stealworthy

grids are a great way to start a design. i never would have thought of putting the flowers where they are, but i really like them. love the stamp too. i only had one book of these stamps and wasn't that thrilled with anything i did with them - but this makes me want to go buy some more.

thank you lynne

REMINDER:
today is the deadline for sending out your exchange envelopes if you are in the August exchange. Thanks.

monochromatic from kate

this is from kate - it included a nice note referencing my problem with my head-splitting issues from last spring. this is a very nice arrangement of elements. definitely a steal worthy layout. the postmark is a nice feature. it's always fun when the postmark adds a finishing touch to the envelope.

another one from an amy

as i recall, amy said she used a template on this one. it reminds me of patterns found in cloth from india. it makes me want to go find some colored envelopes and my white and gold gel pens.....oh, the temptation........

if any of you do not have any colored envelopes, you really do need to get some. or you can just buy colored paper and fold your own envelopes. i am assuming you have the white and gold or silver gel pens.

elizabeth o's frog

this is a good example of elizabeth o's pointed pen lettering.

dreamy, eh?

you may see a bunch more at her website

http://www.eoletters.com

the white ink really sits up on top of the paper which is a glossy printed book page. we won't yell at her for tearing up her kids' books - i'm sure she has a good reason.

pretty in pink from miss cathy

alex is still wild about pink. this will be a big hit - or by the time this pops up - was a big hit.

i don't think she knows many muppets yet. her parents are on a less is more plan with the TV. i made the mistake of tuning her in when i was babysitting and oh-my-gosh was that a slippery slope. bad nanna. i am now reformed.

thanks miss cathy

elizabeth o

i think i owe elizabeth a bunch of mail. i think she sent this when i put out the call for - hey, send me something in june and i promise i will respond and then life got complicated and here i am - july 20th - filling up the august posts - when i should be packing - so there you have it - the boring, repetitive excuse.


and such a pretty envelope - she enclosed a note that this was a play-time envelope because she had some new markers. elizabeth does a lot of swoon worthy pointed pen work. i need to add a link to her website.....

guest artist (second post of the day)

after i wrote the other post, i decided it is better to read her news items on her blog

http://plumeconfetti.be/blog/

read the post below
and i really did try to find her first and last name
can't find it
maybe someone will figure it out and put it in a comment

guest artist - sybillevz

sybillevz is on the flourish forum and this is from her instagram. she chooses one item of news each day to letter and then posts it on instagram. many of them are very fun. in her blurb at the top, she says they are *silly.* personally, i do nt think it is silly to fight off a black bear. you can click on each image to see comments. her pointed pen skill will be an inspiration to anyone who wishes to do fine pointed pen work including flourishing.

this is the link to her IG page

https://www.instagram.com/pebbleinthesky/

this is her website
http://plumeconfetti.be/
where you can link to her blog.
you can also see some envelopes on her page marked *galeries*

looks to me like it is all in french (although the comments on IG seem to be in english - she seems to be belgian. i did a little research and found this:
Belgians are made up of two main linguistic and ethnic groups; the Dutch-speakers (called the Flemish) and the French-speakers (mostly Walloons), as well as a third tiny but constitutionally recognized group from two small German-speaking areas.

honestly, i do not know how anyone gets anything done any more. i am vigilant about not going to IG or twitter or snapchat or the next one that i do not even know about. the list of icons that are available for social media is wider than my 30-inch screen and that's w-i-d-e.

guest artist - anneke

this is probably done by dragging the envelope along an ink pad. anneke's blog is not english, probably dutch - since there is an nl at the end of the address.

i did not find this exact image on her blog - just tossing her in the mix for the readers who are stampers. i know there are a few, eh? (eh? is a nod to my canadian penpals)

http://annekescardart.blogspot.nl/

scanning orange - to limner

the top one is a phone photo adjusted with the edit app - chose the one called chrome

the bottom one is a scan.

