June from Rachael, Simone, Susan and Troy

It's no surprise that I love this one from Rachael and will be stealing the idea. She did a second one - below - and mentioned that it was not 100% pleasing. Her note indicated that she had considered adding a couple more colors from the left stamp. I'm glad she didn't - I think that would have been distracting.

Maybe the stamp on the right wants to be in a landscape orientation and then maybe add some white somewhere. The stacked Jean Marie might want to be closer to the J. These kinds of envelopes are so hard because once you write on the envelope you can't just move things around.

It can be hard to fit three things together when they are visually, carrying the same weight. (stamps/J/JeanMarie) It can be done - but, it's tricky. That's why the concept of a hierarchy is useful. A big focal point - a medium something - and a small detail (or a few small details) and if you look at the top envelope - that is exactly what is going on. 

And making 2 stamps work together can be tricky. There are no easy answers to any of these issues - but it's a lot of fun to ponder.

This is from Simone in Letzebuerg (Luxembourg)
Fun design. Air mail borders are so charming.

This is from Susan and I'm glad this one (as well as the others in this group) didn't get the dog post mark. 

Troy enclosed a very fun letter -- the greeting at the top included *the Gande Dame of Envelopes* - then he described a trip to Houston and a guild meeting. He reminisced about first hearing about what he calls *the Maven of Mail* at that guild in 2006. I get a kick out of his nicknames for me. I suppose I should come up with one for him.....

 

June from Linda, Lynne, Maggie, Mary, Mia & Patty

A fun mailing from Australia

Lynne's pretty blue pointed pen looks great on the black - and that stamp is proving to be quite versatile.

Maggie does the most beautiful flowers - grrrr at the scribbles which were entirely uncalled for.
I'm getting tired of that dog on the cancel.

This one is from Mary - and the bird looks like it's looking at the dog and the dog looks like it's looking at the stamp. 

Nice frogs/toads from Mia. They only have their scientific names on the stamps - and I do not know any tricks for knowing the difference between frogs and toads....  Mia enclosed a note saying she thought lettering should be larger. I disagree. I thing the arrangement is balanced. The stamps have the most contrast - so they are the focal point. I think larger lettering would have competed with the stamps.  Your line spacing on the address is very good.

Patty spent some time on all those little airplanes and I love the effect - as well as the arrangement.

So tempting to steal this idea - just need some of those stamps and a ton of time.....

 

June from Janet, JeanR, Jessica, Juliana, Kate, Kristine & Chuck

Seven from the June exchange.

A fun one from Janet

Sweet little mama and baby elephant from JeanR

I like this one from Jessica even though I'm not sure exactly what the sphere is. Maybe it's a beach ball.

Juliana enclosed a note - explaining that she was having fun with graffiti lettering - and then forgot to leave enough room for the stamp. Plus - it's a smaller envelope - but the proportion of the lettering to the envelope makes for a very nice design.

Fun stamp placement - and clever rubber stamp. Everyone knows I'm a big fan of white space when it's done as nicely as this.

That notecard from Kristine makes me want to do some pencil lettering. 

And this one is from Chuck. I wonder if he meandered with the red and then outlined it or drew the black shape and then colored it in.....

June from Cathy, Lynne, Amy, Carolyn & Christy

 It's Sept 13th, and I just finished posting the June envelopes that I sent. I also discovered that I had not posted the June envelopes that I received - Grrrr at myself and my chaotic filing system - I'm going to post them in groups - and not even attempt to write interesting posts or do add-ons. I just need to get back into chronological order.

There's good news. I actually did several envelopes in the September exchange that I LOVED. Two of them were done a day or two later than the others (which had been mailed) and I let the two really good ones sit on my desk to enjoy for a couple extra days. That hardly ever happens.

From Cathy - below is the card and below that are the colors she used on the envelope.

This arrived in June for my biker-son's 40th birthday - from Lynne and I put it in the wrong folder.

Amy was in an Olympic mood. I think she asked on the note inside if I was into the Olympics. I had watched the documentary on the sprinters on Netflix so I was pretty interested in finding out how those people did - but not enough to actually watch anything. I just looked for results. I think I overdosed on watching sports when my boys were into all the things they did. Clearly, my level of interest has nothing to do with whether people excel at the activity. I enjoy a video of chaos during little league games as much as anything the olympians do.

The fun curls that Carolyn added to her lettering were inspired by the stamp. Too bad the dog bite cancel obliterates the very pretty stamp.

