Trading, Trading Cards

Hello everyone,

Wow! this is strange. Penny posting twice in one week much less twice in one day. Is she sick???

Nope, just wanted to keep the last post from getting too long and/or this post getting over looked.

Dana over at:

Sinderella Studio Designs

and I decided to do a Trading Card Swap. Since I'm getting old and a bit arthritic we decided that the standard 2x3 size was a bit more challenging than I could do so we decided to break rules ( breaking rules does come natural for me) and do ours Post Card size. We decided on three different themes which we made pretty broad so our muses had wide berth in the inspiration department. Those themes were: 1) historical 2) fantasy and 3) potpouri . For the first one, Historical, my mind was all over the place trying to figure out where I wanted to go. Being a real fan of RenFaires and the Renaissance in general -I tried to envision something appropriate from this time period; but I kept drawing a blank.

So I moved on up a few years to Dumas's France and his much loved character, - a Musketeer, sword drawn in defense of his King and castle. But no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't bring it to fulfillment without it looking like a 3rd graders work. So I did what any good procrastinator would do - I let it sit and went on to #2 Fantasy.

With the help of a few of my Learn to draw books I found a couple characters that spoke to me and so I kept practicing drawing them - till I felt they were presentable. So I colored them and scanned then into my computer. And with a rather primordial looking forest picture I had found I started to do some picture manipulation in Photo Shop. It was a start but I didn't care for the flat look to it - so guess what. Yep you've got it - I let that sit as well.

For #3 I knew I wanted to express friendship, but how! Hmmmmmmmm tough question. Time was getting short and I was really beginning to feel like a dunce for agreeing to do this swap, I mean Dana is a real artist - and me - well, I'm just a crazy crafter, who in her old age has taken one drawing class and is by no means proficient at it. MUSE I need Help.

That night my shy little muse paid me a nocturnal visit, and I woke up energized and filled with some new ideas.

Heading back to #1 historical - I moved to Ancient Egypt. Egyptology was always my first love; and visiting the pyramids is on my bucket list. Ideas flowed and I crafted my way to completed card. A Pharaoh's Death mask meticulously cut from cardstock and a quilled Dung Beetle, on a map of the upper and lower kingdoms. I loved it and so did Sir Knight.




My friendship question for card #3 was answered in the shape of a quilt, which took shape as I painted each of my individual shapes on my card. Decorative stitching was the last thing to be added and I was surprised at how pretty my little crazy quilt was.

Yea!! I was now glad I hadn't e-mailed Dana to beg out. I was in my groove.

Back to #2 Fantasy - I decided to make my little Troll as my main character and make him a bit more 3- D. The pretty tree dryad and the wood sprites played happily on the page. I added little leaves in almost the same color as the sprites outfits, to emphasize that what our minds see as falling leaves may in fact be wood sprites playing- we just need to open our imagination and see what is out there. Good so far. When I added my troll I was a bit upset- my drawing skill are really not up to par, to make him look real - even though I mounted him on cardboard to gave him depth - he still is lacking. Some quilled ferns made the postcard a bit better . Sir Knight thought every thing looked cute, but then he would, He is always there to tell me things are ok, and I love him for that. So the card was sent off as is.

This is all a learning and perfecting process - so I must learn to be patient with myself and keep practicing drawing.

So I want to Thank you Dana for your support by even asking me to swap with you.

These are the cards I received from Dana; aren't they great? I just love them.



Now if you visit Dana's blog and you should you know, just hit on my big blue link above. You will see that between Dana and I, there is an "I get her" bond. They always say that Great Minds think alike and we do.
While I thought about France and landed up in Egypt; she thought of Cleopatra (Egypt) and landed up with Joan of Arc (France) and We both made friendship as our theme for the third card. Uncanny huh?

They say friends are sisters of the Heart, and my heart is happy to have you as a sister Dana.


Hugs,
Penny


Hey everyone, I don't know what is wrong with blogger; when I look at my unpublished post it certainly does not have all these different font changes and when I try to correct - well it just doesn't change, so please forgive me, I am not computer literate enough to figure this out.