art via post

hester sent me a link to this website. it is a call for entries. someone wants to have a mail art exhibit. i did not check into the details. sometimes there are very worthy causes behind an exhibit. sometimes it is just someone who wants to get their own career going. either way, i'm happy to drop an envelope in the mail. i'll jump on any excuse to make an envelope. of course, i did not let the ink dry and smeared it, so i had to fill in all that colored pencil detail. i was happy to have an excuse to try it to see how it looks. i'd like to do all the lettering a lot closer...but i think it would become very difficult to read. i chose stamps that had to do with the postal system.
so...hester, if you go to the exhibit...let us know.

elizabeth - loopy-love

another one from the day i was looping and filling in loops. this stamp is so perfect. if is decide to actually mail it, i suppose i'd stick johnny cash down there under the zip. johnny goes with everything. although a big black square might be too heavy. i'll keep looking and repost if i find something perfect.

from smash - bleach

isn't this scrumptious?
i'm 99% sure she wrote in bleach on black paper. i love writing in bleach, but don't do it very often.
so perfect with this stamp.
this is certainly in my top ten favorites from smashgirl.
thank you!!

watch options

i can't decide whether to send to finnbadger or cathy. is one of these options better than the other?

i think the red guy is from the star wars stamps.

the address will be in one, tiny line from left edge to right edge, level with the little knob with the red detail.

from tim texas

tim texas must have checked the blog on the day i was showing the blooper address on finnbadger's envelope. so rather than read the post, he just copied it off...and i suppose today, finnbadger is sitting there working on an envelope and he's thinking "gee, i wonder if it is 420 or 440? i don't want to mess up...again," and then he flips to the blog and he sees this one...and does another 440. and 420 is such a popular number...sometimes i sound like i am suffering with 420...but, i am not. it's something else. maybe i should disclose what it is. decisions. decisions. any guesses? OK, i'll tell you. it's coffee.

whew

note to self. avoid traveling in the winter.
i am home, and there were 11 pieces of mail.
one is a brand new penpal.
i look forward to sharing all of these with you in the coming days :-)

from smash - pretty in pink

the scan does not look quite right. the colors were a perfect match with the stamp. and the overall effect on the background is really beautiful in person. i do very little in the way of making these all-over backgrounds. so, i really admire the ones that turn out so well. it looks very quick and easy, but there is a learning curve. if you don't know what you are doing, it's pretty easy to just make a big muddy mess.

michelle - gingerbread /king&queen

i had run out of gingerbread stamps and really liked how the king and queen looked with the lettering and the orange hearts are perfect, too.

the sakura paint pen letters are outlined with a white gel pen (uniball) and the orange hearts are gel marker. either crayola or galaxy.

jan - starwars birthday

this is an idea that needs more work. i started with colored pencil, then outlined it with a gray glaze pen then added white gel pen. it is a hodge podge. but, the stamp looks great. i ended up just giving the envelope to jan in person and saved the stamp for something else.

i do think the style of lettering on the happy birthday was worth posting. it is a style that requires very little skill...just imagination...and looking for fun ways to make variations of the letters.

blair's birthday

blair's birthday was a while ago. she has been working so hard on her penmanship. the flowers are just simple lines and dots and a few dashes.

only tip...turn the envelope. that orange flower on the left turns out better if you make the lines using a back-and-forth motion...and you need to turn the envelope a quarter turn, so your hand is moving left to right when you make the petals.  dang, i need to find the cord to my flip cam and make a tutorial.

cathy - storm trooper

the juxtaposition of the stormtrooper with the plants amuses me. the plants remind me of poison ivy. they aren't. but, i am always impressed with the plants that have figured out how to be warriors. so, this would be perfect if the images were poison ivy. i also like the juxtaposition of the old school penmanship with the star wars guy. i remember liking some of the old school touches in the movie. a Nikko G nib and McCaffrey's ink worked just fine on the slick catalog paper.

from finnbadger - dots

this is the full envelope. i posted just the 440 part a while back. it is a paper sack. he used scotch tape to close the end, which is OK. i should probably send him a roll of double face tape. i think he would really like it.

the way he figured out how to use the dots for, the dot in wilson, the ) in 440 (which should have been 420) and the o in moines and the o in iowa is *jean-ius*

grasshopper is UH-MAZE-ING
why am i talking like a teenager?

stella - blue vase

this one does not have a stamp. the round stamp with an image of the earth fits perfectly in that glass orb. but,m if i apply the stamp, then you won't see the orb. now i am thinking of making a vellum outer envelope. there is something a little disturbing about making elaborate mail, with double envelopes, and nothing inside. but, the list of other pastimes that are more disturbing is pretty long. this is a page from a magazine, folded into an envelope.

cathy - yoda

i like the way the shadow on the bottom band of gray makes the stamp look like it is sitting up in front of the stack of fabric. the blue in the stamp doesn't quite fit in, but, it's a fun idea. i like the greek key inspired lettering.

