blue outline

i saw this idea on pinterest, outline the envelope. the bottom one was my first try and i had a slip on the ruler, so i went around it a second time to make it rustic and then the slip, which was very large seemed like a good place to end the r, so, i tried writing finnbadger upside down in cursive - and i thought it would be a piece of cake to do it - and it was not - r -e was easy. my brain couldn't flip the g. so i wrote it on another paper to get the pattern in front of me and then it (the top version) was easy.

this is still from the series done when i hurt my back and couldn't lift my box of stamps and had to use my vatican-italian stamp stock. back is all better - and i am editing posts before they pop up.

i highly recommend that outlining. it was fun and easy and i think the effect is luv-er-ly.

italian stamps are loverly, too.

repeat?

just found this. i don't see it in the archive. friday at the p.o. i saw they were still selling these stamps. i LOVE LOVE LOVE these stamps. the flowers are made with a brush marker. you just tap on the edge. the trick is to rotate the paper, not your hand. hopefully i can get jan to hold the camera and make a youtube video of how these are done. another video will show how to square off the ends of strokes.

if i already posted this one, lemmekno and i'll unpost this one

teaser

my posts are all filled for the year and i am working on january. you'll see the rest of this one later. i wonder if smashgirl can tell where i got my inspiration.

chuck knows....

....about so many nifty things.

and i figured out a way to use the elastic. get a strip of mat board (about an inch wide) and two push pins and you can hold the ends of the elastic with the push pins. or you could super glue one end of the elastic to the one end of the mat board...voila.   if i get around to making one, i will post a photo.

and here is a video using the method posted a few days ago. this one only talks about finding the middle, but if you understand the ease of using numbers that make sense....you can do more than just find the middle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89GXTWejaqo

envelope display

this is a group thank you to the readers who have left several comments reassuring me that it is OK to have lots of pens and paper. maybe if i posted a photo of the actual situation you would say *enough.*

if i can figure out the fold in this wall unit thing - and i really hope it is collapsible - it would make a neat way to display envelopes. plus, i could use up a lot of paper making it...

vintage - business shaped guy

another one where i lost the link. it seems like a stealworthy shape. you could make it into a different kind of person or creature.

wreath - mike&doyle

this was a practice piece. if you wanted to do square holiday cards, you could use the international stamp. you would still be wasting money. and it would look better on a red envelope. this one is linen, which makes the lettering a little ratty. it would look better on a smooth envelope. still needs work, but it has potential.

marker addiction

imagine me standing at the front of the room saying, "my name is jean and i am a marker addict." no matter how hard i try to not buy markers i lapse. these are crayola gel markers. they are not as good as the all time best gel markers which i can no longer find. every now and then, i am in officemaxdepotstaples and i am there because i have agreed to do a job and something computer related has caused me to have to go to a store and i am no longer making a decent hourly rate and i fall off the wagon and think, well, since this job is no longer a gravy job, i might as well wallow in self pity with a new box of markers. then, i found out that these markers look great on kraft paper and i remember that the trunk (of my car) is full of kraft paper that i was going to get rid of and dang, my other addiction (paper) kicked in and i go retrieve the paper. isn't there someone out there who wants to stage an intervention? well, obviously my immediate family does....but none of them read the blog.

bird-abet

hester said she wanted the full bird alphabet. A was easy. B and C were so hard i gave up and started to write names. then i figured that other people had probably already made bird alphabets. i googled and there are a few, but nothing like this. one lady has an interesting bird bone alphabet. i will respect her request to not repost without permission. but you can view her bird-bone alphabet here:

http://fisher.usc.edu/exhibitions/the_bone-and-bird_art.html

or her website

http://www.joycecutlershaw.com/biography/

i'll put this in the stack of *finish later*

measuring - step 3

 here is how you divide the envelope using a ruler.
1
decide how many spaces you need.
put *zero* on the left edge and the number of spaces you need on the right edge.
2
make a tic-mark at 1, 2, 3, etc
3
remove the ruler
and draw a baseline for your name
4
transfer the even spaced tic-marks to the penciled baseline

at this point, you can use the 7 spaces to write a name with 7 letters, putting one letter in each space  -or- you may write a name with 6 letters, placing one letter over each of the 6 tic-marks -or you could write a 5-letter name, leaving a space on each end and maybe adding a flourish at the beginning or the end.  below is a ruler where i renumbered on both sides. on one side, i renumbered by half inch so i have 24 spaces on the edge. on the other side, i renumbered every 3/4 inch and have it divided into 16 segments. an easier option to renumbering a 12-inch ruler is to get one of those triangular *rulers* that architects use to use. i think it is called a scale. but, it has a bunch of different numbers and you can always find a set of numbers to fit what you need. unless you are math phobic.  i checked youtube and did not find anyone who has directions for dividing envelopes. i did find some zany stuff.

