october exchange sign up

It's time to sign up for the October Envelope Exchange.
Send your email to Jan by October 13th and she will email the list out on the 14th.
Please mail your envelopes by Oct 31st.

Send your email to
janhardt [at] mchsi [dot] com

Please include:

Your name
Your street address
City-State-Zip-Country
Your email, for Jan only- we do not pass emails along.

Indicate the number of envelopes you wish to exchange - 5 or 10.
Do you want USA addresses only, or are you OK with foreign addresses.
1-oz mail from US to foreign countries is $1.20


**************
To read through all the guidelines, if you are new to the exchange, click on the words that say:  READ MORE ( right below) and they will appear.

-OR-

at the top, right next to the [Home] tab, the *rules* are now listed on their own page.

TIMELINE

I post the invitation to join around the 5th-6th-7th of the month.  You send your information to Jan (JanHardt (at) mchsi (dot) com) by the date indicated (about a week later).  She sends out the list on the following day (always by the 15th).  You have until the end of the month, at least two weeks, to send your envelopes.

HOW MANY - WHO GETS WHICH ADDRESSES

You may sign up for 5 or 10 envelopes.  If this is your first time, please sign up for 5.  The names are randomized.  You send to 5 people, but you may not receive from the same 5.

ARTWORK

There is no theme, do whatever you want.  Any medium is fine - ink, markers, ballpoints, watercolor, typewriter, rubber stamping and digital art are all acceptable.  Calligraphy is welcome, but not required.  Please decorate the envelope.  You do not need to enclose anything.  If you send an empty envelope write *empty* on the back.  Or, you may enclose a note and write *open* on the back.

QUALITY AND SKILL LEVEL

We have a wide range of skill levels, welcome beginners, and do not judge the quality of the artwork.  Don't worry about where you are on the bell curve of creativity, Explore possibilities, experiment and have fun.

FIX-IT-JEAN

If you are having trouble, feel free to send me a reject and I will fix it. In my classes, I always required students to toss their rejects on my desk rather than tossing them in the waste basket. I called it the jean-challenge. I’ve never met an envelope I couldn't fix. So, if you have something that you think is beyond repair, send it to me and I will fix it and post it on the blog showing before and after. I will not post your name, unless you ask me to.

EMAIL ADDRESSES

We prefer not to share email addresses.  When Jan sends the list, she does not include emails.  You may include your email in your envelope, and request the recipient to let you know that the envelope arrived.  However, recipients are NOT required to respond.

MISSING ENVELOPES

If you do not receive the same number of envelopes you sent, let Jan know and she will track down the missing envelope.  We send replacements when necessary.

LATENESS

Sometimes things happen and your envelopes will be late. Please email Jan and let her know.  In the event that you are unable to complete your envelopes, let Jan know and we will be happy to do them for you.

WHAT DO I PUT ON THE BLOG

Pretty much anything and everything.  Most exchangers are happy to see their work on the blog. If you are shy and don't want your work on the blog, please try to get over it. There are a bazillion images on the internet, and I don't think anyone is going to notice one more decorated envelope. This blog is all about sharing, and it will be a better blog if you join in the sharing.

POSTING PERSONAL ADDRESSES

I avoid posting personal addresses. Four of us old timers (Jean-Jan-Smash-Finn) already have our addresses all over the internet so I do not blur them. Anyone else, I will blur your address before posting.  I request that any of you who have blogs also blur addresses that are not your own. I have asked people to put return addresses on the back of the envelope...which in theory, would make it unnecessary to blur the return addresses, but it seems that a return address on the back sometimes confuses the scanning machines.

So.....

WHERE TO PUT THE RETURN ADDRESS

We do not have any perfect solution for this. I like to put it at the top of the back flap. Some people have reported that when they do this, the scanner will read the return address, print that bar code, and the envelopes comes right back to their house. One option to make it less likely the scanner will pick up the return address, is to put it along the right or left side, vertically, on the envelope.

MAKING THE ADDRESS HARD TO READ

There are times when a design is so cool that you want to put the address into the design in a very artistic way. That is also very hard to read. If you choose to do this, and your return address is very easy to read, that may cause the scanner to pick up the return address. In general, I recommend making the street and zip code pretty easy to find and read. But, it is up to you.

WHEN DOES IT COST EXTRA

The post office will charge extra if you have a square envelope or one that is addressed in the portrait orientation. The address should be level with the bottom of a landscape orientation if you want the standard one-ounce rate.