April from Janet

Here is a tutorial for the paper wallet that was posted yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFA88telGo

If you Google - YouTube folded paper wallet - there are a lot of videos. One of them had 6 different designs.....

 Janet sent this in April. She knew it was my birthday. At first I misread this and thought Janet equated me with fun which is so flattering. Then I saw that there is a cupcake + Jean = fun - so maybe I'm only fun if there are cupcakes. I need Janet to equate me with fun because she's on my ofrenda building committee. I added one more person, Stephen. I can't believe I forgot about him. He's one of the people who had been a life saver from back in the day - when I had BIG jobs.

One of my most favorite stories that I have blogged is one of Steve's projects and I can't figure out how to find it. Grrrrrr.

This is the card from Janet:

I need to steal that version of Happy Birthday - it is a perfect combo of script and printing.

Below is the front. 

April from Patty

 This is a perfect example (from Patty) on how a Teacher Appreciation Day banner could have been spectacular on white paper. Fill it up with lots of strong colors - and outlining. So.Much.Fun. I need to save this somewhere that I will find it when I need to make a poster. 

My birthday is in April - and Patty filled the envelope with a fun card with a note, a flower that I like a lot because it's quick and easy - and simply cutting it out makes is cool. And then there is a folder booklet. Patty says she is not *crafty.* I think she could pass for crafty if she wanted to. But - she's taken many courses at the art museum - so she probably enjoys being called artsy.

I should look for a YouTube tutorial on making these little folder books. I've made several and they are so much fun to make. I used to make them when I had an actual studio and somehow I had more time to putter. That doesn't make sense. Where has my putter-time gone?

***

I just found a tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFA88telGo

Mar and April from Riley

Riley did a very fun April shower theme for April. I remember, as a little girl, how much I liked the dress and shoes worn by the little girl on the Morton's salt box. I would have loved having a dress like that and the matching shoes would have been sublime. I will refrain from additional musings about logos. 

Make that, I tried to refrain. I had to Google Morton's Salt in case there's a good story. Lots of good stories.

From Wiki: Morton Salt's logo is considered to be one of the ten best-known advertising symbols in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Salt

You'll have to go to Wiki if you want more stories. There were so many I couldn't choose just one.

I think the one below was for the March exchange. As previously mentioned, I am posting envelopes in the order in which I took the photos - so - these ended up together.

Blogger is making trouble.

Second try below.

OK- now it's working.

This morning the top photo was just a blank square - 

then I loaded the photo through a different set of clicks

and then they both sowed up.

In the future - we might have more blank squares.

Blogger is being feisty. Grrrr

Mar or Apr from Geo - Yay sign

This is from Geo - not my husband Geo, AKA MrWilson. I'm curious about envelope Geo. I'm curious about this design. I've been feeling this way. It looks a little ominous - but - I'm not a Pollyanna type of person. If I were to steal this idea I would do the exact same thing on the front and then I'd do sunshine and a rainbow on the back. I'm OK with the stamp - but one of those black moon ones would have been great.

Speaking of Geo-people - the Geo-husband asked me to look at a layout he had before he ordered it. He's retired and his main activity is working at a couple food pantries. One is in a public school. He doesn't' know how to avoid extra work and took on the task of making a sign for Teacher Appreciation Day - which is fine - although - technically the food pantry has nothing to do with the teachers.

Even though he did not want to ask me to make him a sign - he must have had some weird intuition that if he showed me his *layout* - I would take pity on him.

Here it is. This is his idea for a 6 ft x 3 ft sign. He was going to spend $45 for a sign that looked like this.

I deserve some kind of award for maintaining my composure when he showed it to me. I said in a very gentle voice, "Well, it's a little industrial. I'd be happy to make something more colorful. Would that be OK?" He said, "Sure. I didn't want to bother you." I said it was fine - I'd be happy to do it. And I did it as fast as I could.

I have one deep regret. Make that two. I was not fond of the wording - but I didn't know if someone else had given the words to him - so I didn't want to propose different words and put him in an awkward position. Or if he had come up with those words, I didn't want to insult him. His undergraduate degree was in English and mine was not. In fact, I got my undergraduate degree and the only *paper* I wrote in those 4 years was 3-page, handwritten book report. Maybe I should share the whole story someday.

