the width of romans

cathy left a comment on the envelope with the overlapping romans
and it made me remember a question i have about the grouping of letters by width

i see width groupings
but J and K are not always in the same group.

MW -wider than a square
OQ -fit in a square
CDG - slightly narrower than OQ
HAUNT VXYZ - slightly narrower than the above line, do you put K here?
SELF PBR - halfish width, or do you put K here?
I-narrow - do you put J with I or with PBR?

are their any mnemonic devices or songs to help remember these letter groups?

this is going to be on an envelope.

clouds

the colored pencil does not show up very well. and the address is covered up....but, i have only 40 envelopes lined up and am worried about getting behind. no design lesson today. i just thought i would try drawing clouds. i think it's probably better to just go outside and look at the real thing. or take a picture. or devote some serious time to learning how to render them. my cartoon stuff is fine for some things, but not serious clouds. most envelopes aren't exactly serious.

kathy - adobe

even though they don't have cactus that towers over the houses in santa fe, i liked the idea. this was fun as a first draft. might come back and work on some variations if i don't get distracted. i like the way the g-tecs smeared when i added the colored pencil.

cathy tennis gold

i was having fun with the idea of these layered letters. i penciled them. then i went over them with a gold gel pen. i did my thing where i do three lines (sometimes more) and build up some thickness.  the trick is to follow the line, keep it smooth, but don't worry when it is a little off.
three layers of a-little-off = fine.

then i realized that if you erase gel pen, you remove all the sparkle. so if you enlarge this you will see the pencil lines. i might go ahead and erase the sparkles. the gold picks up the color of the tennis racquet. i didn't follow the rules about how to build perfect roman caps. i was looking at interesting places to overlap and connect and cozy-up-without-touching.

jan's tennis letters

i invented this style for jan because she confided in me that she likes envelope art but she really doesn't have a huge interest in calligraphy or lettering. i completely understand. lettering can be frustrating. so, i thought i would just take random colors and make her name really big and add enough black to pull it all together.

it's hard to imagine what it looked like before the black was added. It was UG-leeee.  so i did another envelope and made three scans to show the progress.

you have to click on the Read more, to see the steps:

2 guest artists - smash gator A & stella mixed media

very fun alligator by smash
and a lovely abstract by her talented grandaughter, stella - this is more recent than the envelope i posted a few days ago from stella and shows that she spent some time working on her penmanship this summer.

thank you ladies!

guest artist - smash gators

two gator themed envelopes from smash girl and they are postmarked from south carolina....



if anyone missed annie's comment yesterday, go back and read it and then go to the link and oh-my-goodness...there is an endless stream of ideas....

a fun idea i saw. thought i had the link, can't find it at the moment.

sophie

ooops, i spelled her name wrong. i'll get it right and send her an envelope for her birthday...which is coming up 10-11-12. isn't that a great birthdate? and her brother was born on 90210 - 9-02-10 - two birth dates that are easy to remember.

and, if carol still checks the blog, she will see that i have been stealing ideas off her blog.

maybe she will tell us if she thought of her idea on her own
or if it came from somewhere.

blue zig writer
outlined with g-tec
took some time.
small writing is uni-ball

guest artist jeri

i think jeri said she saw this idea on a book cover. then she said that my name did not have enough ascenders (or descenders) to really do justice to the design. but, when you don't see the original, it looks just fine and it is highly stealworthy. i feel an elizabeth coming on.

a favorite

i love this idea. it is not original. i saw an envelope with 9 rectangles and some envelope details. it was my idea to address all of the envelopes.

i made the stamps out of the margins on the Modern Art in America sheet of stamps.

guest artist stella

i neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed to steal this idea.
i neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed more time.

thank you stella
:-)

guest artist sunday

is this a repeat? i thought i had posted it, but did not see it in my uber-file.

it is so pretty, you really need to see it in person. so stop over. you have my address.

also, it is a tri-fold. i'll find a camera some day and show you the innards.

sorry it took me so long to post it.

smash - hand made envelope

this is a very pretty handmade envelope. i can't tell if the page was a practice page and i can't make out the words. it was scanned on the old scanner - the one that chose to do some wacky cropping. so far the new scanner seems to be cooperating. the puffing stamp looks great.

p.p.r.

procrastination progress report

i felt so guilty about posting something that wasn't an envelope that i went ahead an made an envelope. it is to our envelope representative from texas who sent me a snail address. i am really excited to have the name timothy to work with. it has a lot of fine letters. (my two newest reps, cathy and candy - in addition to kathy- had me a little scared that the state reps would be dominated by 5-letters-ending-in-y names)

anyhow, this is what came of the inspiration quilt below. i used jan's faber castell markers for the main name and a couple of the accent colors. then i used a navy zig writer for the outlining and fill in. one of these days, when i set up a web cam, i will have very detailed lessons on the sequence of detailing on these kinds of letters.

