Here’s the first batch, finished on Friday:

And the second batch, finished last night:

I want to mix up the colors more, but this is how they’ve worked out so far. I really like the textured cardstock I have, especially the Japanese “tsumugi” style (I think I got these from Hanko Designs or a local shop carrying their stock), I don’t really want to use the smooth variety. I might need to get some more after these postcards are done!

I’m not sure how many more I want to make, partly because I’m not sure how many I want to send out beyond the ones for swaps. I started a list the other day, so I should finish that and make sure I have the addresses I need, and then keep going.

Beyond that, I came across some simple projects on the Martha Stewart site, listed among ideas for easy handmade gifts.

• Decorative Decal Pillar Candles (with matchboxes)
• Map Coasters

I have plenty of maps saved in my clipping boxes, but I’d have to buy the coasters and sealant first. The matchbox one, though it’s not the primary part of the project, would be easy, and I have some blank matchboxes. We’ll see though…

Here’s the first one, a combination of an old Family Circle magazine from the 60s, as well as a bit of an ad from a Japanese booklet of local businesses. I wish I’d done the circle stickers vertically instead, but so it goes.

I let that sit for a bit, and then came up with an idea to make postcards for New Year’s, as a little project to keep me busy. I don’t celebrate any holidays during December, but I’m all for ringing in the New Year when it comes. And I know that in Japan, it’s common to send a postcard to friends and family so it arrives on New Year’s Day, so I thought I would do something similar. (The postcards are called nengajo, and you can read more about them and other holiday traditions on Wikipedia’s Japanese New Year page.)

I’d like to make a batch of these postcards, to send to friends, so I thought it would help to have a template or pattern of some sort. I had a rough idea in my head of what I wanted, and put together a mockup in Illustrator, just to see if it would make sense. I found some Japanese-style patterns to use, and here’s what I came up with:

This is just a sample, but my intent is to use different colors, patterns, and images but stick with the same overall design. I have plenty of papers, clippings, and whatever else to work with, so this way I can focus on the selection and combination of those materials. I can even customize them for particular people if I want.

I put together my first card tonight, to make sure it worked all right in paper form, and here’s what I came up with:

I’m not feeling entirely enamored with it at the moment, but I think it’s actually ok and will work with other combinations as well. What do you think?

Meanwhile, I’ve also been looking for new swaps on Swap-bot, and tonight I happened across one that sounds perfect for me: 2010 Nengajo (Japanese New Year Postcards). I think I can manage to make 3 cards by the deadline, but we’ll see how the ones for friends go first.

Separately, I’m also running a notebook swap, inspired by one that was already running for European swappers only. This one’s for the US only, but you just send $8 of notebooks and get the same in return.

To push myself into making things, I signed up for a Paper Source class with a co-worker, at a newer location they opened up in Palo Alto, which isn’t far from here. They have these “girls night out” events, and this one was themed “Indian Summer,” to coincide with their new India collection of papers and rubber stamps.

The workshop itself was nice, though they tried to cram in quite a lot of activities, including making envelopes, heat embossing, and making lanterns. We ran out of time for some of this — though I was ok with skipping on things I already knew how to do — but I walked away with a neat lantern and a few cards, among other things.

I’ve also been joining in on a few swaps on Swap-bot, including one that was color-themed. You could include a handmade item, plus store-bought items, so I made one of my standard square collage postcards. The color was orange, which is a bit outside of my usual colors, but it was fun to play with a bit.

And last, but not least, I’ve been dabbling a bit with making envelopes and other things this weekend, partly to test out a new envelope template I found at a local Japanese shop. I got a little bored with the envelopes, but I finished it all off with a simple postcard, made from scrapbook paper and some stickers I had.

I’ve been sending store-bought postcards through Postcrossing, but it’s really up to you what you send. I thought having some pressure, like in a swap, would help, so I signed up for a handmade postcard swap on Swap-Bot. The theme was open, so that made it easier.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been feeling very well this week and got so little sleep last night. So maybe it wasn’t the best idea to start crafting in the midst of this. I slapped together two postcards, using clipped magazine images, summer-themed stickers, and a bit of glitter and glue, but I really don’t like them. I’m going to chalk it up to feeling so awful, but so it goes.

What do you think? They’re pretty simple, so it’s hard to say much about them, I suppose.

I think for now I’m going to go back to the store-bought postcards, but maybe I’ll try again on some handmade ones soon.

On a side note, I updated the blog template, so if you see any weirdness, let me know. I poked around though, and it seems to be working ok so far.

I ran into someone from the craft group while I was there. She explained that she’d missed the last several — as have I — but was going to try to go again. I mentioned that the meetings will be shifting to Saturdays, as per someone new getting involved in the planning, and she sounded somewhat disappointed. I have to admit that shifting from Wednesday evenings to Saturday mornings isn’t exactly a smooth change, and I don’t think I’ll be able to join in then for sure. It’s a shame, though I haven’t really been doing much crafting as of late.

I did sneak in one little card this afternoon, after poking around online a bit and looking at various Japanese things. I’m very interested in seasonal imagery from Japan, and one of those items are the flat fans (uchiwa) associated with summertime. I decided to try this shape with the “quilted” washi approach, and it turned out ok enough.

It looks quite simple, but it was probably the most involved of all the shapes I’ve done, due to the curves and tiny handle. It takes a lot to wrap around curved edges, so it turned out a bit more jagged than I would have liked it. I might try it again and see if I can do better with it next time, but I’m satisfied with my first attempt.

Her favorite color is purple, and she does like glitter, so the gift box was a simple thing. I ended up with plenty of glitter all over my desk and person, but I like how it turned out.

The card is done in the “quilted washi paper” style made popular by Hanko Designs, and is based on a pattern included in one of their kits.

In November and December, I went against my previous decision to quit swaps for a bit, and signed up for a few of the final Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama swaps. I really liked the color combinations, and shopping for other people is fun. Here’s what I came up with for the two swaps:

One of the swap requirements is to include one handmade item, so I made a little card/envelope set for the November swap, and then for the December swap, I put together one of my square collage postcards.

Sadly, the packages I got through these swaps didn’t exactly knock my socks off, so to speak, but oh well. At least I enjoyed putting them together and making my swap partners happy.

Shortly after the second swap, I joined in on a bit of card- and envelope-making at this month’s South Bay Craft Group meeting. I don’t send out holiday cards, so I just made some general ones, based on a cute postcard I have. And some envelopes of course. The paper was just too lovely to pass up.

And the most recent craft project was a shared one for a work holiday party that I helped to organize. We decided to decorate gingerbread cookies as the main event, and of course we had to have a contest for it, complete with varied categories and matching trophies. Our little trophy team came up with these four trophies during two long nights after work hours. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone who attended the party liked them as well.

I won’t get all philosophical about this all, going on about whether or not I missed crafting, or whatever else. Just that I think I’m starting to get back into it gradually, working on an occasional project here or there. Make a few envelopes, put together a few cards.

That said, I know that a lot will be going on in the next month or two, so I will probably not be posting tons of projects. But that’s ok.

 

(These were made for a swap with the color scheme of yellow, black, and white.)

Oh, and for what it’s worth, it seems like everyone liked the top envelope in my last entry’s photo. That one is actually made with a “baby” envelope template from Paper Source, so it looks like they created a good style.