Of the Sea

A lovely collage card from an UK postcrosser. She took a plain card of the sea and added elements from a paper napkin. My favorite glitter was sprinkled on afterwards. She used lovely stamps of the ocean and fishes to complement the front design. Thanks for a gorgeous card, Mitzi!!

Chickens in Love

A pretty card from a Ukranian postcrosser of two chickens in love. The old-fashioned graphics are just fabulous.

A Special Bike

...so says a Taiwanese postcrosser. Indeed it's quite a spiffy model and so were the stamps of misty mountains, historical buildings, and a beetle.

Sacagawea

Derrick sent this lovely card of Sacagawea. The card describes her as born a Shoshone, but captured by rival Native Americans and sold to a French trapper. She served as a guide for the Lewis & Clark expedition. The National American Woman Suffrage Association adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence. I guess it's like making lemonade out of lemons....

Woodstock Lives!

A blissful postcrosser from Poland sent this summer of love card from Przystanek Woodstock. This is a free rock music festival named after the original Woodstock, and has been going on since 1995. 

A Bitten Biscuit

I am trying to catch up on my postings from last year. Back in March, this German postcrosser wrote, "I am making a diet, one week just eating annoying vegetables." I guess the hunger got to her. Deutsche Post thought they had mangled the card. They politely sealed it in a recyclable bag before sending to me. I love postal interventions such as this!

Freedom Stamps

"Henceforward shall be free..." key words from the Emancipation Proclamation are beautifully imprinted on this January 2013 stamp. USPS art director Antonio Alcalá commissioned graphic artist Gail Anderson to design the stamp and the Hatch Show Print of Nashville Tennessee, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the US, produced the effect of Civil War era broadsides. 

Note to self: mail rates go up January 27!

Happy New Year!

What a beautiful night New Year's Eve was! I was surrounded by happy, dancing friends. We enjoyed our bowl of red posole and blew our horns when 2013 arrived. This time, I had the presence of mind to tape Yukutoshi/Kurutoshi so I watched the year change in all the sacred places in Japan before falling asleep. Today it's bright and sunny and I've already made tons of New Year's food to bring to a osechi ryori party.

 

Mike made this card with the snake stamp I got in Japan in October. The New Year's greeting is from a previously purchased stamp.

Mom sent the New Year's stamp sheet from Japan as a Christmas gift. Each year, the Japan Post folks ask famous artists and calligraphers to create their version of "hebi," or snake. It's always cool to see all the variations of that one character.

Bold & Beautiful

This colorful and oversized poscard arrived from Creativity Explored. Vincent Jackson, one of the artists at the center, will have a solo show in January.

Cut and Sewn

A card from a Russian postcrosser, cut smaller than regular size, and decorated with sewn red thread.

Best and the Worst

This amazing card arrived from a postcrosser in Belarus. It is a testament to the fact that altered cards, no matter how funky, can travel safely from one country to the next. She tore apart a card of Belarusian stamps and pieced it together on her musical notes. She said the experience made her think of the worst sides of her life and the best. The back of the card had a note in red to the post officers to deliver without any troubles. Deliver they did, to my absolute delight.

Her Version of the Nutcracker

And this is my favorite card today. This Russian postcrosser dressed up the ballet card with collage that makes for a wonderful nutcracker scene.

Tomb of Confucius

The ornate gates leading to Confucius' tomb. Note the dead tree on the left.

What Finns Eat

A lovely winter card from a Finnish postcrosser. She wrote down the typical foods eaten by a Finn: milk products, rye bread, Karelian pasty, Karelian hotpot, reindeer saute, meatballs, smoked fish, rice pudding, rye pudding, squeaky cheese, minced meat, cinnamon bun.  Yum! Will have to look up recipes. Noticeably absent: any mention of fruits or vegetables.

All Signs Point To....

A Canadian postcrosser sent this card with a note that said that her late husband purchased the card from his birthplace in Ireland. She lives in northern British Columbia surrounded by nature. I love the little yellow mailbox, over which she's drawn herself, waiting for her postcard!

Handmade Christmas

Top card made by Gloria and Cynthia; bottom card made by Riko. I had to resort to sending store-bought cards this year for the first time in many years. These cards are reminders that in 2014, I can go back to the pleasure of mail art.

2013 Christmas

This has been a Christmas of lowered expectations because of my current workload. Still, I received some lovely cards from friends and family. Clockwise from top left: artist S. Yagi's co-joined twins, brother Eugene's shape card from Japan, artist S. Cornett's mushrooms (my favorite European theme!), and an Artspan card of a drawing by a child from the Bessie Carmichael School.

Oh Starry Night!

 

My friend Susan made this gorgeous card of stars pieced with old Christmas cards. This is the first year that I've foregone making cards for the Holidays and this lovely gift will be a reminder that in two years I will be free again to create.

Inuit Card

I received this lovely card announcing the Cape Dorset annual print collection. My husband and I started collecting Inuit art in the 1980's, when we went to Quebec City. In San Francisco, there's a shop called Images of the North that carries a nice collection of Inuit work, from lithographs to sculpture to jewelry. It's a dream of mine to visit Cape Dorset, but right now I'm content to receive a card filled with squawking geese.

View from Above

I was looking forward to this gorgeous sheet all year. It reminds me of the Cloudscape stamps from years ago, but instead of looking up, these sheets look down. When I have a moment, I think I will create a set of cityscape artistamps in response to these earthscapes.