Merry Christmas, Scrappy Rolodex-Style!

I dug into the envelope full of Christmas goodies that Mary sent to me a couple of months ago in order to turn old Christmas cards into holiday postcards for some mail art friends.  I had forgotten how many awesome cards, stickers, and rub-ons she had included in the package!  In that moment, the empty Rolodex cards on my desk and the pile of stickers from the envelope melded together in my mind's eye, and I had my evening activity all ready for me!

I added in some of my Christmas-themed Cavallini tapes, along with the stickers.  Those tapes cost a lot of money, but, boy, do they ever last and last!

A very simple set of rub-ons on a red background made a super-simple but really pretty card.  (Unfortunately, it's also a little sticky, so I'm not sure exactly how long it will survive in its home in my Rodolex with the other cards!)

Next, I used some of the awesome postal-themed Santa napkin I mentioned earlier to create a few additional cards.

I added lots of additional rubber stamping and some more decorative tapes.

Now, I have a pretty full Rolodex, and I can move onto the next one--a not-so-long ago thrift store find.

And because we all love those yummy, thick, colored page edges, whether it's an art journal or a set of Rolodex cards, here's a peek at the top edge:

If anyone is interested in doing a Rolodex swap, please get in touch through the comments, or by email at aleakaskey@yahoo.com.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Glue It Tuesday: Rolodex Cards

What is a sure-fire way to clutter up a tidy work space?

Why, collage, of course!

After clearing the decks in the my craft room to make way for actual creative productivity, I pulled out my shoe box of smallest scraps to create some new Rolodex cards.  I've missed the last two weeks of Glue It Tuesday over at Artsyville, and I knew that I was a prime candidate for a little cut-and-paste therapy.  I love the whole process of sorting through the tiny scraps; deciding whether to arrange them by color, theme, or some other way; and gluing them down to create these mini-masterpieces.

Sometimes I run across a picture I like so much, that I don't think I want to add anything to it at all!

I have one card awaiting a final arrangement of some Found Poetry:

If you would like to see what my work table BEFORE last night's Collage Fest, check out my last post here!

Wishing you sticky fingers on this Glue It Tuesday!

Mail Call!

I almost called this post, "An Embarrassment of Riches."  My mail art friends have been good to me lately, and I want to share all of the loveliness that has found its way into my mailbox over the past month or so.

I commented on how much I love this postcard to Janet of Random Acts of Art, and I can't tell you how excited I was when she sent it to me!

I have an ongoing exchange happening with Sherry from Illinois, and she sent me a fun Halloween-themed package, including a great doodled envelope, foam-stamped and doodled Jack-o-lantern, and another stamped and doodled card in Halloween colors.

I love the doodled details:

And check out the progression of a candle she drew on the outer envelope!

My mom is one of my latest mail art swap partners, and sent me this clever and adorable postcard:

She was inspired by an advertisement she saw in the newspaper for a "Baby Farm" (you could definitely interpret THAT a couple of ways!) and photos from an Anne Geddes book.  Truly original!

April Cole surprised me with a Halloween treat:  a card with a vintage image, a leafy library card-style pocket, and a beautiful autumnal tag created with her own hand-carved leaf stamp!

Chris, of Parabolic Muse, continued our altered Rolodex card exchange with two new additions for my collection:

Eli (formerly of the blog Zapallos en Almibar, which she has just discontinued, but I highly recommend you check out her Pinterest boards; they'll keep you busy for hours!) continued our ongoing swap by sending me a fun handmade bookmark.

Check out that beautiful baby blue airmail envelope!  And her drawings on it!  And the stamps she sent along to me from her grandfather's collection!  Treasures, all.

Pamela of Cappuccino and Art Journal sent me some more of her gorgeous mail art, including this postcard featuring fun, colorful Chinese imagery:

The backs of her postcards always offer as much eye candy as the fronts:

She sent me another fabulous mail art package (in a translucent envelope, no less!), addressed to not only me but also "the Art Girls":

So fun and sweet of her to include my girls in this mail art adventure!

