liberate your art

February 12, 2015 by Kat

More to Liberate Your Art than Postcards!

The Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap is in full swing! I’ve received 53 envelopes so far, many gorgeously decorated, like this one from Juana in Washington. 42 of the envelopes are from the US, 11 from outside the US: Germany, Norway, The Netherlands, UK, Canada, Australia and France. Exciting!

Don’t you want to join in? You have one more day before I close sign up! Visit the Liberate Your Art page and sign up for the special swap email list via the blue box. All postcards must be received by March 14, 2015 to be included.

It’s time for the Treasure Hunt!

This year I’m adding a “Treasure Hunt” through participant websites, to increase the opportunities for connection with fellow swappers. All of the details will be in the swap update email that arrives in your inbox tomorrow (if you are on the swap email list, that is!). A big thanks to Tammy Wilson for helping me with this! I couldn’t add this fun activity without her.

And there are PRIZES for the winners!! Beautiful pieces of art, donated by a few talented swap participants willing to liberate their art directly to you. Here is what you could win if you finish the Treasure Hunt…

Therese Misner
8×8″ acrylic/mixed media abstract titled “Gazing”

Sarah Wiseman
Set of six wildlife greeting cards, images of her silk paintings

Christie Juhasz
8.5×5.5″ Handmade vintage and current scrap machine-quilted pouch, fully lined with zipper. She will include a sheet of postcard stamps and some mail art paper ephemera inside. Fun!

Tammy Wilson
Set of ten note cards from her photography

Rebecca Hill
A pair of handmade earrings

Marcia Hill
Set of five notecards of her pastel paintings

Linda Ursin
Mixed Media Ladybug painting, 23.9×29.7cm

Patricia Lyon-Surrey
2015 Calendar of her Vermont-based photography
Here are a couple of the images inside:

Aren’t these wonderful? Be sure you are on the swap email list, if you want to participate! All of the instructions will be sent via email.

And now for more mail art…

Here are a few more of the beautiful envelopes I’ve been receiving. When you decorate your envelope, you are making everyone who touches them smile! Isn’t that awesome to think about? All it takes is a little bit of time, and maybe some stamps and ink, like this one from Lynne in Philadephia…

Or how about a little washi tape, like this one from Lisa in Texas:

You can get a little fancier, too! I love the stamps that Rinda from California uses, telling me to Do Something Creative Every Day…

Thank you Rinda, I will do that! The back of her envelope was beautiful too.

So, what do you think? Do YOU have it in you to brighten the day of everyone who touches an envelope? I think so! Go forth and create some mail art!

Liberating Your Art is about more than just postcards. It’s about bringing art into your life, and the lives of others, in simple ways. Think about what you can do.

January 29, 2015 by Kat

It’s time for some Mail Art!

It’s time to shift gears a little bit on the blog, sharing a few pieces of art that have arrived in the mail as part of the Liberate Your Art 2015 Postcard Swap! I’ve received 10 envelopes so far from locations far and wide, including from The Netherlands, Norway and France. It is early, and there is still plenty of time to join and make your postcards before the deadline. You can learn more and sign up here.

This is always exciting, when the decorated envelopes start arriving. I want to share a few with you! If the artist provided a link on their postcard, I’ve included it, otherwise we will just have to leave our appreciation in the comments here.

This first one is from Christie in Florida. This envelope was a cornucopia of detail! So many layers and fun stuff to see, I couldn’t decide quite where to focus my photograph until the celebration of “Mail Art” caught my eye!

This gorgeous painted envelope came from Peggy in Colorado. (My home state! Go Broncos! Oh wait, they lost in the playoffs already…) Peggy brings to life a wonderful bare tree structure in some of my favorite colors. (Were you pandering to the swap leader, Peggy? Very smart of you! Here you are on the blog!)

Kate‘s doodles arrived on her envelope from Michigan, bringing to mind music and electrical engineering symbols! Do you see the resistors, capacitors and ground symbols? (Oops, the techie in me is showing…) I’m not sure if that was intentional, but I like it. What do you see?

