julie - angels

it took a while to figure out what to do on this envelope. none of my markers were the right color. the stars and background were so close in tone, i did not want to have anything contrasting. finding a stamp that looked good was encouraging. finally, i went with the gold galaxy marker. not the perfect color, but, good enough. also, it was bold enough that it was legible. then, the little bit of black did not bother me. it still needed something else to tie it all together and i went with white gel pen around some of the stars.

julie - cupcakes

be-jeweled cupcakes. the envelope is a shimmer paper which is very friendly with white ink. this is ziller ink. the flowers are galaxy markers outlined with gelly roll white gel pen. nothing new and different. sometimes the stamp is so pretty i don't go overboard on the lettering.

julie - ornament

julie has a nice name for decorating. i wish i could go back and fix the u....but, i like the fine outline and dots. and the colors on the stamp were fun. i like holiday stamps that can carry over for the rest of the year.

photos or scans

i tired shooting a photo rather than scanning. this one has some glare. i'll try a few more and see what happens. i love the houndstooth envelope. it was very a very textured paper but the stamps were perfect.

david to klaus

another landscape. here we can marvel at the loveliness of black lines. and the simplicity of one spot of color. i think this is the 5th envelope from david and so far, all landscapes.

EBW madonna

ooops, i was wrong. this one is not better than the first one i posted yesterday. this one is dreadful. i really hope i find time to replace this....

here is a teaser for a whole series that will start in a few days. jeri let me borrow and scan a whole stack of her envelopes. this one says *jeri* if you look closely. it was done by her sister. 

i decided to add an envelope, rather than replace the dreadful one above because i like that madonna stamp a lot.

julie's pennants

the earlier scheduled post today is lame, so i added this one. her mom had me do a dozen for an upcoming birthday. i don't think they are even mailed yet, but, i don't think julie knows about the blog....

i had so much fun coordinating stamps with the designs. i'm sure i have said this before, my dream job would be sitting in a booth outside the greeting card store and doing custom envelopes to go with cards. i guess i could just set up in the card aisle at the grocery store. then, when i was hungry, i could barter my services for food.

and the grocery store devotes one side of an entire aisle to cards. doesn't that seem like a huge amount of space? i wonder if anyone can find out how much money is made in the card aisle. i already know that cosmetics are by far and away the most lucrative department in any department store. maybe the card aisle is the most lucrative aisle in the grocery store. help me out here, readers....please research and let me know.

EBW frugality

me being frugal
did not want to waste the envelope.
scribbled out something and wrote her name on top.
i honestly hope i find time to replace this...
but, if not...there will be something better tomorrow.
the notes tucked inside are just as goofy as the envelopes....

EBW pinkpink

oh, the pink envelopes. ten years ago a bride had me order a carton of these (1,000) then she called off her wedding. i decided to just keep the envelopes. it took about ten years to use them up. and they were an odd shade of pink. it was called bisque. then the color was discontinued.

this has nothing to do with lettering. but, there isn't much to say about this envelope....just one of the many i sent to ellen in chicago. i like the square *o* in wilson that is standing on a corner. i like the way it repeats the stamp shape standing on its corner. it would have been fun to have the openings on the E and W, squares, standing on their corners, but that would have taken time and precision...

EBW white hairline

i wish we had more black and white stamps.

also, i wish i knew what kind of ink and nib i used. this is much finer than anything i am currently using.

EBW tea bag teddy bear

i had made some invitations that were folded and tucked into teabags that were made out of organic waxed paper. i made a little note for ellen and sent it along. not the best brushlettering. but not the worst either.

david mckee to klaus

another landscape. way back in the archives is a simple dog shape with the mouth open, shouting the address. there are unlimited possibilities with the right facing creature with a mouth.....all we need is time...
swipe-worthy feature: the red shading on the address. he did not take time to really fill in the land and sky. the shading is sufficient.

EBW navajo

another one that used the typewriter font. this one is in pale color. not much to say about it....if you have not learned how to put in the shadow lines, this one shows how the shadows are on the right side and bottom of each stroke. mostly, i leave a little white space. you may put the shadow right on the edge of the letter, but that takes more concentration.

EBW sloppy dots

the last in our dot series. sorry i left the worst one for the end. should have ended with a good one. it is a cute stamp. i'm sure i was just in a hurry. i might have saved it if i had just put wheels on the name....or ruined it.

EBW square dots

yup. dots can be square.
this name would be improved if some of the letters touched. maybe.
maybe not.
there is something wrong with the letters...
but i can't put my finger on it.
maybe someone will leave a comment ??

EBW few more dots

in our series on dots, here is one with more dots. not much to say about this one except that i could sit and write with a white gel pen over the top of dark marker all-day-long. i like these dots because they go off the edge. i would have to do a sample where they did not go off the edge to show that this way looks better. but, you should just believe me. there are so few things that i can say with such authority....but, dotting off the edge is one of them. OK, that's a challenge, to you-know-who to make something pretty with the dots not going off the edge and prove that it can be prettier...or just as pretty.

