Jan PTEX from SuzanneE and CaroleV - Script and Birds

This was Suzanne's first exchange. She signed up for two lists and I forgot to tell her that when I am on two lists with someone, I only send one envelope and only expect one in return - so this is the first one. I'm a big fan of hand drawn script. This reminds me of what I call ribbon writing.

Below is one more bird envelope that arrived It is from CaroleV. Another nice theme carried through stamp, card, and envelope.

Feb to JeanR and Lynne - Love stamps

Remember how I said I would/should choose the stamps before starting the envelopes? These stamps have been in the stash for a long time and it was hard to let them go, but February seemed like a good time and I figured I'd be able to do some decent lettering based on Neuland.

The first idea was OK. I penciled the name to make sure it would fit and then right after the O - I could see that my pencil lines must have left out one or two letters - so it turned into a big fat mess. I tried a double stroke to remedy the situation.

I had enough stamps to do 4 envelopes.
Here is number two... once again poor planning did not leave enough space - but I made it work. I took these in for hand cancelling - which is always red - and the cancels helped.

Jan PTEX from JeanR and AlexW - Birds

There were some welcome birds in January. I am pleased with the POs decision to not cancel JeanR's envelope. It's soooo pretty with the bird. Loving the white space.

Alex filled up the space - and I like the amount of feathers she chose. There is the right amount of space around the feathers.

She lined the envelope with washi tape and her detail on the flap is adorable.

Feb to Janet - Mini Flowers

 InstaGram has just as many cool images and ideas as Pinterest. The page at the bottom caught my eye and filling in a J seemed like a good idea. I used a Pentel Ceramicron - which is a technical pen rather than a marker. An 005 Pigma Micron would work, too. But the Ceramicron has a metal tip so it's sturdier.

It was fun and would be a boatload of fun to do more of it. I'd start by enlarging the inspiration image and studying the details more closely.

I was so sure I had put the IG name on the image so you could go see more of this person's work - but it is hiding at the moment. Hopefully, I will find it....



Here it is --- BHB just alerted me to the name in the corner

https://www.instagram.com/visothkakvei/

Jan PTEX - Heidi and Holly - Handmade+edibles+tape

Heidi (top) must have been really happy when she found that stamp to go with the handmade envelope. The border is washi tape. I have refrained from getting into washi tape. Sometimes the washi tape gets mangled by the postal system. Happily, this came through perfectly.

Holly went old-school and used scotch tape. I can't remember the generic name for tape that is clear. Scotch is the only brand I buy so I can't look in my drawer.

It's always fun to find pairings that are so similar. Although, I just discovered that Holly's is from the Nov exchange and I have no idea how it snuck into the Jan pile.

March PTEX to Daine (and black reject)

Diane received two envelopes. This was the outer envelope and the inner envelope is below. I went back and forth on the black one - and eventually decided it just looked like germs instead of happy dots. It did not help that I was in the middle of reading a book about some people who spent a couple weeks in Honduras solving a very old mystery. They found a lost city - buried in the jungle. Native people had many legends connected with the site and they all included warnings. The outsiders should have heeded the warning.

Many of the people who were on the expedition came down with leishmaniasis. It is the second deadliest parasitic disease in the world and kills sixty thousand people yearly. They can tell that the disease is ancient - also - the lost city in Honduras was probably wiped out by the diseases that the colonial explorers brought to the new world -- but the disease seems to be extracting its revenge.  I don't want to alarm anyone about what's up with this disease. If you want the details, the book is The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston. If you are even a tiny bit squeamish, don't read it. I'm not even sure why it caught my eye... the disease isn't even the worst part - snakes worse than anything I've ever heard of and at night - the entire campsite was carpeted with cockroaches.

I was able to peel the stamps off and use them on other envelopes.

Jan PTEX from SuzanneB and JessicaS - Animals

I'm in love with those sheep on Suzanne B's envelope. So fun.

Jessica's creature-letters are fun, too. Although I do not have those stamps so I probably won't ever do creature letters. There might be a couple in my stash from the sheet of bugs and insects. That was one fabulous set.

