from jeri

bonus post today.

this just in from jeri. great vintage stamps, charming sentiment on the card :-) i love getting mail. thanks.

jeri paper source

hey, finnbadger, check this out. jeri made an envelope out of this cool paper-source catalog cover. and she used that really perfect stamp. thank you jeri :-)

if you google, how to make an envelope, there are a gazillion links. i don't have time to look at them and choose a good one...but i do encourage you to give it a try.

stella - butterflies

i gave stella's granny a hard time a few days ago because she sent me an envelope and the stamp was a bit off the edge of the envelope. i'm not sure how that would happen...she had some kind of reason (that i didn't buy) anyhow, this was experimenting with the f-c big brush markers and i thought the color on that one butterfly was perfect. now, i can't decide if i really want to part with the stamps...they don't fit. decisions decisions.

i think that one below is a repeat, and i am pretty sure this one is not.

jan outs me

jan and i were looking through a stack of my envelopes and she noticed that some of mine that are on the blog are not technically envelopes. sometimes i just take a piece of card stock and do a design. she raised her eyebrow. so, it thought i should come clean and from now on, whenever i post a postcard, i will alert you that it is just a card and not an envelope.

this was our final experiment with multi-layers of sharpie. we wondered if there was ever a point where there was just too much. eventually, it would get very dark, but then we have gold and silver and white uniballs. so... this is what happened.

i ran out of those stamps, so that is just an image of a kaleidoscope flower. and i wonder how much the p.o. wants for a non-conforming portrait orientation post card?

maybe miss cathy knows.

happy halloween

 i posted this one a while ago and there was nothing hanging on the clothes line.
 too bad i didn't have more time to send more of these this year...i love the idea.
the actual witch was a piece of clip art that i copied and pasted into a word doc and printed it out. then i folded the paper into an envelope.

and i just noticed that if the witch turns around and hangs the N on the line, the way she is holding it, it will be backwards. dang. link below is to the original post.


 http://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-width-of-romans.html

creative goals

http://vimeo.com/24715531

above is a nice little video - just words - about working at getting better at something.

this is an envelope by jean larcher
while i will never achieve this level, i know how to be happy where i am - and to enjoy the pursuit

jean r yellow eames chair

i can't remember if i penciled this or not. sometimes i like to just draw a name without penciling. making yourself think about where the negative space should be is a good exercise. and in many ways, i like it even better than lettering the name. it is pretty easy to read. and it is an instant design. you are not thinking about anything except some basic shapes. so after you get the shapes down, then you go back and discover where the interesting parts are. i think it is completely fool proof.

puffin on head

from the bird on your head series - from smashgirl. honestly, i could start a whole new blog just devoted to things on heads. but, i will refrain.

this looks like she did a g-tec drawing and then colored it in. there is a bit of bleeding on the fine black lines which look like g-tec .25.

ruth - sneak peek

this is the second sneak peek, i think. ruth sent me a whole stack of mail that was such a treat. she has great stamps.
this was done with a ruling pen - or folded pen.
the ink looks like McCaffrey's.

chalkboard

 i've been enjoying writing with white colored pencil on black and red envelopes. these two black ones are linen. i hardly ever get good results with any medium on linen. the red one might show how the smooth finish is better.

neither of the black ones are done, because i am going to mail them.

just thought i would toss them in here since finnbadger and i were discussing halloween themed envelopes.

if you have not seen the envelopes from last year. take a look. i have 26 fun halloween themed letters that are appropriated...

finnbadger rocks

it took me forever to find my name and address. i guess my brain was assuming that the blah-blah-blah on the green arrows was something about recycling. i couldn't figure out how the envelope got to my house.

very cool :-)

spectralight

i was trying out the spectralight. i can't find a good stamp to go with this one.
spectralight is nice on these Waste Not envelopes which is the brand of paper you get from Paper-Source.

people frequently ask me what kind of envelopes i like. william arthurs have always been my favorites. sadly, they were purchased by crane's and will probably be discontinued. paper source is fine.

kathy eames table

this was done at the end of a day when i was tired and didn't want to think. the kathy was too low
so i just put the last name on top.
i penciled in the letters and then did the fine lines with a G-Tec
i will do the address in black and the zip in a bold orange, like the 42.

smash 2 cats

these are adorable. i like the combo of cats and dogs. i do not favor one over the other. and i do not have pets. but i have had some nice friendships with other people's pets.

not sharpie

remember the big sharpie flowers that jan introduced to us? this is my quicker version, using the faber castell big brushes...but then, i added a bunch of white gel. and i did not color the background. that would have looked good. but, i'm picky about which tedious processes i choose to do.

