m.o.M - mother of Michael

Do Sharks Have Ears?

I really wanted to give him a hat, but he turned out to be a she and she wanted a flower behind her ear.

This handmade post card is for a swap called Bookpage + Clipping. Just like it sounds, it had to include a page from a book and some form of illustration. My mojo is still in the toilet, so the "totally useless fact" I included drove the content for this card.

Totally useless fact: A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

Work that into conversation at your next cocktail party!

 

Hula Hula

Meanwhile, over on Swap-Bot....

I love to recycle and in the theme of waste not want not, I bring you my food container label postcard!

This was a fun challenge because it involved ice cream. Well, for me it did. The challenge was to create a postcard out of a food container label and not only is the artwork on this container kind of cool, the ice cream is FRIGGIN DELICIOUS!!!! Sadly it would take waste not to waist not!

 

Thank goodness ice cream gives me a horrible stomach ache (I'll spare you the other gory details) because I could seriously eat the full half gallon of this in one sitting. It is that good.

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I have swapped with this woman before and there is something about the way she lists the animals that she has on her profile that always puts the song from Oklahoma in my head:

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry
When I take you out in the surrey,
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!

When Elephants Fly

This postcard is flying long and far from me - all the way to Hungary. There's that poet again!

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This is for the Bookpage + Clipping challenge on Swap-bot. Fortunately, I have lots of pages that I took out of a Reader's Digest book for the Altered book class. I must say, some of those stories are a bit peculiar especially when reading only one page out of a hundred!

What's on Your Table?

This postcard challenge was called Craft Leftovers. In my case that would be spelled Crap-ht Leftovers. You know the stuff - all those bits and baubs that you don't want to throw out, will probably never use but is not bona fide trash.

The best piece I found in the box where I toss such things was a sliver of a dictionary page that had to have come from the pug piece earlier this week. It was the intact definition of the word puke. Not something you want to sent to a stranger.

Another great discovery was that in mouse print on the bottom of the pages of some freebie magazine I picked up somewhere are these great useless facts. The two I chose were "The average woman consumes 6 lbs of lipstick in her lifetime" (Here's one time I'm happy to be well below average! Gotta wear it to eat it and I can't stand the stuff) and "5,840 people with pillow related injuries checked into U.S. emergency rooms in 1992." Hmmmm.

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What's in a Name

In the Webster's New American Dictionary, the word 'Pug" for which the second definition is 'boxer' is followed by "Pugilism', a noun defined as 'boxing' and 'Pugnacious', an adjective meaning combative.This makes me wonder what the origin of the word 'Pug' really is. 'Pug' is preceded by 'Puffin' so no clues there. But I digress.

I made a card and matching envelope for a woman who I don't know and will probably never meet who likes pugs. One thing led to another and now I'm going to have to become an amateur etymologist.

I am so pleased with how these turned out!

The background from the card goes back to this post. I found a pug picture in one of the zillion calendars I've recently purchased at the thrift store so I used the big picture for the envelope (the address will go in the speech bubble), and the little one on the card with some kissy lips I cut out of a Carmex ad. My favorite element though is the tape transfer of the dictionary definition. Tape transfers are my  kryptonite du jour.

 

Stationary Stationery

What a great crafty day it has been! I have rocked through some projects and did prep on others!

One of the too-many swaps I've signed up for in January is a stationery swap. Four sheets of stationery that can match or be complementary. I am so very pleased with how these turned out that I'm going to scan them and reprint so I can sit right down and write someone a letter!

I'll have to figure out envelopes tomorrow!

In the fixing mistakes creatively file, I have worked on the postcards some more and while they aren't precisely what I was hoping for, I had a blast making them. I learned from my mistakes and I kind of like them! (The cards. Not the mistakes.)

The stamped quote on the cards reads: "We do not remember days. We remember moments."

I hope all of you had many amazing moments today!

One Hot Mess!

I think I went swap happy there at the end of 2014. In addition to Round Robins and Zentangle swaps, I'm also doing a postcard swap.

These didn't have to be handmade postcards, but in my little town there are exactly two places to buy postcards: CVS or Walgreens and the postcards range from I wouldn't send it to my mother to who buys this crap! So, handmade it's going to be.

But there's a catch. You see, I've never made a postcard before. I've barely scratched the whole mixed media surface even though I've been collecting the supplies and ephemera for years!  That's not detering me.

This is the year of the creative stretch! I can do this! I will step, leap and jump outside my box! I will paint, glue and modge podge myself to victory! I will...I think I just pulled a muscle.

Day 8

Now that I have read today's post by Kelly over at Whimsy by Kelly, it appears that I inadvertantly met her challenge prompt for today: "find a "mistake" in your creative world and change it." Today I created the mistake and tomorrow I will change it for I will live to create another day!