Feb to Trish - Bee +Flower

More Pinterest inspiration - as I recall it had a rectangle somewhere that I had to ditch because of poor planning.

The scale of the flower and the bee really bothers me - and you know the rule if there are two things wrong, just do something else that is wrong and then it might be fine. I would not consider this fine - but some of the elements were cute enough that it didn't get pitched.

Or maybe I was in a panic because I had 38 people on the list. That's the most we've ever had. I might have to leave myself off some of the lists...not sure I can do that many envelopes every month. I *can* -- but the quality suffers a lot when I am cranking them out that fast.

Jan/Dec PTEX from Grace - Gingerbread

This arrived in January but might have been a late December PTEX envelope. If it was, it was definitely worth the wait. I love it and would (will) steal...the combination of tiny script with bold italic as well as the  little stamped image.

I love the cancel at the bottom which leaves Santa all neat and tidy in his corner.

The card inside is also quite lovely.

For people who will join me in stealing - steal her simple yet very effective layout with three elements.
One is the focal point.
The proportions between large and small are spot on.
Yay white space.
I could go on - but will hope the main takeaway is how beautiful it is to Less-is-more it.

Feb to Carole - Matisse

Hey, while we are appropriating ideas off Pinterest let's go for some of the Matisse envelopes. There are quite a few with these Warhol-esque flowers, stripes and dab-dots.

I used a Cocoiro marker which has a nice little brush tip. While I like blue and yellow, it was really hard to use this stamp on this envelope -- but there are no more yellows left in the stash.

This might have been the month I learned my lesson -- do not start any envelopes until you have the actual stamps in front of you.

Here is the inspiration envelope. It reminds me of etegami. We will be talking about etegami when I return from my trip. If you want to dive in ahead of time -- just Google etegami.

Jan PTEX from Jadie and Angie - Bold, black with details

Jadie did her interpretation of the lettering on the stamp. Very pretty. That stamp looks good on so many colors, plus it is still available.

Angie enclosed a note telling me how many things she was able to use on a shimmer envelope.

Sumi ink
Inktense Aqueous pencils
Sakura Glaze pens
Sakura Calligrapher marker

Inktense pencils have been on my list of items I can't have until I get my hoard managed.
I had some glaze pens - would love to replace them some day.
I have Sakura Calligrapher markers -- so WOW - if they work - that will help a lot.
Not sure if I will try sumi - I might.... it looks great. She used a Speedball B3 nib which has a flat circle at the tip so you can make really bold lines. They are very cool and I have some....

Feb to Maggie - MMMMM

The first M was too small so I added the larger one and just did a bunch more. Another one done during a break from actual work. I need a nickname for the envelopes I do when I already know I am too tired to do anything decent, but I need to do something fun to recuperate from actual work. Is there a name for that?
Restorative?

Anyhow - it was Maggie's birthday month and I think I did one or two bonus envelopes for her. Wonder if I remembered to photograph all of them.

This one was lifted from Pinterest and I had a decent pencil guide.
The first problem was the drawing of the hand. It should have been done with the lighter weight pen. Then I completely botched her name and knew that I could not put Julian Waters stamps on an envelope with those M's -- and so I just took a picture and knew that these two would go inside something else. The something else didn't go quite as I had hoped - but that's my perpetual experience -- hits and misses. To be balanced - you might as well be happy when half the things you try work out. To expect more than half of your life to be all peachy is unrealistic.

Am I off my rocker?
That's a trick question. What you are supposed to say is -- how can you quantify whether things are *good* or *bad*? You can't. Therefore, it is pointless to even evaluate whether things are good or bad.

OK, that's even more ridiculous.
No it isn't.
It's sound logic and I know for a fact that I earned an A in logic at a real university. It was the easiest course I ever took. I still remember how everyone glared at me when I filled out the final exam - looked around and saw that I was the first one finished - so, I went over it a second time and fixed my penmanship. Still - nobody else was done. So, I took it up to the professor. He scanned down the sheet. Looked up at me and nodded his head. I felt a room full of daggers plunging into my back as I walked out of the room. But, they all had the last laugh because they probably ended up with careers. Sadly, there are no jobs for logicians.

