April from Jessica

 If you checked the blog early, yesterday - you might have seen it before I added the beautiful J that JeanR uses. Scroll down to the end of yesterday's post if you want to see it.

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I like the way Jessica put a rectangle opposite the stamp and then wrote around the corner. The bar code adds to the *implied* border. I also like the fun-fetti on the other envelope - nicely color coordinated with the stamp.

in a previous post, I think I was confused about why I was getting two envelopes from people in April - and then I realized that it is because we have a birthday list. I had several old lists that indicated which months were birthday months for several exchangers - so co-pilot Amy made up a list and we sent it around to people who expressed an interest in sending a birthday card to people who they exchanged with - but maybe they would not be on the same list during the birthday month.

And I guess Amy and I put me on the list.... and since I almost always send to everyone - I didn't mean for people to send me a birthday card in addition to the regular exchange - I only need one envelope in each exchange - so April would be the month to do a birthday theme if someone was so inclined. 

It is almost 5 pm and I can tell that my ability to make sense is impaired. But, we must forge ahead.

If you are an exchanger, and would like a copy of the birthday list, let me know and Amy will send it. It is entirely optional - it's just for people who sometimes feel like sending extra mail. 

Apr from JeanR and Kristine - letter J (2)

 

JeanR used the button alphabet on the envelope and then used a very appropriate quote on the card.

Below, I will post the J that JeanR uses on her signature. I like it soooo much. I have not spent any time trying to appropriate it. I have used many different J's over the years - and at my age, I think I should stick with the one I've been using on the few documents and checks that get written.

Kristine's design, below is fun - and one that invites variations. Black and white and red - that tried and true combo. She even got away with using a red white and blue stamp because there is such a minimal amount of blue. The cancel fits in.

Yesterday I posted the IG of a guy who has videos with lovely ideas for initials and signatures. I clicked on his website and apparently he designs signatures that people can use as logos. They are really pretty. If you get into the website, you can see the options for choosing what level of calligrapher you want to invest in to make your logo.

He also claims that people can learn to write their new signature. I wish I had time to investigate how he does that. I suppose if someone traced their new signature enough they could get it imbedded in their muscle memory.

https://calligraphyvideo.shop

Here is JeanR's J

April from Juliana - the letter J (1)

 

Juliana found a book, Graffiti Alphabets by Claudia Wadle and gave *Calligraffiti* a try. I love it and even though the address is pretty hard to read, it made its way to my house. I can't tell how long it took because I was out of town for half the month.

A while back I did some complaining about how hard it has been for me to live with the letter J and I've resorted to using a no-cap signature because I could never find a capital J that I liked. Juliana left a comment that she, too, had struggled with her Js. 

There will be more examples of Js coming up. Feel free to leave a comment if you want help with any other letters. I stumbled across an IG account that has many videos on penmanship and examples of stylish capital letters for signatures. The link will take you to J - but, you can scroll through all the posts and you might find other letters and options to improve your caps.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJbYSimgRAd/

I have not spent a lot of time on this site - the J post has some flowery perspective on Js

The letter J—joyful, just, and journey-bound. With its sweeping curve dipping low before lifting gracefully upward, J carries the spirit of someone who has touched the depths and still chooses to rise. It is a letter shaped like a path—bending, flowing, becoming—never rigid, always real.

J is for journey—the kind that isn’t measured in miles, but in growth, in courage, in how many times you’ve begun again. It’s for joy—not the loud kind that demands attention, but the quiet spark that lives in the little moments: a kind word, a deep breath, a hand held in silence. It’s for justice—the unwavering desire to bring balance and truth, to stand with heart even when it’s not easy.

April from Lynne and Amy - Iowa Hall of Fame

 These are adorable. The first one is from Lynne - the next two are from Amy. Short comments today because the add on is long.

I hope I remember to use Amy's idea of putting each letter on a gift tag.