there were darker spaces where the faber-castell overlapped, so i added some details with a matching zig. i included some Xs after i found the amish quilt stamp. i did not find any of the gees bend quilt stamps.

the gees bend quilt below would have been my choice for a stamp. but it was not one that was offered on the page.

ok, back to work. [ha]

impulse, off topic

i am pretty good about staying on the topic of envelopes. this is loosely related, because the p.o. issued some fabulous stamps with quilts on them. but what i really need to share is this lady's comment on where she gets ideas:

"Fabric of Their Lives" at Smithsonian Magazine. MARY LEE BENDOLPH: "Most of my ideas come from looking at things. I can walk outside in the yard and see ideas all around. Then, sitting down looking at a quilt, I get another idea." [Mary Lee with her 2003 "blocks and strips" from the new show]

 in a few days, you will see how i take this image and make an envelope.  below is the envelope for the day.

ellen - series of 15

last day of august, last day of this series. nothing new or interesting about this one. i am writing this post on the 4th of july. so, i have my record of one-a-day intact. i am sure i will have something else to pop in as a bonus. or maybe not.... anyone feeling the need to complain may do so in the comment box. i'm sure a bunch of complaining will inspire me to come up with some better ideas than flowers....

BTW, while you are complaining about flowers, would you please tell me something. when you post a comment on my blog, do you get one of those distorted images that asks you to type in the letters and numbers you see to prove that you are not a machine? the blog-master always knows it is me when i am posting answers and i get to say whatever i like. but when i comment on other blogs, i have to type in those codes. and i don't know if there is a setting for that or if it is just automatic. thanks in advance. :-)

this just in

this came with a note saying *greetings from texas.* i think it is from the person who sent me the postcards with just a barcode and jean and a barcode and 420.

you may see them at the link below.

http://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/2013/05/this-is-cool.html

i would be happy to send a return envelope, but i will need an address. you may send it to me at jmwilson411 at yahoodotcom.

the envelope is made out of a sheet of uncut dollar bills. i'm not sure where a person gets an uncut sheet of money. i could do a search, but, i am staying focused on finishing that job that was due in february. i am running out of excuses. (i only own two books. how to steal like an artist and the book of lame excuses....both classics.) ok, that is an exaggeration. i have a few more books than 2, but not many. i guess i should go count them, eh?

cathy - stamp-o

this came from miss cathy (from mississippi)

my first attempt at a response to her was a disaster. i am only including it to show that i am working on some ideas for her.

i think i need to just go with the whole missississississississississippi theme

new penpal - new scanner

i had to buy stamps. the heat index is over 100. i rewarded myself by buying a new printer scanner, to have at the house, so i don't have to drive to my mom's house to use hers. i had to drive to a second store to get what i needed and it was a long hot trip. my reward when i got home was this envelope from candy, in oregon. it is paste paper. she wrote my name in the paste...way cool.

she has a blog at www.mypaperarts.com

elizabeth told her about the blog and candy saw that i was wishing i had an envelope exchange pal from each of the 50 states and she volunteered to be oregon. welcome aboard candy :-)

the list of states still available may be viewed if you click [Read more] below

smash tangle pinwheel

i do not recall why i used orange to blur the address. i think red would have been better. so ingnore the orange. the idea of the address within a shape and then a pinwheel of designs is uber-stealworthy.

this would take some time. a good project if you are going to be sitting and waiting for an appointment or waiting at the cell phone store, to be told once again that all you need to do when your cell phone isn't working is take the battery out.  

but it was a nice outing after breaking my record for number of envelopes done in two days. i wish i could tell you the back story. but, alas, i am like doctors and lawyers. i must respect the clients.

but i can talk about jan and the new art supplies she brought over today for me to test drive. super fun stuff coming up. [but not til i buy a new scanner. the old one is officially dead.] sorry, i am going to have to monetize the blog. that will mean ads. sorry.

flip side

and with the flap open
below

finnbadger 3

another nice one from finnbadger. he's 3 for 3.
nice choice on the font.
i should have scanned the back of the envelope. it is a really nice image.
but, the front is nice too
and the stamp is perfection
(use your best nina garcia accent when you say perfection :-)

good choice of font....if y'all don't know about dafont.com. check it out. great place to get free fonts.