Jan PTEX from RachaelT

RachaelT actually suggested that these were not blogworthy. I beg to differ. The top one is sooooo *me.*

In a perfect world, I would have hair like that so that I could just let it be wild and whack it off by myself. I will not lapse into whining about the consistency of my hair because I still have lots and at my age - thinning sometimes starts and that would more difficult.

The method as well as the exuberance of the lettering is uber-jean.

So, people, don't decide whether your envelope is a dud until the recipient weighs in.

Inside this envelope was a very special envelope that had been her first try in the exchange. She had received a handmade envelope from Finnbadger in a swap and found a lovely stamp. The addressing should have been fine - but some postalgrinch was having a bad day and returned it.

It is a nostalgic image. My grandkids are very close to being too big for me to carry them. It's been so much fun to have little ones again. When this pre-scheduled post pops up - I will be in the middle of a marathon mercy mission - helping out while my daughter finishes up tax season. I hope the grandkids have not infected me with any little Illinois based germs. I also found out that there is a Paper Source within walking distance of their house. That's dangerous.

Feb to Chuck - Topographical + Cupcake

This envelope is just crying for a solid black stamp like the eclipse or Johnny Cash.

I used a Cocoiro and just meandered around. It was during a break from a job that was exhausting.

That little cupcake is covering up a random i that showed up in his name. His birthday does happen to be in February - so that worked out OK.

Jan PTEX from Shirley and Grace - Flowers -

Shirley - first time exchanger sent these lovely flowers in January to remind us that spring always shows up eventually.

Shirley enclosed a nice note introducing herself. I do love getting to know people through the exchange. It is interesting how some of us have a lot to share right out of the chute and others just drop an empty envelope in the mail.

GraceE -below- is a middle of the roader. She encloses a note, but not many personal details.

I am only mentioning this to let everyone know that whichever level of conversation you choose, I will enjoy it. Don't feel you have to give any details and be reassured that when I do hear a bit about my penpals, I enjoy what you have to say. I do not pass along any information unless it is a specific comment about the technique or design.

Your secrets are safe with me. Not that I am asking for any. I could hire an editor to help me make more sense of this post....actually...one of you did do some editing for me. But, I suspect that person would rather get his or her morning chuckle from my stream of consciousness, eh?

You're welcome.

Feb to Carolyn, Florence and Kate - Hearts and Xmas Trees

The leftover 25-cent stamps need to be used up before the rates go up. I thought putting them upside down would be close enough to the heart shape. Nope. I used a different stamp to mail it but forgot to reshoot the envelope.

I'll add all the rest of the heart designs because they are fairly similar.

I forgot about the Tombos for making hearts and they are very delicate. I have very few -or none- in reds and pinks but I like the alternative colors. Not a perfect stamp - but decent. A few gray hearts might have been better, but it seemed full.

The stamp on Kate's had been waiting around for quite while. The image on the thank you card was a layout for some job way back when. The hearts don't go with the stamp --- but --- it feels like I could truly get rid of all the orphan and vintage stamps in another month or two.

Bonus Post - Calling All Illustrators

Today's regular post follows this post.

One of the exchangers asked me if there might be other blog readers who would like to exchange illustrated envelopes. I Googled *illustrated envelopes* and there are a ton of wonderful examples.

I did a search on my blog for *illustration* and did not find many. I did a search for *drawing* and found a few. The two examples of my work are not the best examples - but they give a general idea of an envelope where the illustration is the focal point of the envelope.

If anyone loves illustrating envelopes and would like to exchange on a one-to-one basis, please send me your email. Send it to me at jmwilson411 [at] yahoo [dot] com

I will  compile a list and then you may contact each other to set up exchanges and time lines. I will not be putting together groups - you are strictly on your own --

Also -- if any of you already know of some illustrated envelope blogs or exchanges, please let me know and I will add that info to the list.

Here is a link to an article about a guy who did a lot of illustrated envelopes. One of his is pictured below. I found this on Pinterest which is another good place to find illustrated envelopes.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6519867/Hundreds-illustrated-envelopes-sent-father-Second-World-War.html

Below is another example of my own quick and easy illustration.

