stella bird + guest artist

i can't remember if i posted this one or not.

so, i will add a second one today, in case this is a repeat.

this came off the internet. sometimes i just google *envelope art* to see what's new and fun. images pop up, but they don't always take me to a place where i can give a link....but i can't resist posting this without giving the artist credit. maybe someday i will find it....i bet there is a lot more good stuff by the same artist.

international mail artist

http://envelope100.blogspot.com/

congratulations to finnbadger. one of his envelope is featured on a TV program in france.
yesterday the link took me to the program
today it seems to go to a different program.

this is the one you will see on finnbadger's blog today.
he is also attentive to the flip side of his envelopes.
i use the flip side to mention things that i would fix on the front.

trends

 there is a trend in calligraphy - naive, non-traditional. i would like to meet some of these people and see what they think of the truly amazing stuff. the M in Mr looks like she was looking at Bernard Maisner's work.

and this reminds me very much of the kind of lettering that first caught my eye when i was in high school and made me pick up a pen and ink.

i'm happy that i had the opportunity to study the more traditional hands.... but, i have not had time to really practice enough to be *amazing*  -
close, but no cigar.

bonus - from elizabeth

this is from elizabeth in washington, the state. she had one of those leftover iowa stamps and some others that go nicely. i covered up her return address in the upper left corner.

the JEAN is nicely tucked into that space created by the L. the O is a reinforcement circle on top of a gold circle on top of a black circle. nice echo of the earth shapes. and then the p.o. was happy to add to the design with their random black bars that echo the black stripes in the layered main lettering.
very nice...thanks soooooooooo much

saturday stuff

i carried the sharpie layering to a ridiculous extreme. there's a bunch of gel pen in there, too.
apologies if this is a repeat. i can't find it in the archive, but the archive is pretty random.

and the second one is one i just found today and the third one was in my download file and i can't remember if i have posted it or not....so, i am throwing it in

the second one is from this blog;

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

too many readers think this blog is about handlettering and being an applied artist. i want everyone to know that i welcome anything made by hand. my only requirement is that it be *polite.*

Last call for exchange

I was just about to send out the lists and had one more person respond. So, I will wait until Sunday in case there are people who only catch up with the blog on the weekend. Email me at jmwilson411 (at) yahoo.com and let me know how many envelopes you would like to exchange
pick a number between 2 and 20

it is just an envelope
no card, unless you want to add a card
everyone is welcome....it is not just for calligraphers and lettering artists
although, some kind of creative concept should be happening....like a hand made envelope
or exotic stamps

no theme
deadline to send envelopes - Jan 15th

inspiration :

http://sarasoulsister13.deviantart.com/
she is from columbia and lives in chile
i did not look at any of her other work....
just snagged the first image that caught my eye :-)

design pondering - hirshfield stamps

i ran the top envelope with an eames stamp. then, when i filled in her actual address, i liked those two stamps better and i loved the idea of the address in the ticket. i would have spent more time making the address a stronger hunk of red if i had not been in my clean off the desk campaign.  then i had the stack of envelopes with quotes. i liked the idea of a quote on an envelope. the quote and the stamp are fine with color. but they are the same size, so i have to figure out how to make the address tie the two together. i don't think i want the address to be the same size as the quote and the stamps. this was one thought, i just cut a piece of paper to visualize a huge hunk of red. i don't think it is working. if i come up with a better solution, i will post it. or if people want to make suggestions, go right ahead.

nancy - lavender cruz + appleton

a very fun envelope and doodle from nancy. this one is another example of using the minor color in the stamp for the major color on the lettering. very pretty. the kitty in the corner is covering up an error in the return address. nancy frequently puts the return address in the upper left corner... i actually like it better when i don't  have to blot out an address... i think i was sending a psychic message to her to somehow get that return address on the back.

thank you nancy :-)

 also, there is a nice hunk of hillarian lettering for us to contemplate and try to absorb some of the details. i see a nice balance of patterns between stripes and squares and circles. the red *candies* are interesting....three large and three smaller (or 4, if you count the green one).
cool touch where she pulled a flower off the stamp. lucky people who send me mail will be getting their own versions of this style. thanks for sending nancy.

multi-happy

this one from miss cathy made me happy on multiple levels.
1. i like getting mail
2. i like gingerbread houses
3. i like when the holiday stamps are not red/green (not that i don't like red/green, i just appreciate the opportunity to use a variety of colors during red/green season)
4. i like those big speedball b-3 nibs
and have some, so i can start ripping off this idea promptly.

