Hosting My First Challenge At I.A.

As I've mentioned previously, I'm a new member of Inspiration Avenue, a small but international conglomerate of artists who support one another's work. I love this group of women, Maggie, Lisa W, Hettienne, Shelly, Dianne, Kim & Lisa D , they're all creative and endlessly friendly. I'm enjoying being a member even more than I thought possible, having other artists to talk to has really helped focus my artistic journey.

This week is my first I.A. challenge and I decided the theme would be "You've Got Mail!". I have always loved the touchability of a letter, the feel of the paper, the decoration of the stamp and the unique cursive of each sender's handwriting. I'm not surprised at my love of snail mail as I'm sure it blooms from my adoration of pen & ink and paper products. I used to have a huge collection of papers, postcards, note cards, pens, stickers, embellishments and other ephemera, all meant to make the letters I send out an experience for the reader. Unfortunately, today so few people send actual letters anymore. In fact there are places on the web one can join just to exchange mail with other members. It's nice to see there are others with my little addiction. Here's one such place, SwapBot, I haven't participated in over a year as mailing packages in Canada has become prohibitively expensive. But when I'm not such a starving artist I will once again join in on the fun of sending and receiving lovely snail mail. Until then I'll make mail art!

Here's my drawing for my "You've Got Mail! challenge. It was such fun to flesh out the drawing and embellish is with little extras. I used Sakura Pigma Micron pens to ink the design then I added color using watercolor pencils but I didn't add water because I loved the way the color laid down on the cold pressed Arches watercolor paper. The paper has a tooth because of the cold pressing and I love that about it.

(Please Click To Enlarge Picture)

Title: "You've Got Mail"

Speaking of mail, I ordered some address labels from an Etsy Shop named Designs By Thoughts  owned by a lovely woman (Tiffany) and her mother (Yolanda). They make beautifully dye cut sticky labels (among other things) any way you want them. They are endlessly helpful and really want to put out the best product possible to make their customers happy. I heartily recommend their products, I'll be returning soon to purchase other labels and ephemera from them. Here's a picture of the labels I had made, aren't they purty?!

  

Labels by Designs By Thought

Thanks Tiffany & Yolanda!

I'll be back soon with new art and the beginning of my series featuring Extraordinary Artists. Until then, have a happy rest of the week and feel free to make your own piece of Mail art and join us at Inspiration Avenue for the Mail party! I'd love to see what you all make. Find suggestions for making mail art and challenge rules (in the sidebar) at IA.

I'm out, talk to y'all later!
Best,

P.S. I would really appreciate it if you enjoyed reading this blog post, that you follow my blog using my new Linky Tool. As Google Friend Connect will be discontinued within the year, I'd really love to collect my readers once again in the New Linky tool. I'd also truly love new followers, every one who follows makes me abundantly happy! If you follow in the new Linky Tool and would like a follow back please leave me a comment and I'd be more than happy to go to your lovely blog and follow back! I'm always thrilled to discover new blogs.

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