The second regret is the placement of the tag line - I really wish I had lettered it between two wavy lines and done a font that was short and fat - to fill that space better. Just a flourish on the h would have been so much better. And I would have made the YAY smaller and the TEACHERS a little larger. But, I really did just chalk it out in 3 minutes and paint it in less than half an hour.

Third regret - I wish I had used a much larger brush for the border. It's wimpy.

Fourth regret - bees. Why didn't I add some bees. Grrrrr

If you ever want to make a sign - start with colored paper - it's so much easier to make things pop - although you have to use paint. Markers would have been muddy.

***

Update - MrWilson shared with me all the comments that the sign received. Positive comments. I just roll my eyes. It's so easy to impress people - all you have to do is something by hand....

 

April from Carolyn

This is from a Carolyn. Not the one who exchanges. I'm not sure if this Carolyn reads the blog, but if she does: Hi, Carolyn - I hope to respond with some real mail. (update - I mailed something on May 13)

Carolyn and I were young mommies 30+ years ago - and now we are grannies. I always forget her birthday and she always remembers mine. Maybe Amy (my blog co-pilot) has a fool proof system for remembering birthdays. Or maybe others have ideas to share in the comments.

While Carolyn's card and envelope are printed - they are the kind of inspiration that would be very easy to appropriate.

My wish is for my new system for managing my photos to actually work. 

I am going to start at the end of the list and not allow myself to jump around. 

I read an entire book on how to corral your brain into doing things that it doesn't do on its own.

I have to re-read it and take notes. I just remember that it was really good....but I don't remember any of it. I don't even remember the title.

Grrrr

That was a fake grrrr - my library keeps a list of every book I check out. 

Handy --- also a little creepy.

March from Leslie

Leslie sent two envelopes in March. The top one has the letters in J-E-A-N written in circles. Leslie and I emailed back and forth about the flower-letters - and I found something similar that I had done a while back - but, I don't have time to find them again. I just realized that I have only two weeks of posts scheduled - so I have to buckle down and fill up the month. 

No add-on today. Those infernal weeds are interfering with my blog time. 

 

March from Nanski - Meow Wolf

 

Nanski did some hatching. I'm not sure if that's the right word. We all know about cross hatching. None of her lines cross each other so I feel like we should leave the *cross* out of the sentence. So, maybe hatching is fine. The barcode looks very nice with the whole design. The postmark is equally nice. Hey Nanski: I think you sent two envelopes in March because you were on two lists. We only do one envelope if we see each other on two lists. 

***

I'm not much of a traveler - but one place I visited has really stuck in my head as being exceptional. Also pretty alternative to the usual tourist site. It is Meow Wolf which started in Santa Fe. I knew they had added other locations - and just announced that they will be building one in NYC. 

It's an alternative to typical tourist traps - also very hard to describe - so, I'll leave it to you to delve into it on your own. I'm just mentioning it in case any of you happen to be in a place where you could visit one. I'd be curious to know if they ever have visitors who are disappointed. The website makes it look very trippy with flashing lights - which I think is misleading. To me, the use of lighting was very effective at transporting you into a different realm. You see everything up close - so you can appreciate the materials used to make the environments.

I couldn't find a picture I have of myself - opening the door of a refrigerator and finding a portal to another world --- 

https://meowwolf.com

---but I did find this one of somebody else...

March from Janet - May Madness

 

Janet wasn't entirely happy with the L-shaped border. It doesn't bother me at all. Lining up the horizon line on the stamp was the right thing to do. The way she added the last name was also a very good choice to make. 

The stuff I wrote below suggests that I was in a position to be orderly. I was mistaken when I wrote that. I still have some March incoming mail to post. So, being orderly is on the back burner. It's only May 2nd as I write this. Doesn't take long for me to figure out that I have no idea what's going on. Maybe I have jet lag from that 45 minute flight from Chicago back to DSM.

***

I'm drawing a virtual line in the sands of time today. As I write this, it is May 1st and I just returned from that trip to Chicago. The exchangers are signing up and I have the stack of mail that arrived in April. The goal for this month is to photograph them and post them in an orderly fashion. 

