Wednesday, December 20, 2017

WOYWW #446: Happy Mail + a Mistake

Happy WOYWW to my fellow deskers! 

For my guests who've never played along, you can follow the link, HERE, to Julia Dunnit's wonderful blog to find out more about her fun weekly blog hop.

Note: Please forgive my lack of comments this week. The eye has not wanted to cooperate lately, and has even been somewhat painful at times. This calls for more rest than I'd care to have, but (thanks to Shaz and Shoshi for the new term) this is the "new norm," so I might as well get accustomed to it. 

I haven't been an active participant in weeks, but I really have been otherwise occupied. Mostly, there's been a fair amount of Mail Art to get together, along with some Happy Mail for others who were kind enough earlier in the season to have sent me some very lovely surprises.

Happy Mail is so delightful, isn't it? Sometimes, it is a good excuse for being creative. I sometimes need an excuse, so that's really been fun for me. Recently, I was the recipient of some very pretty and creative Happy Mail from Becky at Aunt Bec's Creations. I know her mostly from her YouTube channel (which you may find by following the link HERE). Her channel features loads of fun videos, including some live streams. She and her hubby, Scott, also keep a blog together HERE.

Now to show you her wonderful Happy Mail creations! I used Photoshop to hide the 2 addresses.




Inside that glistening and richly decorated envelope, I found an example of her pretty, handmade seasons greetings. Gotta love it!



But wait - there's more! 
An entire decoratively cinched bundle of her handmade Painty Papers! Sheer awesomeness!!!





Here's what they all looked like together on my desk.
Aren't they pretty?





And now, last and certainly least, my big Mistake.



I really blew it on this one, which made my afternoon yesterday just miserable. Yes, Tuesday was a dismal day at the workdesk, during which my poor eyesight and its accompanying bad aim (a.ka. clumsiness) caused the utter ruination of my saguaro cactus greeting card art, above. 

The idea seemed simple enough for me to complete. I had a watercolor block that I thought would be just right for the purpose of doing a color wash style of a desert sunset using glazes. To that, I would add a paper cutting like a silhouette of a cactus on a hillside which would be decorated with holiday lights. Such a decorating technique has been used for years by people in the desert southwest of the USA, btw. The family member I was intending to make this card for lives in the desert, so this seemed appropriate.

What had seemed simple enough turned out to have been much too challenging for me, as my eyes simply weren't cooperative enough. While you won't be able to see the big final Mistake which ruined all of my painstaking work, you must trust me when I say that it was a complete mess at the end that couldn't be repaired. A mess is not what I had been aiming to send to a family member, but that's what I got in the end, a mess. It was actually a strangely tough project all through.

If it had not been for Becky sending me such good cheer with her pretty Happy Mail, I doubt I'd be joining you this week. So a great big Thank You to Becky of Aunt Bec's Creations !!!!!!

For those interested in viewing more of her creative spirit at work, she can also be spotted on Facebook HERE.

Happy WOYWW and Happy Holidays to my fellow deskers!!!
:)