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Monday, May 2, 2011

Mail art, rhinoceros, stickers and my crafty daughter. How's that for a Monday?

Another day, another swap-bot swap. This time one for mail art, which I really enjoy making and receiving. These pictures aren't of the actual envelopes I sent. These are extra ones I made along with the 'real' ones, but they are very similar. I was so involved with making this swap I forgot to take pictures during the actual process. My daughter and I were having fun with this one!

What was so engrossing about envelope making you wonder? Well, making the envies was fun and a great stress reliever. I love doodling on things and making art envelopes is like doodling with a purpose. But it was the profile surprise that we were supposed to put in the envelope that had my daughter and I happily creating things, camera a million miles from our thoughts.

This time around my partner's profile was very intriguing to me. She had some awesome 'likes'. Like the color purple, tree houses, bananas, stars and polka dots and especially, rhinos. So I thought... I'll make her stickers! Not because she especially likes stickers though she does like to make art journals and paste things in them, so I hoped that these would work for her crafting too.

But stickers fit nicely into an envelope and I really like hand-drawn art stickers. I mean in a sort of obsessive way. I keep etsy hopping with my constant prowl for art stickers. I don't know... Must be a child of the 80's thing and keeping and feeding of a massive sticker books during my formative years. Some of my etsy favorites have been Stefanie Fizer, thepoppytree, Jester777 (whom I met on swap-bot), and FlorLarios. If you know of any other artists that make illustrated stickers, let me know. I'm always hoping to find new ones.

So anyway, this is what I came up with when I combined several of her likes. :0) Such happy, silly little rhinos. I had a blast with this and got to play with my pretty markers. My daughter joined in and was sketching away across the table from me. One of the favorite things she said during that time was, "I don't know why rhinos and treehouses go together but they just do." Totally.

Then she declared her picture complete and I looked up and saw this gorgeousness:
 Wow! That's my crafty girl.

 All together now.

Well, her picture was enough to blow me away, but she didn't stop there. Finding a theme she liked, she kept expanding on it. Next thing I know she comes up with this little beauty:
 A paper-crafted treehouse. Only this time it is for a purple tiger.

 The cuteness almost made me cry.

I love this kid and her obsession for creating tiny needle felted pretties.

 Love!

Just goes to show, you never know where, when or why inspiration will strike and what it will lead to. Mail art swap = me making profile based stickers = daughter joining in fun and knocking my socks off with her drawing ability = daughter creating sculptural art based on previous creations. Makes me so happy!

Know what else makes me happy? SPRING! Buds on my tree!

Happy Monday! Wishing everyone a colorful, creative week!

6 comments:

cbeck said...

believe it or not, that little purple tiger looks an awful lot like my dog. I would buy it.

Sara said...

Wow - her work is very cool!

val said...

She's becoming like you in some very nice ways, lol. Very cool. love you, V

Hoola Tallulah said...

Ah the envelopes are lovely but I am affraid your daughter quite stole the show, what a talented little madam she is. There is a sweet fragility about the tree house and wee tiger that completely stole my heart <3

candyn said...

cbeck - I told my daughter about your comment to which she responded with a look of half-happiness, half-terror. And it allowed me a wonderful, if short lived, fantasy that involved etsy and child labor. Thanks for taking the time to comment here. It made our day!

Sara - Thanks! She constantly delights me. :0)

Val - My daughter is so much more motivated than I am. I need to take lessons from HER! xo

Hoola Tallulah - You are totally correct, she is my show stopper. Kids just undo me with their confidence and joy in making things. Watching them create continually renews my joy in art.

Critter's critters said...

delightfully artistic and crafty mom = inspirationally gifted kiddos. She has been quietly museworthy since the day she was born! Beautiful drawing!