Siri Opdal: haiku ATC swap

From Siri in Norway -wow! Three lovely fabric ATCs for our swap, plus some handmade flowers for me. Thank you so much, Siri! View all of Siri's swap pieces here -this is her 7th creative swap. ; ^ )

click for details.

Siri's haiku is on the back . . . 

Love the postage stamp, flower & colorful strip of paper!

Thank you, Siri. 

Ellen Lai: haiku ATC swap

All the way from Singapore, yesterday I received Ellen Lai's beautiful ATCs for our haiku themed swap.

Ellen enclosed a tatted butterfly she made for me, shown above -thank you!

Ellen embroidered the fabric (this is fabric on top of paper),

tatted the tiny butterflies and dyed the fabric too.

The postage stamps from Singapore are a real treat - I'll be sure to use them.

Turtles and Tamarind!

Ellen wrote about her haiku ATCs and shared more photos, here on her blog. 

I am so glad you could join us, Ellen.

leigh sanders: haiku ATC swap

From Spain, Leigh Sanders has sent in 4 very wonderful watercolor haiku ATCs for our swap. This is Leigh's second creative swap (view both entries here). I so love her style and the colors she freely uses. I feel very fortunate that she sent an extra ATC as a gift.

click for details

You can find out more about Leigh and her art on her own blog, Ruby Barr. When I first visited her blog, I learned she was using Spoonflower. This is a site where you can upload your own designs and create your own fabric! I went to her profile and promptly bought a fat quarter of her Spring 2011 flower design -the link to this is on her blog. It is fantastic! I looked around the Spoonflower site and decided it was easy enough to upload a couple of my recent art journal pages as my own designs for fabric. I have purchased Fat Quarters (21" x 18") of my designs and I am also very pleased with how they came out. You can view my fabric designs here. The ideas are mind-boggling. Thank you, Leigh! I so appreciate your art and your participation all the way from Spain.  ; ^ ) lenna

Joanna Urbani: haiku ATC swap

Joanna's beautiful haiku ATCs arrived from Kent, UK and I feel so lucky to be able to hold them in my hands. The only way I could give you an indication of how beautifully iridescent they are was to photograph them. Please right-click for the largest view.

Then I scanned them for details.

Joanna's husband helped her with a few of the words . . . 

like surveying ; ^)

Please read more on Joanna's blog!

I think I may be making another set of these if I can. Have fun! 

Due October 8th -still time to join.

postcard mail art swap MAILED!

Ken is my mailman, of course!

100 postcards! 

Hope you receive them soon ; ^ )

Thanks again for a really great swap and please thank your postcard maker when you receive. If you cannot figure out their name or email from one of my reminder emails, feel free to contact me. I will get back to you as soon as I can.

postcard mail art swap - ready to mail

I have all the postcards swapped and addressed -complete with postage stamps. I did put some of them in clear plastic bags if I thought they needed the protection. I would have usually gotten all of this swapping done a bit sooner, but my dad has not been well. Understandably with my dad not doing well (cancer) my attention lately has been on my family and not the swap. I was able to take care of the swap, just slower than usual. In fact, it was good to have this task to do. It kept my mind occupied on other things when I was worried. Steven and I are not traveling to my son's wedding next weekend . . . we feel we need to be here for my mom & dad instead and Dallas and his fiance do understand.

The postcards are in a box ready to go, so I will mail them tomorrow, I just wanted you to know. If I am slow on uploading the Haiku ATCs, this is why. Joanna Urbani's arrived today and they are gorgeous. Have a peek on her blog: http://fiddlesnips.blogspot.com.
Thanks.

haiku 9.20.11

walk with the minnows
darting and flashing ahead
the dogs don't see them.

swoosh goes the water
swoosh, whoosh, swoosh against our legs
the sun shines warmly.

lenna young andrews 09.20.2011

laurie morris: haiku atc swap

Laurie Morris, who lives not too far from me in Florida, registered for 2 sets of haiku ATCs. She wrote me an email earlier this month saying, "You have created a monster! More politely, haha, let me say that I have been writing haiku nonstop!!" : ^ ) The haiku she chose for her ATCs were written by others, but Laurie thinks she'll use the haiku she wrote for The Stetchbook Project. Awesome! Just this morning while walking in the water with my dogs at DeSoto Park, I was composing haiku in my head. Writing haiku is kind of addictive! Here are Laurie's ATCs:

Click on any picture for details, use the "x" in the right corner to return. 