At this moment, I am in chore avoidance mode - so I am going to start with at least one add on. I have been fond of pressing leaves and flowers for a very long time. This will go in my *maybe never* folder. I have several things to tidy up before I turn to pressed flowers and leaves. It seems like a good activity for winter.

Here is the link to Jennie - LINK to Leafworks

April to Lynne - March from Patty and Jessica

The top one was ho-hum - and I added a smaller envelope inside that has already been posted. It was the one with the robot. This idea came from something I received - but, I don't have time to scroll through and find it out. Thanks to everyone who keeps sending me ideas.

***

Once again - I have lost track of which envelopes have been posted....so I'm going to gang a few of them and then move on to the mail that arrived in April.

Blogger is doing a strange thing so bear with me while I figure things out.

Patty has a new puppy - in real life - so she has been inspired by Louie.

Nanski added shamrocks for St. Patrick's day.

Jessica went with springtime flowers.

April to Nanski - elevator operator

 Earlier in the blog posts with the April envelopes that I sent, I mentioned coming up with ideas to test all my markers - and toss the ones that were too dry. This is the only one I did that was just straight *test-pattern* - I didn't think the idea had any potential - although, it would not rank as the worst one of the group. This makes me wonder if I should do a *ranking* of the May envelopes. I'm not one of those competitive types at all, so it surprises me that I would even think of such a thing. 

***

A video for anyone who needs to fill some time in a way that is helpful at filling time but does not cut into the list of things that one should be doing.

I don't have anything to say about the video. In a very odd way, the woman's devotion to her elevator job reminded me of my devotion to the blog....but, it's not the same at all. 

https://psyche.co/films/mzia-the-elevator-operator-leaves-her-post-for-the-first-time-in-two-decades

My blurbs while I am out of town seem disjointed - so the remedy is to use up the pile of add-ons that are in the *maybe* folder.

***

I have not started the posts with the May envelopes - but I still like the idea of ranking the envelopes - maybe I'll remember to do that in June. The May envelopes are wacky. I think Kate and Mia are the only two who got nice envelopes - and Kate's good one was inside one that was sooooo bad. 

Mar from Sharen - Pantone

 

Somehow, this card and envelope from Sharen is in the middle of my April outgoing envelopes. I remember doing those M's when I was addressing wedding invitations for brides. The font was Citadel. It was always a treat when brides showed up with that font.

And I need to buy another sheet of those flower stamps and get out the wedge brush and watercolors. 

***

There might be some people interested in Pantone - the Pantone color system. I used the swatches back in the dark ages when I was a graphic designer. I still have one of the swatch books - and was interested to learn that the old ones will not be very accurate because the colors fade. But, I do not order printing any more - so maybe I should turn it into an art project.

This is a video that explains Pantone - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnpyTNK4U9U

I wonder if I can just copy and paste a photo into a blog post. It looks too big. I'm going to leave it and see what it looks like on May 12th.

April to Troy and Riley

 

Here are some more orphan stamps. I don't have anything to say about these. Troy's is on top because it's better than the two below. I came close to not even posting the two below - but, I am writing this while out of town and when I get home, it will be time to do the May envelopes and I am planning on returning with a better handle on how to proceed. 

I get so motivated when I am away from home about how I'll choose the next month's stamps and designs so carefully. Maybe this time I'll stay on track. 

Here is one of two that needed something else ---- I had to delete the other one because the address was not block-able. It was more layered than this one. The colors went well with the stamp - but it's ho hum.

April to Patty. Leslie and Jessica - Hello Kitty/Mail Art - Part 4

To me, there is a parallel between the desire to give a little something that expresses feelings with a Hello Kitty trinket/talisman and the sending of mail art. Even though most of us will never meet in person, we share a  *thing* about paper/pens/markers/stamps/etc - and most of us aren't going to turn our artistic projects into a business - so sharing that *thing* for paper, etc with other like minded people serves a purpose.

There is an endless stream of info about the value of making things as well as maintaining connections. Even if you never send anything but you just enjoy checking in to see the daily envelope - that's fine. It's not like we even agree on what's good and what's blah.

I thought I would enjoy using the lavender calligraphic stamps with these lavender envelopes. While I was not pleased with them at all, I did get positive feedback. 