and this is something done when i was exhausted at the end of day (5pm - hahaha - but i had to kill time and wait for rush hour to pass so i could go mail something that needed to make the last pick up at the main po) and just needed to make loops and fill them in with white gel pen. another example of having some weird doodle on a scrap of paper that i really liked - and then trying to do something like it - but the doodle was better. not that i don't like this - but the doodle had bolder black lines.

i will miss the abstract expressionist stamps when they are all gone

ho hum or hot mess

the border was in the stack of really old ideas that were stuck in limbo all i had was the border which was ink on a really nice envelope. using up all the excess stamps inspired me to find stamps that went with the border and the fine lines seemed to work. i liked the placement, too. then it went downhill.

i do not like to stack the last two letters when i stack-to-fit. it would have been perfect if i had stacked the g-e and then had a large R. but, i did not want to toss it...so, i just let it go.

the space the F left was a problem and i filled it with a detail from each stamp - but that didn't work -so- i just added a bunch more stuff none of which was a magic fix.

i do think that when i take it to the PO for a hand cancel - the red circles will help.i shall ask them to clonk it on the right, then the left and then back on the right sides of the stamps. finnbadger will probably post it on his blog - so we will see how it looks after being clonked.

new label - hot mess...it might help me delete things....although some people are encouraged to see that they are not alone in creating hot messes.

guest artist - brad mc cormick

a few more guest artists until we get back to mostly new material. there was some recent negative progress on the getting-back-to-regular-blogging. but we are back on track. helpful brother took a half day to teach me computer skills [forward progress] - now i owe him 1.25 pies [time away from actual personal progress]

coffee break.
i posted another envelope by brad a while back
re-stumbled across him today.
lots of interesting stuff on his website.
he's a computer guy - for people who feel like they might not be traditional artists and might want to look at the ways computer guys make art.

http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/envelopes.html

gotta love someone who posts from *cloud 9*

Faber Castell PITT marker

christyR asked what marker i used on the aug 8th post. i answered in the comment section. these were for the august envelope exchange - and most of the ones i sent will pop up in september - but i saw that there were some days with missing envelopes - so filled in here.

TMI or too much idle chatter. what to say about the envelopes? clearly i like that wrought iron style and i like the markers. they are fairly opaque. not as opaque as paint markers but they dry faster. really fast -instantly- as long as the paper is absorbent. i did not try them on glossy paper.

thank you jan - i would not even know these exist but for jan donating to my stash. i still don't know why she doesn't want these.

bonus post

the first post today didn't have enough wow. so i'm adding this one. it is a card, but could easily have a stamp in the corner and a tidy address at the bottom - in one line. the person's name would be inside the banner.

http://design.printexpress.co.uk/beautiful-examples-of-hand-lettering/

a motherload of hand lettering ideas at that site.

frozen envelope

i wanted to thank the reader who suggested that i freeze some of the peaches back when i was having all the peach problems. i appreciate good suggestions. first, someone has to help me understand how to plan ahead and eat the frozen food. i can put it in the freezer, but then it just sits there - and several years later, i throw it out. i guess i could reform. so, i will put some peaches in the freezer and see if i can remember to eat them before they have turned to dehydrated cardboard.

i googled frozen envelopes and i knew it would come up with a bunch of stuff related to the movie.
the whole little-girls-and-princess-thing is a topic i have to avoid. i was one of them - and i do not understand it. it must be some weird dna thing - to want to be the daughter of the ruler. too much work to be the actual ruler. and glitter. what's with the attraction of sparkles. are we related to crows.

clearly the coffee is too strong.

here is the site where the image was discovered
https://samallencreates.com/tag/winter-onederland/

another non-envelope, but at least it has stamps

two posts today because that other one is just too far off-topic. why don't i delete it? because a few readers like the side trips.

anyhow, this site has fantastic ideas for what to do with your left over stamps. i chose the simplest idea of all. trust me, there are some other stamp collages that are spectacular.

