Welcome to the post age (no. 1+2+3)....

A while back I mentioned that my friend Elly and I were starting a project which I'll refer to as the every second monday project.… Basically, we send each other a postcard every second Monday (who'd have thought?!) which we make ourselves. So far I've sent 4 postcards. I've received 2 of Elly's, with the third (and hopefully fourth) somewhere in transit between Australia and New Zealand. Let's take a look a her beautiful handiwork now!

This one reminds me of the fungi you find growing on trees in rainforests. Of course, she had to post it in an envelope to avoid damage, but now I've folded all the fungi out. From one side they're mainly red and from the other side, mainly orange. This is just my thing so I'm really impressed.

This one is beautiful. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Elly has cut watercolour paintings into thin strips and stuck them down. What I think is cute is that the postal service has added those fluoro orange lines to the postcard and they fit nicely in one of the strips of paper (Hmm, a bit tricky to see in this photo). Cute!

I'm patiently waiting on the third (and forth?) postcard to arrive. Elly and I both love getting real mail (who doesn't?!) so this has been heaps of fun. Unfortunately, we're both a bit tragic at posting on the correct day which I think we probably have to work on.

So, what are the 4 postcards that I sent? Well it would've been helpful for me to photograph them before I sent them. The first one was made using a swatch of mine from my screen printing project. I used one of the gold globs on grey and stitched it onto some card.

I did take a photo of the second one! And here it is:

I really love this one. It took me ages to do, as I had to cut out all the white squares and superglue them onto the card. I think there are about 150 of them. Plus I did the black borders twice (once before cutting them up and once after) because they weren't black enough after one coat. I really am a perfectionist sometimes. Unfortunately, it's not yet in Elly's posession. I had really convinced myself that I was under surveilance by border security who had (incorrectly) assumed that the numbers were some sort of a code. It wouldn't have helped that the message on the back looks something like:
41111 1114, 41111 11411 31135 1411 3121. 111 1411 111 1 3121. 111 8111 111 31111 41111 11 111 1111113111112 13113311 1111. 11 11 11 8111 1 311114 3131111? 4114 1141, 1118.
After spending 2 weeks blaming border security and getting REALLY worked up, I realised that I sent it to the wrong house number. Oops!

I've alerted Elly who is going to question her neighbour. I'm yet to hear if she's managed to get hold of this postcard or whether the neighbour threw it out. Either way, I was so impressed with it that it inspired me to do a painting (more on that later in the week).

My third postcard is probably also at the neighbours. I used a postcard from a boutique in town (a beautiful shop called Aroha Lamour which I can't afford to buy anything in) and did some stitching and painting. I'm not sure about the results, but I figured I should still send it. I'm keen to hear what Elly thinks of it.

The fourth postcard was sent 2 days ago (on schedule!). I'd love to give you a sneak peek, but that would ruin the surprise if Elly reads my blog and we can't have that. I loved the second postcard I did, but this one takes the cake. She's a beauty. Hopefully Elly thinks it's hideous and gives it back to me. Unlikely.

Perhaps I'll report on the postcards every 6 weeks or so – assuming we manage to get into a regular posting routine! I'll even try to remember to take photos before I post them!!

Until the next catch-up….