tim texas

 i had a huge stack of mail in april and somehow, i think that three from tim-texas did not make it onto the blog. lemmekno if this is a repeat. but i am pretty sure it is not because i would have asked...what the heck is that? and then someone would have responded.

so

what the heck is that?

i love his pencil drawing of the state flag of texas
:-)

watery jan and christy - reposted

i am reposting these because i really like the circus stamps with the watery-color. it's not real watercolor, it is marker lettering and then water has been applied over the top.

circle options

 two options for adding the address. i can't decide which one i prefer. i know i would prefer to be able to push this pp up to the top but the blogger-gremlins won't let me. but blogger is completely free, so i will just thank mr. google and be grateful for this free service.

great minds part two

here is my circle envelope. i thought the cranberry bog stamp was a fun choice. it is such a dotty pattern. and cranberries are dots. i pondered doing the name in multi-colors
but decided that might be too much of a good thing. i am tempted to do another one of these, with a colorful name to see how it looks. if i had time, i could spend a couple more hours on details. but....i think it is happy enough the way it is.

great minds part one

this very fun envelope arrived - from smashgirl. and the first thing i thought of was  - "gee, i was just making circles a couple days ago. we must have been having circle-mania at the same time."

tomorriw i will show you my circles. this reminds me of the turn of the century, back when jackie and i were exchanging quite a bit of mail. we would frequently be doing the same thing at the same time unbeknownst to each other. i would put an envelope out for the mailman and later, when i went to get my mail, the one he had dropped off from jackie was eerily similar to the one i had just sent. and we did not usually get into any kind of predictable patterns. mostly, things were just random.

tim's stamps

i love the hendrix stamp with the purple and green copics. the flower stamp is pretty good, too. although i am still having trouble with that blue background. i don't think i have any pens or markers that are that shade of blue. i guess i could treat myself to a new pen.

thanks miss cathy - you fooled me

this envelope fooled me. i was sure that it had to be from jeri. she is famous for her tiny little grids. i flipped it over and -whoa - it was from mississippi cathy. i was really surprised. i figured she had been so impressed with jeri's grids that she decided to out-grid her. then...in the enclosed note...she told me that the grid was a piece of wrapping paper, adhered to the envelope. so, she still gets an A+ in thinking of a very clever way to recycle paper. her tiny lettering is A+ quality. on the return, on the back flap, she added some wonderful little dots made with a sakura gelly roll stardust clear pen. i have one of those, too. they are so cool. as miss cathy wrote, "i lurve them." me, too. and i lurve this envelope. i tried to photograph the sparkles and they do not photograph. i might try a video on wed when jan is here. we are way behind on our video sessions.

smash's wand

smash did a great job with this stamp putting a gold dot where the tip of the wand would be.  i think this might be done with a pilot parallel pen. so pretty.
i even like that long crossbar on the t in street.
many stealworthy items on this envelope.

thank you smash :-)

loopy

i saw this on finn's blog. i sent it to him. and must not have scanned it. i had completely forgotten about it. i was in a loopy mood and clearly became a bit loopy in the process of looping the letters. it looks like walnut ink with touches of gold gouache and then the dots might be gel pen. i regret that i added gel pen to nice gold gouache. i make some poor choices sometimes. but, my envelopes are not meant to be masterpieces. they are usually antidotes for the weariness of the day.

thank you ruth

ruth took a workshop with yves letreme. yves is from belgium and is a master at calligraphy. anyone who takes time for a workshop with him will learn a lot about gestural writing.

ruth and i are both big fans of black and white on kraft paper. i'm sure johnny approves.

thank you ruth :-)

plus 13-cents

i needed to add 10 cents to jeri's s envelope. this 13-cent stamp seemed like the way to go. plus i can match the font on the stamp when i put in her street address.
i liked it better without the penny, but, it's a lick-em stamp, so i guess it has to stay. i think i might be able to get it off if i put it in the freezer. but at a certain point i just have to mail the things that bug me and move on. i'm pretty sure the people who receive mail don't nit-pick and say "geesh, this is such a  dog i wish she would have thrown it in the garbage." no offense to the dogs who read my blog. it's just an expression. i guess i could say *toad.* i'm pretty sure that toads don't read blogs, but then, maybe there are toad luvers. ok, how about wart...anyone object to the use of wart as the universal symbol for yucky?

finn's oriole

so this one is the one that is somewhat better than the hot-mess i tried to do for smash-girl. i slowed down with the lettering. it helps that the bird is in a wacky position. most of the bird stamps are pretty, but they are pretty traditional poses on limbs. we have so many zany stamps these days, i guess i am less inspired by the traditional designs. not that i don't like traditional things...i love getting old. i'm less obsessed with analyzing everything. maybe. i guess i have to go analyze that thought. then i have to figure out where to put the street and zip.....

