bonus umpulse post.

i.m curious to know what happens when i insert a screen shot into a post. i took this off the envelope that finnbadger posted today. i've seen stamps with cute little cartoony images before. this one tickled my funny bone. i can't make sense of it. does anyone have any idea what it means?

crunch time - 15 of 30

from janice.
fun marker design and lettering. i love the idea of a shower of umbrellas.
thanks

crunch time - 14 of 30

from jamie - one of smash-girl's students.

another pretty red, white and black envelope. a great combination.
the doodle border is stealworthy.
thanks

crunch time - 13 of 30

from smash girl.

it's always fun to find a color that looks good with both black and white ink.
perfect stamp choice.

crunch time - 12 of 30

i'm guessing this is a hand carved rubber stamp.

from christy

***

it seems like i did add some brief notes as i hastily put up the 30 crunch time envelopes.

so, there might be some shorter blog comments coming up.

crunch time - 11 of 30

pretty gold ink on navy - with flourishing.

from cindy

remember when i couldn't remember if the circular name and address was form cathy or cindy? since this is from cindy, i bet the circular one is from cathy.

kathie m - march exchange

there was a note to self on this one to rescan, but i must have mailed it without the rescan. i know that dashed line along the bottom should have been made into a yellow brick road.

the last name up there on the t was not a good idea. tone on tone colors probably do not delight anyone. coloring in the counters on the letters would have been nice.

long story - fraktur broadside

 every now and then, someone finds me, even though i keep a very low profile. they usually want something lettered to put in a frame. they are usually grannies (not a disparaging term because i am proud to be a granny) or they are handsome young men who are looking for a meaningful gift for a loved one. in both cases, i am happy to help - even though they usually want something traditional, which is not my area of expertise. if they have a crazy big budget, i refer them to one of the rock stars of calligraphy. usually, the budget is more jeanish. so, a while back someone tracked me down. how they found me is another long story which i won't get into. it sounded like a granny on the phone. a couple showed up and they had a very cool, very old frame. they also had an image from a magazine of some old fraktur looking artwork. it was very cool and i was actually excited to work on the project. the lettering was going to have to be tall and skinny and done with a pointed nib. so, i thought it would make sense to practice the writing. killing two birds with one stone, i did the remaining envelopes for the april exchange. it is always fun to get into the walnut ink. i really enjoyed doing these. while they are very primitive - that is actually the look that we are going for.
the example they brought had loops that were colored in and many of them were also turned into bird's heads. i didn't do any bird heads - but i added some detail in gouache. the moisture dissolved the walnut ink.

crunch time - 10 of 30

that little doodle has probably been in a stack of unfinished envelopes  for 10 years. it was fun to finish it off and i did not obsess about finding a color of ink that matched the name stitching.

the past few crunch time envelopes - were for the april exchange - after i did this one, i switched to one style to finish up the list of exchangers.

tune in tomorrow.

crunch time - 9 of 30

what's not to love about white gel pen on dark envelopes. and when those white outlines bother the eye - just add more of them.

shout out to amy who continues to be one of my best little grasshoppers and has even turned the tables on me and i get to be the grasshopper.

my story of how we met is one of my favorites. i'll check with her and see if she wants me to tell it.

off topic - jacob fritz kasimir

i couldn't find a link to any website for jacob. this popped up on pinterest and i love it. wish we could see more of his work. anyhow. it would be fun to do big shapes like this and similar lettering for one of the exchanges. i already know how i would get those black shapes...i would use the technique where you take a stamp pad and use it directly on the paper. although, i would need to do something to make the stamp pad into a trapezoid. i could also play around with other shapes. but who doesn't love an asterisk?
and i think they would look nice on kraft paper.

crunch time - 8 of 30

using up random stamps.

i would have liked this better if the east and west stamps were not just two - but were two on each side, stacked.

that horizontal line needed to be bolder.

somewhat depressing - or seriously depressing - that even the PO was begging us to save water, air, and soil when the rate was 6-cents....and things just got worse. maybe not. the last thing this blog will be about is the state of our planet. jean's mission statement: a blog offering ideas for work avoidance and obligation avoidance while happily pursuing the peace of mind that comes with embellishing envelopes.

crunch time - 7 of 30

april exchange - desk cleaning.
enjoyed using details from the stamp to fill up space.

it just dawned on me that i said the crunch time envelopes would be all exchange envelopes - and clearly they have switched to use-up-stuff-from-jean's-stash.

the cartouche on this one is cringeworthy. but the overall design pleases me. i like taking details from the stamp and reusing them in this case, i was not too careful about the drawing.

another set of stamps where i am hoarding my last few sets....

crunch time - 6 of 30

 april exchange - desk cleaning

these stamps were old, discolored, and smelled of cigarette smoke. someone contacted me (a while back) and wanted to sell some old stamps. so i bought them. lesson learned. be sure to ask if stamps are coming from a smoke free environment.

i thought the PO might not approve of stamps in such poor condition, so i addressed it on the back and threw on a forever....

the envelope is from the big box of unfinished envelopes....probably a demo in a class....