Christy found perfect colors to go with the stamp - and a banjo. There's that dog again. My postal worker son says they take it very seriously at his station when someone gets bit. 

Halloween stamps - rerun from Rachael

 

We interrupt our regularly scheduled post to discuss Halloween stamps. One of our pen pals expressed disappointment at the non-availability of Halloween stamps this year. I've been watching the USPS website  (where you can order stamps) and noticing that Day of the Dead have been consistently available - and then WHAM - they are gone. 

I have a theory that they thought they had enough to get us through 2024 - but - there was a run on them and they are all gone - although you can always check your local USPS stations - you never know what they have in the leftovers. 

Then I wondered how many Halloween stamps there have been and how often they come out.

The first one was in 2016 and it was a set of 4 different jack-o-lanterns. They were adorable. The next ones did not come out until 2019 and those were the silhouettes of windows stamps - called Spooky Silhouettes. Very nice. And the third one was Day of the Dead which came out in 2021. 

As I recall - there is a tiny date on each stamp that designates what year the stamp came out. Those were the only ones I could find. If there are others - please let me know.

I'm guessing that we will get a new Halloween stamp next year. Or perhaps they will re-issue one of the old designs. I have no idea if they ever do that. All I know is that one time a long time ago, one of my postal worker friends told me that they always announce how many stamps of each design are printed. He saved me a sheet of the Wisconsin stamps because he knew it was a very low run and that they would not be available for very long since the collectors would be snapping them up. 

So, we have no idea how they calculate the number of stamps that they think the public will want. Some of them sell out quickly. I think the Peanuts stamps went really fast. 

I can't imagine that the number of people who are just buying stamps to send mail art is a very large number - so we would not have any pull if we asked for specific things. Or, perhaps we need to band together and make ourselves a force to contend with. I do have that blog set up that is 

The American Union of Mail Artists.   

Maybe there would be a way to reach out to our kindred spirits. My fondest dream was always to become a department within the USPS - but, I'm not sure I can make that happen. If only I were younger - I'd be all over this.

Sorry to ramble on -- I put in a couple hours digging and transplanting - and then a couple more hours finishing up all but 3 of my exchange envelopes - so I am treating myself to real-time chit chat. It's actually Sunday afternoon.

I suppose I could post one envelope today. One of my favorites that I have appropriated.

This was the blurb online that went with the silhouette stamps.

Spooky Silhouettes

Halloween has long been a holiday that lets us delight in the things that scare us. With the approach of autumn, Spooky Silhouettes stamps will offer fun, frightful scenes that symbolize this annual celebration. Four stamps feature digital illustrations in which traditional Halloween motifs are rendered as black silhouettes in eerily backlit windows. Artist Tyler Lang created the artwork. Art Director Greg Breeding designed the stamps.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

This is a link to a much longer blurb announcing the very first Halloween stamp.

https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2016/pr16_075.htm

June to Cathy, Irene, Ben and Alex

Apologies to Cathy. There seems to be no end to me churning out bad variations on a theme that should be  fool proof.

I don't know if this one has been posted - I think it might be in the wrong folder - It's the idea that Rachael sent to Janet and Janet sent to me - and I've used it several times. As I recall - this one was the best of the lot and I wonder if I was saving it for the grand finale and then forgot to post it. I sure don't see it in the archive....

And a couple more that were stuck in the June folder - 

and now we are done with June - yay!!

 Here's one with cryptic writing. I think I did this previously. I like the idea enough to buy more of these stamps.

I bought another sheet of these stamps - but might have to think of something different. I'm a bit weary of drawing little images.

June to Mia, Lynne, Janet, Kristine, Mary & Juliana

As I mentioned yesterday, I did not start the June envelopes with a full tank of energy. At least I chose one stamp to work with (mostly) so that I would be finding the right colors and hopefully some *grooves.*  For the most part, I'm fine with all the colors - but I sure didn't find any satisfying grooves. At least I'm only apologetic and not in the depths of deep regret.

Apologies to Mia - I can do better flowers than those - and I should have used 3 different stamps - grrrrrrr.

Apologies to Lynne, I can do better confetti than that.

Apologies to Janet - I hope you didn't upchuck when this hot mess arrived.

Apologies to Kristine - I can be way more festive than this.

