Handmade RR: How it started for me

     In the first years of my postcrossing journey I had quite extensive handmade swaps mainly focused on the weird non-paper materials for the handmade cards [some you can find under the earliest <mondschein> and <zombozaets>], so entering the new forum, I thought why not reviving the former passion? At first I joined two groups - the Riddles one [because before another fad in postcards were the ones with riddles on the back] where the goal was to include the riddle in the picture of the card and hide the solution on the backside, and the one with personal care labels [shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc.]. I made three riddle postcards to be from the same series, and tried to decorated in colours which would also provide a visual clue [in white there are the answers, mark it with your mouse to learn: the theme is gemstones, so answers are ruby, sapphire, and emerald]. The answer on the back was covered with washi-tape and a rabbit paper note.

Three handmade postcards, sent under Handmade RR #564 - Riddles

The backsides of three handmade postcards, sent under Handmade RR #564 - Riddles

     The second group even though required surpassingly less thinking/craftmanship was incredibly hard to make for me. While for the first group I managed to find some white thin carton blanks to make them on, the nature of personal care labels was them being a sticker, so I used two covers from Altai mountains photo postcards' sets. The other problem for me was that I use very low amount of any care products and shampoos and toothpastes didn't have the desired nice labels, so I butchered my only two face products - the purple face cream and the green face mask - the round labels were on top of the cans and the rest I attached to the backside. The third postcard was a nightmare to construct, I decided in the end on paper napkins top, with the hole in the middle, which I filled with dried daisies [which in turn provokes the new generation of herbarium handmades eventually].

Two handmade postcards, sent under Handmade RR #581 - Personal Care Labels 

The backsides of two handmade postcards, sent under Handmade RR #581 - Personal Care Labels [and the third one was in one of the recent posts]

     I was waiting with anticipation for them to arrive and of course they got caught in one of the 'storms' in Russia-USA postal link, but the ones to Germany arrived okay, I signed up for more [many many many more!] groups and the weary travelers arrived in 2-3 months after finally, I even resent one of them.

Handmade: The journey to Morrowind

     One of the singular swaps picked up from the new forum turned out to be a blast! I don't remember what did I send in return: the herbarium handmade and some other card? And received - a cute envelope with two fruit stickers on the back and the text which says 'It's time to dream' and the unique artist postcard with dancing kabuki actor [sadly, I can't find the author name =(].

the postcard (left) and the back of the envelope (right), received from santeza, Russia (direct swap)

     But the real treat was awaiting for me on the backside - the amazing pencil illustration -- homage of Morrowind [I mentioned it recently], my first real RPG gameworld. It's a Silt Strider - giant land insect which provides main public transportation in the game and emits that very recognisable scream-noise which anyone who played already heard in their mind the moment they saw the picture xD

the backside pencil drawing of the postcard, received from santeza, Russia (direct swap)

Mini-tutorial: Washi 'drawing'

     I wrote this mini-tutorial for Ana@meiadeleite for Washi tape discussions on the forum after I posted my postcards in Show us your handmade postcards and mail-art topic. I decided to copy the post here in my blog and add more details about the creative process [and I made the #mini-tutorial tag, who knows, maybe I will write more some day about other handmades]. I think the origin of the idea was from Lyra34, the postcard of the technique she saw on pinterest [I suppose it's not only me using 'no theme' group as a test ground for new handmade ideas]. When I signed up for the washi tape group I mostly wanted to try to create something similar, but to use the rough edge to compose some sort of line art. I chose the famous two faces and vase optical illusion to recreate and used the thin odd tapes I had left after my toddler trashed my washi tape storage [the narrow ones suffered the most butchering since he loves to put them inside his mouth, so I had to get rid of them asap so he won't choke by accident]. It was soothing to fill the silhouettes, I ripped the tapes just with my fingers, and during the crafting I had the epiphany of what I want to do next - I guess anyone who does handmades felt it sometimes - the material becoming 'liquid' in your hands and ideas bursting from your consciousness.

left - received from Lyra34, Germany (Handmade RR#722 - no theme); right - sent to someone in the washi-tape group (Handmade RR#767)

     When inspiration calls you drop every unripe idea you had before and follow it! The result was these two 'drawings' made with narrow washi tapes. The left is inspired by 'Self-Portrait with Gray Felt Hat', 1887 [an amazing article about Van Gogh's self-portraits btw: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/stories/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-van-goghs-self-portraits] and the right one is inspired by 'The Starry Night', 1889. I posted them in the forum and so far it's my most favourited post there ever - now it has 39 likes [the second is the reply about inappropriate Chinese stamps with 32 likes and next is pull-up mechanism cards with Harry Potter with 28 likes].

both sent to someone in the washi-tape group (Handmade RR#767)

      The washi tapes from which the handmade postcards were made are from the set on the left - it was twenty Van Gogh themed narrow washi. I like having sets of Van Gogh tapes like the one on the right too. But the glue on these washi tapes is not that good: while for wider tapes I either use stick glue or stickers on top for the edges, for narrow ones it just doesn’t work in my regular decoration [my usual decorations can be seen in Decorated Wildcard tag posts, for example: 1, 2, and 3 - to think of it the sparks of the washi drawing is there in the first post too with the girl drawing]. Even though it looks like it’s hard to do, it’s not at all! [patience - yes, and the ability to be okay with mediocre intermediate results, but not much of a straight hand]. I just mark very general lines for the picture, and then fill it with colours of washi which fits somewhat, ripping them approximately with fingers.

close-up with Van Gogh tapes from the decoration purchase mentioned before

     The Van Gogh colours do the rest of the work! When I discover something interesting and new to craft for handmades, first I go to suggest the group in the Handmade RR, and in the waiting for group to fill, I decorated the backsides in the same technique for Decorated Wildcard tag. 

backsides offered in the Decorated Wildcard tag [all sent - I try not to keep postcards from this tag in rotation for too long]

     I made the pictures of the process of one postcard from Handmade RR#784 [I hope whoever will receive it wouldn’t mind the spoiler], photos are a bit potato quality because lights were off - nappy time for my son! Of course with Van Gogh tapes nicest would be recreation of his own paintings which I did for the ones shown in the beginning. I don't particularly like to recreate my own handmades with very few exceptions [sigh, herbariums]. For next try I decided to use the motive of Wassily Kandinsky's painting  ‘Winter landscape’, 1909, as a reference (https://www.wassilykandinsky.ru/work-123.php) - I used it already for the bottom card in the Decorated Wildcard tag. In his early works he was inspired by French impressionists.