Mail Art just for the fun of it . . .

I had to send a couple of things to my son and daughter-in-law in Boston . . .

So I used the opportunity for one of my favorite pastimes: MAIL ART!

before I added postage . . . you can see the postage "frame" stamp below 

I used part of a sheet of scrapbook paper on the left. Then I added my favorite mail art rubber stamps, including some my boys designed way back when! Can you guess which ones??

The "world's best Mom", well that certainly gives that boy designed stamp away!! Dallas drew the design when he was in grade school (I love his world -top left) . I took that design and a number of other designs his brother Decklin drew like "fun post" and had them made into stamps. Wow, we were into mail art even back then, 1990's  : ^ )  I actually discovered rubber stamps when Dallas received a set of them (INKADINKADOO) from my sister for his 6th birthday. Dallas will turn 29 next month, so I had great fun stamping this envelope for him & his wife! I also added a bit of Lumiere paint and watercolor crayons . . . 

I'm really just having fun getting my creative groove back on . . . how about you? What are you working on right now, if you care to share -let me know in a comment below or email.

lizard love . . .

Here in Florida we have so many little lizards, especially when it's hot out . . .

This one perched on the fence today while I was doing some gardening. Many of them are not shy and this one did not mind being photographed at all! When I first saw him, he had something in his mouth - some lunch! I think it was a beetle of some sort . . . 

It seemed too big for his mouth but he worked on it and managed to eat it all! I believe this is a brown anole lizard. The lizards in my yard are plentiful now and come in all sizes (some are sooooo tiny!). They are different shades of brown (some light, some very dark) and they have various patterns. They make an interesting chirping noise too . . . 

I really have grown quite found of these backyard companions and love to watch them! Mostly they don't mind . . . although some scurry away. What creatures do you have in your yard or neighborhood? 

Six-word story mail art!

For the past few months I have been doing a little bit of mail art with of couple of good online art buddies, Jewels Welsh and Jo Urbani. It has been great for me! Doing these exchanges really helped me to dive back into an art form I love. Plus it has been wonderful to have created our own tiny, closed facebook group for discussion which also meant more time to chat with each other. For our last exchange Jewels came up with a six-word story idea. The postcard we make was to be based on a six-word story we created. It was kind of hard for me to come up with an idea at first. In the end I just let myself be inspired by what was going on in my world . . . .

"Swallowtail Caterpillars are on my Parsely" was my six word story . . . and they were not just ON my parsley, they were really EATING my parsley!! I had never seen such unusually striped caterpillars.

I used photographs I had taken of these most unusual caterpillars, which I discovered through Google were Black Swallowtail Caterpillars. I later had the joy of seeing these caterpillars return to my parsley as butterflies! See how much of it they ate??

Anyway . . . enough about my entry - let me share Jewels and Jo's  . . . 

Jewel's six word story was

She thought it would be different 

Jewels cleverly did hers on the back of a vintage recycled Happy Anniversary card!

Jo and I both celebrated anniversaries when we received so it was very appropriate!

And Jo's six word story was

He began to feel rather odd

I love this and the fact that our stories were similar but different . . . just like in real life!

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to share mail art and life with Jo & Jewels. 

Coming up, Jo is taking a break - but Jewels and I will work on a summer theme that we should wrap up and share with you in a couple weeks! Until then, don't forget to have a little fun.

Add some ART to your Mail! 

A tour: our yard transformation

When we moved last November 2012, the yard was beautifully situated on the Braden River but very bare as far as plants. There was also a lot of grass, which makes a wonderful home for those pesky little no-see-ums (ouch!) and Steven did not want to mow it. He was already busy enough with his boats and handmade paddles.

So, we called in Ann Hall, my friend from Nia class and Florida friendly garden designer. We asked her to help us come up with a plan and to help us to get it all done. She has done a wonderful job and we are so enjoying our new space, settling in and feeling at home. I invite you to take a look at what we have done, working together with Ann, Grant Blackwell, Len Besterman and Billy Jenkins.


Many thanks to all of those involved for our wonderful end result! Direct link if you cannot see the video: http://animoto.com/play/mmnN0NoQvCbS7olhkEjRZg

p.s. you'll find more of my animoto videos right here on their own page.

hello again!

I am cleaning things up here on my creativelenna.blogspot - can you tell? Click on the link if you are not already reading directly and you'll see I have returned my blogspot blog to one of the non-dynamic views templates - Yay!

Recently, when I would come by to reference it for a link to a post, I just wasn't happy with the way it was presented. A girl can change her mind as she finds her way, don't you think?? Don't get me wrong, I do love my new tumblr blog. If you have not seen it yet, go check it out! The tumblr format is quite different but a very good one for me to quickly share photos of what I have been working on. Since I have been away from here I have been getting my feet wet in all the techniques I used to do with . . .  index card art! See more here.

I think I will blog here when it fits and continue to use my tumblr blog as well. I hope you will join me on the journey! 

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