bird on head series

just saw this and would have given the link, but the link made my computer lock up twice

wish the scan was better

smash valentine

what a fun design. i never got around to buying those stamps. i like that she added purple into the mix. the ivory envelope looks nice. with the white envelope on the stamp, i probably would not have tried it on an ivory envelope. it is always interesting to note color combinations. you see a lot of combinations that are unexpected, yet they work very well.

ellen - series of 15

i've done plenty of overlapping like this, but the new touch is the extended tails that give a place for the address. this is an idea i will use a bunch if i remember to.

smash walnuty wash

i could guess all day on how this was done and what the medium is. smashgirl likes wet medium. i hardly ever get into broad wet stuff. now that i only work at home (and not in a studio) i suspect my wet days are over. i suppose i should just sell all the wet stuff. or send it to smash girl. or use it up in my classes.....
very pretty :-)
thanks for sharing.

smash 2 military stamps

great color scheme. since this is a scan, i can't really see how it was done. if all those little herring bones are done by hand, she had a lot of patience. i think it was carol who thought that ivory envelopes were not pretty. IMHO these stamps look wonderful on ivory.

a very sad envelope

and a long story about a faked cancellation

surfing

every once in a while i google *jean wilson envelope* just to see what pops up. mostly, it is stuff from my blog. today, i found this. it is Mr not Ms, but it is still a fun little envelope.
  and then i found one addressed to Geo A Wilson, Esq which is exactly my husband's name
plus, he is a lawyer, so the esq. is even correct. and i like the quirky penmanship.

ellen series of 15

quick - not overly inspired - curious george is not even a stamp. but, he's cute. i like the three blue scribble dots that were inspired by the ball george is balancing on. and i think they look good with the tiny bit of shading underneath.

fish on head

hey, smash-girl, i just found this. it reminds me of the owl on the head, only this is a fish on the head :-)

smash tiger border

this is a fun idea. i like the color of the background and wonder if she has copic markers. the luggage tag is an idea i will be stealing very soon.

:-)

ellen - series of 15

i like this one enough to redo it with pencil lines so that it is a little more precise. and the bottom one isn't very inspired, but, i like it. the idea of little groups of three dots probably hasn't shown up for a while. i recall that it was one of the very first motifs that i saw and used - way back when -





note the way ellen has loops on the top and powers has only a loop or tail on the bottom.
it would be less convenient to have ascenders and descenders overlapping. not a bad thing, you would just have to figure out how to make the overlapping look good.

carol's cake

it's been a while since i checked carol's blog....and it sounds like she is obsessed with envelopes. you'll have to visit her blog to see all of them. this is my favorite one - the way she has the cake on a plate.

if you delve into the blog you will learn more about her process. and she mentions that her copics are drying up. i think copics are refillable. plus you can mix whatever color you like.

here is the link to her blog:

http://mamacjt.blogspot.com/

i'm guessing the pencil lines are where the address will go.

guest artist - smash blue b-day

i should have posted this one back in july. but it got lost in the stack. it is a very good idea for addressing a birthday greeting to anyone whose name would fit into the space where it says *America.* it is one of the ones smash has sent to herself...so, that is my handiwork, where the address is blocked out. writing italics on a wavy line is very challenging. she has everything fitting together nicely. if you work with a different name, with ascenders, you'll have a bunch of space in the middle and i predict that will be a problem. the tight fit seems to me like an important component to maintain.

ellen - series of 15

more re-runs. maybe on the bottom one, the dots outside the flower petals is a new idea. 15 envelopes in an hour was a real stretch. and that included choosing stamps. i did all the lettering first and then had to find stamps. so, i probably only spent 2 minutes on each envelope.

if you are new to the blog and didn't see the series where the letters in names made petals (or flowers)
then...look closely. e-l-l-e-n p-o-w-e-r-s is tucked in there.

happy birthday mum

i want to make this into an envelope. that's my mom, third one in the middle row. i can't understand why they didn't have their own reality show. they look just as adorable as any of the kids on little house on the prairie or the waltons.

so, the only iMac that i have to work on is my mom's. it is almost 5 years old and is getting temperamental. i really should buy her a new one for her 86th birthday. she is the most computer savvy

smash - nibs

i believe the nibs are a rubber stamps and it looks like she might have used embossing powder - which is a powder that you sprinkle on the ink, after you stamp the image. then you knock off the extra powder and use a heat gun or super hot hair dryer to melt the powder. it is the same process used on thermography.
i love the stamp...wish i had time to get some and use them.

ellen - series of 15

hmmmm....seems like a re-run. maybe i should have just posted pictures during august, and taken a holiday from words.