The Big Fat January Mail Art Swap

Grab a drink before you read all this otherwise you’ll be gagging for one by the end its loooooong!!!

I’m afraid I’ve had to come up with some boring rules for this mail art swap.

As I am not a wealthy woman and cannot possibly send free art to the whole world (as much as I’d love to) I had to be quite specific about some things sorry folks, I know rules are horrid but here they are:

Rules:

First things first this mail art swap is open to ‘bloggers only’ (that includes typepad, wordpress, squarespace etc too) I absolutely love my blog and blogland and as January also happens to be the 3 year anniversary of me joining blogland, I wanted to keep this as a special way of thanking those who take the time to comment (and those that ghost too)

I will not be offering this swap to people who are only on flickr, etsy, facebook etc sorry!!

** IMPORTANT BIT:

You can contact me at any time from 2nd January till 8th February 2012 via the 'Mail art Email Me' button that is in my sidebar at the top of my blog and I will send you my home address via return email…. it won’t be in instant response but I will get back to you asap ;o)
I think this will be the safest way for me and will also let me know how many people want to participate.
The swap will still be starting on January 8th though; I just wanted people to get plenty of time to get all the details sorted out :O)

When you email me I will need you to give me your blog address (so that I know you are a blogger) and your home address for me to send you a piece of mail art in return. (I will respect your privacy and will not pass on your details to anyone and I ask you to do the same please)

For those of you that have either purchased from me in the past or whom I have purchased from or even swapped with before, you may already have my home address (and you’ll be glad to know I haven’t moved house in the last 7 years so it will still be the same) I would still like you to email me though so that I can get your home addresses and know how many people will be participating in the swap :o)**

Ok on with the more fun bit:

Here are some piccies and info on what you will be receiving from me in this swap :o)

I will be sending my art on a 5 ½ x 4 ¼ inch piece of chipboard which is 1.5mm thick, I love these, they are really sturdy and hold up to all my messy mixed media stuffs :o)

The card has been punched with holes at the top and metal rivets put in place (by my lovely hubby) so that you can hang it up rather than frame it (I have not supplied any ribbon/string/wire hangers though, I will leave that bit up to you)

The chipboard will be coated in 2 layers of gesso before painting and gloss varnished to finish it off so it will be well protected.

 I will be painting these chipboard pieces and trying out different types of art/girls as well as my usual style.

Anything goes, so don’t be shocked if the art you receive looks nothing like my usual art, or looks similar to someone else’s art style, they will however all still be made with the love they deserve :o)

Each piece will be numbered, signed and dated on the back.

After the painting is varnished it will be put into a cello bag for protection and then into the C6 sized board backed decorated envelope ready for sending.

I will not know which painting is in which envelope so the art sent to you will be completely at random.

The envelopes will be decorated/painted/stamped but not with a girl or anything too detailed, just something fun and pretty :o)

The mail art swap will start on January 8th (first posting date) and will end on February 8th (last posting date) any mail sent after February 8th or before January 8th will still be gratefully received but will not get a piece of art in return, I have to have a cut off time I’m afraid (sorry)

Phew that was a lot to take in, I hope you guys are still with me after all of that?

_______________________________________

As for what you send me in the swap?

Some of you have asked what you should send me for the mail art swap and some of you have even said that you didn’t know if your art work was ‘good enough’, ‘worthy’ or even classed as ‘art’.
Well this is what I have to say about that:

Anything you choose to make for me is ‘good enough’, you are an artist if you make ‘stuff’ it doesn’t have to be a painting, if you are a knitter then knit, if you paper mache then get your gluey on, if you make jewellery, bead away, if you make all of the above or none of the above and want to try your hand at something new, then now is the time….Seriously guys the fact that any of you want to swap with me is enough, do not worry about what to send or whether you have ‘good enough’ skills,
Micki says “Just get happy and make something” as long as you make something with love then it’s all good :o)

I hope that is more than enough information for you all but if you do have any questions feel free to ask them in this post and I will answer them (if I can) in this post too :o)

Now I’m off for a well deserved coffee break, it is waaaay too much effort for my little brain organizing rules for things ;o)

Happy Arting folks

Micki x