The glass leaf bead in the center, above left and also on the 1st ATC are beads Laurie bought in Paris in 2005. 

Thanks very much, Laurie - for all this beauty and haiku! 

frieda oxenham: haiku atc swap

I have received 4 ATCs for our haiku swap from my dear friend in Scotland, Frieda Oxenham; she wanted me to choose one for myself. I am lucky to have many of Frieda's ATCs as we are in a monthly exchange together and have known each other for a long time. I am especially drawn to Frieda's mixed media work and these ATCs for our swap are no exception. Below is the one I chose for myself -the one on the right, plus the other 3 for the swap. Read and see more here on Frieda's blog.

click for details - use the "x" in the right corner to return.

Frieda, I adore your ATCs and the haiku you wrote. I am also glad to see you using them to further your studies! Frieda is documenting all of the gravestones in the West Linton, Peeblesshire graveyard. Please see her blog devoted to this.

This is approximately Frieda's 16th creative swap!  The number of posts next to Frieda's name at the bottom of this blog is 22 now I think, but that is because I often previewed her work with a post, and added a tag of her name and a link to her blog. She is often early in sending in her swaps and they make lovely examples! Thank you, Frieda, for everything.

BJ Meier: postcard mail art -last set to arrive!

Today, I received the last set of postcards to make here on time for our mail art postcard swap. The deadline for me to receive was September 17 and this swap is now closed. Barbara Joan (BJ) Meier's postcards landed in my mailbox today all the way from Vancouver, British Columbia! She sent 5 postcards, so there are actually 2 extra (this was a 3 for 3 swap). I think one of the postcards was meant for me, as she enclosed 4 mailing labels for her returns. Sometimes when doing the swapping it doesn't work out evenly, so BJ's extra postcard could definitely come in handy. Thank you!

Thank you, BJ! So glad you could join us. I love your "take" on a summer's day. 

I will start swapping the postcards out on my paper swap chart, and when I get the details all ironed out, I will affix your mailing labels, add the proper postage and send them home to you! I will be back with an update to let you know when all the postcards have been mailed . . . .  and I'll be back on Monday with a few new wonderful Haiku ATCs I have received. I look forward to sharing them with you. 

Sandra Skies Ludwig: postcard mail art swap!

Sandra, a long-time art acquaintance of mine from Pennsylvania, has sent in three summer postcards that I am in love with. They have such a nice feeling to them! I adore the vintage images she has used.

What pretty postage stamps Sandra added, thank you!!

Yes, I agree, a summer's day is precious. It is different for me living in Florida now, I get summer days pretty much 9 months out of the year - still precious days, though! 

Love these, Sandra. So glad you participated! 

Please visit Sandra's blog here: Sandra's Vintage heart.

Only 2 packages arrived today. Tomorrow is the last day for me to receive and then I will close the swap, swap the postcards and send them out individually to all of the participants. It's been a great swap and the participants should be proud!

--> There is one more swap scheduled, Haiku ATCs due October 8. After that I will take a small break from hosting creative swaps. My dad is not doing well with his cancer and it would be good to step back. I will definitely be able to finish this swap and the next one, but feel after that, it is time for me to take a break. I do plan to be back, and I would imagine it would be perhaps at the end of the year. I will definitely keep you posted. If you do not "follow" this blog, you may want to sign up for my low volume swap participants newsletter; see the sign-up form here. Thank you, lenna

Marianne Baugher: postcard mail art

From Marianne in Maryland, 3 beautiful textured postcards with wonderful images and quotes, sailed into my mailbox today. You can see more photos and read more about them on Marianne's blog.

Thank you very much Marianne, for your beautiful contribution. These are so cool! I am really glad your postcards made it here on time and I look so forward to seeing your Haiku ATCs in my mailbox soon.  ; ^ )