peter max

more stuff from my stash without proper attribution. sorry. it is clearly the work of peter max. and that is his art on the stamp. nice compositions.

spacing letters - step 2

ignore the name michelle
it has 8 letters and the only thing it shows is that it is better to leave a little space on each end of the name.
so on phillip, divide the envelope into 8 spaces
and put each letter - roughly, over the 7 tic marks that divide the line into 8 spaces

of course, dividing into 8 is easy
but all the other numbers are not.

take graph paper, or notebook paper
and assign numbers along one edge.
start with zero
then, place the lower left corner of the envelope on 0 (zero)
then
start tilting the envelope up until the lower right corner is on the line with the number of spaces you want.
then...make a tic-mark at 1, 2, 3, etc

those tic marks go right on the edge of the envelope and will need to be erased - later.
once you have the tic-marks on the bottom edge of the envelope
rotate the envelope so that it is level on the desk in front of you.

transfer the tic-marks -up- to the base line you have penciled for your name.
you can use a little triangle or ruler, to transfer them exactly, but it is not necessary.
just eyeballing it will be fine
and
you can nudge the ticmarks a little if you have some *i*s in the name
i did not adjust much for the illi in phillip
the ph takes up a lot more room than the illi
but, it doesn't bother me that those two letters are a little tight.

once you understand the geometry of this
and do it a few times
you can get good at just placing a ruler, at an angle, across the envelope
and using it to make tic marks...that are also on an angle

i'll make another scan to show that
someday

lemmekno if this makes sense or if it is too complicated
i am trying to get jan to make youtube video tutorials of me doing stuff like this
but first i have to find the charger to my camcorder

susan - birds

i wish i had put her last name in the the tail feathers. i think i saw one letter that was a bird and thought of doing the whole alphabet out of birds. but i honestly don't remember. i think that guy from the movie, men in black, lives on my street and stops in a couple times a day to erase my memory. does anyone want to see a full alphabet of birds?

i used g-tecs and added water to make them watery. i thought the bird shapes mimicked the shapes in the stamp.

2014 love stamp

it is a cut paper design. i like this one a lot. it will be perfect for valentines. only the brides who are using red in their weddings will like it. i imagine the white roses will still be available for brides.

can't wait to start my valentines. but i need to work on some gingerbread house ideas...

amy - kaleidoscope

i have run out of these stamps. this is an oversized photocopy of one of the stamps. the actual size would look better. these letters came from something i saw on pinterest that did not have the entire alphabet. i loooovvvveeeedddd the letter T.
and i doubt the O looked like that. i added more doodads to my version. it would be a fun one to spend more time with. maybe in 2014. does anyone want to see more of this?

susan - cash

i saw some lettering like this in a book called creative lettering. john neal sells it. sorry john, i only check books out of the library. i had fun doing my own variation of it. then i messed up on the street address, so, it looks better here. i used a zig writer which has two tips. and i think i penciled first. always a good idea.

if you are a beginner and have no patience to really learn the basics...you might enjoy this book. if you have taken many workshops and classes, i don't think you would get much out of it. although, i would recommend checking it out from the library as you can find several ideas to work into your own style. there are a couple things that i did with this style that i think are improvements from what's in the book....

finn graph response

i actually had this envelope sitting on my desk, ready to go before the one that i posted yesterday arrived. i was making a response to the one that was on french tv. this is a font. i have too many fonts. i did not write down the name of it. my goal for 2015 is to organize my fonts.

the address will go in a tiny straight line between the two names, probably in red.

h.b. virginia

virginia was turning 90 in november, so i sent her one envelope that was full of a bunch of smaller envelopes with some fun ideas inspired by vintage stamps. i did not scan all of them as they weren't new and different ideas. although the one on top did send me on a binge of big loopty-lous.
more of those to come.