http://www.artstamped.com/#!gallery/c2269

guest artist - not an envelope

http://www.junk-culture.com/2015/11/gil-batle-carves-scenes-from-twenty.html

not an envelope artist, but i was very interested in the story of the artist. he is self taught during twenty years in prison. i ran across the article as i was researching drawing with wire because that dear brother of mine once made a cool bicycle sculpture out of wire and we were pondering whether more wire sculpture would be a good activity for him.

of course, i go researching and all it does is tantalize me - not sure that it is a good fit for him.

here was the wire artist i found that i thought might inspire him to make more sculpture.

http://www.junk-culture.com/2011/11/wire-art-of-martin-senn.html

a website called junk-culture. i could fall down that rabbit hole in a heartbeat. luckily, the new uber-disciplined jean is sticking to her mission.

i did take time to do a search for envelopes on the website and there are a couple. not good enough to save and post an image - but good enough to surf, if you need an excuse to do more surfing.

http://www.junk-culture.com/search?q=envelope

the following is just a personal note to my brother - the rest of you should get back to work:

from eric and troy

i have a lot of exchange envelopes to post - so am grouping them - at first i didn't think these went together - and then i realized they were both from guys - so there you have it - lumping things together by gender. completely meaningless - but this is my blog and i can do whatever i want, eh?

from two of the amy-s

i think i am up to three amy penpals. it is hard to pluralize amy - should it be amies?

this amy got away with standard postage when the address was not very horizontal - the bold zip code might have been a cooperative gesture that made the PO agreeable to figuring out the rest of the address.



this is from another amy.  i like these two as a set - they really don't have much in common and yet they look so nice together.
the p.o. did not put any cancels on this one - go figure.

pet stamp - lizard to lynne

this is a sneak peek at the series i did using the new pet stamps. it was for the august exchange. on sept 4th, a series will start that shows my process when i started making envelopes again - after the 3 month layoff.

this one was not the first - it annoys me on several levels - but, i left all the clunkers in to show that you can work your way out of a rusty patch.

at least the colors were nice.

hanging in there - from limner

limner is hanging in there.

i am just barely hanging in there with some significant problems with technology. lucky for all of us, i am OK with these goofy layouts. so many people just look at the blog on their phone and i think the layout is different on each device - therefore- it is now so complicated that i do not have to worry about it.

limner is really good at filling up the space in ways that look sort of random - but they always work.

i like the From and To way up there at the top

guest artist - art over vintage - kathleen taylor

the envelope is from kathleen taylor - i am sure she does not want us to steal her ideas. so, if you do, be sure you don't mail them to her....just mail them to a friend who will keep the envelope in a shoebox.

she has a bunch of envelopes - old vintage envelopes that she bought and then drew and/or painted over the top.

http://www.kathleentaylorstudio.com/

bonus post

new game to play with the morning coffee. go to pinterest. click on the first image of mail art. click on it. scroll down to see which other envelopes are there. see how long it takes to find one of mine.

one of my envelopes was no. 39
but 2 of the first 3 were envelopes addressed to me by my pen pals. alyce: you will be proud to know that your zen-dangle envelope was right there at the top.

point of game.
taking a different route so i stumble across things i have not seen before.
like this - which led me to a blog that sammiespencer started in 2011 and abandoned in 2012.
she's an author. did not say if this was her own idea or something she found.
i'm just posting it because the scheduled post today was a re-run of a re-run. this re-running idea is challenging as i have no way of remembering what's been reposted....good reason to get back in the saddle and only post new items, eh?

re-run - popular pin - hannah

pinterest has a stat that TTBOMK
(to the best of my knowledge)
tells how many times an envelope has been pinned. i noticed that a different one from this series had been pinned 2.4 k times.

then i saw that this one had been pinned 5.3 k times.  now, i will be on a ridiculous quest to see which of my envelopes has been pinned the most.

of course, i am not even sure what a k is. i think it is a thousand. in jeanworld, a thousand would be a t - and a million would be an m. so my mathy readers can tell me why we use letters based on some other numbering system. or language - and - no, i do not expect to ever remember the order of those letters - k, m, what comes next? every time i need this info, i have to call the brother - oh, yeah, - g -

he rolls his eyes (i can hear his eyeballs rolling on the phone) as he patiently tells me for the umpteenth time. and then i ask him to name the 3 primary colors and he has to struggle with the info that is meaningless to him and then he grouses about the three primary colors for screens being different...and then we simultaneously hang up on each other. TMI. TMNEI. too much non envelope information.