 that F needs some weight at the top. but i am not going to scan it again.

smash winter flowers

lots of fun with the tombos, but i don't really like the lettering with the stamp. i can't find anything to go with that strong blue background. if i had envelopes that color maybe it would help. or i could go back and read the 1,900 posts i have posted and see if i have any suggestions for myself. i think i have forgotten everything i ever learned.

smash's grosbeak

after i enjoyed the tombo markers on the bamboo envelope, i thought i would try to find a good combination with some of the birds. this is big botched mess. i am just showing it because i did another one that is somewhat better.

my issue with the tombos is that i only have about 20 colors and when i was a zig person, i had all the colors which was 72 or maybe more and even that wasn't enough, but it was not so limiting.

jeri's flowers

i actually liked the first layer just fine. but went ahead and added the gel pen over the top. and the hobart was looking better than the jeri. i tried colored pencil and don't think that helped. velum envelopes are not always friendly. i cut the bottom off after i discovered that the square rate is probably 70-cents. so, i don't know if i will mail that other orange one to jeri. and if i leave this one sitting around for a while, i might have a brainstorm and figure out how to fix it.

bonsai font

lots of indecision about how to finish this one. maybe if i decide who to mail it to i will figure out a good way to add the name and address. it should be someone who wants to try this style of lettering. i guess the first one to leave a comment saying they want it will get it. i like the way the stamp has a border on just two sides. i would not normally like that, but today i do.

the rest of the alphabet

there...i flipped the photo on a different computer.

i also realized that all of the letters are there. they just aren't in alphabetical order which makes them very hard (for me) to find.

jeri's clown

 i found this random font and have no idea where it came from. i enjoyed experimenting with it and was going to show the photo on the first day and then show the two envelopes on the next two days, but i can't get that photo to flip around. and believe me, i tried everything. if you want to see it right side up, i suppose you can download it and flip it around. anyhow, happy birthday to jeri. i did all my practice in pink and then remembered that jeri is a big fan of orange, so i added orange and it was a hot mess. so a little black and then a little white and a clown and it's not as fabulous as jeri's lettering with real ink and nibs, but, it's better than not getting any mail on your birthday, eh? the envelope tomorrow is a little better example of the font.

jeri's address will go between the two lines at the bottom, in tiny printing. that pale blue that is on the stamp might look nice.

hendrix solution

i have not been thrilled with my hendrix envelopes. these were very pleasing in person because the colors looked so nice. they are tombo markers on bamboo envelopes. i am not sure that i like the style of lettering but sometimes i just like the feel of the tool on a particular paper and the way the colors look with the stamp and then i don't even care what the letters look like. if i had a ton of time and envelopes, i would maybe write each name about 17 times and then i would come up with something i really liked...but, i don't have enough of those particular envelopes

jeri's orange square

this is not very inspired. i had a stack of orange envelopes for jeri. then i misplaced them. then i found 10 of these vellum envelopes. the rate for squares is 70-cents so i need to find something brilliant to add to this one, or maybe just put it inside another envelope and try again. the street will go right under her name using just a silver gel pen. the zip will go at the very bottom, probably gel pen.

dainty miss cathy

the fine print on the stamp says, "Dainty Miss Leitzel" and "Most Marvelous Lady Gymnast" so those seemed like the two logical ideas to appropriate from the stamp. The page of circus stamps all have wording on them so i am struggling with being too literal with my idea-appropriation. i love these gray envelopes with the vintage feel of the stamps.

thank you cathy

this arrived from cathy along with a nice note thanking me for inspiring her to go to camp cheerio. that's one of the best places to go if you want to avail yourself of some mighty fine lessons in lettering and calligraphy. i am thrilled that i get credit for talking cathy into taking time for her art education.

on the other hand, i am perplexed as to why i have such a good influence on people i have met through the blog while the people who see me every day usually just tell me to go jump in the lake. or they roll their eyes a lot.

great envelope :-)

mary katherine - thank you

i mentioned about a month ago that mary katherine joined the club of people who ran cross my blog and then sent me some mail. mary katherine says she has read all of the blog posts. that's quite a feat. or she is like me and uses web-surfing to avoid the daily chores. doesn't everyone?

i really enjoyed the story that went with this envelope. she was doing some mindless drawing, doodling,  template tracing, etc to relieve stress and when it was done, she thought of things i have said about using envelope designs to relieve stress and then she parted with her last Zippy stamp...which was very generous. and she added: please keep it up (referring to the blog).