jeri landscape

bonus. a very pretty envelope and a lovely little painting inside. jeri took time to go to conferences and conventions this summer and then wisely hit the north country and a cabin on a lake and made some nice art. she must travel with her stamps.

nice little font. like the treatment of the S's.
do you count the counters and get all happy when there are 3 or 5?

thank you for tim texas

this was the card i sent in the envelope shown yesterday. it was the thank you for the postcard he sent me that had the rotating letters that i just loved. sadly, i had to do this very quickly. someday i'll do a spiffy one.

tim and jan - 3 steps

you have to follow the steps from the bottom to the top. i love blogspot...but i don't really know how to load the images in the order i would prefer.

step one, random goofy letters.
step two, outline in black.
step three, add dots.
and on tim's add a fine line outside the heavy line.

the markers are a set of cheap highlighters from office max.
they might even be the store brand.

guest artist - snooze

i lost the link to this and it is only a very small image, but i love the ways the stamp is stuck on the side of the house.  and the meandering lines... and the fun trees on tall trunks. and a very nice J.

 my quick and easy version of snooze-art. to my daughter who dreams of appliances. it's a piece of vintage clip art from one of those sites that has endless copyright free images....  that is not enough postage to go to australia. i think i might just make her an album of silly mail and give it to her for a birthday or something.

remember these?

very similar to the current bulk rate stamps

new wreath stamp

both finnbadger and ruth commented that there is a new forever stamp that is for international mail. i kept looking for it on the usps website and couldn't find it. so, just googled.. yes, it is a pretty stamp. traditional. there will be lots of very pretty ideas spun off of this one. the stella envelope below is a cousin of ribbon writing. so...my first idea will be red ribbon names.....

stella's table

that is a very fun and easy way to write. i don't know if it looks easy or not. i need to find a guinea pig who wants to try to learn how to do it. maybe stella will give it a try and tell me whether she thinks it is hard or easy.

stella is becoming my new favorite name to write.

one more crossword

this was jeri's entry in the graceful envelope in 2007. she is a frequent winner and has been first place or best in show, too.

this is a tour de force (a feat requiring great virtuosity or strength, often deliberately undertaken for its difficulty) - i had to do spell check and liked the definition. yes, she deliberately undertook a difficult task.

holiday stamps

cute-cute-cute.
can't wait to buy them.
lucky me, i have 100 blue envelopes :-)

tom black xmas

it's never to soon to start thinking about the holidays if you send cards. i always thought this one was so pretty. the green sprig of evergreen on the gold panel was actually green when it arrived. that was one of my favorite madonna stamps. and the flourish on the M in Moines is stealworthy.

this just in

while we are thinking about crossword puzzles
here is one from a blog, that is all in french, so i have no idea if this letter actually arrived, but there is a photo of some envelopes where the puzzle has been completed.

http://postenomade.over-blog.com/30-categorie-1184458.html

you have to scroll past some other envelopes that are somewhat stealworthy.

stella eames dots

i found a sheet of the eames stamps. i so wish they had come out as forevers. i thought about doing multi colored dots which i am sure would have looked great. but, i like the black-gold-silver combo a lot. and the stamp is going sideways because i didn't leave enough room for the stamp to go the other way. i do like it when the p.o. puts the words on in two directions.
i think this one is going to be hard to send. but stella is young. maybe i will start a stack of mail that will be sent by my executor. now i have to choose an executor. any volunteers?

bonus

these are sooooooooooooooo clever, i just had to post them prior to stealing the ideas.

they are from the grosvenor auction in the UK

crossword winner

 my texas rep [ aka timtex ] sent the top postcard and asked on the back *did i win?* yes timtex, you won way back on May 18, 2013 when you sent the postcards that had just *JEAN* and just *420*

http://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/2013/05/this-is-cool.html

i will be announcing other winners in other categories by the end of the year:
1
best use of birds on heads
2
most improved penmanship
3
most generous
4
least likely to get a job at the p.o.
you know who you are....
5
person who sends the most mail art but refuses to send anything to me - (eyebrow raised)

 

harriet russell gets the lifetime achievement award for sending the most creative mail ever. it is published in a book.










i'll have to give myself honorable mention for stick-to-it-ive-ness.
i saw that jane farr is giving up her regular friday posting. she is in my list of blogs over there on the right. and her blog drove a ton of traffic to my blog. so i have to think of some other way to drive people to my blog....

kathy confetti

not sure confetti goes with stuart davis. but, it was in the stack and i'm clearing off my desk. starting jan 1st, there will be a whole new organized system to this blog.



