A puzzling piece of mail

Heleen sent this wonderful envelope, inspired by the fact that I have completed a couple of jigsaw puzzles this year.

And the Rubik's cube puzzle stamp is the perfect addition, along with another game stamp. 

The puzzle conversation made Heleen think of this playful painting by Marius van Dokkum (b. 1957).

Thanks so much for this unexpected and clever piece of mail, Heleen.

We all see the same moon

Wonderful mail from Heleen that was a surprise arrival two days ago.

And inside one of her favorite postcards of her home country - stunning view.

I was very happy to see that both PostNL and USPS worked very efficiently for me to receive the letter on March 21st, with a postmark of March 16th, even in these tough times!

Thanks, Heleen, it really lifted my spirits after what felt like one of the longest weeks of my life. (And I will answer your moon-related question in my next sending).

Birds in winter

I don't think I ever blogged these guys, sent quite some time ago. I sent quite a few envelopes out, these ones went to Heleen and Eva.

Spacebadgers!

Eva sent me these wonderful spacebadgers, who are also Finns. And fab matching stamps.

Thanks so much for this wonderful envelope!!

Are you in wonderland?

Great painted envelope from Eva, perfect for spring, and dreaming.

C is for Carnation, C tarifa, Correos and Cardinal

Fantastic C mail arrived from Eva.

The stamp has the no value indicator of the C rate, used for international mail outside Europe, and featured a carnation that is made up of various Spanish landmarks. The only one I recognize is La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

To see more stamps with a C theme, explore the links at Sunday Stamps.

The fantastic envelope shows Eva's watercolor cardinal bird. the male is considered to have a brilliant red color, but today's post makes me think of the words crimson and carmine.

And more yellow on the back.

Eva asked me if I thought her cardinal was red enough. I thought I'd poll the audience - so what do you think? Is he red enough?

A lot more bird blobs

A bunch that I sent out.

They should all have reached their destinations by now.

January envelope exchange - Year of the Rooster...

...chickens, and birds everywhere in my opinion!

And thanks to Candy's blog, I created some birds for my January exchange envelopes to go with the new Lunar New Year stamps. 

I *think* the watercolor bird blobs looked a little brighter in person than this photo. Regardless of how they turned out, they were fun to work on (and, in my fine arts-challenged hands, super easy to do), so I hope people enjoyed receiving them.

Winter trees

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is Winter Scenes. A set of four different stamps was issued in 2014 titled Winter Fun.

I have to say I am not sure what the cardinal bird has to do with winter fun, although I do like the stamp.

Here are some envelopes I sent out where I used watercolors and ink to create a tree scene with a color to match the sky on these Winter Fun stamps that USPS issued in 2014.

Envelope 459

This is one of my favorite envelopes of a recent batch I made.

The fern stamp fit perfectly in a blank space.

Sent to Rose.

The back.

_______________________________

There was a leftover scrap after making the envelope for Rose.

It inspired me to get the watercolor pencils out and add to it, then send it to Adrienne.

MMSA Inspired by... Rotko, part 2

The second two I sent in for the swap. The one in darker shades is inspired by the Rothko Chapel paintings.

MMSA Inspired by... Joan Mitchell

Linda G sent this abstract she created by finger painting on a gelli plate - impressive results.

The more I look at this one, the more interesting it looks.

MMSA Inspired by... Rothko

Rothko is probably my favorite artist, so when Karen announced an 'Inspired by' theme it took me about 2 seconds to pick my inspirational artist.

I still had the watercolors out, and it didn't take long to gain a whole new appreciation for Mr Rothko. Turns out it isn't that easy to paint rectangular and square shapes... and he was doing it on giant canvases.

Two of the four I sent out:

Watercolors for Karen

Karen I is the host for MMSA, and I always send her a piece of art in the challenges I enter.

I created a watercolor landscape from this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jpp_Nmxajo

The result:

And a subsequent challenge was to create postcard art as a tribute to an artist who inspired us. I kept the watercolor pencils out, and found that it was not that easy to emulate Rothko.

Watercolor series - Pear

Marge C created this amazing pear art. As Jean W always says, 100% stealable idea.

Watercolor series - Daffodils + Ghost in the machine again

Video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVCRT5338qM

Result:

At first the scanner wouldn't scan this one, and came up with this. You can clearly see where I messed up the stem, although in the real version the mistake isn't so obvious.

Watercolor series - Mr Whiskers

Mr Whiskers is my nickname for this fantastic monster by Currie S. This is painted on yupo paper, with some ink and pencil in addition to the watercolor. The result has a shimmery, metallic look.

Watercolor series - Peacock Feather

Video tutorial:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhHroHRebQY 

Result: 

Watercolor series - All Roads Lead to Home

Jenny R created this by allowing paint to run down the card after she had painted the background.

Watercolor series - Tree

Video tutorial that I used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFMi4VA6O6I

The result: