Watercolor packages

 

My friend Jasilyn had written down on her 24 before 25 that she wanted to make a watercolor. So I sent her a message and we decided to get ourselves going and not slack off we'd come up with a topic and a deadline and mail each other our corresponding watercolor.

Last time it was night sky which you can see on her blog here
and this time the topic was built (you can see Jazz's on her blog here)

I usually loathe what I've painted but this time I actually quite like it, even if the second to last rock looks like a red potato :)

I did zen rocks for built because when we go hiking I like to knock over the zen rocks stacked up. Josh calls me evil but it's like how you'd build up blocks as a kid as high as you can so that you could then run into them. My zen is found in knocking them over :)

I love getting mail, to an  irrationally high degree, and this project has been really great for me to start being creative in my free time as well as up-ing my incoming mail :) Really hoping to keep it up with her!

Scratch-off cards + DIY

As I've expressed before I love sending mail. But sometimes I don't have a ton of new things to say...

So I recently made a batch of scratch off cards to send to my friends. They are just kind of goofy and say that I miss them but they get to help finish the message

I made a template on the computer and printed them out. I made a fun note and them made 3 options for parts of each sentence and put a number above the options. Then I made scratch off tape:

2 parts acrylic paint

1 part dish soap

clear packaging tape

foam brush (dollar store has them)

wax paper

1   put tape on wax paper

2   mix the paint and soap

3   using the foam brush paint the tape

4   let dry and do a second coat

5   then cut into desired shape

6   peel off wax paper and place on card

Tips:

I had trouble getting the paint to not streak and leave open spots on the tape so I put a little less dish soap in and that seemed to help.

Also when cutting the tape you want to use avoid the very edge because some paint could have gotten underneath and if you use it the paint underneath will show up even after you scratch the top coat off.

Then I cut the tape to fit over the options and voila!

Now when my friends recieve them they get to scratch off 1-3 to see what their unique message ends up being...but it's left up to them.

Plus who doesn't love scratch offs! Just makes me smile, which is what I wanted to achieve.

P.S. The cutting does take a little while but just drink some peach lemonade and put on some tunes- you might have fun

Also I was thinking they'd be postcards but then realized they would probably get scratched in the mail, so I'd recommend and envelope!

Handwritten

Ever since moving out here Joshua and I have talked a lot about friends and how to keep in touch. It is really hard, a 3 hour time difference really works against us as does needing to relax when we walk in the door not instantly be on the phone.
But I finally think we are getting better at it. Joshua plays minecraft with some of his best friends and they talk the whole time they play and it's a really creative fun way to keep in touch.
For me I've found that when I don't have time for the phone I love sending letters and postcards. Sometimes I just thought of that friend that day and want them to know I'm thinking of them and sometimes I write whole letters or make and send cards. The phone isn't always an option but I don't want them to think I don't have time for them in my life so snail mail is the way I try to do that.

all of the letters/cards/postcards our friends and family have sent us since we've been out here

I have a friend Lauren though who I've known since freshmen year of high school. She stayed at my house one weekend for a student council conference my school was hosting and we've kept in touch ever since. We wrote each other elaborate letters full of stickers and drawings and photos to secrets, pain, and goofy stuff. She snuck out and drove hours with her friend to visit me one weekend in high school and we both went to UC together for a little bit. Then in the middle of college we lost touch a bit. But when I packing and sorting the stuff at my parent's house to move out to Seattle I found a giant stack of her letters and lo and behold that same month she had found mine too. She sent me a letter and we picked it right back up.

She has been an amazing friend from afar. She has never judged me but instead encouraged me, let me whine, listened to boring relationship problems and made me laugh when I really needed it. Her letters seem to come at the exact right time. They are always colorful and at the bottom she always leaves a line to the postperson telling them to have a good day.
I wish she was closer, I wish we could have lunch, but I really think this beautiful relationship we still have and have been able to carry on through letters is what made me ever think to send mail to my friends in the first place.

I really hope everyone has a Lauren and I hope I'm as good back to her as she is to me.
And I will always be grateful for her teaching me how amazing and powerful a handwritten letter from the heart can be!

some of Lauren's letters (well the covers of them)

Postcard Art

I really liked the way they both turned out I think they're fun.

I love sending and receiving postcards! We have gotten so many lovely postcards since we've been here thank you so much for everyone who has thought of us.

I took old paint sample chips from work and cut them all up into strips

Then I basket weaved them sometimes over-under, or over-over-under and such to show more or less of a color underneath

But I kept a rhythm and to give it an order to the chaos. Then I left some undone and glued the edges and arranged it on a postcard the way I thought looked best and cut off the excess.

I did a watercolor for this one and then used tape to create the background graphic white space and then peeled the tape off.

I have started to send some out lately. Since work my work deals with designing hospitals mostly I don't get a lot of creative freedom out during the work day. But I love graphics and all things paper goods and I have always made cards- since I was super young. So I've decided that on top of sending postcards that have terribly overexposed 90's postcards (outfits and hair give it away they are so badly awesome) I'm going to make them. Paint, paper whatever I'm feeling to kind of give myself an outlet but not a pile of random things I make- instead I'll send them to all the people I love.
I sent the one below to my sister Mallorie and the other one to Emily. Plus I love people's personal art work and it always makes me smile if they did it for me so I'm hoping to make some people smile.

Let me know if you want one! I'd love to make one for you and send it with a little note! Can't say I'll do it immediately but I'll make my way to it I promise!!