JAN from Lynne and Maggie --- Blot printing

Lynne went with some celebratory fireworks in January and wrote JEAN in blue - and Maggie has a reference to blue jeans from a Neil Diamond song -- so that's 2 more people who did something blue-jean-ish. And Maggie must remember how much I like coffee.

*** written in Chicago in mid-January

It's still 0° - here's someone else with some inspiration to try something new - or maybe you have already tried it and want to try again. Blot printing.

LINK to blot printing

They can be either abstract or representational.

LINK to more ideas  from Laura Denny - if this looks interesting or if you need to fill time while dealing with the maximum chilled weather.

 

JAN from Juliana - Handmade broom

 

I put Blue Jean as an option for my name on the January lists. Juliana was the only one who addressed to Blue Jean. The idea came from the clever Blue Jean envelope from Mary. Juliana enclosed some fun snowflake ornaments that her kids had made. 

I wonder if her kids would be into making brooms (that's the add-on). I used to dream of having kids who wanted to make things with me. Then I thought the grandkids might be into making things. Nope. just a bunch of gross motor people. It's OK. I have enough playmates my own age who will get together for making things.

***

February filler. The making of a broom. I still like brooms although, the part where you have to deal with the pile of whatever you swept up can be a problem. My dream house would have some kind of trapdoor where you stepped on a pedal and then swept the stuff into some kind of receptacle. This is a step up from my dream house for kids that was entirely tile with a hose and a drain in the middle of the room.

Can anyone tell that I have been left in charge of 3 kids? (written while I was in Chicago in January)

LINK to hand made broom

JAN from JeanR ---- Offbeat

 

JeanR always does a coordinated card with her envelopes. I really like the card. Paper dolls are such a nice motif - and I really like the way she put that blue in the background. I would have never thought of something like that - and it adds so much. Nice work, JeanR.

Very random - that JeanR is paired with *offbeat* - she is not offbeat at all - although she's not the opposite of offbeat. I guess the first word that pops into my head is genuine. Don't worry - I'm not going to start labeling exchangers. I called Janet an over-achiever yesterday. When I have met exchangers in person - it's easy to come up with words to describe what I enjoy about them. The rest of you are all very mysterious...which is fine.... we're all just in it for the mail, right?

***

A quick add-on today - offbeat places to visit in each of the 50 states.

LINK to MentalFloss

It was impossible to choose one or even a few to post. Many of them are well known - others were new to me and I've been a big fan of offbeat for quite some time. Many years ago I found Offbeat Bride - which was lots of fun because I was doing so much wedding work. They have morphed into OffbeatWed - and I will let you do your own search if you are interested. Over the past 10-15 years - offbeat has become way more offbeat. Ten years ago, it was mostly goth and steampunk. 

JAN from Janet --- Happy 15th Birthday/Anniversary for the Blog

As I've mentioned - the order of posting of the envelopes is strictly by the order they were photographed...so it was just the luck of the draw that Janet gets to be the celebratory exchanger on the blog's 15th birthday. I'm soooo kicking myself that I didn't have this planned out - and invite her to a party to celebrate the honor of being the celebratory envelope. She is an over achiever in the dessert category (as well as a few others). So, it just dawned on me - it's Jan 26th as I write this. I have plenty of time to organize a party for the blog and invite Janet.....  it's tempting -- but, I think it will be more fun if I just let her read the blog this morning and bask in the honor of being the 15th Birthday enveloper. 

I think I had tossed out this style of lettering that she used and suggested that lots of people try it. Is she the only one who tried it? She was not happy with the shakiness of her lines - but I assured her that it was way better to have the lines be something other than smooth. They have so much more life. I just love this one. It's a very tricky font.

*** this part written while I was out of town earlier in January.

Well, here we are -  the 15th anniversary of the blog. I'm waiting for a brilliant idea for a special add-on. It's still 0° outside. Maybe I'll just head on over to Pinterest and see what they think I should post.

These were the first 4 items in the top row.

 A pretty. alphabet - that is the mixed-style that I've been enjoying these days.

A reminder to keep up with my self-discipline.

A snowflake - a pretty one - to offset the February chill.

And -  a snarky comment about age - yeah, yeah, yeah - everything gets old - 

Thanks to everyone who has helped me keep this going for 15 years....

JAN from Irene - CeeCee's doodle/painting

 

Irene went with a celebration theme and found a tutorial on fireworks. She's using up some linen envelopes that she said are not friendly with her pointed nib work. I can see the difference if I compare it to her work on smooth envelopes - but - it's perfectly fine. I, too, have some linen envelopes to purge from my stash. Maybe I'll pull them out after I get rid of the brown no. 9s.

Here is here card -- do we think Irene went through a tie-dye phase in her youth?

***

Here is another video about nudging your doodling into nicely designed patterns - that hopefully I have not already posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7lBpB_YrsY

If I did post this previously, I doubt I included the part where it shows that she is doing her voice over from her bed - and she calls it *relaxing painting and doodling - for all levels - that sounds like something I would promote.

There are endless videos on doodling/painting and some are OK - and I have nothing against diving in with abandon. However - I think this one has some features that reflect a little finesse. Or maybe they are too wimpy for your taste. It's all very subjective.

I did not do a deep dive into CeeCee - other than finding out she's Canadian. Here is the full list of her videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@creationsceecee/videos

JAN from Amy and Christy --- Ann Miller's take on Titivillus

 

This is white gel pen on shimmer paper - so I'm impressed that the ink stuck - and washi tape - from Amy. There's no cancellation.

Christy used washi tape, too. She coordinated the tape with the stamp. There were quite a few of these woodland animal stamps in January. I really like them. Notice that Christy left a half inch of white space for the USPS. I'm encouraging people to keep that half inch open. I know I didn't in January when I ran the motifs off the bottom. I had a little talk with myself - and I'm not going to do that again.

***

I hope this link takes you to Ann B. Miller's Substack - which is like a blog - or maybe not. I am signed up to get her mailings. I have not figured out Substack, yet. It seems like people can offer everything for free or just a part for free and then you need to subscribe to get everything. But, I digress.

Ann's post is about our little friend, Titivillus, the gremlin that causes all our problems if we are scribes or people who write things. I'm not sure we can blame pie-mistakes on him.

If you do a search for [Ann Miller] on my blog - you'll see where I've posted other items from her blog.

A 14th c. illustration of Titivillus, known as the "patron demon of scribes", a scapegoat to be blamed for the errors that occur when copying manuscripts.  [This was the caption on Ann's post]

LINK to Ann's post

Oh - here is some info -  from the end of Ann's blog - that explains some of how Substack works:

NOTE TO ALL: This blogpost on Substack will always be free. I will never charge for the regular newsletters. Think of the “paid” area as more of a classroom or discussion area, where we can be a bit more interactive.

PAID SUBSCRIBERS: All paid subscriptions are now $75 annually or $7.50 monthly. I am eager to devote time to interactive projects and individual discussions on this basis. For you, it’s an ongoing investment in your research and graphic skills in the book arts, handwriting, and letterform/calligraphy. I will be posting exercises that you can follow and work with on your own and upload for feedback. It’s a floating classroom, and I hope you will find it helpful!

EDUCATIONAL DISCOUNT: I’m now offering a special 50% discount on the annual paid subscription for art instructors and those in the art education field.

Rerun valentine to Eric Bruth -- Wearable art

 

Valentine's Day seems like a good day for a red and white themed envelope with heart stamps. This is from 2017. Eric was an exchanger for a while and as I recall he was posting his envelopes with his address online. I Googled and found a current link to his art from May of 2024 and it looks like he is a collage artist more than a mail artist, still living just south of Paris. He posted his address on his blog - so I did not block his address.

https://www.madcollage.com/post/eric-bruth-getting-to-know-you

The Google image search brought up quite a few fun things - many from my blog.

***

Wearable art - a topic that comes up from time to time. This is an episode of Craft in America.

This one is pretty although it would have to be a lot more subtle for me to wear it -- less contrast with the colors. And while the words are right up my alley, I'd make them a little smaller - or a lot smaller.

I might go for just designs rather than words

LINK to wearable art video

DEC from Rachael - Susan McCord quilt

I am being vigilant about filling the posts in the order that they appear in the folders to see if I can do this without missing any. I have the add-ons pre-written - so there is no rhyme or reason to how they are paired. I was delighted that Rachael get's to be with this add on.

I don't know if Rachael quilts - but she has the design sense and attention to detail that would be very helpful if she decided to try quilting. Rachael knows that I have a thing for copying her work. If I copy this one it will have to be for people who have only 6 letters and one of them needs to be an I. 

Yup - I just checked the list and the only one who has 6 letters and an I is Juliana Quiroz. Sorry, Juliana - I don't think I'm going to attempt this with your Q. Maybe Rachael want's to give it a try. Not to mention that part where she'll have to figure out how to spell  The Quirozs - or Quirozes - or Quirozi.  Pluralizing names that end in s or z is so tricky. 

 

***

The sub-zero blog posts. I think this is No. 3. I'm posting random stuff and I know there are a few quilters who read the blog. This is my all-time favorite quilt. I saved an article about it and then I found out that it is at the Henry Ford Museum (in Detroit) which is on my list of things that I'd like to do with my grandkids. I know they are very interested in seeing the actual bus that was found and restored - that Rosa Parks was riding when she made history. That bus in also at the museum and the museum is only one state away from them.  

Here's a link - not the best photos. It appeals to me because she was a kindred spirit to anyone who has a hard time parting with very small scraps of paper (or fabric). Her design was genius - for using up random bits of fabric that come in both square-ish as well as triangular-ish. 

LINK to McCord quilt at Ford museum

A tight shot of the. itty-bitty pieces

A mid-range shot of the vine pattern.

The coolness of the whole quilt.

The pink and green pulls all the random bits together beautifully.

***

This is the blurb at the link - I need to steal that phrase - "rendered to perfection* - to use on envelopes. It will be the opposite of *deeply regret.*

Indiana farmwife Susan McCord made this stunningly beautiful quilt -- indisputably her masterpiece. This trailing vine design is a McCord original. McCord pieced together printed and solid cotton fabric scraps to create the over 300 leaves on each of the thirteen vine panels. McCord used variations of this vine in the borders of several quilts. But McCord's vine design is rendered to perfection in this work of genius.

DEC from Irene ---- Cats and Dogs

This lovely envelope from Irene arrived in the middle of January. The postmark is clearly 2024, but the month and day is hidden behind the star on the top of the tree. It seems easy to read - to me - although it's in the red-family and we suspect that the scanners do not read red very well and gold might also be tricky. I'm just happy it arrived - along with the gorgeous card on the inside. I know Irene does a ton of cards and envelopes and hope she knows how much we appreciate her work.

 

***

Add-on today - something for the pet people - but only the cats and dogs. I'm still in Chicago and my grandson's third grade class had a snail living in the classroom. Apparently, some snails can just spontaneously reproduce asexually - and provide a baby snail for every kid in the class. So, I met Gary, Jr when I was here for Christmas and now it is Jan 19 and Gary, Jr has grown so much. A boy and his snail. Lucky for Ben, Nanna had the foresight to research whether or not snails carried any parasites or other bugs. Oh.My.Gosh.... don't touch snails.

Here are some Smithsonian articles about dogs and cats if you need to fill some time.

LINK to dog article

LINK to cat article

WOW!!  I just did a search for [Snails] and there are enough articles to keep us occupied for the whole day...which we might need because it is 0° outside and feels like -9°

P.S. There is a connection with the USPS and cats - and there might be one for dogs - that I have not yet found. 

