Mailart 365 has moved

You can't tell from the scan, but Ginger is crystallized with embossing powder.

There are two in this series, and neither has been sent out yet. I made them hoping to use on Postcrossing for someone who likes dance, and mailart, but never pulled an address of anyone who met that criteria. And now I've semi-retired my Zmrzlina profile so someone else can claim top-sender in the US. I'll start Postcrossing again in earnest after the new year, but I'll use my PostMuse profile so Zmrzlina can slip out of the rankings list.

I'm still having fun with paint chips. I spend way too much time sneaking paint chips out of the hardware store.

There are two in this series, but I'm just posting one. I have lots and lots of catch-up posting to do and since the cards are very, very similar, I won't be posting each card in my series individually,

I have been making mailart every day, but just can't get to posting. I did scan most of my mailart soon after I made it so I could mail it, though. Just have to document it all on the blog now. It will be a slow process.

There are still cards from earlier in the year I haven't mailed. My main goal is to MAIL all 365 pieces of mailart before 1 December 2011. These two went as a Postcrossing card (which hasn't been registered yet and the recipient hasn't been online in a month ... so it will probably expire) in October and a thank you card for this Benjamin Franklin orphaned postcard.

No matter how careful I am, I still can't seem to glue things down straight. Although, to cut myself a bit of slack, it is more the positioning of the rubber stamped honey jar that threw off the lines on this one.

This one is now Postcrossing US-1223445 and heading to Finland. It is my favorite of the three. I got the positioning almost right on this one.

I love the color of this paint chip. And if I could get the positioning just perfect, I think I'd make a million of this design. Perhaps it needs one more embellishment, though, but I can't think of what that might be.

Of course, one can't party hardy if one doesn't have a designated driver, and Max and Carlota certainly knew how to rig out the party van. The message on the back of this one is "private coach ... the hubcaps were silver."

I think this drink is called "Side Car" because after one of them, you are on your side in the car.

And here he is, in all his glory, Emperor Maximilian. The handwritten message on the back notes that he "ruled Mexico many years ago." Yes ... about 150 years ago. But, when this postcard was bought, and the message on the back written, it was probably only 100 years ago.

The festive, fruity Whiskey Fix seemed a good choice for dear Max.

The best thing about the vintage Mexican postcards I used for this series ... they come with pre-written messages on the back. Just a little message, written by the original owner. I don't know the person who wrote the messages ... I got these cards from someone else who found them at a thrift shop. This one has "Carlota, wife of the Emperor Maximilian" written on the back. There's still plenty of room for me to write a message of my own, and the address side is completely empty. I guess the note was just to remind the original owner about his/her trip to Mexico.

My grandmother, who rarely drank alcohol, was quite partial to Pink Lady cocktails when she did drink. Raw egg and alcohol ... yikes.

This one is now Postcrossing ID US-1223264 and heading to Finland. I've been having good luck pulling addresses of Postcrossing people who like mailart. I've also gotten a bit more active with Walltype, and found that there are more people there open to mailart. And, it is pretty certain that if you pull an address from Walltype, the user is active.

The FedEx delivery guy keeps giving me tips on local wineries to visit. I am not very fond of local wine, but I feel like I have to visit some of these wineries because he is so nice. I think it must have been the "Out of wine. Life is crap" t-shirt I always wear that tipped him off to my wine enthusiasm. It certainly isn't that he has seen me drinking wine at work. My workplace isn't that open-minded!

The colors of this series don't scan well at all. The paint chip is a fantastic shade of purple ... Grape Creme. I have no idea waht grape creme would taste like, but it sounds delicious. There is a current rage over whipped alcohol-infused cream around here, but I don't think anyone has tried whipping wine into cream. I hope no one does.

Once upon a time I would be worried about titling a series "Dead Friends," because it might offend people. I think one of the best things about MailArt365 is that I don't worry so much about things like that anymore. Not that I want to offend people, but I'm not as afraid to go with my original thoughts when I start putting stuff together for a postcard.

The people at the hardware stores don't even give me a passing glance when I stand at the paint chip display and gather 100 chips at a time. I just love reading the names and would love the job of coming up with new names. I have one file of paint chips that is dedicated to the most unusual names. Can't quite figure out why this particular green is called "Repurposed."

Since the featured fish are fossils, I'm calling this series Dead Friends. The "fish are friends, not food" quote is from the movie Finding Nemo. I didn't remember that line (the shark says it), but when I got the fish fossil list from Juli, I commented that I could repurpose it into mailart and still keep within my food theme because fish is food. Greg (my significant other) and a co-worker said, together, "fish are friends, not food." I thought it rather odd because neither of them are vegetarians. Greg was surprised I didn't remember the line from the movie ... it was one of the first movies we saw together. 

I have a couple more "Green Apple" paint chips that have the apple stamped on them. They are not the exact same color green, but in the same family. Want one? Leave a comment and I'll send one to you.

I'm going to try making digital prints of my favorite postcards using Moo.com, or maybe VistaPrint.com. This will be one of the cards I'll use and if this works, I'm going to use more of my own artwork for digital prints. I've never done this before, but I've received mailart from others that is digitally reproduced. I wonder if it rankles people to receive art that is not the original?

I think I could stamp paint chips forever and ever. I like the way the fruit stamps I have look when stamped with India Ink. This card is now Postcrossing ID US-1226575 and heading to Latvia.

Lately, I go to bed at night thinking about my first cup of coffee in the morning. I don't think this is a good thing.

I've been drinking way too much coffee this summer. I've tried to just limit myself to one cup in the morning, but it isn't working. The stuff I do at work in the morning is typically stuff that is easily done while enjoying a cup of coffee, and I can't seem to separate the task from the enjoyable beverage.

A very long time ago, FarStarr sent me a sample bit of artwork created by something called "liquid nails." It seems to be a construction grade glue, and FarStarr colored and layered it on cardstock. I cut the sample into three bits for this series of postcards. It is the very colorful bit in the upper right corner of each piece.

I don't have a huge amount of faith that the adhesive I used is going to keep the bit of liquid nails art in place for the postal journey, but I've got fingers and toes crossed.