mara's mail

wouldn't mind finding more of these 22-cents stamps, while we are at 44-cents. i saw a website the other day that had all the stamps by year. but, now i can't find it to post the link to it. i'll keep looking. or maybe one of you will find it and post it in a comment. as red green says, "we're all in this together."

mara's mail

you can't go wrong with floral stamps.

mara's mail

it would be fun to play around with these stamps if i could find more of them

mara's mail

this is one from a series of 40 done for a 40th birthday. i do not have the originals. this is a scan of a color copy. i do have the scans somewhere, but they have her address. i need someone with photoshop to blur the addresses for me.
anyone out there want to do that for us? if not, you'll just have to look at these scans of bad color copies. for the next 39 days.... love!! that stamp.!

my mail

this is from a very good penpal. looks like she has been to the stamp store. i have never seen the apollo soyuz stamp. very unusual shape. i thought it was european. nice symmetry to the layout. and an A+ on your J. that is one of the harder letters in neuland. clearly, you have taken care to pull some nice curvy lines.

thanks penpal...i hope you inspire other people to send me more mail.

dead letters

this is a scan of an envelope that i made back in 02, although i would have thought it was earlier than that. my husband followed the grateful dead and after jerry garcia died, there was a group called *the other ones* made up of the non-jerry members of the band. when you wanted tickets to one of their shows, you had to mail in a request and hope that you were chosen to receive tickets. i suppose everything is done on the internet now. but, in 2002, i guess deadheads were still using the postal system. i figured that the pretty envelopes would get picked. so, i made this one. there is going to be a book published with 300 envelopes that were decorated and mailed in. somebody kept all that mail. if there are any dead heads out there, let me know and i let you know when the book is published. i'll be curious to see the other art. it's probably not pointed pen work.

schmutz

last week i had a job addressing these purple shimmer envelopes using a silver gel pen. the old pens were nice the new ones are too fat. luckily, i found an old one that got me through the entire job and it ran out on the very last envelope. so, that was lucky. this envelope had a big blobby defect in the paper. i covered it up with a scribble blob. then proceeded to write kathy's name under it and then doodles. then it sat around for a day or two. then i went to the stamp store and bought some vintage stamps. this one seemed to go. but after i put it on, it really bothered me, because the amish people who made that quilt would not like the shimmer paper. so then, i had to figure out something to do with it and decided to show how you can make an envelope with a cut-off section if you have to add some cents, but you do not have time to color-coordinate. so...all in all, it gets a D- in design. it's just awful. to make up for the ugliness...i returned one of my most favorite envelopes that i have done for kathy. she returned all her mail from me so i could scan it and i had the nutty idea to return all her mail, one at a time. i sincerely hope that i am inspired to make envelopes that are prettier than this one.

and now that i look at it on the screen, maybe i should have scribbled a square, on the diagonal, over the round scribbles, to reinforce the center pattern in the quilt.

time flies

this was the other envelope i sent (late) in the time flies exchange. it is a linen envelope and i am not crazy about writing on linen. but the semi dry silver sharpie needed something more, so it was a good opportunity to layer. this is another example of making very long lines as a design element. to do them, i turned the envelope a quarter turn to the right. the lines have some arc to them, created by my arm swinging in big broad strokes.

don't ever ever ever ever do this

don't ever ever ever ever do all caps with a big fancy cap. never. don't do it. it should be against the law to do it. so why did i do it? because every once in a while i'm a rebel.

clearly kathy chose the right stamp. a true likeness of me in my rebel mode.

happy birthday mr sunshine

stop over and pick this up. i'll bake you a cake....leave me a comment :-)

time flies

i collect the names and send out the addresses for a yahoo group (calligraphy exchange) and if i do not come out with an even number of names, i, too participate. the theme for february was *time flies* so, it was the middle of march before i got my envelope in the mail to jill. i wish i would have done it on a white envelope. i am resisting the temptation to redo it. of course, if i did, then i could do something more fun with the 5 stamps and the 5 digits in the zip code.

twins

sonjia and marcia are twins whose parents wanted names that were somewhat similar. i like the way they found two names that share the abbreviation for the state in which the girls reside. i blocked out their actual address..so that white box will not be on the envelope. poor planning made me run out of room at the bottom which is why that zip code is at the top. but, i rather like the non-traditional order of information. many postal workers tell me they enjoy the variety.

easier to see

very quickly...because i could see this morning that the pale blue envelope did not show up. here it is in a darker blue and i happened to find some nice stamps. did not take time to warm up, so the loops are not as graceful as they could be, but you get the idea.

and i can see that the overall shape needs a little work. s-o-m-e-d-a-y i'll do a dozen like this and learn what they need to be balanced, yet not symmetrical.

i'll try to darken this one up a bit. i like the idea of loopy loops. then turn it around and loop some more in the other direction. i would write the address in between the two rows of loops

upcoming stamps

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/

click on the link to the garden of love stamps

they are coming out may 19.