Not long after the American Revolution, the U.S. became the first country to set aside money for cats in its budget. Approximately $1,000 per year was apportioned out for postal cats, which were employed to keep mouse populations in check. Funds were doled out to cities according to the volume of mail each place handled.

From Leslie in Jan - Goodnight Moon stamps

 

Leslie sent one that is similar to this one - that included MrWilson and has already been posted. I owe Leslie some bonus envelopes. It's on my to-do list.

Plus she makes very pretty cards. 2025 is a fun set of numbers.

***

Here's a shot of the USPS poster with the new stamps for 2025. Goodnight Moon is going to be featured. They have not updated the website yet. It's hard to tell if these are going to be wonderful to work with or a challenge. In some ways they are begging to be used on red or green envelopes....but then we have the problem of the scanners reading the address.

Those brown envelopes - Bob's artwork

 

These were two non-exchange envelopes where I was pondering the brown envelopes for the Feb exchange. These are ho-hum. So, I might have to figure out something else. The Sharpie Creative markers give great coverage but they are too bright for brown paper. White is OK but I don't want to use up the white marker.

I left these on my desk for a few days and made minor improvement to Janet&Nate's - but didn't want to risk adding more to Mike&Kate's. It's time to retire capital letters on script styles for good and always.

***

Random stuff - just scheduling posts while I am out of town in January. 

Bob Dylan is all over the place because of the movie - and this popped up. I did not know that he also enjoyed painting and is represented by a gallery.

Bob's gallery

I chose a still life - although most of his work is landscapes.

January to Amy - Bill Lilly video

 This one should have been at the beginning of the January envelopes but I forgot to photograph Amy's. I actually think it is one of the best - if not thee best. Although I forgot to photograph Liz's - so maybe hers was good. I sure wonder how I manage to miss envelopes when I am photographing. I had Amy send me a photograph after it arrived and it is not cancelled because I put it inside another envelope that had a really cute fox stamp - but I was not happy with the design - so I'm not posting it. I have a couple more fox stamps - so a couple more chances to do something wonderful.

***

Some of the people who read the blog are calligraphers and some of them have either met or heard the name Bill Lilly. He was one of the last people to have graduated from the Zanerian College - back when you could study penmanship professionally and go to penmanship college. Here is a documentary about Bill and his journey along the penmanship path. 

The *penmen* did not consider themselves calligraphers. It's a complicated topic - too complicated for me to explain - but if you need a deep dive into the quirkiness of the very last of the official penman - here you go:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKMJJhNhhWA  

Bill's claim to being an *official* penman is that he went to an actual penmanship college and had a gold seal certificate which was is a genius idea for a certificate or diploma. The student had to create their own diploma by hand and it would get one of three colored seals - with gold being the highest - and they were very hard to get. As far as I know, Bill was the last surviving Zanerian Gold Seal graduate. That's not to say that his skill was superior to so many others -- it's just a thing from the olden days. 

I met Bill a couple times and he was a very warm, humble and generous person - which is true of most penmanship people. I think we all agree that there was only one who was a complete jerk.

That's a joke.

Dec from Amy and Sharen

These are from Amy (above) and Sharen (below). Can anyone tell that I'm running out of steam on my jabbering? As I keep mentioning, I am out of town. It was going to be a fun week of doing stuff with my daughter while her husband was out of town for a whole week and the kids were at school. It is currently day 2 of me looking after the 9 year old grandson who has a fever and a headache. I'm keeping my distance. My daughter is out on the endless errands - so I'm at home with Ben - and getting the blog filled.

I guess I could invite him to be a guest blogger. 

 Here is just one of the things that is of interest to Ben - although you know a kid is really sick when they won't watch YouTube videos.

LINK to world's hardest Rubik's cube. ...and, yes, the guy solves it.

I just counted 15 envelopes - that arrived in Dec - and that were photographed and in the folder - and there should be more - I'll post the rest when and if I figure out where they are.

Tomorrow - we will see what arrived in January.....before I departed on this trip to Chicago.

