Weekly Postcard Love - the last postcards

Eek! Happy New Year everyone! 2015 flew by for me, and so much happened! The whirlwind started almost a year ago in January 2015 when Instagram listed me as a suggested user. And it just got crazier from there. 

In 2015, I met Instagram and Etsy friends in person, finished a giant piece for I Madonnari in Santa Barbara, applied and participated in my first Renegade market, collaborated with Etsy, had my photos shared by A Beautiful Mess and the Huffington Post, and finished my first ever 52 week project.

Each week, a new postcard to make and send to someone, somewhere in the world. I think the farthest one of them traveled was to New Zealand and the Philippines. The closest was right here in the Santa Ynez Valley. And now it's done! 

I'm in the process of researching printing options to turn them all into a book for me to keep since they're all in their new homes. These are some of my favorite photos from throughout the year and all photos of all the postcards are up on my website. 

Tomorrow I'll be starting a new weekly postcard project! This one will be very different compared to last year's. I'm more nervous about not completing this one, it's bigger and more daunting than the last. I'll be posting about it tomorrow morning on Instagram if you'd like to follow along with my 2016 weekly project! 

Are any of you lovely friends out there trying a weekly or monthly project in 2016? 

Weekly Postcard Project update I

I can't believe I'm already 16 weeks into my Weekly Postcard Project! It really puts how fast this year is going by into perspective...

The project is going along great! I'll admit, some weeks have been easier than others to sit down and make a postcard in advance. Some weeks I'm up early on Saturday morning to get it watercolored in time to post. And I'm not always the fastest to get them to the Post Office. But I really, really love this project! 

So far the farthest away I've mailed a postcard is to Germany! Another friend in Canada got one too. But most of the recipients have been domestic addresses. I also had my first repeat winner the other week too! I like that people are still entering even after they've won! It's nice to see people Posting It Forward in a way to send their postcard to a friend or a sister. 

I think the must fun aspect of this project is making the photo each week. It has been SO FUN figuring out new ways to display and collage an image together for each week. I get kinda giddy looking at the #weeklypostcardlove hashtag and seeing all the images together. So far, I think the bicycle color wheel up above and the butterfly chalkboards have been my favorite. 

I've gotten better about taking the photos but also editing them as well. All I use is a few giant sheets of watercolor paper and a sunny hallway! At first I used my phone to take the photos but I've shifted more into using my camera every time so I can edit them up with Gimp before posting. And I always do a high quality scan of the postcard before I mail it off to its new owner! 

I decided that at the end of the year since I will no longer have any of the postcards, I'm going to have a book made through Artifact Uprising. It will be fun to flip through all the pages and see how each week progressed from one postcard to the next. 

There's still plenty of weeks left for you to enter to have one mailed to you too! Just follow along on Instagram and keep an eye out every Saturday morning! 

Did you really have your eye on one of the postcards? You can find prints and notebooks with illustrations from the postcards in the Sketchy Notions shop! I'll be adding more throughout the year too...

16 weeks down, 36 to go! 

Do you have any ideas of images you'd like to see on a postcard this year? 

Weekly Postcard Project

Hello 2015, I have big plans for you! There's a lot brewing for the future of Sketchy Notions, which is a bit daunting. After the mayhem of Christmas wrapped up, I was able to finally just make stuff for fun. Which I really missed! 

I have also been wanting to try doing a weekly project this year as well. There's a lot of ideas floating around out there but none I could really picture myself committing to for 52 weeks. 

So, I thought up the Weekly Postcard Project. Each week I'm going to make/watercolor/draw/collage a postcard. I'll share it on Instagram on Saturday. Anyone that comments on that photo is in the running to win that postcard. On Monday, I'll randomly pick one of the comments and mail that postcard to them or someone of their choice anywhere in the world! 

I think it will be a fun little project to keep me making things just for fun, but also a fun way to spread a little bit of art around the world. It will be cool to see how far away these little postcards end up at the end of the year. 

The postcard below is week one! 1/52! I'll be sharing some of the postcards here on the blog but you can follow along on Instagram @sketchynotions and the hashtag #weeklypostcardlove 

Do you have any resolutions or weekly projects for the year? Big goals to tackle?

