ABC flowers

a while back i had some flowers where the petals were the letters of the alphabet. after doing a couple of those, i knew i had to do the whole alphabet.

these are all G-Tec. except the yellow centers of the flowers are a fat ZIG writer tip. any bullet tipped marker would work or you could draw a circle or there are 17 other ways to make the centers of flowers.

i did not think too hard about where the centers were. then i wrote the letters around each dot.

then i drew the stems using a ruler and triangle to make them exactly perpendicular to the edge of the envelope.

the addresses will maybe float in the air or go over the stems.








here is a little work in progress

amy's - hillerian env

if you click on it and look closely, you will see that it is sloppy. i was experimenting.
and trying some new brushes. i am a big fan of the windsor newton series 7 brushes. they are expensive. i tried the windsor newton sceptre gold II
and.. i was not disappointed. i still think series 7 are better, but, students aren't always eager to buy the most expensive supplies.

amy is getting a dee-luxe envelope because she helped me when i had the final big fat sale to empty out my studio.  i am almost done with the big move and i have been scanning again. the phone photos will soon be a thing of the past.

i added some more white dots after i took this photo. and sadly, i do not have time to do a rescan. too many new ideas coming up. this one is so *last week.*

chuck - hillarian

here is a riff on nancy's hillarian flourishing.
i
luv
it

thank you nancy :-)
for the inspiration

you need to click on the photo and enlarge it to really see the detail.

the address with be stacked on the left. i used a .25 G-Tec...



in the comments yesterday, Smash mentioned that her Crane's envelopes are not holding up with watercolor. I prefer William Arthur to Crane's and it has to be the kind used for engraving or thermo NOT letterpress. Crane's just bought Wm Arthur and I am pretty nervous that the primo William Arthur paper will be phased out. IMHO...there just isn't anything like it.

Of course, you can always buy watercolor paper and make your own envelopes...it's very easy.

Jackie: i am pretty sure you could tell the difference between my envelopes and Nancy's if you saw them in person. her colors are much brighter. mine are a bit muddy. Nancy uses more colors than i do. I think my dots around the letters look different....but she might start copying mine when she sees the one i did today (not this one - one she hasn't seen)

Nancy: i don't have any trouble with .25's clogging. but, i am vigilant about putting the caps on. i am very impressed that you have been getting such fine lines with .3s. very impressed!

hillarian jackie

here is my thank you to jackie, done in the hillarian style. oh-my-goodness. i can't begin to tell you how ugly this one was. i did not think i could save it and then it all pulled together. so, lesson for today, don't ever give up. i was not able to fix the c. it is too small, but, i can live with one mutant per name. the space inside the a is nice and it would have been nice to have that much air between the other letters. yes, all those green blobs were added to hide the one that was an accident.

and here is a scan of the gem i posted a few days ago because scans are better than phone photos.

thank you to alyce

i just did some angular oversized script (with a black ZIG Writer) and squared off the ends (with a G-Tec). Then i looked for a stamp and liked the way the shapes in the photo were similar to the shapes in the letters. the two different fonts and the two vertical red lines were the most logical way to tie the address to the stamp. and as i keep saying, i like contrasting BIG and little.

stella - greek key

hey stella...i think this is the last in the stella series
and i think it is my favorite
it is pretty simple
and it probably needs more
but, i just love the way it all fits together
and looks like a greek key design
(or maybe a greek key after too much ouzo, eh?)

some day...i want to do this in a blind emboss

the address will go in tiny letters, just above canada. it was done with a navy ZIG writer and then carefully outlined with a G-Tec so that the ends and corners were squared off and crisp.

it would also look nice to move the stamp up to the corner
and stack the address in three lines, further down on the right.

mystery solved

yesterday i showed the two envelopes that arrived with JEAN on one and 420 on the other and a bar code. they were inspired by the ZIP + 4 + 420 that Smash sent. there was no return snail address...so i wasn't sure we would hear from the sender. below is the transcript of the comments in case readers don't go back and look at comments:

1. AnnieMay 18, 2013 at 11:12 AM

   So this means both postcards arrived to you by way of the barcode alone, pretty much?! You people are serious postal gamblers! lol