Dec from Leslie

So pretty - folded pen work from Leslie on the envelope - and she did a second gingerbread house envelope that was tucked inside. I love the card. I've had an idea to do birthday cards with used stamps and have a border....something exactly like what she did - but it would say Happy Birthday.

I am still making and donating the birthday cards to the YMCA supportive housing campus - where previously unhoused people are turning their lives around. The staff is vigilant about getting hand made birthday cards for everyone (140 residents) - so I like to do as many as possible. Maybe - if I get a batch done - with the stamps - I can trick Leslie into doing the Happy Birthday part. I'm not certain that Leslie reads the blog every day - so I'm not sure she will read this. Maybe I will hear from her.

I know there are some very *every day* readers - like me - make coffee/check the blog. There are also *sporadic* readers - and I suspect there are some exchangers who never look at the blog - but, I'm not sure how to track them. It's better to just leave things the way they are. Slightly mysterious.

 

Dec from Janet - and Nanski's card

 I like this one - and it wowed me when it showed up - so I emailed Janet. I was surprised that she didn't think it was wow-worthy. It's a good example of how you just never know. Some of my own work that seems pretty ho-hum - is very well received. I forgot to photograph the innards.

If you click on it and look at the lettering up close, you will get a better idea of how lovely it is.

Below is a card that I loved - and I think it has to be from someone in the northeast - but I sure don't know why I didn't get a photo of the envelope. By process of elimination, I think it's from Nanski.

As I recall - it's a Hallmark card. It came with little stickers that say "Me" and "You" - adorable. 

***

I'm home and as I recall, I gave fair warning that Jan and Feb would be a confusing mess of writing because I don't do blurbs and photos and add-ons at the same time. I have no idea if I can make anything less confusing. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter.

Grand scheme? Is that a real thing?

Dec from Maggie and Jessica

It looks like I will get the rest of the December mail posted all at once - which means I might not lose any of them. Although, I am doing this from out-of-town - so, whenever I can't remember whose envelope it is - I can't flip through the stack. This one (above) is from Maggie. She and Irene are both from CT - and both do mostly pointed pen work - but, I don't think I've ever gotten them mixed up.

Below - I can tell it's from Jessica. Her snowman is a fun companion with the postmark. I took a photo of the snowman cancel and thought it might be cute enough to do something with it - but enlarged - it's a little creepy.

 

Dec from JeanR - Longevity question

 

JeanR had a 3-3 thing going in December - 3 swoops on the envelope - 3 ornaments on the card - very pretty. The USPS is helping out with the 3 lines on the postmark. Interestingly, the first and third likes are the same. I wonder why they have 3 lines. 

A while back, a blog post with one of JeanR's envelopes included a question about how much mail Jean sends each month - and she responded:

 I prepare at least 30 birthday, anniversary greetings per month, plus 7 or 8 for the envelope exchange.  Christmas and Valentines make those months very heavy because I include all my family and some friends too. 

Thank you for the response, Jean :-) I wonder if there is anyone else who exchanges who sends more mail than that.

***

Something random from my folder of random tidbits that will be deleted and apologies for not recording from whence it came.

oh - I did record from whence it came  tv_calligraphee  on IG

Dec from Mary - Connie Chen

Mary still has some of The Snowy Day stamps - and her little mouse-on-a-star card was tucked inside. I like those foot prints in the snow - a clever way to fill up the envelope but leave enough white space for the address to be easy to read.

 ***

Connie Chen's name was not one I recognized when I saw that she was offering a class for one of the CA guilds. I followed the path to her website and see that she's been around long enough to earn Master Penman credentials and has some rave reviews from people who have studied Spencerian with her.

I won't have time to take any classes but this one example is enough to get me interested in giving it a try ....grrrr.... now I can't find it - hopefully I will - in the meantime -  here is a link to her website:

https://www.connie-chen.com

I found her website a little hard to navigate - here's a link to her portfolio

https://www.connie-chen.com/commissions