the bottom one was that cool copper galaxy marker that i just love. it went so well with the johnny cash stamp. and i found several more that look good with it.

finn-graph

finnbadger sent an envelope with lettering that looked like it was designed on graph paper. this time, the p.o. was being very respectful of the artwork and instead of just writing on the envelope, someone figured out the address, wrote it on a separate piece of paper and clipped it to the envelope and then put it in a special envelope.

first finnbadger gets on french tv, then he has postal workers giving his work the most special treatment i have ever seen. i believe this makes me the ultimate zen master of mail art. you are probably asking why i get the honor and not finnbadger. i get the honor because my blog opened the door for the grasshopper. he may be getting more accolades and respect for his art...but, that is the ultimate goal for a zen master....to have their grasshopper exceed the masters own personal accomplishments. so, if finnbadger wants to be the ultimate zen master of envelope art, he has to find a grasshopper whose achievements surpass french tv and special handling by the u.s.p.s.

i'm not sure what would be a higher honor than french tv. that's the center/pinnacle of the aesthetic universe. (unless we find out it was a public access station)

guest artist - cecile waters

see.....i told you i would add a link and credit when i found it :-) here is a link to cecile's website.

http://www.letterdance.co.za/index.htm

you may see more of her work at the gallery tab.
the very inventive letters are cool. i especially like the R. and the placement of the stamp.

this just in

 just a small image
to see it large
check out finnbadger's blog
envelope100.blogspot.com/

an idea for later

 it was close to her birthday and i found a stack of envelopes that i had made for her 32nd b'day (you may see them if you want do slog through the 2013 postings) and i thought i would dash off a quick envelope with a ruined sharpie chisel. and then i couldn't even get it together to get the 2012 birthday envelopes mailed in time for the 2013 birthday...

but, i like the idea of writing a message in chunky black letters
and hope to do more with this idea in 2014.

cheeseman - johnny cash

i did an envelope for my mom to use for a birthday card for her brother with the johnny cash stamp. she loved the envelope and asked if i had put it on the blog. i said, no, because the lettering was actually horrific and i had added outlines and drop shadows and dots...and i ended up liking it. so, when i was cleaning off my desk and found this unfinished one, except that the zip code was horrific, i thought i would try the same set of doo-dads to see if i could successfully disguise the horrificosity. i'm happy with how it turned out. now i can't stand the IL, but i can easily fix that with some details inside the letters. i am not going to rescan the fixed envelope. just imagine it with a perfect little detail that i will steal from that doo-dad on the stamp.

oh...the first name needed some of that copper color so that there were 3 blops of copper. i adhere to the rule of three pretty faithfully.

hirschfield and quote

this was how i decided to tie the quote to the hirschfield stamps. it is the design lesson (that i mentioned a few days ago) that i first heard in college, later heard it again from peter thornton. return to a unit you already have. i repeated the two red bars. and i will leave all the white space at the bottom. not sure how much i will fill in the spaces up top. since i am actually going to mail this, i'll see if i can send it to someone who doesn't mind having their address online.

smash girl - kansas

smash girl is getting all artistic on us. it's a tornado sweeping through kansas on its way to iowa. i sort of want a whole book written around this envelope.

then, i started thinking...what if we did an exchange where we agree to send each other one envelope for every stamp that is issued in 2014. does that sound like fun or a chore?

desk cleaning - jim and jeri

beautiful stamps from belgium and james leonardo was renamed leonardo james. i guess i did rescan the one to jeri that i posted earlier. uniball white gel pen continues to be a great way to add a little something to de-blah some pretty basic, untrained letters.

i saw that design (surrounding finnbadger) on a plate and felt like drawing it. then i hurt my back and just couldn't make myself lift my box of stamps. so, i stuck this one on. i will probably mail this one with a real stamp and fill in the address in the circle. it looks like an award. remember award season is coming up. the grand prize winner for *best envelope of 2013* will be announced. of course, nominations will be accepted.

kathy - johnny cash

cleaning off the desk again. it was interesting how many of the johnnycash stamps worked on sketchy-idea envelopes. this was just a sketchy idea that i thought i would toss. but, it was actually some of the inspiration for the chalkboard series. and, i liked it just enough that i didn't want to toss it. so, it will be filler in an actual envelope.

