Not enough hours in the day!

Here are my postcards for Weeks 11 and 12 of Darcy's postcard challenge. I'm way behind but hey ho, I'll get there in my own time!

Week 11 saw us in The Netherlands. I had to go with Van Gogh - and here one of the reasons I'm so behind - I faffed around trying to decide which painting I wanted to do. I decided to just pick some detail from "Road with Cypress and Star" and, major mistake, decided to use oil paints. My postcard was dry approximately 3 weeks later...(only a slight exaggeration).

And here is Week 12 - Israel. I've gone down the religious route and drawn Solomons Seal...

That's it for tonight. My monthly calendar pages have gone by the wayside but I'll blog February and March's pages soon!

Postcard Challenge Week 10 - Canada

Week 10 in Darcy's Postcard Challenge sees us visiting Canada. Once again I was struggling with inspiration as all that kept coming to me was the Blame Canada song from the South Park film! As I'm behind I had a look round at what other people had done and saw that someone had found an artist called Timothy Sorsdahl (apologies - I don't know whose blog it was as blogger was being silly when I tried to go back and find out). Anyway, I took an element from his "Near Emerald Lake Lodge, Banff Alberta National Park"...I'm not sure if that's the actual title of the piece, not very snappy is it?!

So...here's the postcard...

Next is The Netherlands!

Postcard Challenge - Switzerland

Yes, I'm behind again in Darcy's Postcard Challenge - I blame Switzerland! I could NOT decide what to do for my postcard...I really didn't want to do mountains! Hubby pointed out that CERN is in Switzerland and said to Google image LHC collisions. Lots of pretty pictures turned up and I decided that's what I was doing, but, I just wasn't feeling it.

So...then I Googled Swiss artists and who did I find? HR Giger. I LOVE the Alien films so knew this had to be the right path. However, not being an amazing artist I couldn't draw the image I wanted (here) though I did try...so went with an Alien silhouette instead. Now, just to catch up with the next three countries!

Postcard Challenge - All Caught Up

I'm up to date! I haven't been able to link up my postcards in time for the last few weeks so if you'd like to see those cards then here are China, France and Belgium.

So here are my postcards for Wales and Cuba...

Wales first...I found an artist called Amanda Hone, I liked the style of her art and she has handily done a canvas based on Portmeirion. We visited Portmeirion a few years ago and I knew as soon as Wales was announced that I wanted to use it as the inspiration for my postcard. I realised as I was doing the postcard though that it's very similar to my Brazil postcard!

And next we have Cuba - my friend visited Cuba last year so I borrowed one of her photos from Facebook :) I turned the photo to black and white then coloured the car with ProMarkers. Quite simple really.

If you've not come here as part of the Postcard Challenge then check out Darcy's blog to see what it's all about.

Belgium (yes, still behind!)

So here is my postcard for Belgium, based on the Atomium in Brussels (you can read about it here).

And the continuation of the story...

I kind of cheated a bit and mentioned the next country seeing as I'm behind and know which one is next!

Slooooowly catching up - Postcard Challenge Week 5

I've finished my France postcard! Just as Week 7 was announced this morning... :) I'll get there!

It took me a while to decide what to do for this one, I really wanted to do something around the Moulin Rouge but couldn't settle on an image so went with this image lifted from an Art Nouveau Absinthe poster - I had to alter it slightly to fit, but hey, it's my postcard right?!

Belgium next, and I already know what I'm doing, amazingly!

Playing catch up...

So, I'm a tad behind in Darcy's postcard challenge...! I've had a tooth infection this week - it was really painful :( it's only really started to clear up in the last couple of days and I spent most of last week with a hot water bottle on my face every night! I've not really felt like doing any crafting...

Anyway, week four's country was China - as it was Chinese New Year and it's now the Year of the Dragon I decided to go with a dragon on my card. The symbol under him is the symbol for "Dragon" - I didn't really mean for it to be covered up so much by the dragon, oops, so I put another symbol in the corner. Apologies for the rubbish pics, my card curled up a bit.

Just France and Belgium to do now! (and my February calendar page...)

I have managed to make some cards too recently using some images I rediscovered when stamping some images for a friend.

I've had a good clear up/out of my craft room today, I now have a nice clear desk - how long until I'm working in a 12" square space again I wonder?!

Week 3 - Brazil

The country this week at Darcy's Postcard Challenge is Brazil! A country I'd love to visit though I think I'll have to wait a few years until Connor is a bit older!

After doing a bit of research I came across the artist Romero Britto who is originally from Brazil. His biography says he started by drawing on surfaces such as newspaper so my postcard is his "Paradise Tondo" drawn with ProMarkers on book print which I ripped up and lightly gessoed...

I've reserved tonight for visiting the blogs of all the others taking part in this challenge, it may take a while, there are quite a few of us!

Week 2 - Spain

It's Week 2 of Darcy's Postcard Challenge (actually it's Week 3 but I'm a bit late in blogging this!). This week the country is Spain.

I was trawling the internet looking for inspiration when Tim mentioned that he liked the artist Gaudi - I looked on Google images and found Gaudi's lizard which is found in Park Guell, Barcelona.

So here it is...

As you can see I still need to stick the stamp on!

Darcy's Postcard Challenge

So this week saw the start of Darcy's Postcard Challenge, you can read all about it here and here. On Monday the first country was announced - which was Austria! The Sound of Music sprang to mind but I thought it might be best to do some research before I started! I eventually decided on what to do and finished my postcard tonight...

So, I've gone with a Klimt inspired mountain scene. Of course, I'm no Klimt, but you get the gist!

And the back...

I still need to decorate my page that the postcard will be mounted onto - but then I also need to sort out my book. I had made one but felt that the postcards were too snug in the pockets. However, I found an old photo album that I never got around to using - I think it'll be perfect for the job, it just needs a bit of work...

The next country is announced tomorrow morning, hopefully inspiration will strike more quickly this week!