@letterjack on instagram

bonus post today. it always bugs me when i wake up, check the blog and see something that is not an envelope. i might even delete the first post of the day.

i also check pinterest each morning and something by letterjack popped up...which led me to this. highly stealworthy layout.

you can find him as @letterjack on IG. jackson alves from brazil

my computer advised me that my request to go to his website might be at trick - so it is probably better to just look at his work on IG.

off topic - clothes

i think i posted a purse that looks like an envelope a long time ago. but i am pretty sure i have never posted anything about clothing. i like clothes but have never had time to build an interesting wardrobe. i have a bland, neutral pile of clothes that are a blank slate - with a couple interesting sweaters. i'd be a good candidate for vintage clothing, but again, no time.

i was surfing and came across a blog that amazed me with the number of items that were exactly my style. but all the clothes were these huge, oversized, items that you see on people who are at gallery openings. i refuse to dress like that, even though the clothes look comfortable.

anyhow, this is issey miyake from 1977 - and it reminds me of an envelope. it looks like the perfect coat to wear if you are going to be on a long flight, it would be a cozy blanket. or, if you were at any kind of gathering that was not keeping you awake, you could just excuse yourself and go take a nap.

note to self: incorporate more mail in your wardrobe. postage stamp pockets. anyone else have some good ideas?

not sunday guest artist

philippe charron is a big name in mail art. maybe finn will leave a comment and tell us if philppe has a website. i did not find one through google. this was on pinterest and it is highly stealworthy. you could put any kind of animal.

there was a time when i featured a guest artist on sundays. i am still in my not-organized-on-the-blog-while-re-establishing-order-at-my-house-binge. i am thrilled to report that huge amounts of progress have been made. i'd say i am at least 50% there. but - there's no telling when i will declare myself -DONE.

thanks again to everyone for their patience through this challenging time.

happy birthday from nancy hills

another spectacular example from nancy hills. it would be interesting to know what size this is...
so pretty. it's fun to ponder which stamp would be the best if this was a name on an envelope.

we are still not back to regular scanning of new items. still re-running and finding things in the files that we do not recall whether or not they have been posted.

re-run - popular on pinterest

one way to choose re-runs is to just look back in my albums and choose my favorites. another way is to notice the ones that are the most popular on pinterest. i see this one all the time. and i know i lifted the idea. hopefully, i will see the exact one that inspired it and be able to add it to the post. s-o-m-e-d-a-y.

i have a new label called FAQ about exchanges.
this will help me when i announce new exchanges.
i am frequently asked - do we use the same design on each envelope or is each envelope different?
answer: it is up to you. some people create one design and use it on all the envelopes. others do a different design on each envelope. i tend to start with one design and then let it evolve so that they are similar but not identical.

florence: the email with addresses for the exchange bounced. please send me an email that i can respond to and see if that works
thanks
i have heard from everyone else that they received their lists.