I miscounted - and ran out of the calligraphic stamps - so this one went inside another envelope.

Jessica's has some white flourishing - and I thought I added it to all of them. Maybe I forgot to re-photograph Leslie's. I'm having deja vous - seems like these have already been posted. The next few posts will be finishing off the April envelopes that went out. 

March from Amy --- Hello Kitty - Part 3

 

Apologies for the poor quality of the photo. It's taking a while to adjust to new technology. Amy's design looks like something that would be fun to riff on. Below is her card with a Zentangle vibe. I'm still writing blurbs in Chicago. Short blurbs because I'm distracted and the add-ons for a few days were pre-written. Note to self: don't do that.

The item I noticed on the Hello Kitty website that I felt like talking about was this:

small gift, big smile®

It's more than just a catchy phrase; it's the foundation of everything we do, and we're proud to say we've been creating smiles for 50 years.

At Sanrio, we believe that a gift is more than just a gift. Rather, a gift is a means of expressing our heartfelt feelings for others. This philosophy guides all of our activities, whether we're designing a stationery set, a retail store, or an animated television series.

From Sanrio boutiques showcasing the ultimate Sanrio collection to smaller assortments in other shopping environments, we invite all our friends and guests to experience the magic of these four simple words. 

It reminded me of the things that have been small, even ephemeral, that I treasure more than things I have that are more valuable or flashier. Maybe that's why Hello Kitty has lasted so long. Apparently people like/need something more than words to express feelings. That's probably happening with mail art. Which brings me to tomorrow's topic.

March from Grace --- Hello Kitty - Part 2

 

Grace often has arrangements of vintage stamps and coordinates them with rubber stamps and finishes it all off with her professional copperplate. She enjoys the exchange as an opportunity to do something less regimented than her regular envelope addressing jobs. 

LINK to Grace's website  with some beautiful examples of her work. 

*** 

Guess what - one more day of musings on Hello Kitty. I like to take everything back to what we were doing when we lived in caves. At what point did we start collecting and giving talismans. Is that the correct plural for talisman? (I checked. It is.)

What is the difference between a talisman and a trinket? Who is in charge of determining such things? Cave mom's must have had to deal with kids who brought home too many rocks. Several years ago I followed a woman with a funny IG account that included videos of the various stashes of rocks that kept appearing in her house. She lived in a rural area. She would share videos of her own *thing* which was surreptitiously taking a random rock from each stash and *re-homing* them. 

15 second delay while I researched talisman ... they are supposed to have magical powers. Apparently people think they are somehow more powerful than a trinket. Again - who is in charge of such things. I think I can find my box of trinkets that are not magical per se - but they have the power to delight me. To find *delight* is powerful - in JeanWorld. 

Well, this is long enough and I have not even gotten to the Hello Kitty part. I guess this will be a 3 parter.

March from Irene - Hello Kitty

 Shout out to Annette who left a comment yesterday. She's going to send a birthday greeting to Frank. I like the idea of posting random addresses to people who we don't know. And, I even have a name and address in my stack that I need to post. Stay tuned. It's a postal worker.

Irene enclosed a note telling us about this style. I do not have access to the note because I am writing this post while I am in Chicago providing assistance to the family that includes my daughter. Each year the grandkids get older, as do I. A couple years ago - they were little kids looking for ways to bamboozle Nanna. Those days are over. They are practically adults. No more tantrums. Maybe it's just a lull prior to the teen years. Blog posts written whilst on trips aren't very good. When I get home, I might revisit this envelope and see if it is a style that offers inspiration - assuming that I would not have the patience to be so precise. JSV (Jean's Sloppy Version)

Irene includes very pretty cards in her envelopes. This looks like walnut ink. I saw the envelopes she did for April on her IG - very pretty. 

***

One more brand-truck - Hello Kitty.

One of these is going to be in Des Moines and they have had several trucks out and about since 2014. My initial thought was this: is Hello Kitty too banal for my blog? Should I even spend time diving into the history? There wasn't much history on their website other than 2025 is Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary. So I surfed over to Wikipedia and discovered that Hello Kitty is right up there with Mickey Mouse. 