EBW few dots

yesterday i mentioned how much i like dots. here is an example where there was one dot on the stamp, so each letter got a dot. the PO cancel adds to the composition.

notice where the letters touch and where they do not touch. it looks so much better to have some of the letters touching, when you are making the name into an element. but, there are times when you have to leave some space or you mess up the legibility.

EBW kells-ish

this letter E came from some book that i no longer have. it is the only book i wish i had kept as it had some wonderful exemplars of very old styles of writing, in color. i'd love to time travel and ask these people *what's with the dots?* i love dots and i don't know why. they are mesmerizing. i put kells-ish in the title because the E reminds me of things you see in the book of kells. but i could be way off on that. i have not studied the book of kells or that era. if anyone who is a serious student wants to leave a comment and enlighten all of us, please do so.

another very nice cancelling job by the PO.
i love how they lined the circle up with the margin on the address.

david mckee to klaus

last week, i mentioned how nice a horizon line is for starting a composition. i should review all of david's envelopes and see if any of them are not landscapes. then go to his books and see if they are all landscape-ish. i remember when i taught children that they were always agreeable to drawing landscapes. drawing an interior landscape is also fun, where the floor is the horizon line.

EBW candles

i might have too many examples of candles on the blog. but, there might be people who have not gone back and looked at all 1300 ideas, and they need to see candles. these were probably the fastest ones. it is safe to say that in this example, speed was not a good idea. but, she was probably happy to have some mail. and it was done without a ruler. i always liked these better when the base line was done with a ruler.

EBW Sharpie neuland

the style is a lot like neuland. i used some large sharpie markers that have a chisel tip. in this case, i like the bleedy quality. it forces you to work pretty fast and not think too much. i will repeat the tip to find one person and send them a lot of mail. you get good ideas when you write one name over and over and over. you start to see different ways to fit the names together. same with the address. you start to have fun making it fit. and, i don't think sharpie comes in pink, so that must have been a ZIG. i wish i would have had the names touching. that white stripe bothers me now.

EBW pale blacketter

yesterday i didn't like the postmark position. this one is nice. i like the way the tilted box in the advertising portion of the cancel hits the stamp. looks like i planned it. i was actually centering the stamp over the name WILSON.

i hope my blackletter student is remembering to check the blog. we were talking about how to do this style and i could not find a good example. not that this is the finest lettering, but the idea of doing chunky blackletter in a delicate pastel is something i think works very nicely on envelopes.

using your guidelines as a design element is a fabulous idea. it is one started by people who wrote books for a living in a scriptorium. apparently they charged extra to draw guide lines, so their clients would like to have the guidelines left on the page to let everyone know that they paid extra for the straight lines. that is what i have heard. it may be an urban legend. or maybe there is a different name for urban legends from the middle ages.

that green is not the best color....  i probably did the envelope before i found a stamp. 

EBW Houdini

i'm fine with the idea. if i were to do it over, i would make the rectangle the same proportion as the stamp. it is taller and skinnier which bothers me. but, i like the name being in a script and bursting out of the border. i am not big on matching every little detail.

then....the way the address is done in script. ugh-mo.
it should have been block lettering that looked more like the HOUDINI, only tiny.

the postmark is distracting, the way it hits the corner of the rectangle, but i like the venetian blind over harry's face. and the placement of the large rectangle is way off. it would have taken a lot of planning to get this one right. many of the envelopes to ellen were done in haste and with the knowledge that she would not be nit-picking at the design.

EBW apple

she always liked the fonts that look like old fashioned typewriter fonts. they are easy to do. big bold printing, short caps and add a few random serifs.

design tip: you do not need to be literal and draw apple shaped letters. if it's red and has a leaf, it's an apple.

yesterday, i said these were from college days. this one was her first apt after college. so, i guess these will just be the chicago years.

EBW Ogden

this is my sloppy fast writing from about 10 years ago when i was sending lots of mail to my daughter while she was in college in chicago. the next three weeks will be mostly scans of my early works. they are pretty rough, but they have ideas that i still like.

this idea came from the stamp, but you could use it any time you wanted to practice your penmanship. just fill the envelope by writing the address over and over in a light shade. then write the address one more time in a dark shade.

david mckee

david mckee again, in the series from klaus. horizon lines are instantly wonderful on any envelope. i need to make a list of the top ten instant ideas for envelopes. this person took a lot of time filling in the land and sky. i need to figure out a way to get that done very quickly.

we will continue to have one international envelope per week, usually on tuesday or wednesday.

bonnie

i think i was playing around with white ink at the convention. i left the i out of bonnie. and i don't remember who bonnie is. so, this is filler until i get back in the groove and make something new and fun. i used the farm stamp because the letters reminded me of the big round bales of hay.

the second N was all blobby. i tried to clear it out with an Xacto knife.