Inside were all kinds of gifts:  a lengthy typed letter, some sheets of adhesive images, and one of her fabulous folded books with all sorts of goodies tucked in every pocket:

I have so much fun posting about the mail art I receive.  I get so much joy from it when it arrives in my mailbox, and then it's like receiving it all over as I photograph it and describe it for you here.  Many thanks to everyone who keeps my mailman raising his eyebrows!

A Return to Rolodex

Altering Rolodex cards was quite a craze for awhile, but seems to have slipped onto the back burner of the art communities I frequent. 

Over the weekend, I pulled out my blank cards and my envelopes of appropriately-tiny words and images, and created a few new additions to my Rolodex file. 

As I've probably mentioned before, I love collage and I love quick results, so these petite pieces of art are just my style. 

Truth be told, they are a great tool for procrastination:  Need to get ready for some fall craft shows?  ....Right after I finish this little collage here.  Need to figure out those 1001 policies to get my Etsy shop underway?  ....Sure, just let me glue a little something over here.  Need to create some appropriate packaging to present my wares to a local gift shop?  ...No problem...just let me finish one more Rolodex card and I'll get right on it! 

I get to feel like I'm doing something artful and productive, but I'm not actually doing the tasks that are calling out for my creative energies.

And just like the bulging pages of a finished art journal, there is something quite satisfying about a Rolodex file growing thick with collaged cards, especially when so many of them have come from swapping with artful friends in Blogland!

If you are interested in any individual swaps with me, be sure to check out the "Swaps" tab at the top of my blog!

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As a surprise "thank you" to my readers, I am sending out some autumnal goodies to the "early responders" to my previous post on Matchbook Notebooks.  If you left a comment on that post before the publication of this current post (that's seven of you lovely ladies!), be on the lookout for something fun in your mailbox!

Crafternoons and Crafterevenings

Last week at this time, my mother and I were knee-deep in art supplies, making the best use possible of our brief time together. 

We started her visit by trading arty gifts with one another.  She brought me three new rubber stamps for my ever-expanding collection, and I got her a waterbrush and an inexpensive set of pan watercolors to play around with while she was here. 

We set up our workshop in the dining room:

Mom is now a waterbrush convert!

She's been doing her own altered Rolodex project at home:  She glues a business card to one side of the Rolodex, and then creates a thematically-linked collage on the other side!  So, of course, we had to spend some time on Rolodex cards together, using our newly acquired stamp stash:

My mom is getting a little tired of me taking these photos of her, leaning over various projects, but I just can't resist!

You'll noticed we moved our base of operations to the breakfast area, because the dining room is so totally dim at night.

I know I'm not the only one who loves a good pic of yummy art supplies--a painty palette, beautiful stamps, bright watercolors.

Here is one side of the Rolodex cards I created:

And here is the other side:

Mom and I did a swap; she took the blue card above and I chose this one from her collection:

I also shared with her the strategy of using gel medium to adhere napkins to journal pages for a lovely translucent effect, and showed her the butterfly page from my Gift from the Sea journal.  That sent us to the party store to buy a huge stash of inexpensive napkins to play with in our journals:

Here, mom used a gorgeous yellow and white napkin as a background, then cut out flip-flop images from another napkin over the top of it.  She used pen to outline the shoes for a better effect.  I took one of my famous "Mom at the work table" photos, but didn't take a pic of her page!  I'll share some of my "napkin art journal pages" in a future post.

She was also interested in the paperbag journals I made for my girls using a link I found on April Cole's blog to a tutorial for making little notebooks out of paper lunch bags.  So, of course, we had to make some of our own:

My mom had the idea of using some of our paper napkins to decorate the covers of our little notebooks.

It would be such a fabulous thing if we lived nearer to one another and didn't have to watch our time together so carefully.  But as it was,we had four lovely days to amuse ourselves with the girls, enjoy excursions like Briggs Auction and Morris Arboretum, and PLAY-PLAY-PLAY with whatever creative idea caught our fancy. 

I'm already ready for her next visit!