October Exchange Envelopes from Jean - First Layer

 For the October exchange, I decided to choose one design and apply it to all the envelopes. Using a stack of colored envelopes and the Faber Castell PITT Artist Pen, which is a marker - and Post-It tape to mask off the bottom and give me a guide line on the top, I started writing names in my go-to-caps. Sadly, I did not take my own good advice to write each name once to figure out my spacing. I just winged it. You may call me Icarus. Although, Cathy had just sent me a very cool list of how to approach life/art and it's OK to just wing it and give yourself some drama to resolve. These are pictured in the exact order in which they were done. I only did three before I lost interest in caps and went to script. Then I reigned myself in and went back to caps.

Later on I had a couple more lapses into scripts. And halfway through, I got out colored pencils to see what I was going to do with the base lettering. I just chose random colors. I knew I was going to box myself in, so I figured I better dig out some stamps. The page of stamps - Wonders of America - Land of Superlatives was going to be perfect. After I chose stamps for the ones that were already lettered and the few that had colored pencil, I chose colors and styles of lettering that would go with the stamps. As usual, I think I do better when I know what stamp I am going to use from the very beginning. Over the next few days, I will show how these envelopes turned out - and if time permits, I will shoot a video about how to do this kind of lettering.