***

From time to time, I have a dog or cat stamp and always wish I knew which exchangers would prefer one or the other. I am pretty sure Lynne has a preference for dogs - so this is for you, Lynne. I just found out that Iowa has an Animal Hall of Fame. I wonder how many states have them and if there is a national one. Several other states pop up - so I might do more research. Although this is probably too far off topic for me to spend more time on it. (I did do a quick check and lots of states have something similar)

Four furry friends have been inducted into the 2025 Iowa Animal Hall of Fame. Nacho, Curro, Ruckus and Ranger, all dogs, received official state fame status.

The Iowa Veterinary Medical Association and Hill's Pet Nutrition inducted the four pets, who were honored for bravery and companionship. In the last 24 years, 78 animals – including dogs, cats, horses and cows – across Iowa have received the honor.

The awards have three categories: companion, hero and professional. Here are the four-legged friends who took home the prize.

Nacho and Corrin

This pair of golden retriever mixes work together to bring comfort and fun to children at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital, and were awarded in the professional category. Emily Bradley and Aly Humphrey are their handlers, both child life specialists.

Ruckus

Ruckus is a 10-year-old Dalmatian who belongs to Carl and Deb Badtram of Strawberry Point. Nominated by Dr. Ashley Vander Hart of Edgewood Veterinary Clinic in the companion category, this lovable pup has the ability to bring joy to anyone he meets.

Ranger

This West Des Moines dog won in the hero category and belongs to Kim and John Danos. The 9-year-old boxer was nominated by Dr. Dim Kendall at Ingersoll Animal Hospital. During a home invasion at the Danos household, Ranger placed himself between his owner and the threat, grabbing the intruder's arm.

April from Mary _ Boomers - Gen X, etc

 

Here is my birthday greeting from Mary. Those two stamps look so good together. I thought I had run out of those flower stamps - but - found two more. I like the little nerd on the card. Having been a nerd, I am fond of them. I am probably still a nerd. 

I used that word around someone who has kids in high school and she told me that being a nerd is now cool. That's good to know. She also told me about one of the *generations* that seems to be disinterested in drinking for entertainment. Am I the only one who has completely lost the ability to know what the names are for the generations? 

I know I am a Boomer - then I think we had GenX and then I know the Millennials are the ones born in the 80s and 90s - or maybe I'm off on that. Maybe Gen Z comes next? I think it was a big mistake to choose another letter of the alphabet. OK - I looked it up. Further reporting will pop up on June 9th.

April from Lynne and Leslie

 

I couldn't see exactly what the 44 that Lynne wrote looked like underneath the Sharpie marker that a postal worker added. They also crossed out the bar code - so the scanner must have mistaken a 4 or both 4s for a 9. 

Leslie had a very clever idea to write April in a *showerly* fashion. Then the three flowers are made up of Ms and As and Ys. I'm having a heck of a time using my round stamps. They are so pretty and I have too many ideas to go with each one.

No add on today. I am only a week ahead on writing the blurbs. 

May from Meg

This is from Meg, our Australian correspondent. I've emailed a little bit with her and learned that she is a graphic designer. I think I might have mentioned that previously. She does the drawings and prints them off on paper that she folds into envelopes. The colors are all done by hand and it looks to me like she used alcohol markers. 

I made *enough* comments about not having alcohol markers that one of our exchangers sent me a set of alcohol markers for my birthday. I hope I didn't sound like I was dropping hints. They have been waiting for me to try them because I was fearful that they would be like heroin and I would cease to do all the chores and shirk my obligations. 

My first attempt was wacky. Not my style at all. Then I did a couple more that were a little better. But, I was able to pack them up and put them on the shelf for the June exchange which is only a week away. For now I have to fill up the jabber position of the posts that have only images of envelopes.

 

April from Irene and May to Chuck

Irene is really talented at learning new hands - which is what some people call styles of lettering. Others would call this a font. Its name is Bones - and if I were not a lazy slug, I would go get my Jackie Svaren book and get some history for you. I can see why it got that name. 