from smash

this one arrived with only one 29 -cent stamp. but, if you look closely, you can see that there is a 1/4 of the cancel that is missing, where there had been a stamp. this might be gouache. it was definitely done with a pointed pen. it is worth it to learn how to write with a pointed nib and ink because this kind of writing is so much fun and once you have some basic shapes down, it is really fun to do loose casual scripts.

guest artist - brad mc cormick

http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/envelopes3.html#brochLetter

 

 above is the link to brad mc cormick's site. he does all his envelopes on the computer. they are very clever and some of you might enjoy surfing around on his sight and seeing his envelopes and reading the stories behind them.

i did not contact him and ask permission to repost this. if he sees it and wants me to take it down, i will do so.

jeri - ignore the stamp topic

amy has a huge stash of stamps and offered to share some with me. certain ones, she reserved. the alcoholism stamps were not in her reserved stack. i jumped on them because i loved the font. then, i had a big problem. every time i wanted to use them, i figured they would be a terrible insult to the recipient. then, i decided that i would just have to risk it. jeri is the least likely person i know to be an alcoholic. below is a photo of her with a *tree-cozy* that she knit for a tree in her home town. if that isn't proof that she is a very sober person, i don't know what is. jeri is on the right. my mom is on the left.

this could be a lesson in how to look at fonts and figure out your own letters. if anyone is interested in a full lesson, let me know in the comment section, and i will add some font-copying lessons.

potter series - glasses

i was pretty happy with how this one turned out. partly, the color of the envelope helps. then, the galaxy metallic marker was very nice and i like the gold dots on top. sometimes having hundreds of markers and pens is a very good thing. i doubt i could have come up with anything i liked without special markers and pens. the gold dots were also galaxy markers, not gel pens.

leftovers

i didn't buy any of the poinsettia stamps this year. in cleaning off the desk, i found this envelope and this style is ok with the poinsettias. the little green dots look like pollen and poinsettias drop a ton of pollen. i do not know what kind of gel pen this was. super glittery - in the kathy-collection.

misssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss cathy

ever since i mailed my first envelope to miss cathy, i have wanted to do an envelope with an endless missississississississ.
and i intended to actually write some nice esses, but, i ended up being lazy. no surprise there. but, i like the effect. this was done in december when i had stamps off holiday cards. i never bought any of the poinsettia stamps. they are pretty. just didn't have time.

oops, i chopped off part of the envelope on the scan.

smash - aesemic writing

anothe aesemic writing sample from smash. i think i have one of those stamps left over in my collection, so i may *scribble* a response envelope and maybe tie in my DuBoschJUBILEEscript obsession as well.

guest artist - bill mayer

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2013/05/envelope-art-high-and-low.html

a link to a blog about illustration art. this post has more images from an exhibit of bill mayer's envelopes. i have never heard of him. an interesting read, if you are looking to kill time.

i will look for 10 more complete articles so that on the 8th of every month, there is a full article about someone who is into mail art. i had one in jan and now this one.

here is the link in one line, in case links work better when they are on one line

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2013/05/envelope-art-high-and-low.html

ooops repeat

a couple days ago, i used up the sticky grid on the modern art in america stamps. this is the backing of the sticky paper, folded into an envelope. it will go to finnbadger. i need to figure out a nice drippy orange paint so that the pitcher is pouring his name. model airplane paint would work and i have some. i just don't like to mess with it because you need to clean the brush with thinner. maybe i can think of a way to write with a toothpick so i can just throw the toothpick out. necessity is the mother of invention. so is laziness.

from the archive

i don't think i have posted this one previously. it came a long time ago and i found it in a stack of 15 posts that were in the *save* file. i'm not sure how they got there....but, since i am on a cleaning binge, this seems like a good time to post them.

gingerbread - becca

i did not plan this one at all and there is no way to balance it with just one stamp, so i will have to find a bunch of fun stamps that fill the corner. or maybe just start over.

ruth - dollar stamp

i was playing around with g-tecs and have a stack of ideas similar to this one. then, i never found stamps that i liked. this one might have worked if i had used the darker blue. but, i didn't and i am not sure when i will ever need a dollar stamp. at the rate the rates are going up, maybe dollar stamps will be appropriate, real soon. not a happy thought. but, if you like scripts, writing a name several times in a snowflake pattern is fun. keep everything tight and overlap. i guess this is a star, it only has 5 points.

smash - penmanship

isn't this cool? great collection of stamps. it was very smart to create the vertical pattern of aesemic writing. i think that is the proper term for *scribbling.* thanks smash
i predict some stealing of this idea.

mod art in am grid sheet

after i used up all the modern art stamps, i had this cool sticky grid left, so i adhered it to a blue envelope. it wraps around onto the back. there are so many different stamps that would look nice in the openings. this will be a hard one to finish. too many possibilities.

krafty terri

i think i have a bunch of kraft paper envelopes coming up. i spelled her name wrong on the bottom one. i wasn't that happy with the string of lights. white doesn't seem like the right color for an electrical cord.