   ReplyDelete
2. 
   jean wilsonMay 18, 2013 at 2:05 PM

   yes... it must have been the bar code.
   now.....we have to figure out who the texan is.
   please drop us a *howdy* in the comment section :-)

   ReplyDelete
3. 
   SmashMay 18, 2013 at 10:46 PM

   IMb. Intelligent Mail Barcode. USPostal Service
   This is the smartest address ever...
   My guess is that this code was taken from a posted envelope to Jean
   Scanned into the computer and printed onto a new envelope and dropped into a mail box

   ReplyDelete
4. 
   SpammailgohereMay 19, 2013 at 12:20 AM

   I have been “pushing the envelope” of the post office for about 4 years now. Having sent out well over 100+ post cards with less than a 5% failure rate, I am very impressed with the ability of the Post Office and the carriers to deliver the mail. This particular test was to see if a post card with the least amount of information on it could be delivered. As you can see it did.
   
   The IMB (Intelligent Mail Barcode) was created using the USPS online encode/decode program. Jean’s address decodeed to:
   
   AFAATDDDFFTDFFAFFAFAATTATAAATFDDFDATATTAFFTFDATTDATDDAFTFDDDFTDDT
   
   After downloading the USPS IMB font, I just needed to print the IMB on the post card.
   
   How did it make it to Jean? The IMB was able to get the post card to the post office in Des Moines, then into the tray of the postal carrier, but if was up to the carrier to figure out the rest:)
   
   If you use a readable address, a zip+4, and either a POSTnet barcode or the IMB, you will have a 99.999% chance of that envelope being delivered. A readable address and Zip+4 might bump that percentage down to about 99%.

   ReplyDelete
    
    
   ********
    
   so...thank you SMGH - i need to let dave know that i appreciate his participation. it they had arrived on saturday, i'm not sure they would have made it to me.
   and...if you would like one of my old school thank you envelopes, just send me the old school info in an email to jmwilson411 (at) yahooDOTcom 
   
   
   the only other genius method i can think of would be carrier pigeon or perhaps a *fox* like the one they used in the Princess Bride. we do see a fox in our yard from time to time, but he doesn't seem to have any mail for me.

sunday guest artists

from the flugge collection

Philippe Dupasquier has written and illustrated over 25 books for children, including My Busy Day and No More Television!.

notice that some of the watercolor goes out of the lines. that should remind you to not agonize over perfection. when things are a little off, sometimes they are also a little more interesting. not always...but it is nice to note that sometimes it works. it's subtle. 


and today is a red letter day...because we have our first guest artist from the youthful category. she is sue mashman's granddaughter, stella. they were in london and stella sent an envelope home to the usa.

super stealworthy idea!!!

this is cool

these two postcards arrived a couple days ago.

the message on the back says: I'll see Smash's ZIP + 4 + house
and raise her a name+IMB
Greetings from Texas....

so - here is the new
Postal Hall of Fame

Carol
Jackie
Smash
Tex

who's next?????

don't miss the post below...
this is the second post today

jackie's gems + jean's junk

top shot: the envelope from jackie that i had to disect to read. she has a message on the flip side of the paper, then it is all neatly folded into an envelope.


middle shot:
the post office kindly delivered it without cancelling any of the stamps.
i need to scan it and repost it so you can see it better. i did get back to scanning, so, in june, you won't have to put up with photos any more

my envelope, to the right, is a hot mess.
i was stealing the ribbons and dangles from alyce.
there are just too many things going on.
first i left the t out of stella, that P is too big, the dangles are too flat. so, ignore this and enjoy the artwork from jackie...

bear with me...
re-organization and move is progressing
and some new stuff is almost ready to launch....

stella -tornado

i was practicing *the line of infinite beauty* and it started to look like a tornado. i hope i have time to draw little pieces of furniture and cows and such in the swirls before i send it. the blue name and line must have been a ZIG Writer which has two ends, one is .5 and the other is larger. you can get a little variation in the big end with pressure and release. also, speed will make the line a little lighter, if you are not pressing very hard.

hb tom - and jeri

tom sent this for my birthday last month. thank you tom. i love the button alphabet. it is a style that peter thornton invented. he was in town one time and i asked him to write it out for me and somewhere.....i have it. next time i see it, i will post it.

i do not recall if i have posted this one
and picasa has changed so that i can no longer scroll through my 900 scans...to see what has been posted....so, here it is. and it is pretty enough to run twice. thank you jeri. she sent it to my mom at mom's new address. you are all welcome to send mail to my mom.

it is a little hard to see the street address - it is 4111
jeri used one of those double tipped nibs.
and those red birds are stealworthy!!

jan's markers

 here are some flowers using jan's faber-castell big brush markers. i loved the envelope - until i added the stamp and address - luckily i used pencil.

i think the address belongs in that wider space between the stems.









note to ann-margret who asked what the ZIP+4 means. it is an additional 4 numbers, optional, that will route the mail to a more specific area. so, the ZIP+4 plus the house number, is technically all the information that is needed to get the mail to the house.

and note to carol and sue regarding my thoughts about my idea or an envelope where i write one name, using each and every pen and marker that i own....i think i have to do it. and yes, it will be a large envelope.

jan's donation

this was so much fun to do. you just tap the brush marker on the side to make the petal, but you have to tap each stem once, then turn the envelope and tap each one again then keep going around in a circle. it is the only way i know to make them come out this way. i am not going to waste my time showing you that if you do the flowers one at a time, they aren't as cute. go ahead...try it...you'll see.

these are the faber castell brush markers that jan donated to my teaching supplies and which will probably drive me into rehab. i can't stop experimenting.

beth flower thank you

beth and i enjoy little dot flowers. she asked how to make the Os smooth. you probably need to move your whole arm. your arm doesn't have to slide anywhere, but if your arm is on the desk, you can actually move the bone, inside the skin. that sounds a little creepy. but there is some sliding back and forth that you can accomplish. you need to do that on some letters, instead of just moving your fingers or wrist. some people try to keep the finger movement to a minimum. this is hard to describe in words. i need to start shooting some video.

i really like those three letters that are nudging outside the lines - the T, N and Y
and the black is nice touch on the thank you.
and i like the way there are little strips of white peeking through.
they act like a highlight.

thank you for the thank you :-)

jan's donation

i have a real dilema. jan donated some faber-castell big brush markers to my teaching supplies to share with students...because she said she didn't care for them. i assured her that they were going to be fabulous markers and that she would regret giving them away. so...this is the first envelope i tried. that first big J is an ugly J, but, i'm fine with the rest pf the Jans. one thing about markers...you have to work to find the good color combinations. you hardly ever have the perfect combo for a certain stamp.
tomorrow, i will show one that i like a lot and it was so easy. i think jan will want them back and i suppose i can part with them, but it will be hard.

smash butterflies + robots

another one from smash where i just have to guess how she made that cool lace pattern. i like the way it is sketchy and not a perfect print. but i have no idea how she did it. the butterflies are so pretty. i wish i had some...

 elizabeth sent this fun shot of the robot valentines she made with her grandsons. she sent it after i posted smash's robot envelope. hopefully, i will have time to make some robot butterflies.

my new *thing* is going to be cross-pollinating ideas. along with eliminating all the bothersome chores to devote more time to this obsession....

 so this is my first robot rip off. i forgot to make a butterfly. i didn't look at smash's robot. but i did google *robots* and there are tons of cute robots out there. i did not see any that were letters. so, that's my own thing.
the first layer is galaxy metallic marker - then some gelly roll silver and the last layer is G-Tec. the address is in pencil in case i decide to actually send this one and use her real address. i think *we* should all get post office boxes so i don't have to go through all these gyrations to post envelopes and then re-address them to mail them. but, trekking to the p.o. box would be a chore. if you have never read the eudora welty story *why i live at the post office* be sure to find it and read it - or listen to it on the tape with eudora reading it herself. it's a fine piece of writing.

i love that stamp. it's interesting how some very serious stamps blend nicely with silly cartoons.

oh...i just took the time to google *robot alphabet* and there are TONS of robot alphabets. many of them are as cute as anything i could do...so, i don't think i need to spend any more time on robots. although i did not see a robot butterfly, so i might have to do that one.

janet's birthday - favorite

last week, i posted the really quick cupcake envelope i made for janet and mentioned that my first attempt at something very quick was one that i liked too much to give away that day, so i made a second one. i still haven't finished this one because i have too many ideas. so, i suppose i should make copies and show how many different ways i can finish it...which would be a lot....decisions, decisions.

the two main places for the stamp are in the crook of the J and under the crossbar of the E.






here is my reply to the envelope from smash that i showed yesterday

 i took one of her creatures and turned it into the S and another creature made the last name with his footprints. it is all done with the G-Tec .25 - in the blue-black color that i just love. maybe john neal will stock them. they are pretty spectacular. the ink seems to be more cooperative in the wash technique that i have been loving. i used a little gouache or watercolor for the pale green.

sunday guest artist + smash

from klaus flugge collection

Max Velthuijs was one of Holland’s most important creators of children’s books. He became famous for his stories about a character called Frog. He died in 2005, aged 81.

 and this just in from smashgirl.
i will be posting my *reply* soon.

teal wedding

THIS JUST IN - JOHN NEAL has G-Tecs on sale - see below)

 i helped design this invitation and did all the addressing for my son-in-law's sister. the top photo is a little blurry, the rectangle in the upper corner is teal. it was letterpressed. the response card had a blind embossed chevron pattern that also appeared on the envelope liner. i thought the parents of the bride would enjoy a variety of envelopes on the response cards, so i hand addressed them and tried to come up with 125 different ways to address them. but, i ran out of time and did some repeats. they did tell me that their letter carrier mentioned that he/she had really enjoyed delivering all the pretty envelopes.

stacey of PinkFineStationery did the actual design. the bride and i just offered copious suggestions.

 we weren't wild about the stamps, but they were ok. the bottom photo shows the blind emboss a little better. i love blind embossing.

yes, i lined the envelopes by hand

here is the link (hopefully) to the G-Tec page on John Neal's website
http://www.johnnealbooks.com/prod_detail_list/263

annie - iris

when the florida flowers came out, i tried to think of something to do with each stamp. i was being pretty literal so i'm not impressed with the ideas, but they are fine for quick happy mail. i used zig markers and did the shading with a regular lead pencil. i took drawing 101, but didn't really spend any time learning how to do botanical illustration. the leaves don't go with the flowers....but, it's mail art....ephemeral....good enuf....
the actual address will be stacked in short lines on the right

chuck - circle flowers

chuck missed the april gathering of the lettering club. our topic was flowery stuff. there have been some samples of these flowers where each letter is turned into petals. his last name is spelled out in the leaves.
these are written with a zig .5 marker  and a pale pink zig brush marker was used to give some weight to the petals. pale mint to fill in the leaves.
i can't decide where i will write the address. to be honest, i am having trouble mailing this one. i might have to keep it for a while...

coming up

jackie, annie and carol -  thank you for the cool envelopes, they will be popping up in june.

and thank you to smashgirl and elizabeth - yours arrived and will be featured in june, too.

smash robot

how cute is this?
i could spend a week on just robots.
it's on the list for when i have time.
that gold-dot border looks like it was done with a dot-a-rific marker. i need to see if they still make them. they are way-fun. they have a big sponge-y tip and the you press harder to get a larger dot.

thanks smash-girl :-)

janet's bday alternate

i made an envelope for janet (in a hurry so i could deliver it by hand) but i liked it too much and wanted to add some things so i made this one in an even bigger hurry. i don't like the way the h crosses the b
but i liked the way the t ended up right under the y
and it looked like a cupcake. there was no pencil or planning on this one, just write big and fill up the space.

i used zig markers - the ones called writers, that have two sizes of tips, one like a big bullet and the other is .5, i think. i could find out, but it would mean getting up from my chair.

smash's smart envelope

smash saw my post about how all you need is the street address and zip for the mail to go through. so, she decided to carry that to the logical extreme and do the zip+4+house number and see if the p.o. would deliver it and voila, they did.
although she had to add the words zip, +four, and house. she tried sending
50312  2560   420
and it did not arrive
or
they kept it in their personal collection of
*mail that is so darn cool we just have to keep it to remind ourselves that mail is the coolest thing on earth*
they do have such a file.

sunday guest artist

David McKee's characters have achieved international fame - from fancy-dress wearing businessman Mr Benn, to Elmer The Patchwork Elephant.

this is from the collection of klaus flugge, publisher in UK. 

barry morentz

many years ago, when i had my first teaching gig, in NYC, i was startled to see the name Barry Morentz on the class list. he was already a very well known lettering artist/scribe. i wasn't intimidated, just curious as to why he would sign up for a class in *funky styles with markers* with a complete unknown. so, i asked him...and he said something about how he was always open to new things. it was a pleasure to have him in the class. i don't think i had any opportunities to *teach* him anything. but, he was clearly collecting all the stealworthy ideas that i was tossing out. i also remember some other people in that class who were not famous, but they were spinning ideas and we all had a good time. for him, it was like playtime. and we should all remember to take a little time for play.

i could not find many images of barry's work online. i think he has been so busy with his career that he never needed to put up a website. but...yesterday he shared this video with the people on CyberScribes (a list serve - Yahoo Group - open to anyone interested in lettering) and i wanted to pass it along because it is really pretty. i noticed how often he changes speed. he starts and cruises along and then at a certain point, he speeds up. i really hope i find time to make some videos, too. it really helps to see that whole speed thing. it's hard to describe it in words.

http://www.denihan.com/SitePage.aspx?name=Video

chuck - watery script

maybe i am overdoing this g-tec + water style. it is so much fun. i call that kind of lettering, two wrongs do make a right. i don't really make an outline. i just make a letter and then decide what part is off and make a correction. then i fill in the space with scribbles and add water with a water brush...which you can get from john neal bookseller. it is a nylon brush and you fill the handle with water and -voila- you have a brush that writes for a long time without dipping, you just squeeze the handle and the water dribbles down the brush.

smash girl

smash girl has some parallel pens. as i have mentioned previously, i do not have them because they would distract me and i would not get anything else done. again, you may buy them from john neal bookseller. this is a nice envelope because smash has the colors that go with the stamp. or maybe she mixes ink to match. that would be too much work for me. curiously, on the back of this envelope, smash left a cryptic message about being on the move. i wonder if she is going to drop in on me, unannounced. jackie did that one time. it's a great story. for another time.

bonus post

this morning i can't move my wrist. i thought addressing envelopes would help. i had two to send to carol, but i forgot to make one larger than the other, so, i had to make a third to send the other two... the first two are ideas i ripped off from the envelopes from her.....that will show up later....

(top one is just me whining)

carol the quilter

carol is a quilter who ran across my blog and was inspired to send me an envelope. you can see her work on her blog

mamacjt.blogspot.com/

she also asked me to include more details on what i use when i am making my envelopes. i will be mentioning more about materials, but i also caution people about buying too many things. use what you have if you already have too much stuff. although, if you have never had G-Tecs, you probably need them.

http://www.johnnealbooks.com/prod_detail_list/263

the slicci pens are nice too.
carol, you have the patience to do a lot of detail work and you will LOVE doing the details with super fine pens.

thanks for the fun card and envelope. i sent a return envelope to carol, but all i put inside was another envelope.

tracy - vine

this was a quick demo on how to make flowers with a brush marker. i have a lot of zigs, but any brush marker will work. you just tap the edge of the brush tip on the paper and then keep rotating the paper, adding petals. keep your hand in the same position and move the paper.


 the addressing is with a G-Tec and i will add the street address. i would have added some fine outlines on the flowers to make them look more like the stamp, but, after i put the stamp on, i decided that it was too risky to start adding things. the fine lines might look awful. tip of the day: do all your experimenting before you apply the stamps. do i hear a chorus of *duhs* from around the globe?

p.s. i did go back and add the fine lines and it was an improvement and i did not mess it up. sometimes those big bold risks are worth taking. in my world, adding tiny outlines is a big bold risk. extreme outlining. a new sport in my own personal olympics. other events include finding an x-acto blade in the bottom of a waste basket and making a perfect masking tape oval on a track. great, now i have to start a new blog for the graphic olympics.