Did you blog about it? Share the link below! 

a sketchy GIVEAWAY! (closed)

As promised and mentioned multiple times, I'm having a GIVEAWAY! There are a few reasons for this giveaway. One being, this is my 199th post on the blog...eek! Time has flown by fast...seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my room in Austin clicking "publish" for the first time. So much has happened between now and then...the Etsy shops, the website, more Italy travels...I'm excited to see how much will happen between this post and the 300th!

Another reason is that I also surpassed 100 likers on Facebook. It's currently at 108, pretty crazy. I also filled Terzo, which was a huge accomplishment for me! AND although it's been pretty quiet as far as being mentioned, the 24 before 25 list has been making huge progress too! Lots to be happy and thankful for. 

And so! The good part! As I mentioned before, while in Italy I was working on a series of postcards. I just finished up another one yesterday thanks to some rainy weather and lots of hot chai. This postcard is of the skyline of my town Castiglion Fiorentino in Tuscany. My friend and I trekked out into the valley and had the most gorgeous view of it at sunset so we did a bunch of sketches and color studies. And you can win this postcard! How you may ask...a couple of ways actually...

To enter you can do one or all of the following:

1. Comment on this post below (tell me what your dream travel spot would be!)

2. Comment on the post about the giveaway on my Facebook page. 

Extra entries: Like the Facebook page or heart my Etsy shop and comment back here telling me you did.

Or follow me with Google Reader, Bloglovin etc and comment back here telling me you did. 

Please don't forget to COMMENT HERE if you did any of the extra stuff! It will be a little tricky to keep track of new Etsy hearts/Facebook likes etc...

See how easy and how many ways there are to enter? I want this postcard to go to a lovely home! Tell your friends! If this all goes well, I may even have a surprise at the end... the giveaway will be open for a week. I'll pick the winner at random and announce the winner next Monday (12/10). Good luck! This giveaway is closed!

The verdict is in! Thank you everyone who entered/hearted/followed along! I really appreciate all the lovin'! The winner is...

Congratulations! And thanks again to everyone who entered! This giveaway went a lot better than the last one...I might do another one in January to celebrate my birthday. I have to start thinking about the next list too, 25 before 26 eek! 

l'autunno...

These walls...this light...I swoon...

I have a confession...I cheated on Terzo today! *gasp* I'm still pretty shocked that I did...

So, an explanation... For some reason this morning, after an epic stormy night of rain, hail, insanely loud thunder, lightening and a power outage, I woke up wanting to make some watercolor postcards. The purpose of them being specifically to sell in my Etsy shop as originals (or on ShopLocket...I'm slowly exploring that avenue) since I won't dismantle Terzo and sell those pages off. Or at least to have a collection of smaller pieces that will be easier to make prints of. Not too bad of an idea...or so I thought...

I did my chores around the apartment then headed for the art store, purchased a block of Fabriano watercolor paper the size of postcards, then went straight for the Amphitheater. I did a quick one there before I felt bad about working outside of Terzo. I then relocated across town to make a watercolor in my fat beast to apologize for cheating on him. 

But then this afternoon, I went up on the walls (oh the walls!) to watercolor the fall leaves. This is probably my first time actually watercoloring a real Autumn. The color changes don't really happen in California, at least not to this degree. It's kind of scary how pretty the trees are right now. So, in the midst of painting another postcard, that at the beginning I had every intention of selling, I was paid probably the nicest complement I've ever received by the sweetest little Italian man who is a musician here in Lucca. And lone behold, by the time I was finished with the postcard, I was too in love with it to even think about selling it. Oops. 

I'm in LOVE with this postcard/moment...sigh...

I'm not sure how this project will go, especially if I get too attached to every piece to even consider selling them. If nothing else, it's more practice on a smaller scale. Here's the work from today, as well as Firenze work yesterday. I'll be making another trip to Castiglion Fiorentino tomorrow so I will likely not update until Monday or so. A dopo...

I fell in love with that little patch of light on the corner of that building tucked in the dark alley...

The dreaded Duomo facade! That I will never be able to call "finished"

The b/w on the left is my favorite sculpture under the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria.