it's never to early...

...to start holiday envelopes. in my quest for tidiness and organization, i am sending this along to miss cathy and she can finish it. somewhere, there are stamps with gingerbread men. but, i do not have any of them.

it is white gel pen outline with colored pencil fill in and those red buttons would look great if you wanted to find a red glaze pen. glaze pens leave a shiny blob of thick ink that dries like a little bead. i'd have one (some) if i didn't have my pen addiction under control.

from and to smash

the top one arrived from smash back in the middle of july. then at the end of july, when i was (am) in a big loopy off the edge mode + using up orphan stamps - i tried the tone on tone. i suspect nobody else will enjoy this phase as much as i am enjoying it unless i can think of something uber-clever to add.

i wonder what i will be doing in september? i love posting ahead. by the time i read my own blogs, they are completely new and interesting. or maybe i need to have a test for early onset forgetfulness.

longer names work, too

a couple days ago, i could hear elizabeth say, "rats, i won't get one like that because my name is too long. so, i figured i'd try doing it with just a few letters large and it's ok. it's not ok if the nickname liz has always annoyed her. i could have used the a-b-e

the rest of the address will be tiny printing

The Alphabet Project

Penpal Catherine Hunter is our guest blogger today. You will want to click on the two links.

The first one will take you to the entire alphabet. The second one is about the artist.

Catherine and I both like the g - and I look forward to being inspired by many of the letters.

THE  ALPHABET is a spectacular project for the city of Fitchburg, MA, revolving around the daily newspaper, a collaborative alphabet, an embedded visiting artist, a special group of reporters, and 26 typographers from around the world. The aim was to assemble the most diverse and far-reaching collaborative alphabet that has ever been created for a daily newspaper. The text highlights news stories, poetry, contributors bios, and the typographical history of each letter. 

Artist Anna Schuleit Haber proposed and received permission to take over the front page of the city’s daily newspaper, the Sentinel & Enterprise, for 26 week days from June 13 to August 11. Each typographer was encouraged to make the letter as idiosyncratic and unusual, as legible or abstract, as colorful or monochromatic as is inherent to his or her style and wider creative approach. The art is the newspaper, and the newspaper is the art.

Supported by an ‘Our Town’ Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the project was commissioned by the Fitchburg Art Museum.

http://fitchburgartmuseum.org/The-Alphabet.php

Anna Schuleit Haber  http://anna-schuleit.com.  

Thanks Catherine.

mail art purse

i reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want to make one of these. the hardest part will be deciding which envelope to use.....

Carol asked in the comment section how to go about making the transfer.

1

Spoonflower.com will print images on fabric

2

You can buy iron on transfer paper at any office supply store.

3

You can go to a digital sign maker and depending on how many options they stock, you can have them print images on canvas or Tyvek. There are different weights of each.

4

You can research other online options by Googling *image transfer to fabric*  

There are lots of options - many DIY

tom's happy face

i like the idea, but that face is a little creepy. the right-eye-c looked odd without a pupil, so i added one, but it just made it creepy. another idea that needs further exploration. also better stamps. but i am using up my orphans. those are the ones where i only have one or two left.

address will go above and below that line. and i can tell you that this idea will be best with names with only 3 or 4 letters.

shout out to the stampers

i have some loyal readers who are rubber stampers. i assume they already know about rubber stamp madness. i saw this envelope on pinterest and can see that it is a perfect idea to steal. you'd have to love math a little bit. or you could do a very sloppy version of it.
that's what i love about stealing. you can be super sloppy and then i guess it isn't stealing - it's being inspired - or paying homage.

see those 7 rectangles at the bottom, the 5 middle ones could be the zip code.

http://www.rsmadness.com/index.html

jan's shattered glass

i saw an ampersand on pinterest that looked like shattered glass. so i did the name and thought both of the G-Tec inks would bleed. Only the lighter blue bled. so it turned into an unsuccessful experiment, but, i'm tossing it on the blog because i like the idea of the lettering and layout.

i did not intend to put a bow at the front of the h, but the curl looked like a c so i had to add a bow. it also looked better to pull the red over to the width of the n and i would have liked it even better if the red went as far left as the n is to line up with the red address.

does anyone have one of the love/globe stamps?
if so, email me, please
at:
 jmwilson411[at]yahoo [dot] com       

{and scroll down to the post below for Sept exchange sign-up}

september envelope exchange

sorry this image is so tiny and blurry. i just love the idea of the stair stepped stamps.

it's time to sign up for the september exchange.

NEW RULE:
if you participate you might see your envelope on the blog. i will blur the street address. i've been asking permission to post images of envelopes, but, it's taking up too much time, so, i'm just going to warn you ahead of time, that you might see your work on the blog. i trust everyone is fine with that. the whole point of the blog is to share ideas. i will just use first names. if you are a regular reader, you will know who's who.

ON-GOING RULES:
1. beginners are welcome.
2. calligraphy is fine, but not required.
3. digital art and rubber stamping is fine.
4. you get 5 names and you mail a decorated envelope to each of those people.
5. you receive 5 envelopes, but they might be different from the people to whom you send.
6. you may sign up for 10 names, and if there are enough participants, you will get a list of 10
7. envelopes may be empty. just write *empty* on the back. if you want to enclose a note or something, go right ahead - but write *open* on the back.

sign up by Thur, Sept 10th
jan will send you a list by Tues, Sept 15th
mail your envelopes by Wed, Sept 30th

to participate send your info to
janhardt [at]mchsi [dot] com

your name
your address
your city-state-zip-country
your email

tolkien's xmas letter

this is not an envelope, but i just had to share it.
J.R.R. Tolkien's xmas letter to his kids.

and a ton of links on this site to other interesting things.

http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/read-j-r-r-tolkiens-letter-from-father-christmas-to-his-young-children.html

exciting news on the display case at the main post office. natalie says we can display our mail. she was so happy with the mail she received from my readers. she might even write some thank yous.

i was not able to take a photo of my envelopes under the glass at her window, because she was training a new employee and i thought it would be way too distracting. plus there was a long line of people. so, i might try later. but, the better photo will be the entire display case.

details to follow.

carolyn's circle alphabet

carolyn is on my list of people to lure into the lettering arts. we were once neighbors with toddlers and we were soooooo creative.

anyhow, here is a way to make circles into flowers.
i had a piece of paper with ruled lines left over from a carl rohrs workshop. then i added a quote. then i found some flowers then i made some flowers. the whole thing is a hot mess.....but, i still like the idea of circles transformed into letters transformed into flowers and s-o-m-e-d-a-y i might do a better version. or better yet, one of you can make a better version and send me a scan.

i do not remember where that quote came from.
i googled it and found this:
allow yourself to be a beginner. nobody starts out being excellent. wendy flynn

bonus post

scroll down to see today's regular post below this one.
i am putting in a bonus post because it is the 1st of September and i said we would start a new exchange every month.
hopefully everyone in the august exchange has mailed their envelopes.
i will announce the sept exchange on thur or friday.
if you are having trouble getting your august envelopes done - just let me know.
or if you are not receiving the number of envelopes you signed up for, please let me know.
so far, everyone is keeping up.

in the mean time, here is one more bit of inspiration from ssfelix
pinterest sent me to her flickr account
47 examples of mail art
most of it is way too labor intensive for me, but it sorta screams *christy robb*
so, maybe christy has a lot of time to make more mail art 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssfelix/albums/72157637940190035

pickle pie script

after a couple tries at the standard pickle pie, i figured i needed to see if it could be morphed into a script. i like this a lot. there aren't many stamps that go with it. or maybe i am not looking hard enough.

i'll be interested to see if anyone tries pickle pie