thank you sooooooo much

5. i like that i have something better to post today. i liked that ribbon idea below...but, it just didn't make me happy when i saw it on the screen this morning. design lesson for the day: sometimes it is hard to figure out what is wrong....and on that one, i am still grappling with what's wrong. i think i know. but will wait to see if anyone tells me in the comment section.

cathy - yellow ribbon

this envelope was done during one of those sessions where i was tired and just sat and copied ideas off the internet. i made the yellow ribbon with the faber-castell big brush marker. then outlined with a pretty bold marker, probably a .5 zig. it sat in a stack waiting to be finished. cathy sent me some star wars stamps and i liked the way C3PO is looking to his left, so, i gave him something to look at. and i liked how the add on stamp had something to do with earlier aviation... a bit of a connection... but i think i need to put the rest of the star wars stamps on dark colored envelopes. not a winning design, but that style of ribbon is something i would do again.

cathy - raven on head

i like how mississippi rep, cathy, has been inspired to offer another one in the *bird-on-head-series* started by SC rep, smashgirl. someone at the P.O. decided that the beautiful pencil address that is very clearly written in the spider web, was not clear enough ---so they wrote the street address on the envelope. sad. it was not necessary to do that.

thank you cathy for the stamps...i have really enjoyed coming up with johnnycash ideas.

jackie skyline

jackie sent this as a thank you for something i mailed to her and now i don't even remember what i sent. i imagine it was an envelope. she googled to find a des moines skyline. her husband was surprised that we have a skyline. jackie captured it. 4 or 5 blips rising out of the cornfields. i can make fun of des moines because i am not a native. what i like about it is that no matter where you want to go, it takes 12 minutes or less. if it is rush hour, it will take 15 minutes. and once you get there, you can park right in front of the place you are going and you never have to wait in line. if there are more than 2 people in a line at the checkout, they will quickly open another lane. so, i looked for a skyline photo of jackie's town....

picasso

http://room-of-flint.tumblr.com/post/64856347138/creaturesofcomfort-hand-decorated-envelope-and

"Hand-decorated envelope and tie sent by Pablo Picasso to MoMA director Alfred H. Barr, Jr.. 1957"

this one makes me feel a lot better about some of my very sloppy samples.

stealworthy

it is very hard for me to share this idea. i want to steal it and pretend it is my own idea. it does remind me of the satamp with the little girl turning on the light switch stamp....reposted below. i would have put the name and address, tiny, along the baseline.

sadly, i just saved the top image from somewhere...and do not have a link. so...there is it....i usually run across things multiple times, so when i find it again, i will add the credit line.
thanks to reader, liberal sprinkles, here is where the image originated  http://blog-stampofapproval.com/

i'll be mentioning her blog in an upcoming post

finn + tony, french mail art

http://www.envelope100.blogspot.com/

if you go to finnbadger's blog, you can read his story about this very cool envelope and the very cool french post office allowing  faux postage stamps to be allowed on mail going to tony.

and then click on his link to tony's blog.
i'm trying to stay focused on my mission, but, i'm pretty sure i will have to send something to tony....
thanks finnbadger.  :-)

star of may

i saved this - lost it - found it - named the image *starofmay* - but that goes to a rubberstamper's blog - and i guess these look like rubber stamps. the ideas are stealworthy, and this is one more baby step towards clearing out the stash of ideas. i would rather just draw -rather than use rubberstamps.

i looked again....and found that this is from a blog
there is a video, which i have not watched
and she says in her FAQ that it is fine to link to her blog without asking
so
here you go
http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=3940

i think she is more about making cards than envelope addressing

stats and an exchange

i just passed 200,000 views on my blog.
thank you. there are 174 followers listed on my blog'

the envelope to the right is from

http://www.fishmailart.com/

read the [about] tab, if you have time, about how this is a blog of two people writing back and forth. they have 10,000 followers.

i am thinking about doing an exchange, since this is the season of mailings.
if anyone is interested, send me an email jmwilson 411 [at] yahoo . com  [but don't leave spaces]
and i will see what kind of response i get.
let me know a rough idea of how many envelopes you would like to send and receive.

for those of you who do not know how an exchange works...you send me your snail mail address.
i make up lists of participants and mail the lists out and participants have until the middle of january to send an envelope to each of the other people on the list. don't sign up if you already have too much to do. the envelopes may all be different, or they may all be the same.

