A few months ago, a friend and I were bouncing ideas back and forth for an art swap of some sort. It was pretty easy to get a bunch of other people excited, so now I am in the midst of a postcard swap. And I need to mail out in about two weeks. I’ve been doing some really rough sketches on and off, and tonight it was finally time to dive in. I have to make eleven of these since I want to keep one as well.

To make things easier on myself, I did all the backgrounds in bulk. After drawing out the cutting lines, I added watercolors. Once those had partially set, I added some water soluble oil pastels and a bit more water.

This is the point I have to push past. It looks dumb and juvenile now, but I keep telling myself "Add layers -- the layers will turn out great". I just need to keep repeating that to myself. As long as no one is listening.

I also took this chance to try out the new spray glitter I got two weeks ago.

Usually not a gold fan, but gold on this red and yellow looks so nice.

So now I have three background sheets, five cards each. Tomorrow, I will cut them apart and start the individual embellishing. If I know me at all, I will work on each one until the last possible second, but it will be worth it. I will post pictures once I get all mine done, as well as when I get everyone else’s in the mail. But of you want to see what someone else in this swap is up to, you should check out the work by my friend Carly.

Three different colorways to choose from. Watercolors can be so much fun!