I was nudged to do some crafts by an artist friend who does collages on old playing cards and then attaches poetry. I’d been contemplating this since last winter. I gathered magazines, posters, junk mail, you name it and I collected it. I assembled my supplies – patterned scissors, small sharp scissors, X-ACTO® knife, glue sticks, Elmer’s glue, rulers, embossing tools, corner cutters, punches for decorative shapes, and an assortment of senyru poems written for this very purpose. Then it was time to begin.
And I waited through the summer months being unmotivated. I revised the poems. Then I spent weeks gathering the words. It was almost impossible. I had to revise again and again. Partly because I was dissatisfied with the poems but also because I couldn’t find the word conceive, or marbled. As hard as I searched I couldn’t locate pre-printed words – ache, paltry, cattail, berry, or kiss. (Since my printer is defunct, I didn’t want to go print them at a cost.) And all this time I was collecting magazines. I had a huge stack of professional magazines but the words tended to analyze, standard deviations, biomarker, and a regular alphabet soup of acronyms that were useless (except for the occasional “s” or “a”). I finally amassed some Family Circle, Country Home, Martha Stewart Living, Fitness, Prevention, Shape, and Allure magazines. Along with the old atlases and some church bulletins I was ready to make art and add some poetry.
And then I started second guessing what I really wanted to do with these cards. Initially I figured they would be made with a specific person in mind. I’d have a poem that reflected that person in some way and images to compliment either the poem or the interests of the person I intended to give the card to. Finally I realized that that just wasn’t working. Writing poetry is hard enough without trying to make it specific to a single audience.
And that was the breakthrough moment. I started making the cards for myself! I put together poems that spoke to me. I created images that sparked my imagination. I made things that I liked. Without further ado I present a few of the Art Card collection.
Master the new skills
The actor best learn his line
Nature measures him
Generosity
Welcome these beautiful lives
Let your palm open
A tool of passion
What cost for your company
Somebody loved you
Intent held power
Not identifiable
Utterance of God
Sometimes popular
Views birth genuine concern
Through simple science
I empathise with the process and l very much like the outcomes. Great job Muri.
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Thanks! I enjoy creating art and poetry – haven’t done 2D in a long time but it was fun.
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I love these cards, especially the one where you inserted a cat nose. Sometimes we have to follow our own creative path and not try to subscribe to direction or expectation. Keep following your own creative instincts.
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Thanks Mary! I generally do that but got sidetracked. When I went back to my usual creative process things flowed!
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Great efforts, and your cards will find persons that will truly appreciate the allegorical thought…(and personal efforts) I have always felt that commercial greeting cards were often (expensively) giving another persons thought, and sometime were a “cop out” or lesser expression of our own true feelings. So the few I do send I always write a “ditty” of my own composition which always brings more comments from the receiver than a “purchased” one does. One place that I found good background collage for these “cards” was at a resale shops which often have small bedecked photo holders and such….
Thanks for posting your dual ART~!
SAM
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I’m so glad you like them SAM! These were fun to make! Out of a deck of 51 cards I have 14 left. I ran out of senyrus so now I’m contemplating what I want to write about… many of them are not very upbeat.
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I like that you found a time to allow your creative spirit to come forth and express herself. They turned out very well, and I like the whimsy of them.
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Thanks tons Dodi! I enjoyed myself and an artist friend thinks I should make a much larger collage. I think I’ll stick to the smaller versions!
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Those are cute. Are they going to be Christmas presents?
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Glad you liked them! It was an initial thought to enclose them with the Christmas photo but I think I’ll likely just give them out to people who I think will appreciate them… I’ve already given on away (I just couldn’t wait until the holidays)!
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I bet they brighten someone’s day.
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That’s what I’m hoping!!
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Wow! You have blown me away again. What a creative mind you have. As usual, most are too deep for this shallow dilettante but I like them nonetheless.
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Judy! These are as deep or as shallow as the viewer wants them to be. The art and the poetry is subjective. If you enjoy one or the other I’m happy. If you enjoy both then I’m thrilled!
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These are great………. i love the one with the hands round the eye!
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Thanks Di! That was a favorite of mine too! It took a long time to get those hands cut out but the flower effect worked!
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Wonderful.
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Thanks tons! Quite the compliment coming from an accomplished card crafter like yourself!!
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You are most welcome……. my card efforts are very hit and miss, though that’s half the fun!
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Indeed! The joy of creating is all part of it – though I love your results!
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Thank you!
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Looking Crafty , yes but also looking creative , Val !
This is amazing
Love ❤
Michel
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Many thanks Michel! I had fun and let the creativity flow! Although I did make a little bit of a mess, it was worth it when I looked at the results.
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Order comes from he disorder !! 🙂
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Yes!
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Crafty, for sure. Creativity is one reason we can adapt to almost any situation. It is usually worth the mess.
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Yes the mess was worth it! Fortunately the little bit of glue that ended up on the craft table is water soluble and was easily removed… Round 2 will commence soon.
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ooh I like these very much!
Kerfe has inspired me to try some collages but I don’t get junk mail so struggling to source pics. Have made a start but think it will be some time before I have sufficient to make anything. Must admit I hadn’t thought of adding words, maybe not my style.
These will make great gifts for your friends anyway … we all prefer something handmade 🙂
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The process is almost as gratifying as the end result. My junk mail has been boring – credit card applications and companies trying to get me to buy their insurance…and not a pretty picture in the lot! I’m thinking I’ll send a couple in Christmas cards but the rest I’m just going to randomly had out to friends…
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great idea, you have inspired me to make a few for gifts 🙂
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Yay! It was a bit messy (but not as messy as working with clay) and takes up less room than ceramics. As a bigger bonus the finished product takes up hardly any room at all!!! I’m sure your cards will be amazing!
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got it all together this morning … and not sure who I’m making them for, so I’ve paused the process 🙂
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That’s where I got stuck too – then when I decided to make them for myself it took off!
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yes I’m thinking that’s where I’m headed too but I want to put poems in them too … so maybe I need to get those first 🙂
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If I’d had a working printer I could have just printed the poems using different fonts and gotten the same effect…
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yes that’s what I’m planning, different font poems on coloured paper inside and my questionable art on the front … or photos?
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Aren’t photos art?? Some of the best art uses photos that have been made into collage or altered digitally…
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lol now that is beyond my skills …
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I bet you could print them off in black and white and then “colorize” them using markers, crayons, glitter and whatever else you might want to use! I bet they would be stunning!! I might just have to do that myself!
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so glad you are inspiring yourself … I have a problem defacing a perfectly good pic 😉
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I get it. It is hard to improve on the beauty of nature…
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Wonderful!!! Especially the cognition to make them for you! Loving and appreciating all the things, as I recognize so much of my own stalls and starts. ❣❣❣
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Ha! I came late to that conclusion. It is what I do with my ceramics (create for myself) but I completely forgot that when I was trying to do this one. Glad you could relate!
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Wonderful. Love them.
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Thanks Elizabeth! I like the way they turned out…
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