post questions in the comment section and i will answer them and decide next week if there are enough people to do an exchange. i guess i only need two people, unless i decide to participate, then i only need one. :-)

please do not post your address - or sign up for the exchange in the comment section.

your serve

i don't think i posted this one yet. it was my return to the one cathy sent with 2 altheas playing tennis on a tennis court. i like both of our ideas, it's a tie.








 and an off topic topic from chuck. anything with letters is almost on topic

cathy fine lines

this came from my mississississippi rep, miss cathy. i furshur will not be able to top it.....unless i just do more of what she did...and i really like this amount of name to envelope....so, cathy wins this round. it's good to know that there are others who are not afraid to leave some white space.

miss cathy - west va

another one from miss cathy from mississippi.
it looks like colored pencil. that is such a pretty stamp and the post office was so mesmerized by the loveliness they did not cancel it.

2 2day

 i love that top one, but can't remember if i already posted it...

and love love love the black one from smash-girl. i think she was spackling and had a little spackle left over on her putty knife and schmeared it off on the envelope. and then did those lovely flowers...very pretty. thank you.

i didn't open it...she usually just has blank paper inside and this was fragile paper. so...smashgirl, if you recall that there is something to read inside...lemmekno and i will open it.

thanks :-)

off topic

i hardly ever go off topic. but we use punctuation on envelopes, so i thought i could sneak this in. plus we are heading into a busy time of year and i want to provide plenty of diversions for those of use who do not participate in the bizziness or who have nothing to do during the holidays
and need fun stuff to distract ourselves.

so here is fun blog:

http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/

and i intend to do a few punctuational envelopes...
i might even repost that one with all the screamers that i made for kathy who has some unexplained aversion to screamers, aka exclamation points.

ruth multi-stroke

i'm not sure i can pick a favorite from the stack that ruth sent...but this one is in the running.
i just love it. i like the way the letters JEANW are worked into a square. i've never thought of that configuration. LOVE IT!!

love the lettering!!!

//

i guess i didn't mail it and decided to rescan cuz i love that little sleigh w/ reindeer.

i also added some better loops to some of the letters but i think i can resist the temptation to scan a third time.

monkey + oops

 i saw that quote/proverb on pinterest and thought it was charming. i lettered it with the pilot precise deluxe and had no idea it took a long time for that ink to dry. when i made the first smear, i thought *oops* and then just hoped that all the ink was equally un-dry. so i ended up liking the effect. then i didn't know who to send it to. amy came to mind because she's been dealing with *monkeys*  who have been causing her some problems. so, i thought she might get a chuckle out of the whole mess.

and on this one, i had chuch, instead of chuck. so i fixed it. i wanted to do some ed emberley drawings without actually checking out one of his books. i didn't get very far. hopefully i will have time to dig for some of his adorable, stealable images.

update: i googled his name and found an adorable santa, sleigh and reindeer image that i added, but, no rescan. today is purge-day. this puppy is going in the mail.

faber castell big brush

another spin with the faber castell big brush markers. i also had a brand new uniball white gel pen that was really fun to layer over the top. i am not excited about this lettering. but, her birthday is coming up so that's always a good excuse to experiment. she is not a scribe, so she will not nit-pik at the quality.

 and another way to use the big brush. the jeri has some extra lines in both black and white. i'll wait to see how this looks on the blog before i decide it is necessary to do all the extra work. i'm thinking polka dots might be more interesting.

i ended up adding white details, but didn't rescan it.

ruth - bearden

more walnut ink and it looks like she dropped some blue gouache into it while it was still wet. i like the inventive letters. i can imagine her writing my name and then thinking, it needs something else...and then adding the second JEAN below. once again, a simple repetition is a very quick and easy design element to make a fun envelope design.
on monday, you get to see the last of the series from ruth. it's spectacular.
 
yesterday i drove over to see ruth and jeri in iowa city.

ruth blk+wht

another one from the series that i just love. you can't go wrong with black/white and a touch of red.
and the column of skinny letters...simple but so effective.

note to chuck

i like the idea of writing a note on the front. on this one, i was experimenting with a new marker/pen thing. a ZIG cocoiro. it seems like a pretty fun little flexible tip marker. if you are very light handed, the stoke is very fine. more pressure gives a broader stroke. but, so far, it has not mushed down at all. so, it must be some exciting new material. i wasn't even trying to make the penmanship nice. i'll do a different envelope and just focus on the penmanship. the cartoonist who did the stamps always hid the name of his daughter in his cartoons.