On the insert below Irene used that technique where you drop iridescent metallic ink or gouache into walnut ink - which is a very cool technique.

***

Here is our new person to send random surprise mail to. He is a clerk at our main post office. I spoke to him in January or February about the mail that was getting returned to me for no good reason. He was so nice. When I walked in on May 8th, he smiled and greeted me - and made some reference that implied he was glad I was back. We had a long conversation about my May envelopes and whether they looked like they would give the scanners any problem. He was dazzled by the envelopes and then it was clear that he had a favorite. Luckily, I have one more car stamp - so I can make one for him that is similar to Chuck's (below).

If you would like to make a postal worker very happy by sending him an envelope - write his name big - and then underneath put a line - in smaller writing - so that whoever handles the mail at the main plant will be sure to know where to find Davonte - it's a very large building.

Davonte

Clerk at the front desk

1165 2nd Ave

Des Moines, IA 50318

Here is the one he really liked.

I've been using the new tool called *Clean up* which basically erases. It does a really good job but I have mixed feelings. When I covered up the street part of the address with the city/state/zip I liked how it left an impression of what the envelope looked like. I can't find a tool in the new version of Photos that will let me pick up the city/state/zip and c&p it. (Update - I found it - you have to choose to open the photo in Preview)

In real life - the colors might have been a better match. Maybe not. 

***

A few days later, I needed to avoid some chores so I found my Jackie Svaren book and I feel like a dunce because Jackie designed the Bone alphabet. I believe the book is out of print - but I could be way off on that. The entire book was handwritten by Jackie - which is an amazing feat. As I recall, Jackie has gone to that great scriptorium in the sky.

 

April from Nanski

 

Nanski's envelope is nice and clear for the USPS. She managed to find colors that did not get muddy. The details are fun. Here's the card - in case anyone needs a cute gnome to appropriate.

There is something ominous going on with Blogger and uploading photos. I'll keep working on it - and hopefully things will pop up the way they are supposed to. The last thing we need is technical difficulty.

I'm writing this on May 8 - a lovely spring day. I have to hustle to get the rest of the month filled. I just dropped my exchange envelopes in the mail. I took one idea - and tried variations on 10 envelopes so we might have a very boring stretch - but that won't be until June. Were are in the middle of the April mail that I received - and there are a lot more to post.

Coming up tomorrow will be someone to send mail to who will be so surprised. He seems like someone who could become a spokesperson.

April from Janet

Here is a tutorial for the paper wallet that was posted yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFA88telGo

If you Google - YouTube folded paper wallet - there are a lot of videos. One of them had 6 different designs.....

 Janet sent this in April. She knew it was my birthday. At first I misread this and thought Janet equated me with fun which is so flattering. Then I saw that there is a cupcake + Jean = fun - so maybe I'm only fun if there are cupcakes. I need Janet to equate me with fun because she's on my ofrenda building committee. I added one more person, Stephen. I can't believe I forgot about him. He's one of the people who had been a life saver from back in the day - when I had BIG jobs.

One of my most favorite stories that I have blogged is one of Steve's projects and I can't figure out how to find it. Grrrrrr.

This is the card from Janet:

I need to steal that version of Happy Birthday - it is a perfect combo of script and printing.

Below is the front. 

April from Patty

 This is a perfect example (from Patty) on how a Teacher Appreciation Day banner could have been spectacular on white paper. Fill it up with lots of strong colors - and outlining. So.Much.Fun. I need to save this somewhere that I will find it when I need to make a poster. 

My birthday is in April - and Patty filled the envelope with a fun card with a note, a flower that I like a lot because it's quick and easy - and simply cutting it out makes is cool. And then there is a folder booklet. Patty says she is not *crafty.* I think she could pass for crafty if she wanted to. But - she's taken many courses at the art museum - so she probably enjoys being called artsy.