smash - west virginia

thank you smash-girl :-)
pretty colors, nice layout.
i don't know what the medium is. it might be bleach. you can write with bleach on dark colored paper and get some very nice effects. it needs to be fresh bleach. old bleach loses its oomph. it is the exposure to air. it is a chemical situation. as you might have guessed, there was not a single thing in chemistry class that intrigued me. it seemed like a bunch of hocus-pocus. at least with physics, you can see stuff happen. kathy is a big fan of chemistry. maybe some day she can explain it to me in a way that makes it fascinating.

this book has some interesting references to chemistry
http://www.amazon.com/Color-A-Natural-History-Palette/dp/0812971426
i highly recommend it.
and i like the chemistry of cooking....
i think it was the teacher i didn't like.
that happens to a lot of people

from becca - halloween

this happens when i get a lot of great cards for a holiday, i end up posting some of them way after the holiday...
this is from becca. she showed up in a class with a ton of skill that had grown out of decorating cakes. she drew the whole card at the top. i think she has a lot of copics. she has other paints and art supplies that i have never seen and she fills sketchbooks with all kinds of cool stuff. sometimes i hear her grumbling "why did i ever start this?" and she has some of those images that she started and never finished...i think we all do...except i am in a fix it, finish it, or trash it mode. so, we'll see if i meet my deadline. i won't give her a hard time about using flag stamps. i really don't want to lure her into another obsession. really.

jan's stash

jan has a nice stash of art supplies. she knows i like adding water to g-tec to dissolve it, so she brought 3 different add-water supplies for me to try. the top one is caran d'ache neocolor II water soluble wax pastels. i only tried this one envelope and they were fun. i tend to go for more detail, but, if i had time, i bet i could come up with some interesting techniques.

the bottom one is portfolis series water soluble oil pastels, by crayola. they were cheaper than the above product and we noticed that the color of the more expensive one was more intense. the bottom one comes in a set of 10. the top one comes in a gazillion colors.

these were fun, but the third item she brought -inktense pencils- were the big winner. i already knew i loved them. that envelope will get it's own blog post.

thanks to mississippi-cathy who sent me these stamps. i would not have bought them because they did not intrigue me, but after i had them in front of me, i really enjoyed experimenting with the colors. i thought they were very pretty with these two.

but how about this for adorable.

smash bonus

love the layout
love the idea
love-love-love the intersecting names to create the grid

don't love washing out the paintbrush several times. but i don't know what the paint is. maybe it is something that is not dificult to wash out. i'm lazy with respect to cleaning out brushes.

thank you, smashgirl :-)

jan - thank you landscape

nothing new about this idea. i have shown it many times. i am just cleaning off my desk in anticipation of the new, improved, highly organized posting system that will begin on jan 1.

how many of you sprained wrists when you fell off your chairs laughing?

i guess the part where i insert a thank you is new. this might be a post card. i can't remember. it's not her address, so it will have to go in a bulk mailing.

i like the part where the address hits the bottom. i always advise people to leave the bottom 1/2 inch clear for the bar code.
but...i like to have the design go all the way to the edge.
and the city-state is not essential to the mail reaching its destination, so, it's fine to bury it at the bottom. maybe miss cathy, our postal-guru will weigh in.

2 cathy - 5 borders

i saw these stealworthy borders on the internet. at first, i thought of putting the address in an unexpected place. then, i thought of another option, but i still have to figure out where to put the zip code.

i'm thinking i should stack them clear over on the right. a *rule* of design - once again quoting peter thornton.
return to a unit you already have. i stacked cathy's name, so, when i am looking for a solution to the zip, i look for something to repeat.

spacing - step 1

finnbadger mentioned that he thought it would be beyond his skill level to space a name evenly across an envelope. i hope to show him that it is not that complicated.

here are 9 different names, showing how they would fit on an envelope. i couldn't think of a name with 10 letters. (finnbadger came to mind after i was done with the page)

this should show you how you can easily visualize the spacing. and divide an envelope into equal spaces.

if your envelope is 6 inches wide and you have six letters, it is a piece of cake.
if you only have 5 letters, you can just have a little longer intro and exit stroke.

