DIY Postcard Swap, and a very special Christmas card

It's over a month now since the DIY Postcard Swap organised by iHanna, and after having posted my 10 postcards to different corners of the globe, postcards started to arrive in my mailbox in return. For a period of eight days, I received a card every day. Then nothing for a good three weeks or so, and last week, quite unexpectedly, another one arrived. So I've now got nine cards altogether. I don't know if the tenth card will arrive too, eventually, or not. I guess the latter is now more likely. But I really like the nine I got, all the different styles, techniques and mediums.

Thank you Beverly from England, Carrie from California/USA, Gail from Canada, Ellen from USA, Belinda from Alaska/USA, Lynn from Florida/USA, HS from St Louis/USA, Carolyn from Ohio/USA, and Sue from Australia.

What made more than up for the missing tenth card was the beautiful Christmas card I received from my dear friend Sandra from England. She paints the most beautiful oil paintings, among them a series of the most charming vintage teddy bears. I'm so happy to have one of her beautiful bears in my home now! Thank you so much Sandra!

Sandra's oil paintings always make me want to finally try out oils myself. I've never really quite dared so far. It all seems so complicated, dangerous, and much different form my old trusted acrylics. But I've been getting some new supplies in the past two weeks or so, and among them, some stuff for oil painting. So in the new year, oil painting is definitely something that's going to happen.

DIY Postcard swap: Finished and on their way

My postcards are finished, and they're on their way. I posted them yesterday, to Germany, Scotland, England, New Zealand, and different corners of the United States.

 I just hope that I got all the addresses right, and that they're all going to arrive.

And now I'm looking forward to what the postman will bring for me :)

DIY Postcard Swap: Work in progress

More details added to the collage backgrounds of my cards for the DIY Postcard Swap. A little bit of paint, texture, stamps, and some washi tapes. 

And I could finally make use of that postcard stamp I bought about two or three years ago. Isn't it just perfect?

They're almost finished but there are still some details I want to add over the coming weekend. I really like how they're coming along, and I can't wait to send them out into the world. I received the addresses yesterday. So exciting! The creative juices are definitely flowing again.

Linking up to the wonderful Paint Party Friday as well, even though there's not really much painting going on in these. But I've missed a few weeks, and it's always a great and inspiring place to to go.

DIY Postcard Swap: Getting Started

Fuelled with new creative energy after having signed up for the DIY Postcard Swap, I sat down on my desk on Saturday afternoon to get started. I wanted to make collages using (up) some patterned paper and stamps - both things that I have loads of but hardly ever use.

Me and white glue have never been friends, I just can't manage without making a complete mess all over the place. Especially when having two pieces of paper the same size, that need to be stuck together. But the result wasn't too bad.

The patterned paper are from a give away I won a few weeks back. I meant to blog about that, but somehow never got round to it. The past few weeks/months haven't been very good blogwise, but I hope to make up for it again.

Some collage bits added to the backgrounds.

The back sides needed a bit of colour too. The mess I made with the glue added some nice effects.

A postcard swap to help the creative juices flow again

As I mentioned in my last post earlier today, I'm feeling a bit uninspired at the moment. So today, when I came across a postcard swap, I spontaneously decided to sign up for it, in the hope that having to produce 10 postcards over the next couple of weeks will help me get back into the creative mood.

While I'm a little bit intimidated about it all (will I be able to come up with 10 decent postcards?), I'm also quite excited about it. It's the first swap I'm taking part in. I've tried to take part in one before, with an online class I was taking, but it took me so long to sign up with the internet site were we had to register our addresses, that by the time I finally managed it, I was too late. So all I got from that attempt is being registered with and receiving a steady flow of e-mails from a website I'm not even sure what service they actually provide.

The swap I'm taking part in is the DIY Postcard Swap, organised by Hanna of iHanna's Blog. In this swap, you have to create 10 postcards and send them out to the 10 addresses you receive by November 14 at the latest. And in return, you'll (hopefully) receive 10 postcards from all over the world. It's not too late to take part, registration is still open Sunday, November 3.

So, that's my weekend sorted...