Retro Cards

I love this Russian postcrosser card! She is studying to be a CSI after finishing up with law school. 

A Polish postcrosser altered this vintage 1962 card of the Warsaw National Stadium. I adore it!

An altered card using all vintage elements from a Belgian postcrosser. She writes, "Being a baby can be like hell, don't you think?" A rather odd comment but ok....

Play on Harry Potter

This Chinese postcrosser altered a rather boring cat card into a Harry Potter scene.

Beautiful Back

This Ukranian postcrosser painted these lovely trees on the back of the card. The colors of the gorgeous stamps echo the trees. 

Two Cards Altered

This Finnish postcrosser got so into altering cards that she sent two! They are lovely and quite different from each other. The card at the top was altered with glitter, nail polish and lipstick. Very meticulous and effective! The card below incorporates key words for the postcrosser. She is celebrating academic freedom and love of foreign languages. There are no tuition costs in Finland so all she needs to worry about are living expenses. How wonderful! 

Carrot People

Here's a simply altered card from a Russian postcrosser. I love the faces she drew on each carrot. Just the fact that carrot postcards exist is a marvel!

Two Annas from Russia

This card is from Anna, a postcrosser in Ivanovo. Her first card failed to reach me but she was kind enough to send a second one. What a bright & cheerful card this is, and it reminds me of toleware or Amish design.

This card is from Anna, a postcrosser in Krasnoyarsk, a city in Siberia. The card has been altered by the elements as well as the postcrosser. The front of the card was stuck to the envelope. There was no way to peel it off without some of the envelope stuck to the image. No matter, the end result is quite interesting!

Glorious Sea

Here is a fabulous altered card by Annur, a postcrosser from Malaysia. I love the tile effects she achieved by the deconstruction and reconconstruction of the oceanic image. Lovely lovely texture too.

Advent Calendar

Here's this year's advent calendar in the form of a card. Love all the little details in this card, particularly the mushrooms, which seem to appear in many European illustrations.

Tales of the Uncanny

Here's a card announcing a local exhibition that features artwork by Sandy Yagi. I went to the opening reception and enjoyed the works by all of the artists in the show. 

Postcards to Political Prisoners

I visited the Ai WeiWei installations at Alcatraz on December 13. One of the participatory pieces called "Yours Truly" was an opportunity to send postcards to political prisoners around the world. I sent several, and brought a couple home for my remembrance. Li Tie is a Wubei writer and human rights activist who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for subversion of state power. He wrote an essay called "Human Beings’ Heaven Is Human Dignity." Dilmurod Saidov is a Uzbek journalist sentenced to 12.5 years in prison because of his efforts on behalf of farmers' rights in the Samarkand region.

Favorite 2014 Christmas Cards

A card from the cast & crew of "Looking," an HBO series that used our Arc building for location.

The beetle & tree card made me nostalgic for the 1970's. The monkey reminded me of the snow monkeys visited in April. And I love the simple whimsey of Santa and animals in the illusted card.

I love the graphics & color selection of the both the red and the blue card. And I am a sucker for glitter, which is what the Joy card has all over it.

A fun handmade card from Mido and Michael. 

Irma's collage card showing front & back.

Susan's elf card made with old card and Chinese paper

Tanya & Kirk's recycled painting card

Women Politicians from California

Dianne Feinstein, Senator from California

Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House (currently Minority Leader of the House)

Here are my handmade postcards for the Women Do It! postcard show. Celebrating 3 political heroes from California: Senator Dianne Feinstein for her singleminded efforts to ban assault weapons, California Attorney General Kamala Harris for her compassion for victims of crime and opposition to the death penalty, and first woman Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for her battle to implement healthcare reform.

Women Do It! Postcard Show

Here's a fun call for altered or hand-made postcards. Make cards on the theme of "Women Do It!" What are noteworthy achievements by women? What impacts have women had on the economy, human rights, education, environment, world health, religion, politics and peace? Who are our women and girl heroes in our family and in our community? Which women do you admire in leadership, public service, sports and in the arts? 

This show is sponsored by the International Caucus of the Women's Caucus for Art. ”Women Do It!” supports both the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign and the upcoming 2015 Commission on the Status of Women’s Beijing+20 Conference in their efforts toward advancing women’s rights and gender equality in society, economics and politics.  

VENUES

• WCA and CAA Conferences, February 2015 (possible opportunity with early postcard submissions)
• UN Commission on the Status of Women Conference, International Caucus UN Program parallel event during March 9-20, 2015.
• UN DPI/NGO Conference August 2015
• WCA National Conference, Washington DC, February 2016
• Women's History Month Exhibition, St. Louis Florissant Valley Community College, March 2016
• Arc Project Gallery, San Francisco, May 7 - June 4, 2006. 

. To find out more and to submit your cards, click here!