Apologies to Mary - another hot mess - but, this one is lovable in spite of its regrettable-ness - I do have a fondness for writing a message which comes out even within the space allowed. I never allow myself to pre-fit the message when I want to add a message to a design - so - it's a fun little challenge - and I enjoy how most of the time I can spontaneously write words to fill a space and not overflow.

Apologies for lack of finesse.

 

June to Kate, Jessica, JeanR, Irene, Chuck & Christy

Six envelopes seems like enough to fill a post that will have virtually nothing to say. I can critique these - but that's useless information. 

decent idea on Kate's - wimpy - would have been better with bolder markers

decent idea on Jessica's - too bold - finding the right weight is often times the hardest part of any idea

ok - the weight is much better on JeanR's - 

but I was so weary from trying to find the right weight, I got sloppy

Irene's is a hot mess - done when I was tired and should have knocked off for the day

it would have been fine if I had even spacing on Irene - and if I had just done normal spacing on her last name - deep regrets 

I deeply regret the Cs on Chuck's- also the H is weak and the U is way off.

That K is wacko - but the colors and weights are fine.

I was appalled at the C on Christy's when I pulled this one up - and was not going to even post it - but then I realized that I could just cover up the C - the S is bonkers - but, in some ways, I had loosened up when I did this one and it has a little something that is likable. My apologies to Christy for sending it - I should have redone it - now that I think of it -- I did my June envelopes after I was in Chicago and brought the grandkids to my house for a visit - so - I think I was tired before I even got started.

June to Susan, Sharen and Maggie

I don't remember putting that bold black border on the envelope. I'm not sure it was a good idea. This was another attempt using Mike Gold's style - that I think has a name, but I can't find it. 

Since I have so many ho-hummers I'll just post them in groups and then we can move on to the ones I sent in Sept that were better.

And one more Mike Gold style. Since I have nothing much to say - this post will be heavy on visuals and light on words. How many visuals would be enough to not have any words?

I do like the piñata stamps. And I appreciate Google for putting a tilde over the n in piñata without me needing to learn the trick to insert one. I think tilde is the right word - maybe not. Maggie's might be better than Susan's because layering the colors and shapes covers up the weak parts of the shapes in the lettering.

The A is too wide - the Gs are mutants - the I is cluttered - the E is too tall. I guess the M is OK.

 

June to Patty and Luna - day lilies

I've forgotten what I used on these. It must have been the bullet tip Sharpie markers. I'm pretty happy with the colors - and how they go with the stamps. But - there's nothing about them that makes me want to do more. Thank you, again, to Patty for providing her maiden name. This might be the last time we see Dornacker on the blog. I just did a quick search of *Patty* on the blog and it is obvious that the solution to her name was to always do a very oversized Patty and then use a different marker or pen and do a very small last name in a line that related nicely to the first name. 

Because I needed three stamps - the short last name worked nicely on Luna's. 

***

I just read this in an article - and it a perspective that's popular. 

Studies show that gardening comes with a slew of mental and physical health benefits, including reduced risk of dementia. Plus, growing produce gets us more invested in one of the key tenets of healthy living — what we eat.

I want to do my own study to see how many people are tormented by weeds and just get riled up by gardening. I am in a battle with ditch lilies that is not going well. Ditch lilies are those day lilies from the 1900s that were so popular and they spread - and are as invasive as weeds - and it's nearly impossible to get rid of them. This is just whining - so, I apologize. But the battle is seriously eating into the time I need to post my blog blurbs.

Maybe things that make my blood boil also reduce the risk of dementia. How's that for a silver lining.

Grrrrrr
 

June to Amy - October exchange sign up

Somehow I forgot to post my June envelopes. A bunch of them are dismal. This one is OK. I like the colors. I pulled up the alphabet on Mike Gold's Instagram and did a very rough interpretation. It's such a fun style, but it needs a little more precision than what I managed. Here's a link to Mike's IG - soooo much good stuff.

https://www.instagram.com/goldie2452/

***

Today through October 4th is the window to sign-up. 

If you participated in the September exchange - just shoot me an email that says: SIGN ME UP - 

and you will get your list on Oct 5th. 

Let me know if it is your [Birthday] month or if you are willing to be on [2 Lists].

If you were not on the September list - or only sign up occasionally - or are a new exchanger

please send your information in the following format:

Jane Doe

123 Oak Street

Ames, IA 50010

janedoe@aol.com

[Birthday]  [2 Lists]

If you are new - here is a link with details about how the exchange works.

http://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/p/rules-of-exchangement.html