Wikipedia did not make that observation. It just occurred to me that nobody can explain the longevity of certain images. A mouse and a cat. I've been trying to think of any dog character that has attained Mickey Mouse or Hello Kitty status - and so far, I have not come up with one. Any birds? I'd put Smokey the Bear up there - but nobody has monetized him. Please let me know who I am forgetting.

LINK to schedule of appearances  as well as menu and merch

My final musing is this: What is behind the making of trinkets (as well as a whole industry) based on anthropomorphized animals? While they are just trinkets, I can imagine a cave family, hanging out after they were through with the hunting/gathering/eating/etc - and what exactly is the etc part? If there was any spare time, they must have started making trinkets out of sticks and rocks. Not everybody. Some people were drawn to singing/dancing/story telling - and a few of them were coming up with games and sports. That one kid was obsessed with climbing trees. And don't get me started on the one who insisted on. playing with fire and experimenting. A sub-set of the fire/science people were the the weapon makers. All of my musings end up in the same place - humans are makers - and creativity is baked into us.

March from Kristin in Winterset

 This is from a new exchanger, Kristin, who lives close enough to Des Moines that her mail gets postmarked here. If you recall the envelope I posted that I sent to her - it said Winterset. I've been there to visit the Iowa Quilt Museum. Winterset is the home of Fons&Porter - which you recognize if you are a quilter. It is also in the heart of Madison County and most of us are familiar with the book and movie, The Bridges of Madison County. 

It is a picturesque town and if any of my pen pals who are also quilters find themselves in Des Moines I'll be happy to schedule a field trip to Winterset. The quilt museum is worth the trip. I needed to fact check myself since Iowa is dotted with soooo many little towns that I often get them confused. Wikipedia was my source for fact checking.  Wikipedia confirmed that my info is correct and added a tidbit that I will be giggling about all day. I might even remember this for more than a day.

Winterset was platted during a cool spell in the summer of 1849. The name was originally to be "Summerset", but the unseasonable coldness made the commissioners reverse this to "Winterset".

It's a silly little tidbit - but I seem to thrive on such things. Kristin: feel. free to send any additional info about your town and I'll add it here. I'm aware that Winterset is the birthplace of a cowboy movie star - but it's not Gary Cooper or Slim Pickens - so he will not get his name into my blog.

***

This was viral yesterday - so maybe everyone has already seen it - but if not - Yikes!

https://www.fastcompany.com/91324550/kerning-on-pope-francis-tomb-is-a-travesty

And then there are the people who say that it is an intentional mistake - which is often done to show that humans are not *perfect* - in which case - a better mistake would have been to carve FRANK - with nice spacing. Bad spacing is not a worthy mistake.

And if you don't want to read the articles - and wonder about the V instead of a U - that's not a mistake - that's just using a *vintage* alphabet. 

Or Comic Sans - that would have been wonderful - a very proper mistake.

Could it be even worse. Why yes it could.

March from Liz - Nutty Cruiser

I was planning on being inspired by this one for Liz in the April exchange, but then she didn't sign up. She tends to fill up the space and I've mentioned previously that I was interested in trying to fill up the space. 

I read, and then lost, the story of the origin of the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. I've seen it in my neighborhood a couple of times. It was a pretty good story - but way off topic. Recently, the Diamond Almond Car popped up on Atlas Obscura - which reminded me of another fun vehicle sighting
 

I'm surprised there aren't more companies who have promotional vehicles shaped like their product.

One time I was on Interstate 80 - the major highway that goes right across the top edge of Des Moines. I saw a giant redwood tree that was turned into a home. There was a sign on it - and I was going the same direction. It took a lot of self control to not follow it because I wanted to see the inside. 

I have no idea if this is the same one - but, I'm happy that I thought to Google it. Wouldn't it be fun to live in the tree and be the driver of the almond. I'd want to live in Wisconsin and wear a cheese hat.

LINK to photos of interior

The Big Idaho Potato Truck has the best website - but - the truck overshadows the potato. It does not rate my taking time to insert a photo. It does not fit with the aesthetic of my blog (said jokingly).

LINK to big potato truck

The almond car is called the Nutty Cruiser - it'll be on tour all summer - check out the schedule - 

LINK to Nutty Cruiser

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One more - thanks to the Anonymous commenter. LINK to LLBean bootmobile