Finally, we have one from Lisa in Virginia. I love it when the stamps are integrated so nicely with the envelope art!

And a lovely message was included on the back…

That’s what mail art is all about: Encouragement and inspiration. There is nothing like a beautiful piece of art arriving in the mail to make you smile! Liberating your art really does “let your heart speak to other’s hearts.”

If you haven’t joined in the swap yet, you still have time!

January 5, 2015 by Kat

Liberate Your Art 2015 Postcard Swap is here!

It’s here for 2015! The Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap has officially opened for the 5th Annual Swap. Can you believe we’ve been doing this for five years?? And it’s just as fun every year!

If you are not familiar with the swap, here’s how it works: You create postcards printed with your artwork on them. Any type of artwork, all mediums are welcome. You send me five postcards, and you receive six back — from five other participants and one from me! It’s a fun and easy way to learn to reproduce your work and to get your art out in the world if you haven’t done it before. There are also lots of ways to connect with the participants and increase your network, like the Facebook Event group, the Participant List and the Blog Hop. I’ve got more ideas, too!

Last year, we had just over 200 artists from 10 countries participating. Do you think we can increase that this year? I think so, but I need your help. I need you to share, share, share about the swap! Blog about it, post it on Facebook, tweet it. Use #liberateyourart on social media. Send everyone to the swap landing page to get more info and sign up. Working together, we can get the word out!

To get all of the details, sign up for the email list here. Already on the list from last year? Great! Check your inbox, because I sent an email yesterday to kick things off.

Ready, Set, Go! Let’s make the 2015 swap BIG!

April 16, 2014 by Kat

Liberate Your Art 2014 Blog Hop

Round the world the postcards go. Where they stopped, we all now know!

The Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap has wrapped up for 2014, and the fourth year was just as much fun as the previous three. Just when I think I have everything in this swap figured out, there are new things for me to learn about. This year, it was the US Postal Service changing the postcard rate and not yet having stamps available, right before the swap deadline. It keeps things interesting! I didn’t quite meet my goal of 250 participants this year, but that means I’ll just have to keep the swap going another year. 😉

Here are the final stats for 2014:

1254 pieces of art liberated
209 participating artists
10 countries represented

Every year as I open the envelopes, see your art and read your notes, a message seems to emerge for me. This year’s message:

When you liberate your art, you liberate your heart.
Your heart goes into what you create, so when it’s liberated, a little piece of who you are is sent into the world. Because of that, it can be incredibly hard to liberate your art. Exposing your self in this way is difficult, but it’s the first step on a journey that will take you to amazing places. You can’t help but grow and expand your heart as you send your art out into the world.

How do I know this? The first art I ever liberated to others was in the form of postcards. From that small beginning, I’ve continued to evolve the way I share my art, from postcards to cards to individual prints to collections to exhibitions. I have found my voice artistically and I have a confidence in myself around my art I could never have dreamed when I liberated those first few postcards into the world. That’s a very big reason why I run this swap, to encourage others to take this small step too.

Whether you are at the very start of your journey or somewhere further down the road, this postcard swap gives you the chance to go back to the basics. You liberated your art and your heart into the world, where it can do the greatest good. Thank you so much for your participation. I hope you’ll join in again next year!

Now, it’s time to HOP! I have a special bonus for the blog hop participants in the form of a giveaway drawing! At the end of the blog hop, by random drawing from all blog hop participants, I will be giving away:

One copy of the book Good Mail Day: A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art. I found this gorgeous book in the gift shop at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, and couldn’t resist.
One 6×9″ fine art print, matted to 11×14″, of this year’s Blog Hop image, shown above. I love how this image came out, and thought the message could be inspiring on your wall. It’s already up on mine!

If you’d like to purchase your own 6×9″ fine art print of today’s image and help me defray the extra expenses I incur on behalf of the swap, I am making it available for purchase during the time of the blog hop. To order, click here if you are within the US and here if you are outside of the US. Postage is included in the purchase price. (Don’t worry, if you purchase the print and then win the giveaway, I’ll refund your money.)