well, that *please* pretty much guarantees that i will be keeping it up as long as i have access to a computer/scanner or magic phone.

welcome to the club, mary katherine.

p.s. i had to really scrutinize her penmanship to see that it was not a font. she has amazing penmanship. i might scan and post a sample of it. but, i have 150 envelope to address today, so i am going to go forth and bickhamize.

another alexandra

on may 25th, there was a similar *alexandra.* finnbadger suggested i make the middle A and N all caps. i was OK with the cap N and i made a ligature (letters who share a common stroke) out of the ND and also the RA. but, i will not be putting a traditional triangular cap A into that space because it will create a set of parallel lines on both sides and it hurts my eyeballs to just think about it. if anyone wants to plunk an cap A in there and show me that it looks fine...have at it.

my other ALEX works better.
and because there are two curves - on the D and R, i like to add a third - on a lower case a
because i like *threes.* not always, but most of the time....

mary katherine's vine - finished

here is the one i smudged and said i would figure out a remedy. i just finished it and ignored the problems and now they don't bother me. it needs some blue somewhere. before i mailed it i used colored pencil and filled in some of the smaller letters with blue and a little pale green. it was fine. i did not scan it again.

8th of the month - env collective

the 6th in my series of places to go to look at a ton of stuff.

this blog is no longer putting up new envelopes, but there are a bunch to look at. it makes me wonder how long all these blogspot blogs will be up and running.

the link takes you to the gallery
i like the last messages on the home page...the topic they posted about, before shutting down...they talked about scanner problems -one of my biggest problems. they also ask nicely at the bottom to ask permission to repost things. well, boys, i didn't. sorry. but, you are two boys and i raised two boys. so for all the times your mothers asked you to do something - and you didn't do it - i am not doing what you asked. sorry. if you see this and want me to delete it, i will be happy to comply with that request :-)

http://www.envelopecollective.com/gallery.php

finn says the link above does not work
so he found this one....try it. i clicked on the *test this link* button and it worked for me. thanks finn.


http://web.archive.org/web/20131231054724/http://envelopecollective.com/

hendrix hair

the lettering was inspired by the way the hair was drawn on the stamp. it's not a spectacular envelope. i am having a hard time placing the stamp *square* i keep wanting to tip it on the diagonal. very unusual for me to do that.

watercolor paper

using up scraps of watercolor paper. christy's got a little muddy. i added watercolor to G-Tec black ink. i like the tinge of reddish brown that appears. jan's was done with a tombo. her name was a gray tombo and i added shading with a g-tec.

chuck - black cow font

i think you can find the font called black cow if you google. i don't have the full alphabet. and it looks sort of like halloween.

tombo tester

jan, who is working her way to the top of my list of favorite people, gave me 9 tombo markers. i did a test page, trying each one to see what they looked like on paper. the color of the cap is not very accurate. it's a great set of colors. not perfect with the circus stamps...but, i am sure i will have a ton of fun with them. thanks, jan !!!

the dainty miss leitzel stamp might have been a better choice. i love the circus stamps...

tim's first layer

after i had fun with tombos on the bamboo envelopes, i thought i should try the copics. they are supper bleedy, but it looks great. tim has not authorized me to publish his address on the blog, so i will try to do some similar ones that show all the layers. note to self, look for a good stamp before i get to far into these. there were some holiday stamps a few years ago that had these colors. i wonder if i should allow myself a trip to the stamp store....the vintage stamp store is like an opium den to some of us. i won't out the person i know or how much he or she spends at the vintage stamp store...trust me...you would all gasp if you knew.  anyone want to guess who it is? maybe it is a badge of honor to be an uber-shopper at the stamp store. like those ladies who carry those purses that cost thousands of dollars...i'm thinking i need one of those clear lucite purses...and then i would carry a bunch of stamps and a few envelopes and my g-tecs. i'd probably just look like a kook.

letter people

desk cleaning.
found the sketchy people
didn't really see a US stamp that went with it.

i am always happy with putting the address in one line as a horizon or in this case it would be the floor.
or the edge of the stage.
if i had time, i would take a good figure study class and draw the letters in the same style as the stamp.
too little time

jan's clown

in real life, i love this envelope. i like the paper and the way the ink sits on it. i have no idea how it will look on a computer screen. the colors pop so nicely in real life, that i don't want to do anything else to it.

i used a blue galaxy marker, outlined with a black pigma and then went over the blue with a white gel pen.

krafty geri