Inspiration: Postcard art swap

I’ve been very inspired Ihanna‘s postcard swap she did recently with bloggers from the art & craft community. She first mentionned this on #craftsocial via Twitter (correct me if I’m wrong, Hanna!) and she had a huge success witth this.

Here are some of my favorites that I found on the DIY Postcard Swap Flickr group:

By Prismtrail
Ah, the birds. Gotta love birds! I really enjoy the soft colors and wonder how the artist did the background effect. It really is neat.

From CarliniFed
This is one great and different idea. Not to mention it makes one comfy postcard!

From Heather Kirtland.
Lots of lovely stamps here and I adore the use of crayons/colors over the images and text. It changes the mood a lot.

From Lillamanda
Once again, you know how much I have a thing for mixed-medias, this one being fabric, embroidery & paper. How come I never do this? :-p

From Beebers31
You can’t go wring with a Peter Pan quote! 😉 I love the mix of thoses vintage images.

From Olive Nabya
This one’s picture isn’t great, but I really wanted to share it as I love the idea of taking old 35 mm film to create with. This is such a great idea!

From sacredgympsy
My “zen” side really likes this one. The message is very clear, here. I’d put this one right next to my computer desk. 😉

Congratulations to all who participated in the swap. I know theses takes a lot of time (Which is one of the reason why I couldn’t participate), but they are so inspiring and it’s fun to interact “for real” with the other bloggers.

If you’d like to participate in a postcard swap, Hanna suggests the postcard swaps in the Swapbot community. I never tried it, but may very well do so this year. (As soon as I manage my time better. Mmph! Shouldn’t we all? :p)

IPod touch art

One of the greatest thing that  revolutionned the way we make art theses day is technology. Better known as: computers.

If, like me, you’re in  your late twenties, you certainly remember the first time you did a drawing on the computer. You probably also remember the first time you got your first hacked version of Photoshop, but that’s another story…

Right now, I’d like to talk about what “technology” brought us in the last year: IPod touch art! You can also make this on an IPhone, as well.

Now, I don’t own one (yet!), but I’ve been checking out theses little pieces of art floating around Flickr, lately. Here are some of them:

From John Bavaro.

I love the texture and shapes in this one. Love me some, Budda! (Which, for some odd reason, reminds me of this part of a funny documentary made by Réal Béland, a Quebec comedian. Watch if you have some free time. :-p)

From Robert Dawson.

I could totally see myself draw people in a cafe with this gadjet.
(I can hear my mom saying:”Isn’t what you’ve been doing for years with a sketchpad and a pen?” :-p)

From Toubab.

I really like the movement, lines and colors of this one. Simple, yet, very eye-catching. 

From Suzi54241

I adore Suzi’s work. She’s a retired artist and you can defenetely see that she has many years of drawing behind her. Check out the website she has with other fingerpainters. She also reccomends us to take a look at Fingerpainted.it.

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Have you tried this before? If so, how did you like it? If  not, would you consider getting an Ipod touch just for this special feature? Share your thoughts!

Illustration + embroidery= ♥

I love how embroidery and illustration blends so well together. Sure you can always use one of Sublime Stitching amazing patterns, but there’s nothing more personnal than using your very own art.

Here are some of my favorites embroidery + original illustration art on the Embroidery Flickr group. 

From Kittykill.
Simple designs are always very effective.

From Edisonrex.
Here’s a lovely match of print + embroidery.

From Audie
One day, I’ll learn how to fill my patterns!

From Mrs. Gibson
It must have taken so much time but the result is impressing.

From Laura Amiss
I am absolutely in love with this mixed-media piece. Illustration combined with fabric and embroidery. How more crafty can an illustrator get? 😀

From Apple & Eve
And I had to post at least one plushie. Think about this: Your plushie design + embroidery details= pure piece of art! This one’s details are amazing.

From Spicy Shots
You’ve problably seen this one from other blogs. In the following year, my little finger tells me Alice and her counterparts will be very trendy. Gee, I wonder why! 😉

I think the “lesson” we can learn from this post, is to always think out of the box. Think further of what you can do and never be afraid to combine crafts. The results may just surprise you!