Enough words from me… Let’s hop!

An InLinkz Link-up

March 4, 2014 by Kat

What’s in the Mail?

It’s less that two weeks until the big swap Sunday for the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap! That means it’s time to mail for everyone involved, and boy, are the envelopes rolling in. As of Saturday I had received 120 envelopes! I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll meet my goal of 250 participants this year. It’s looking good!

And the envelopes are pretty amazing this year too. I’ll share a few of my recent favorites here with you today…

Lynn created some bright, happy doodles. I loved how the hand-cancelled stamp matched perfectly.

Judith encourage us to liberate our art, or our cat, whichever suits! I think I’ll stick to the art, Judith. My cat is an indoor cat. 🙂

A gorgeous, hand-drawn envelope from Melody encourages me to write. Isn’t this an adorable little mouse? I’d write back if I got to see more of him!

Suzette created a wonderful message in her envelope art. I didn’t want to open this one, for fear of messing it up, but there was a little message inside the envelope, too! Payoff! Not to mention her gorgeous postcards…

I love it when people re-use things! Meredith was one of many who re-used the Moo packaging her postcards came in. She decorate the envelope and the sleeve too. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the inner sleeve… mostly because I didn’t know it was decorated until just now. It was like a secret surprise! Gorgeous!

Some shimmery flowers in rich colors decorated Evelyn’s envelope…

Sheila tempts me to warmer climes with her palm tree. Which echoed the art on one of her postcards. Very cool! Sheila also sent some extra postcards for my helpers. NICE!! They will appreciate them on swap day!

I saw Barbara‘s envelope on Instagram before she mailed it. I couldn’t wait to get this gorgeous envelope. I just love the soft colors! Don’t forget to use #liberateyourart on social media, and find each other!

Finally, Valerie from Germany always sends me a big, decorated envelope. Her envelope usually has an extra little surprise in it. This year it was a little covered notebook and bookmarks. Fun!

You know what’s really cool, the folks at my UPS store even recognized her as one of the past participants. When you decorate an envelope, many people get to enjoy your art along the way. I imagine these envelopes bring lots of smiles, as they go from you to me.

And we’ll bring more smiles as we Liberate our Art as postcards! Not long now!

February 18, 2014 by Kat

Let’s Swap!

I’m back with another Liberate Your Art postcard swap update! We have less than one week left for sign up to join the swap, so if you’ve been delaying, it’s time to get in gear. You can sign up here until February 21st. After that time gets too short to make postcards and get them mailed to me before the deadline of March 15th.

So far, 52 envelopes have arrived! Yay! I started “checking in” envelopes this weekend. “Check in” involves opening every envelope, making sure there are the right number of postcards, stamps and labels, making sure the postcards have a greeting written on them, and removing all of the extra bits and bobs that get sent along, like lovely notes or extra postcards for me. (I love those little surprises!) Envelopes from international participants are matched up with their Paypal payment, and a note is sent to confirm receipt. If anything isn’t right about the package, I’ll try to contact the artist if I have their email address. It’s possible to resolve issues for those who send early.

Some more gorgeous mail art to share with you…

Amanda Bradley is a calligrapher in Washington, and her envelopes are a piece of art in themselves! I wish I had a link to send you to, so you could see more of her work. It doesn’t seem she has a website, sadly. I would happily lose myself for hours in the beautiful words and flourishes she creates, if she did. But instead I’ll just look dreamily at the envelope she sent!

Paula Bogdan transformed a plain manila envelope into a dramatic piece in red, white and black. I love the touches of yellow which blend in the few places the envelope is showing!

Jane Peeks is a mixed media artist, and veteran envelope decorator in the swap! I think I’ve posted her envelopes every year. This year her envelope had lots of hand drawn flourishes in a gorgeous purple and green…

…and a perfect sentiment on the back!

I agree, Jane! Let’s Swap!

« Previous Page