you may also be wondering about wide letters like m and w
and narrow letters like i and t
yes, you sometimes need to adjust the spaces a bit.
but, if you are going for something loose and loopy, you really can just force each letter into the same amount of space.

step two will show an easy way to divide the envelope into equal spaces. dividing 6.75 by 9 would be ridiculous. i have a system that does not use a ruler. i've shown it to a lot of people and they think i am a genius. i did not invent this system. i'm sure it was invented a couple thousand years ago.

i may not get to step two today.
there are people expecting me to show up with dessert.
happy t-day

whirl-badger

this is my latest envelope from finnbadger. he found a perfect continuation of the swirl onto a stamp. plus he has me on a make-your-envelope-out-of-a-magazine-page binge. i was doing so well at getting rid of stuff - now i am hoarding magazines and catalogs. aaarrrggghhh.

put a bird on it

i can't remember if i posted these.
the top are two that i sent to stella and smash girl, they would have had to get together to make the whole picture.

this was the inspiration image for the bird i used on the envelope to stella. as you can see, the inspiration piece is much better - took more time.
but, i was in a messing around mode. i hope readers are picking up on the idea that you can surf and look at drawings and shapes and use ideas that you see -like the oversized eyelashes. the style of the bird inspired the style of the lady.

w.va. + thornton

this is from the day i was writing quotes on envelopes. this was my quick and sloppy copy of something done by peter thornton. i think it might be from his class on texture. then, i found the west va stamps (whilst cleaning off the desk) (peter is responsible for me saying whilst - he says it and for some reason, it stuck in my head along with a lot of other really valuable stuff.) anyhow, i found the stamps that cathy sent and i will be sending this along with her actual address. it is such a simple layout, but, i like it. it goes with the stamp. the soft curves in the lettering echo the hills.

the other quote from peter that i use endlessly....steal and conceal.
in this case....i just did the steal part. i'm pretty sure peter wouldn't mind.
if he happens across this and wants me to take it down, i will be happy to do that....
after i remind him about the time he looked at something i was working on and said, "oh, that's nice. i'll be stealing that later. i know a lot of beginners really can't wrap their heads around all this stealing...when is it ok and when it is plagiarizing? ... i don't know that there is any one answer... for me.... when you give the source, then it becomes an homage....and not a rip-off. plus, i am pretty sure nobody would look at my work and mistake it for peter's work. just as, i see work where i know people were trying to make it look like something i did....but, i can see the difference. sometimes it is better. that's fine, too.

just move stamps

these stamps were on the wall chart of stamps that were supposed to be issued in 2013.
after printing them, they were all destroyed because someone decided that three of the activities were unsafe.  cannonball jumping into the pool. skateboarding without elbow pads. and standing on your head without a helmet.

i think all the rest of the activities are dangerous, too. and don't even get me started about paper cuts.

there are articles about these stamps if you want to google and find them. google just move u s stamps.

jan - purple xmas seal

i found a box of old christmas seals. so now i don't have to use up all the stamps i am hoarding on fake mail. i rediscovered my galaxy markers. they are dreamy as well as metallic. you can buy them from john neal. i added the white lines with a uniball signo. then, i used a pair of scissors for the oval for the address because i was too lazy to get out of my chair and move three feet to the right to get my circle templates. if i get any lazier they will have to feature me in a reality program about pitiful people who make everyone else feel really good that *at-least-i-am-not-that-bad* selective-hoarders. on the surface, the house looks tidy, but delve into those neatly stacked boxes, bins, and bureaus and oh-oh....

candy's 2nd halloween

did i already post this?
if i did...lemmekno.
thanks

candy alerted us to ed emberley's art drawing books...and it would not be hard to turn this into a gingerbread house to go with the holiday stamp. i need to get started on some holiday ideas.....

this just in

cathy said this lettering took a long time and she was not all that happy with them...and she is curious about what i will come up with. off the top of my head...i'd go for something scribbley.

and all the excess sticky paper that you get with the stamps is going to be fun.

i have not read the books so there will be no references to the actual book or characters.
maybe some punny stuff.... i like the colors :-)
thank you....maybe the harry potter series will be jan 1-20...hmmmmm there's an idea.

thanks cathy :-)