Tuesday, November 30, 2010

no mail art today -check previous posts for new swap art!

-just catalogs and junk mail today! Although, I am expecting mail from nadia, cynthia, christine, lynda, yvette, kim, leah and tania so check back tomorrow. Make sure you look at the posts I just wrote for yesterday's catch of mail art!

Sharon Walworth: mail art swap!

wow! That is what I said when I spied Sharon's envelopes peeking out at the bottom of a pile of mail . . . only to follow that with, "oh, WOW!" when I saw the full envelopes. Sharon glued and stitched paper to make 4 fantastic envelopes. Thanks so much for the extra one, Sharon! I love your beachy vintage theme, the colors, design, stitching - oh my!! Sharon lives in Rhode island, near the beach and I have had the pleasure of meeting her in person when she took a ATC book class of mine in 2007. That was so fun to look at that slide show again -click on the link!! : ^ )








Fantastic Mail Art, Sharon!
Thanks so much. 

Marilyn Butler: Mail Art Swap!!

I met Marilyn through Mary Green's workshops and I am so glad I did! Marilyn has participated in 2 of my creative swaps now and created wonderful tags and mail art!! I am going to share close-ups of all the fronts and backs of her envelopes here which feature mandalas she drew, but I want you to visit her blog, aptly titled: Marilyn Butler ; ^ ). That link will take you directly to a post where Marilyn writes about creating her envelopes and even shares what she put inside. As I said before, I am not opening envelopes as they come in. There are so many it would be too much for me to do and record on the blog. I will open any envelopes that I receive when the swap is done, and those of you who do receive a filled envelope will get a surprise!!
Enjoy Marilyn's envelopes below.












Your mandalas look very quilt-like to me, Marilyn. Makes sense to me, knowing you quilt! I love the postage stamps you had made at zazzle based on your trip to New Mexico. Thanks again!

Rebecca Clarke: mail ART swap!

From Bec Clarke in Australia, 4 lovely postcards on a Springtime magic theme. They arrived in good shape and in good time too, about 1 week. Bec so kindly dropped me an email to let me know her postcards were on their way and gave me a description:

My technique was: Stamping on blank cardstock.
Colouring in some of the stamps using my new watercolour markers.
Adding some cardboard elements in the theme.
Add a layer of printed tissue paper over the top and seal with Gel Medium.
I then joined them to the postcard side using glue and a row of stitching.  I didn’t like the zig zag after one but the others with straight stitching I liked.
--
I like them very much with either stitching, in fact! Bec recently took my online work-at-your-own-pace workshop, Collage techniques on canvas to help prepare for a small art exhibition she was in. It is wonderful to have her participate in one of my art swaps as well. You can see more of what Bec is up to on her blog: Bec Clarke Creations.










Thanks for your mail art all the way from Australia!!



Ashlee Gilliam: Mail Art swap!

From Ashlee in Texas, we have rhinestones and strips of beads and faux postage and drawing and collage . . . love these envelopes, Ashlee!













Thanks so much for participating, Ashlee :  ^     )

Monday, November 29, 2010

amazing variety and numbers!

Thanks to all of you in this swap and your fantastic mail art, I am really enjoying hosting the mail art swap even though it is a big undertaking. Look at the 16 pieces of mail that were stacked up in my mailbox today!
Wow! from Australia, Rhode Island, Texas, and Missouri!

It is hard to believe but . . . I have received a total of 157 pieces of mail art from 41 participants - and we are not done yet! I will share more completed sets with you soon, from Rebecca Clarke, Ashlee Gilliam, Marilyn Butler and Sharon Walworth : ^ ) Thank you, ladies!

Yesterday I tried making some fabric envelopes from 2 pieces of fabric and a piece of interfacing. It worked out pretty well! I am up to 37 return envelopes now that I have created or decorated. I have a few more to make but that is okay! ; ^ ) More participants have sent their mail art off today and more is on the way . . .  so we might be pretty close to a full participation list!!! Yay! 
Mail Art certainly makes me smile when I open my mailbox.  :  ^ ) 

fabric envelopes by lenna

envelopes for the swap returns!

see you in the mail -- the mailbox is the museum!! 


Saturday, November 27, 2010

Sabrina Hoeke; maiL ART Swap!

From Sabrina in California, some incredible envelopes. Don't you think these are amazing??? Wow! Thanks so much, Sabrina. I can see why you said it was almost hard to send them off!
p.s. I just found Sabrina's blog (thanks Joanna!) and she has a wonderful post on how she created her envelopes, you can read it here.









happy mail days!

mail art swap: Kiki Finlayson

How lovely to receive these cool shaped envelopes from Kiki in Oregon! So glad you joined us again, Kiki. (scroll down once there, to see other swaps Kiki has done with me). : ^ ) Here are her wonderful envelopes!


I love what Kiki wrote on the back of the envelope!
Click on it to see it better.



Another awesome addition to our swap! 


mail art post

please hop over to my personal art blog where I have been talking about you (those of you in the mail art swap) and how busy I've been with this swap! ; ^ ))
http://creativelenna.blogspot.com/2010/11/lots-of-mail-art.html

Friday, November 26, 2010

Karen Cejka: Mail Art swap!

Gorgeous envelopes from Karen in Minnesota! Karen emailed me,
"This is my first attempt at mailart and I had a blast creating the envelopes!  Even the postal workers were impressed." ; ^ ))
I am very happy so many of you are enjoying doing mail art so much!!
Please enjoy Karen's envelopes below.









Thanks so much, Karen!



Nancy Yankowski: mail art swap!

From Nancy in Pennsylvania, we have 4 wonderful manila envelopes done on an Alice in Wonderland/Paris theme ; ^  )). Take a  look! These were all 6" x 9" plain office-type envelopes, but not anymore!









Thank you, Nancy -great additions to our swap 
and I appreciate the extra envelope for me!