in some gold accents. I used Pearl Ex pigment powder mixed in water because I didn’t have the medium called for in the Life Book lesson. Let dry. Finish up with white paint splatters and let dry.
I think I mopped the dining room floor three times during this experiment.
But I digress. Back to the fly postcard art …
My background was all ready. I printed the quote, then cut it into phrases and stuck them down.
[Because of the watercolor background, I couldn’t use a wet glue that might smear the colors. However I needed a strong permanent glue that would survive the postal system. I ran all the elements through my Xyron Creatopia using the adhesive cartridge:
Watercolor background paper;
Text phrases; and
Butterfly.]
Finally I pressed the background onto postcard size cardboard, placed the butterfly, added some accent doodles with white Gelly Roll and black art pens, then ran washi tape around the edges to create a frame.
What do you think? Are you ready to fly? Join me on Life Book.
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