Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap 2016

First, a HUGE THANKS to Kat... It was a fabulous event and saw so many inspiring cards. All the best to ALL. Keep up the creativity, and keep LIBERATING !!!!

It all started way back in January when I was taking part in Leslie Seata's 30 paintings in 30 days . I learned on  Sheila Delgado's blog about the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap. I was very excited about joining and thought this a good way to spread my art and meet new artists.  I already had at hand 30 new small daily paintings to choose from, find a printer and I was on my way. All original oils painted on 6 x 8 " cardboard or on pieces of collages also 6 x 8.

No regular printer does postcards here and the pros, my daughter works at a local printer, wants minimum 50-100 cards.So I decided to make my own.  Printed my cards at a photo printer and pasted with double sided tape to hard stock and drew the back of the postcard by hand. Not so professional looking but c'est la vie!!! Printing also was a problem because of the standard sizes here are different than in the states.

Finally, I shipped them off to Kat... Didn't decorate my envelope but Kat showed it because stamp and postmark from Israel in Hebrew,

Received envelope with

Postmark from Israel

My cards before shipping

My side swaps

Top left found a home with 

David Wolanski

Top right with Sheila Delgado

Bottom right went to my artist friend Meredith 

middle yellow landscape found a home in Australia with Diane McWhirter

bottom left found a home with my sister Debbie, Revere Beach Ma

Side swaps I received  L-R

From   David Wolanski    Sheila Delgado

Side swap from 

Diane Mcwhirter

Pencil drawing

Sadly I have only seen one of my cards on the FB event page. My  Potted Plant found a home with Megan Osborn from Arlington,Washington.

Although I am a bit disappointed at not knowing where my cards landed I am glad I took part and will take part next year.  I am a bit of stickler for internet etiquette and can't really understand  not letting the person who you received a card from that it arrived. I know that not all love FB,  including myself, but that is the event platform. I did put the URL of my site and there is a contact link. My they got lost/damaged or they weren't liked....don't want to go there,,,

I love all the cards I received. Still awaiting 1 card. and 1 side swap.

Top  L-R Amy Irwin  Chandra Lynn

Bottom L-R  Elizabeth Ann Dorman  

Linda Richards

Last but NOT least I received Kat's card!!!

Well, finally I received my last card. It traveled from Oregon to Jamaica and then on to Israel.

Alas, its anonymous a beautiful card of a mosaic bird.. 

The label was clear to go to Israel

Zip code not like any in Jamaica

Go figure!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

My Postcards On Their Way

This January through the challenge I met some wonderful artists and work. On Shiela's blog, I learned about a postcard swap run by Kat Sloma and got hooked on the idea. Ok, my daughter works for a professional printer and decided to get an estimate.  I knew I would need to print more than just the 5 needed for the swap but wasn't quite ready to print 100. So I decided to print them myself at a photo printer and paste the backs with card stock.

Postcards Ready to Go

First printing didn't come out so well because of the different proportions here. I thought they could print my 11 x 15 cm files on the 13 x 18 cm size and I would trim them to size.  Didn't quite work out that way and they printed up to large without margins... Rechecked my files to see that they were indeed 11 x 15 and they were.  Back to another printer and the same thing happened, saw on the monitor without printing. They suggested that I try to paste my file on the larger file in photoshop.  In the end used the "canvas size" option to get the results.  Had them trimmed at the printers and was ready to make the backings since I couldn't order stick on backs and no printer prints both sides like my first estimate.  Looked over the tutorial and found the best way for me was 3 strips of double sided tape and UHU stick. Pasted on one edge and trimmed the other 3 sides. My daughter didn't like the backs because they were hand made.

Well, maybe next year I will print professionally... What will I do with 100 postcards?  The price was good about 40 cents a card. Any suggestions!!!!