this just in

for those of you who don't check back and read all the comments that people add to the posts, finnbadger and i had a discussion about how the p.o. SHOULD issue more holiday stamps. he took candy's envelope and created suggestions for adorable stamps. aren't they fantastic?

now we have to figure out how to get finnbadger on the panel of people who choose the subjects for stamps. i am really impressed with how finnbadger's random stumble onto my blog has rekindled his interest in envelopes. i wonder if he remembers what he was looking for when he happened across my blog.

he blogs some additional envelopes that i have not posted on my blog:

http://www.envelope100.blogspot.com/

i need to hire my brother to invent a timer that only allows me 30 minutes per day on pinterest and 30 minutes on other blogs.

ruth red and purple

i really like this one. notice how she has my name scribbled into the vertical band. very nice scribbling.

ruth week

here is another one from the whole stack ruth sent to me. it looks like walnut ink with a ruling pen. very pretty. i took a ruling pen class with peter thornton. she says she took one with julian waters. two very talented calligraphers. if you have a chance to take a workshop with either of them, make it happen. other scribes we all agree have been inspirational - carl rohrs, yves leterme, sheila waters, and diane von arx. and there are more...these are just the ones that i can recommend from personal experience.

this just in

the whole point of my blog is to share ideas and i was thrilled to see that mamacjt is having fun with the idea that came from candy.

she spent 1 1/2 hours on this envelope. and...she bought ed's book with christmas ideas, so, i will be watching her blog and will alert you when there are more envelopes like this.
i was reading too fast and she did not buy the holiday book...so, we'll have to go to plan B to find some good emberley ideas. i did find a cute santa and sleigh. i'll look at the library and see if they have his book.


you can read all the details (and see another halloween envelope on carol's blog)

http://mamacjt.blogspot.com/

award

 the top one is jan's award for sending tons of mail art, but never to me. i posted the robot earlier, so this is just an update.

i added one new one below. it is addressed to skip, my older son, although it has an italian stamp, so it won't go through the mail.

it is an idea i ripped off from a really darling image that i have since lost.

it reminded me that he says he remembers when he was too short to see what was happening up on the kitchen counter top and he was really looking forward to growing tall enough to see.

his quest to see what's going on at higher elevation became a life-long ambition. he lives in the mountains and spends his vacations on even higher mountains. i am convinced that dare devils knew they were dare devils at a very early age. luckily, his mom was distracted with her own obsession and he blissfully headed off on his own adventures. he does send an occasional postcard (unlike the award winner above who must have misplaced my address)

award envelope

 this was the envelope i used to mail the award to jan. it is not an award winning envelope. i just felt like trying some crescent shaped letters to go with that stamp. they aren't very pretty, but they were fun to make because i used the faber castell big brush markers. plus i have a lot of colors, thanks to jan. i shouldn't be so snarky about the fact that she refuses to send me any mail. at least she was generous with her markers....and without markers, i wouldn't have much fun.

i thought it looked dreadful - too much space at the bottom, so i added that notation.
i was in a hurry to get the award in the mail.

bonus - halloween

this arrived on halloween from candy, my oregon rep. a while back i posted a darling envelope that i saw on her blog and then i was happy to see that finnbadger liked the images enough to do some of his own mailings. that's why i keep the blog going. i love knowing that readers get good ideas and think of ways to send some quick fun mail.

bonus + postal info

a couple days ago miss cathy, our go-to person for postal regulations explained the requirements for a standard one ounce piece of mail. she wrote about the aspect ratio. this envelope, from finnbadger, arrived yesterday and i could tell it was probably pushing the limits of rectangularity. it is not square. but if he had gone to the p.o. and if they would have placed it on their template, he would have learned that it does not have the required aspect ratio. you can see that the upper right hand corner needs to land in the gray area. so, the postal workers were polite in just sending it through without demanding the additional postage.

i'm not sure how he built those letters. i like the size of the envelope. and i'm glad the p.o. wasn't in a picky mood. it would have been sad to have them muck it up with postage due rubber stamping.

thanks :-)

finnbadger bike

and speaking of making your own envelopes. here is the latest from finnbadger. he's mastered stamp selection and addressing.

he commented something about the bike on the stamp not going in the same direction as the bike on the envelope. i would not have even noticed that. in this case, i don't think direction matters. to me, anything with a bunch of diagonals is very dynamic and my eye is moving so fast in so many directions, the bikes might as well go in a variety of directions, too.

the p.o. made a nice contribution with the wavy lines on the stamp.