I should look for a YouTube tutorial on making these little folder books. I've made several and they are so much fun to make. I used to make them when I had an actual studio and somehow I had more time to putter. That doesn't make sense. Where has my putter-time gone?

***

I just found a tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFA88telGo

Mar and April from Riley

Riley did a very fun April shower theme for April. I remember, as a little girl, how much I liked the dress and shoes worn by the little girl on the Morton's salt box. I would have loved having a dress like that and the matching shoes would have been sublime. I will refrain from additional musings about logos. 

Make that, I tried to refrain. I had to Google Morton's Salt in case there's a good story. Lots of good stories.

From Wiki: Morton Salt's logo is considered to be one of the ten best-known advertising symbols in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Salt

You'll have to go to Wiki if you want more stories. There were so many I couldn't choose just one.

I think the one below was for the March exchange. As previously mentioned, I am posting envelopes in the order in which I took the photos - so - these ended up together.

Blogger is making trouble.

Second try below.

OK- now it's working.

This morning the top photo was just a blank square - 

then I loaded the photo through a different set of clicks

and then they both sowed up.

In the future - we might have more blank squares.

Blogger is being feisty. Grrrr

Mar or Apr from Geo - Yay sign

This is from Geo - not my husband Geo, AKA MrWilson. I'm curious about envelope Geo. I'm curious about this design. I've been feeling this way. It looks a little ominous - but - I'm not a Pollyanna type of person. If I were to steal this idea I would do the exact same thing on the front and then I'd do sunshine and a rainbow on the back. I'm OK with the stamp - but one of those black moon ones would have been great.

Speaking of Geo-people - the Geo-husband asked me to look at a layout he had before he ordered it. He's retired and his main activity is working at a couple food pantries. One is in a public school. He doesn't' know how to avoid extra work and took on the task of making a sign for Teacher Appreciation Day - which is fine - although - technically the food pantry has nothing to do with the teachers.

Even though he did not want to ask me to make him a sign - he must have had some weird intuition that if he showed me his *layout* - I would take pity on him.

Here it is. This is his idea for a 6 ft x 3 ft sign. He was going to spend $45 for a sign that looked like this.

I deserve some kind of award for maintaining my composure when he showed it to me. I said in a very gentle voice, "Well, it's a little industrial. I'd be happy to make something more colorful. Would that be OK?" He said, "Sure. I didn't want to bother you." I said it was fine - I'd be happy to do it. And I did it as fast as I could.

I have one deep regret. Make that two. I was not fond of the wording - but I didn't know if someone else had given the words to him - so I didn't want to propose different words and put him in an awkward position. Or if he had come up with those words, I didn't want to insult him. His undergraduate degree was in English and mine was not. In fact, I got my undergraduate degree and the only *paper* I wrote in those 4 years was 3-page, handwritten book report. Maybe I should share the whole story someday.

The second regret is the placement of the tag line - I really wish I had lettered it between two wavy lines and done a font that was short and fat - to fill that space better. Just a flourish on the h would have been so much better. And I would have made the YAY smaller and the TEACHERS a little larger. But, I really did just chalk it out in 3 minutes and paint it in less than half an hour.

Third regret - I wish I had used a much larger brush for the border. It's wimpy.

Fourth regret - bees. Why didn't I add some bees. Grrrrr

If you ever want to make a sign - start with colored paper - it's so much easier to make things pop - although you have to use paint. Markers would have been muddy.

***

Update - MrWilson shared with me all the comments that the sign received. Positive comments. I just roll my eyes. It's so easy to impress people - all you have to do is something by hand....

 

April from Carolyn

This is from a Carolyn. Not the one who exchanges. I'm not sure if this Carolyn reads the blog, but if she does: Hi, Carolyn - I hope to respond with some real mail. (update - I mailed something on May 13)

Carolyn and I were young mommies 30+ years ago - and now we are grannies. I always forget her birthday and she always remembers mine. Maybe Amy (my blog co-pilot) has a fool proof system for remembering birthdays. Or maybe others have ideas to share in the comments.