but don't hold your breath.

owl unfinished

i was surfing and saw a very complicated bird/owl that looked a little like this, but it was filled in with a gazillion patterns. and i got this far and said to myself "self...you don't do patterns"
so i called it quits.
i will still send it to smash cuz she sends me a lot of good stuff.

my first strokes were the arcs and the leaf. when i got to the swirly doodles at the top, i had pretty much decided that i wasn't going to finish it. so, i just tossed off some quick stuff. i ended up liking the quick lines better than the more labored ones.

air mail history

here is a link to a story about some gi-normous arrows that were built to help early airmail pilots deliver the mail. you can see on the map, they flew right over my house. i'll have to go look for the nearest one.


http://www.core77.com/blog/transportation/what_are_these_giant_concrete_arrows_across_the_american_landscape_25236.asp

last ink pad

i won't post the last two, unless i really spend some time to do something worthwhile. this one took 2 seconds. but i know stacey likes minimalism and she loves that stamp.

miss cathy

miss cathy sent me this. she wondered if the p.o. would cancel it. the machine didn't get to it and there is no bar code. but someone did draw a ballpoint pen line through the stamps.

cathy's note said that she was not all that happy with the straightness and wonders if it might have been better to just let loose.  the straight lines don't bother me.

happily, she sent me some of the stamps, so she will be getting some mail in return. :-)
thanks cathy.

ruth - 2 teapots

i will bump this one forward today as a bonus because the ink pad series is not very inspired. ruth sent me a whole stack of envelopes at one time. they are really fun....most of them are scheduled to appear in november. this one is walnut ink done with a ruling pen. genius way to add those coffee pots.
now i want to go buy a bunch of them to use when i am using up my non-forever stamps.
and that is a genius dot on the eye in wilson.
thanks ruth

jan's davis stamp

maybe i've gone off the deep end. hang in there, i think i only made 6 envelopes with the black ink pad. and if i don't do any better than this, i'll stop posting them.

from amy

amy is in my wed morning table time group. we sit around a table and take a break from our chores. i work on experimental envelopes.
i met amy in a class i was teaching. but, in retrospect, i learned as much from her as she learned from me.

she had some comments about the bottom one needing more something...i actually like it just the way it is. it reminds me of some of the clothes amy wears. they have really cool patterns and i always love them. and then i wish i wore patterned clothes. but when i do, they get me all confused.

more modern art

jan might be the best influence on me or the worst (because she lures me into more art supplies). this is another example of DTP  (direct to paper) stamping with an ink pad
and then making the stamp do all the work of making it beautiful
and then tossing on some super wonky letters.

jan asked me if i cleaned up smudges on envelopes before mailing them sometimes i do. but, this amount of smudging becomes an element.

ruth black butterfly

another one that i found that i thought i had posted, but i can't find in the archive. let me know if it is a repeat and i will add something today. i really love the way the address is bursting forth from the landscape. this is a highly stealworthy idea.

the repeat and layering of the name is an idea with endless possibilities.

bonus post

those two in the first post of the day aren't much fun. here are two that i crashed out after breaking my all time record for number of envelopes done in 3 days - 710

i did the mona lisa on the computer
peggy collects mona lisas
i have known her for a long time
and never knew that
so...had to dash off a mona-envelope
also, heard that jim was under the weather

and i knew i had that one get well stamp
so happy to be clearing out my stash

desk cleaning

i was experimenting with a black ink pad, just putting it right on the envelope and twirling it. didn't do much for me. but, i have a hard time throwing out envelopes. then on a different day i was doing something with nibs and ink and i was going to write a thank you to neal mc caffrey for making such nice ink. maybe i should just send the envelope.

design lesson. if you like black and abstract, those modern art stamps are the best. they can save any haphazard mess.

guest artist - carl regehr

nice story about this envelope at this link

http://dcaiga.blogspot.com/2012/11/envelope-art-by-carl-regehr-1983.html

it talks about a correspondence between two people and how the mail was hung in an exhibit.

it would be fun to hang my mail somewhere....
i was pretty tempted to steal all kinds of ideas off this envelope. love the clothesline.
i always make mine with some slack, so they are a curved line. i really like this nice tight line.
it is interesting how something as subtle as the tautness of a clothesline will catch the eye and inspire....
also the way the 349 is touching the M...and the flying Vs...and the other weather stuff. well, i suppose, you all didn't need me to list what's on the envelope, did you?

smash

this wasn't easy. i wonder how she went about getting it to fit?
i guess she just divided it into 4 and then made it fit.

very pretty and the p.o. did a nice cancel. it looks like a pretty sun setting.