Jan PTEX from Smash and Chuck - Kraft paper

Longest-time guild friend, Chuck, and Smash, who was the inspiration for the exchange, were both in a krafty mood in January.

Vintage stamps don't always withstand the rigors of the current postal machinery.

I was wondering when the rates were 8-cents.

May 71- March 1974

I love Google.
I was out of college by then - seems like just yesterday.

That's nice how the barcode blends with Chuck's border.

Feb to Rachael - Word Bubbles

Inspired by a Pinterest post that is currently hiding. The whole thing was penciled and was supposed to have space for those two stamps, but I went rogue and added that heart.  Then things went downhill. I came close to just pitching it, but figured I could just add the ever popular cursing symbols. I've lost track of who all has gotten curse symbol designs from me. Hope I'm not over doing it.

Jan PTEX from Finn and Holly - Kraft paper

It's hard to recall exactly what it felt like on January 30th when it was 20-below zero in Des Moines.


Once again, I am envious of people who still have those snowflake stamps. They are perfect on Finn's Whole Food recycled bag.

Holly sent the cute sweater weather card that inspired her double stroke Jean.

My stash of kraft envelopes is skimpy. I have trouble letting them go. The solution is to buy a carton of 1,000. Maybe I should start selling bulk envelopes so I can justify buying the ones I want.

Feb to Susan - High School Glitter

Three back to back to back jobs in February required gold ink. The pen used on the n is wacky. Maybe tacky is a better word. It's so over the top with the sparkle. It will be very challenging to find a use for it. The lettering looks like what you see all over notebooks in high school.

Because I've had trouble with adhesive on stamps, I burnished the frozen treat stamp very firmly with my thumb nail and Oh.My.Gosh.  It took a lot of pressure to release the scratch and sniff scent. I had never been able to smell it before.

I was trying the gold pen on every kind of paper on my desk and the $5-bill caught my eye. It was fun to write on that paper. But, I will not be doing any more. Or if I do, I'll put it on the back.

Jan PTEX from Leslie - Lennon stamp+Denim

This was Leslie's outer envelope. The inner envelope was posted on April 1. She cleverly turned the portrait into 2019.
In additions to a bonus envelope inside the Lennon envelope, she sent a second one - with denim adhered letters.

Her note indicated that she wanted to see how it went through the mail and it went through perfectly.

She did not tell me what kind of adhesive she used - maybe she will leave a comment today.

Feb to Leslie - Pinterest inspired

It might be fun to post my versions of Pinterest inspiration.

I'm so annoyed that I forgot to write my return address on the front.

Also - I wish I had drawn a stamp on the little envelope.

It's pretty pitiful how poor I am at copying ideas...



And the red and blue theme is so much better....

the only thing I like better about my version is my lettering.

I just noticed the little sprig under the  -- open me--  I should have added that. And the dashed line on the very outer edge.

April PTEX Exchange Sign-up

This happy envelope was enclosed in Leslie's January exchange envelope. Her note said she hoped she had not ruined it by coloring in the counters - I think it's perfect with that added touch. She also preferred to send it along with a 39-cent stamp, in an outer envelope, rather than finding 11-cents more. Good call.


It is time to sign up for the April Exchange.
I am out of town - and the BigHelpfulBrother is going to do all the collecting of names and sending of lists - so you better follow this format - or else.

(A hollow threat - but we will see if it works.)

Send me  NAME-ADDRESS-EMAIL  by April 4th.
Your list with 6 names will be sent on the 5th or 6th.

John Doe (CARDS)
123 Oak Street
City/State/ZIP/Country
jdoe@gmail.com


Send your info to me:  jmwilson411 -at- yahoo -dot- com

Put CARDS after your name if you want to exchange cards.
CARD makers will exchange cards.
The rest of us may send either empty envelopes -or- enclose a note.
About half of us send empty envelopes because that's all the time we have.

Let me know if it is your birthday month - and I will note that on the list.
Birthday greetings are optional.

Any questions - email me at jmwilson411 -at- yahoo -dot- com