2 green finns

the top one might have been on before with no stamp or details. i am still stack-cleaning. the bottom one should have had more but, i suspect i will have better ideas once i get all the half-baked ideas out the door.  i get so close to just pitching things that aren't done - but so far, have not been able to that.

top one was started when i was on the graffiti binge.
bottom one was testing white markers on dark envelopes to see which ones worked.

exchange lists have gone out

I just sent the lists of addresses out for the exchange.
If you emailed me and are not on the list
let me know.....sometimes emails disappear.

 i think i featured this artist previously:

http://naomiloves.com/2015/09/09/mail-art-tea-and-nature/

uber cute

she invites people to send mail to her

Naomi Bulger

PO Box 469, 

Carlton North VIC 3054 

AUSTRALIA

today's regular post is below

new - shaky start

this is the first new envelope since i crashed out the may exchange envelopes. so, it's a bit shaky. the scan won't show the sparkle ink.

and i am using up every single stamp in the stash before i let myself buy any new stamps. uh...not sure that is even possible - but, it is my current nutty-challenge that i am layering on all the other seemingly impossible challenges....like getting tidy. yes, i have fallen under the spell of the magical tidy lady. can't say it's done, but it has been enjoyable to at least get started.

re-run from ruth

i have a ton of really nice mail from ruth. this is one of the all time favorites. love the lettering. love the layout. and once again - love black-white-red.

REMINDER
today is the last day to sign up for the august exchange - scroll down to the wednesday post to see the details.

pie report after the break - if the make-a-break feature wants to cooperate today.

re-run - wrought iron series

 i remember this series fondly.

i loved it.

fun to see them as a group.

from cindy - halloween

the top is the envelope and underneath is the card that went inside. cindy spent a lot of time on this. the envelope was lined with a cool sparkle paper with a jack-o-lantern cut out. everything is so cool...and then to top it off, the flap on the envelope has all my favorite halloween stamps - just for decoration. i can't imagine someone with so many stamps they would just use them as stickers. she must be the warren buffet of stamps. well, at least you sent them to someone who loves them. i hope you don't decorate the envelope you send to the gas company with vintage stamps.

here is the flap.

august exchange

sign up by this saturday, aug 6, and the lists will be sent out on sunday, aug 7 or the 8th at the latest.

send the following info to jmwilson411 [at] yahoo [dot] com
please follow the format exactly (i will be reporting on how many people can send me the info, exactly as i wish it to appear - and also explain why i am being so nit-picky about this detail)

name - as you wish it to appear on the envelope
your street address
your city, state, postal code
your country
your email address

EXAMPLE for you to follow:

Mickey Mouse
1234 Disney Avenue
Hollywood, California 90210
USA
mickey.mouse@aol.com

see...that should be easy...5 lines...no extra spaces between lines
non-USA participants, please put your info in the format that is best for your country


you will receive a list of 4-6 people
please get your envelopes mailed by august 31st
there may be one address on your list that will be outside the USA
and the envelope to non-USA addresses requires  $1.15 in postage
if you cannot afford one foreign address, please do not sign up for the exchange

your name will be on the list
you decide if you want to send an envelope to yourself
some people like a record of what they sent -or like to do a practice envelope.

no theme
any medium is fine
digital is fine
we only require that there is something creative about the way you address the envelope
please make the address fairly legible
the envelope may be empty, if so, write *empty* on the back of the envelope
enclosures are optional, if included, write *open* on the back

any questions - email me

we welcome and encourage beginners
there is no critiquing of quality
it's all about the fun of receiving mail

on a tab at the top of the blog you may read the full set of *rules* regarding exchanges.
if you are new to the exchange, please review the rules as they include requests about not posting addresses online and how to handle missing mail
if you have any questions, please contact me directly
jmwilson411 [at] yahoo [dot] com

I WILL RESPOND TO YOU that i have received your request to participate.
if you do not hear from me, resend your request. sometimes emails get lost
i do check my spam folder

thank you

re-run & still in the stack

i had to chuckle when i ran across this scan. this envelope is still in my stack of unsent envelopes. i guess it is time to let it go. i think i should start up the exchanges again as that would help me to get rid of the huge stack of unfinished envelopes. so
get ready to sign up for the next exchange. tomorrow.

re-run

love the fern stamps. enjoy the tap-tap-tap of a brush marker in making the fern lettering. tap-tap-tapping on the edge of brush marker is exactly like making dots. except the dots aren't round and you have to think about progressively tapping harder or softer. the bottom one is drawn.