Gotham City

Here's a card I picked up at SCRAP. It's the Empire State Building glittering against an ominous sky. Very Batmanesque. I am sending this card to a German postcrosser who requested weird postcards/weird angles. It's got two Batman stamps on the back. Hope she enjoys it.

Winter in Yosemite

I picked up this card at last year's white elephant sale in Oakland. This was called the toboggan slide and provided outstanding views of El Capitan and Half Dome. Slide was apparently made in 1927 and removed in the 1950's. I am sending this card to a postcrosser in Japan.

Eight in One

What a surprise! I received eight cards in one envelope from a Taiwanese postcrosser. Nothing was written on them and they were a jumble of types (ad cards and regular) and images. However, I had received two anxious emails from him last week, asking if I had received the cards yet. He thought he had sent seven, but there was an extra one. Having no other message to give me a clue as to why he sent this assortment, I decided to create a story linking all of them together.

Once upon a time, a doctor was treating a patient who was addicted to Belgian waffles. The patient came from a farming village famous for its buckwheat. Between big bites of his waffle, the patient said that the buckwheat farmers were actually animals and they cast a spell on him. The doctor asked a detective to see if this was true. The detective was "hung like an outlaw," but he was afraid that he too would become bewitched. He assigned his assistant to sleuth things out. Fearless, she launched her dragon boat powered by youthful trainees. They rowed day and night until they arrived in the land of buckwheat. They were greeted by a group of goofy animals, who gave them a place to stay and plied them with delicious waffles and milk. In the morning assistant and her crew were transformed into waffle monsters.   

Wet and Dry Landscapes

This palm tree and reflective water card is from a postcrosser in Brasil.

The entrance to the Dunhuang caves in dry desert-like conditions is from a Chinese postcrosser.

Ugly in the Eyes of Beholder

I love this silhouetted image of a sculpture in Prague but the postcrosser from France sniffed that she would never visit Prague to see these ugly sculptures.

A Colorful Life

This imaginative Chinese postcrosser decorated a simple card with all kinds of decorative tape.

Stampsworthy

Some lovely stamps and cancellations

Antarctica and the Arctic Circle

The card above is a maxicard from an Australian postcrosser living in Victoria. The cancellation shows first day of issue, January 2008. According to Wikipedia, the Australian Antarctic Territory was claimed by the UK and placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1933. It is the largest territory claimed by any nation. 

This card is a painting by Danielle Eubank, who traveled on an expedition boat to the Arctic Circle.

Cool that both cards arrived at around the same time!

Il Papa

Hey hey! Here's my first card from a postcrosser from the Vatican. He is an American studying for the Catholic priesthood in Rome. 

Little People

This lovely peach blossom card came from a postcrosser from Guangdong, China. I am always pleased to get illustrations of characters with beautiful narrow eyes.

Here's a cartoon of an assertive little girl. You tell him sista! This is the first postcrossing card sent by a Russian girl. I hope it reflects her own self confidence. Can someone tell me what the Russian words mean?

Field of Poppies

I love this field of poppies with a house in the background. It was sent by a Polish postcrosser living in Przysucha, Poland. These flowers evoke times of war for me.

Cut and Reassemble

Here's a cool way to cut up and then reassemble the card. The postcrosser from Germany laminated the card and left a little space between the pieces to create a line effect.

Beauty in Nature

A gorgeous tree from Taiwan. This postcrosser subtly added faces on some of the leaves. I love how the sunlight fills the leaves. The bird card is from a postcrosser in Costa Rica. It is my first card from that country. The birds are (top left to right): Quetzal, woodpecker, toucan, parrot, jacano, toucan and hummingbird.

Swirly Hearts

I love this colorful swirly hearts card from Portugal. She wasn't satisfied with her creation but I love the movement and spontaneity of this  piece.

Seated and...

Googly eyes eating eggs in a cup in Finland

Opening mail in Belarus

Enjoying their only-child beloved status in China

Having a funny fishing experience in Poland

Pretty Stamps from All Over

Clockwise from the top: silver Russian snowboarder, Sunbeam Alpine stamp with handwritten cancellation from Russia, Finnish accordion player, Slovenian trio celebrating the year of chrystallography, modern furniture from Sweden, a wheel of cheese from Poland.  

Sunny from Yekaterinaburg

Here's a handmade card from Vlad, a high-school student in Russia. I love his happy creation! He enjoys drawing, reading, photographing and collecting stamps.

New Beginnings

My niece started her freshman year at McGill in Montreal. She sent a multiview card of the various sights in town. Unlike her finishing school, McGill is huge. She is in a class of 500 and wants to major in engineering. It is sink or swim time for her. I sent her a vintage Portuguese pool card to remind her of her swimmer past. And also of warm weather as Montreal is already turning cold.