The latest Caardvarks challenge is sponsored by Hero Arts and boy do I love their wonderful stamp products, not to mention their inspiring blog!  The challenge starts from a sketch and the entries already submitted are very cute indeed.  I finally got some of my craft items here in Italia and created a memories themed card from a variety of elements I had around.  I feel a bit handicapped because so much of my stuff is still in the USA, but you make do with what you have!  Well, I’m also a klutz when it comes to cutting straight – the Xacto knife and me are just not very compatible I guess!

The memories card is created from some thick chocolate colored paper with a Japanese toys, rice paper design on top.  Then I included the memories stamp for the greeting part and some mini tarot card pictures fanned out on top.  I like how the credit to the artist still shows on the mini tarot cards especially.  At the bottom I used some of my jewelry supplies and beaded up some pearl accents on gold wire.  Obviously I took some liberties from the sketch layout, but I think it turned out nice.  Also, my low quality picture from my iPhone makes it look sort of vintage, perhaps appropriate for a memories card?

Check out the many wonderful entries off the Caardvarks blog and also take a look at more cards in the Flickr Group.

Posted on March 23, 2009 at 6:04 pm | Showcase | 4 comments

I am finally settling down in Italy and got around to sending out postcards to friends and family back in the United States.  I have languished for a long time, not having the proper addresses and not being able to find nice postcards…but I have overcome those obstacles and sent out a whole stack today.  Yes, the post people stared a bit…

I opted for watercolor type postcards and vintage posters.  I much prefer that style than the regular photography, maybe because I still want to print my own photography postcards one of these days and can’t bring myself to buy them.  As I wrote my little notes on the postcards, I got to thinking about this old style of correspondence.  Obviously, you have to keep your note pretty concise as there isn’t much room on a postcard, even if you buy the large size.  I was thinking it might be the parallel to Twitter that we all use so much now online.  Short snippets and updates…even though a postcard only goes to one place.  I guess it is more personal that way and means a lot more to the person you send it to.

If you don’t know where to start, just send a quick “Hello there!  How are you doing?” note to your correspondences.  It will surely spur on conversation and help you reconnect with old friends.  Or you can also participate on a great site I found called Postcrossing.  It is a project started to help people all over the world trade postcards.  If you send a postcard, you’ll get one back.  I think it is the cutest project that really does bring back the joy of real mail and old fashioned written correspondence.  Definitely check it out and get back to paper!

Posted on March 19, 2009 at 10:51 am | Back To Paper | No comments