note to exchangers carroll in vt, amy g in tn, kate r in wa
i do not see a confirmation that you received your lists
if you did not..lemmekno...thanks
if you already confirmed and i just can't see it - sorry

for nancy - april exchange

from the pile of layouts - FC brush markers, pigma microns - white gel pen on top.

real time p.s.
nancy mentioned when she signed up for the next exchange that she really like this envelope and had already used the idea on some of her own mail. i'm always happy to toss out ideas - and remember - this came from something i saw - probably on pinterest. i think the only part i lifted was the horizon and leaves. i probably did my own flowers. it was a hot mess - until i remembered the solution to just about everything - dots - layers of dots.

christy robb's 2016 graceful entry

here is the entry to the graceful envelope contest by christy robb. christy happened across the blog and when she found out that i was not too far away, we scheduled a visit. i encouraged her after she was invited to teach calligraphy to kids and she had a great experience in the 2015 contest.

i predict this one is a winner. the list of winners should be posted one of these days....

carol dubosch - graceful entry for 2016

carol is one of the rock stars in the world of traditional calligraphy. she has had numerous winners in the graceful envelope contests over the years. someday, when i relabel all my posts, i will have her name linked to all of her envelopes that i have posted.

this is a wonderful way to use cancelled stamps. if you have one of those nifty xyron machines, i imagine it is really easy to send the stamps through the machine to make them self-adhesive.

thanks so much for sharing this with my blog-pals, carol.

off-topic - sagmeister

stefan sagmeister is a big name in design. there are quite a few alphabets made out of people. i like the way he didn't force the people into un-natural positions, but melded actual font shapes with the people. such a simple idea, yet one that i don't think i have seen.

lots more fun lettering at his site
http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/
lots
p.s.
some of his stuff is edgy. that is a polite way of saying some of his work is not family friendly. if you don't want to risk seeing edgy things, you may peek at some tame stuff here

http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/work/project/standard-chartered-commercial/

although, at the bottom, it says - coming soon - new website - and i am writing this in mid november of 2015, so by the time this pops up, who knows what will be where. i might be sitting in a hand basket saying, "where am i?"

crunch time - 5 of 30

i see by the postmark that this is from mississippi so it is from either cathy or cindy. i am 99% sure it is from cathy.

making the name and address fit in a perfect circle is quite an accomplishment, too. although, if you are friends with your computer programs, they can do the fitting for you.

for chuck - march exchange

neuland was originally all caps, but it is easy to make lowercase letters that are very similar. these are the faber castell brush markers, layered with tap-tap-tap on the brush tip for the dashes - and dot-dot-dot for the dots. outlined with a pigma micron and then more dots.

crunch time - 4 of 30

coffee time. once again, an adorable exchange envelope - currently in a stack.

excuse number 2 for why i do not have the names of the exchangers with the envelopes...i have to get my house in order for a toddler to come for a couple weeks. heaven knows i love that toddler. but it's been twenty-some years since i had a toddler at my house. i think she will be thrilled with this envelope.

if anyone wants to send mail to my toddler house guest - she will be here - may 22 thru june 5

alex
420 -44th street
desmoines, iowa 50312

she likes pink and sparkle
http://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/2016/02/inspired-by-sunday-alexs-thank-you.html
she has been learning that she has a longer name - alexandra - if anyone likes those letters.

crunch time - 3 of 30

this is the third of the crunch time envelopes.

i had some injections in my knee to restore some youth - which is my current excuse for why i am too lazy to go find my stack of mail and post the name of the fabulous exchanger who sent this to me.

while i scheduled the 30 crunch time envelopes in april - and did not write anything at the time- i can now leisurely  insert the comments on each post - as i start each day with a cup of coffee and some surf time.

my knee is well on its way to a speedy recovery, but, i have to ration the number of times that i stand up and sit down - as that was the activity that caused me to do something about the situation...and by situation, i mean Arthur. it's not like i ever abused my knees by running marathons.

crunch time

one day in april i freaked out about how few posts i had scheduled and how long scans take. so i took snap shots and uploaded and scheduled 30 envelopes that had arrived from exchanges.

on april 16th, there was a post called crunch time - it was an accidental post - where i was trying to schedule ahead, but inserted the wrong date. maybe nobody wondered what crunch time meant.

for now, there are no comments on the 30 crunch time envelopes. if time permits, i will go back and make comments.
a BIG thank you to everyone who has participated in the exchanges to give me enough mail to continue the daily post.

MAY exchange - sign up

here is a link to the image on the right.
http://charmandfig.com/blogs/charm-fig/31844481-playing-with-brush-pens

 i'm not a fan of leaving the top of the a open, but this lettering would be fun with the FC big brush markers.

if you would like to participate in the MAY exchange - please send the info to me by Friday, MAY 6 - you will get your list by MAY 7 or 8.

if you are new to the exchange - feel free to email me with any questions. there are details in the tab at the top -
envelope EXCHANGE *rules*.

send your info to me at:
jmwilson411 [at] yahoo [dot] com

[info to include - these 5 items]
name
address
city-state-zip
country
your email

carol's exploding head

another version of my exploding head. love it...even though carol is rolling her eyes at me. carol is right - all of my issues are silly first world issues.... 99% of them involve technology.