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/stamp-releases/garden-love-love

i just tried to upload the image and i think it worked. does this count as a blog post? or do i have to post an envelope? who is in charge? who sets the rules? i'll see if anyone comments. if nobody complains, i'll let this be the post today. if there are any complaints, i'll find something to post.

celebrate

have always liked this stamp. seems like i should use it more often. this is the outer envelope that goes with yesterday's post. [added on...there is a new celebrate stamp coming out, neon letters on black background...so this one is hard to find]

double envelopes

i have started putting birthday cards in double envelopes because a lot of cards come with colored envelopes and i can't always find a good stamp to do with the the colored envelopes. and the lettering doesn't always look very good on colored envelopes. after i did the blue, i thought it needed something, so i did the silver springs. maybe could have done more, but the outer envelope was very pleasing, so i didn't worry too much about the inner.

keith

should have penciled first. had to stretch that d
and the g should have been round to reflect the magnifying glass.

keith

love the stamp, love the colors, love neuland. ok with the layout...might be improvable.

keith

i only know about three flourish moves. used all of them on this envelope.

question for carol

carol, if you are checking the blog, there is a question about your envelope that i posted earlier today. if you don't mind telling trade secrets, what medium and tool did you use on the black envelope. i made a guess. (sorry about the typo. i can't figure out how to edit comments after they are posted.

and here is a pretty cute article about a lady who kept getting the same birthday card from queen elizabeth.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1180817/Prince-William-makes-surprise-visit-apologise-109-year-old-complained-Queens-birthday-cards.html

and below is some hand lettering that is fun. this is a test to see if i can post from this computer. i need to find out who did this lettering. and give the link to their site. i realized that i see many wonderful things and need to figure out a way to link to them if they look like something fun for an envelope. i think this would be a spectacular envelope. i'd be sure to put two stamps on it, since it would take extra time to find the address.

my mail from carol

carol dubosch sent this envelope to thank me for posting the blog. thanks carol. nothing like fan mail to keep me going. and the post office thought your envelope was so pretty, they did not want to mess it up with a cancellation. i have some other mail, sent by fans that i have been meaning to post...but it is hiding from me. i'm going to be better about scanning and posting mail on the day it arrives.
very nice use of stamps.

keith

this looks like kathy's lettering. i wonder if kathy remembers?
i don't think i ever get my letters that straight. maybe when we enlarge this we can see her pencil lines.

keith

kathy appears to have a thing for putting the stamps on upside down :-)

keith

i believe i wrote KEITH on 50 envelopes and then passed them along to kathy to apply stamps and the address. on some she did not add the address. i like where she put the stamp. i think i pondered earlier...whether or not to finish the addresses...it probably won't get done

keith

very easy, but i like the way the lettering almost looks like it was done with a big wide paint brush

keith

i'm not always happy with the keith series.
i think i crashed it out a little too fast and i think i tend to do *girly* envelopes better than *guy* envelopes. so, look at these keith envelopes as experiments. maybe when they pop open each morning, i'll have something constructive to say about them

my mail

nancy from oregon sent me some stamps. thanks nancy. your brush lettering is beautiful. i really like that J. also, very good use of neutral colors. and your shadows are just the right amount. very nice the way the lettering is in a block. and the pawprints are adorable.

and the frosting on the cake...nancy sent me some vintage stamps. some i have never seen. so...i will be inspired to do some fun envelopes....as soon as i finish the jobs on my desk. 240 doubles, 40 more silver on purples, 80 casual singles, and most important of all...the invitations to my daughter's wedding. a year in the planning...i could have had them done a month ago, but no, here i am down to the wire and juggling my own job with all the others. i spent a year telling myself i would not let this happen. i have all the lettering done, i just have to make the inner envelopes. i am making them out of onion skin...because i happened to find a stack of 100 sheets in my piles of paper and it seemed like a fun way to use them up. i only have 60 left to make.

then i have to decide which stamps to use. i have a variety of stamps...and yes, i will be posting all the wedding stationery after it has all gone out.

my mail

i received this envelope in the *red exchange*

there is a group on yahoo groups called *calligraphy exchange* and the members exchange decorated envelopes. in dec, i was invited to be the organizer of the monthly exchanges. and since i have absolutely nothing else going on in my life, i thought it would be a good use of my time. so, i have been running the exchanges. if anyone is interested in exchanging decorated envelopes, just go to yahoo groups and join. if you do not know how to do that, email me and i can tell you how.

this one came from canada, where they sure do know how to design a nice bunny stamp. very cool how the legs that are cropped off the left edge, reappear on the right.

the exchange for march was to do an envelope with a border design. i have to come up with an idea for the april exchange. any suggestions?

keith

i was surprised to see that there were only 17 keith envelopes up. so, i'll do a few more from that collection. this one is for non-lettering people. if you can make little block letters and if you have any sets of multiple colored tools, you can have fun with a checkerboard pattern. as always, pencil lines would have been a good idea...

flowers

love to make flowers. this is a variation of the ones i usually do with this stamp. i almost like these better. but, maybe i just like them because i like variety.

the tail on that *a* looks like a slug. that's why you should never stick the stamp on the envelope before you letter. what was i thinking??? and where was my pencil line so that the last name was level with the first name. i need to find my soapstone pencil.

dry markers

i've always liked the looks of dry markers. you can only do one name and then you have to put it away for a while. sometimes i go back and add to the name, but this time, i liked the way it looked and just left it.