While Carolyn's card and envelope are printed - they are the kind of inspiration that would be very easy to appropriate.

My wish is for my new system for managing my photos to actually work. 

I am going to start at the end of the list and not allow myself to jump around. 

I read an entire book on how to corral your brain into doing things that it doesn't do on its own.

I have to re-read it and take notes. I just remember that it was really good....but I don't remember any of it. I don't even remember the title.

Grrrr

That was a fake grrrr - my library keeps a list of every book I check out. 

Handy --- also a little creepy.

March from Leslie

Leslie sent two envelopes in March. The top one has the letters in J-E-A-N written in circles. Leslie and I emailed back and forth about the flower-letters - and I found something similar that I had done a while back - but, I don't have time to find them again. I just realized that I have only two weeks of posts scheduled - so I have to buckle down and fill up the month. 

No add-on today. Those infernal weeds are interfering with my blog time. 

 

March from Nanski - Meow Wolf

 

Nanski did some hatching. I'm not sure if that's the right word. We all know about cross hatching. None of her lines cross each other so I feel like we should leave the *cross* out of the sentence. So, maybe hatching is fine. The barcode looks very nice with the whole design. The postmark is equally nice. Hey Nanski: I think you sent two envelopes in March because you were on two lists. We only do one envelope if we see each other on two lists. 

***

I'm not much of a traveler - but one place I visited has really stuck in my head as being exceptional. Also pretty alternative to the usual tourist site. It is Meow Wolf which started in Santa Fe. I knew they had added other locations - and just announced that they will be building one in NYC. 

It's an alternative to typical tourist traps - also very hard to describe - so, I'll leave it to you to delve into it on your own. I'm just mentioning it in case any of you happen to be in a place where you could visit one. I'd be curious to know if they ever have visitors who are disappointed. The website makes it look very trippy with flashing lights - which I think is misleading. To me, the use of lighting was very effective at transporting you into a different realm. You see everything up close - so you can appreciate the materials used to make the environments.

I couldn't find a picture I have of myself - opening the door of a refrigerator and finding a portal to another world --- 

https://meowwolf.com

---but I did find this one of somebody else...

March from Janet - May Madness

 

Janet wasn't entirely happy with the L-shaped border. It doesn't bother me at all. Lining up the horizon line on the stamp was the right thing to do. The way she added the last name was also a very good choice to make. 

The stuff I wrote below suggests that I was in a position to be orderly. I was mistaken when I wrote that. I still have some March incoming mail to post. So, being orderly is on the back burner. It's only May 2nd as I write this. Doesn't take long for me to figure out that I have no idea what's going on. Maybe I have jet lag from that 45 minute flight from Chicago back to DSM.

***

I'm drawing a virtual line in the sands of time today. As I write this, it is May 1st and I just returned from that trip to Chicago. The exchangers are signing up and I have the stack of mail that arrived in April. The goal for this month is to photograph them and post them in an orderly fashion. 

At this moment, I am in chore avoidance mode - so I am going to start with at least one add on. I have been fond of pressing leaves and flowers for a very long time. This will go in my *maybe never* folder. I have several things to tidy up before I turn to pressed flowers and leaves. It seems like a good activity for winter.

Here is the link to Jennie - LINK to Leafworks

April to Lynne - March from Patty and Jessica

The top one was ho-hum - and I added a smaller envelope inside that has already been posted. It was the one with the robot. This idea came from something I received - but, I don't have time to scroll through and find it out. Thanks to everyone who keeps sending me ideas.

***

Once again - I have lost track of which envelopes have been posted....so I'm going to gang a few of them and then move on to the mail that arrived in April.

Blogger is doing a strange thing so bear with me while I figure things out.

Patty has a new puppy - in real life - so she has been inspired by Louie.

Nanski added shamrocks for St. Patrick's day.

Jessica went with springtime flowers.