Snail Mail Art

Two of my friends recently welcomed their first baby into the world, and yesterday I got to sit down and create a special card to send them.  It was a great opportunity to pull out one of my favorite inventions: the watercolor postcard.

The set of watercolor cards I am currently using I have had for some time, and came all the way from Germany.  I had just finished up a semester abroad in Rome and was traveling through Europe by rail.  Poking around the city of Freiburg, I stumbled upon a cute little art supply shop where I picked up my first set of Aquarell Postkartenblock.

Back then, I never could have guessed that 8 years later I would still have a handful of these cards to spare, let alone that I would be using one to send to my friend of 12 years in honor of he and his wife's first-born!

And how exciting that this would also be my first time painting in my new home studio  :)   

So much magic and mystery in life.

Speaking of which, at the time I sat down to begin my postcard painting project, the subject matter of the piece was still entirely unknown to me.  So I did what always seems to work best in those situations when I simply haven't got a clue: I doodled.

And wouldn't you know that just the perfect thing presented itself almost immediately:

A handsome elephant with a curved trunk.

Elephants are beautiful symbols of family, so I was happy to roll with it.  After just a few minutes, with a little tweaking, I had come up with a simple, symmetrical design:

And then added, of course, a baby.

Started out by laying down some green grass and yellow-orange sky.

Then threw some color on the pachyderms, plus a little red to bring out the heart silhouetted by their trunks.

Hmm... still missing something...

Ah, perfect :)

I hope this inspires you to try sending some crafty love via snail mail.  Thanks for stopping by!