e&c - rehearsal dinner invitation - mailing No 7

While not exactly from me - the grooms parents were happy to have me address the invitations to the rehearsal dinner. Rather than design a custom invitation, I had the bride and groom order something online. When they arrived, I upgraded the envelopes to some extras I had on hand. 

Once again, I was very happy with the USPS for providing a very fun celebratory stamp.

And there's nothing special about the layout - it's legible.

By now, you are thinking, we must be getting close to the end of this whole series. The only thing left will be the thank yous.

Nope.

My favorite mailing is next.

Not that I have a favorite - the whole series is my all time favorite project. 

But, the next one is fun.

I think the invitation was from Minted.

 

e&c - gift receipt - mailing No 6

Not much to say about the layout on this - pretty straight forward.
White ink always looks nice on colored envelopes - but I like to make the address more USPS friendly.

The Crane's Blue Book of Etiquette has something that I spotted. I'd never heard of it because I was not raised with an etiquette book. The closest thing we had to etiquette was an iron clad rule to send a handwritten thank you - promptly. But that was it. After I got into the actual business of wedding addressing I bought a copy of the Blue Book so that I could answer questions for clients. The page I discovered showed wording for a note card saying that a gift had been received and that a thank you would follow. These were used in the day when a couple might go on a grand tour after their wedding, to explain the tardiness of the thank you.

Since I knew which stamps I wanted for the official thank yous, and I knew they were not coming out until after the wedding and after they returned from their honeymoon, I thought it would be cool to send the gift receipt cards so that people would get another mailing - plus, they would not be worried if the thank yous were a little slow in arriving. 

There were soooo many people who mentioned that they really appreciated all the mailings. These pre-thank yous received a number of mentions. Since the wedding was in Chicago, we opted to keep the DSM guests who were *parental aged* to only parents who had been very close with Ellen - not just friends of Mr Wilson and myself. Plus we have very few actual relatives. So -- of the 125 guests -- I only knew about 30 of them. It was really fun at the wedding that so many people found me to tell me how much they loved the mailings. It gave them an excuse to chat about something other than the usual wedding remarks, "Oh, the bride is so beautiful. Oh, they look so happy. Blah, blah, blah." 

I ran these off on my printer on the fancy Crane's paper, cut them by hand and used the small 3.5 x 5 envelopes from Paper Source. 

 

e&c - bachelorette invitation - mailing No 5

My daughter asked me to come up with something for her bachelorette party. I had seen an invitation on the internet that looked like it was a note written by a high school girl. Since at least half of the friends on the guest list were friends from high school, it was an appropriate theme. Also, the other guests were typical girls who had certainly written notes in high school -- so we went the idea of girls (who were all in their late 20s) pretending that they were organizing a clandestine gathering to drink. 

To create the invitation, I did the writing on layout paper that was positioned over a piece of notebook paper and then just ran color copies of the original onto the notebook paper. It was so easy and looked exactly like it was hand written. Then I folded it up the way teenagers fold their notes.

I was pretty happy with that sheet of vintage stamps.

You probably can't make out all the wording on the invitation -- it's mostly silly stuff.

I found an extra - so here is a shot of it - flat - that is probably readable.

 

Intermission - Gina's Quilt

Front of quilt - above

Back of quilt - below

 We are having a little intermission today - between the 2 weeks of my wedding mailings.

This spectacular quilt was done by Gina. It is a response to the pandemic. I asked her if I could post it and gave her the option of writing the commentary - she sent this:

I enjoy both calligraphy and sewing, so during April 2020's lockdown I designed and stitched a quilt with phrases I use to calm myself down during times of stress. I titled my font-filled piece "Whatever You Do..."  (...Don't Panic....PRAY...Bee Brave...Fear not) putting the title in the border using Morse Code. The phrase on the backside ('kwitchurbeliakin') is one my daddy said whenever we kids complained too much. My piece is one of 27 quilts currently in the exhibit "Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in the Midst of Chaos" at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. In the fall the exhibit goes to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. Those 27 plus many others will be featured in the book Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in the Midst of Chaos by Sandra Sider and is available at Amazon with a release date of September 2021. 

---Gina Gililland McCasland

I'm also sharing something she said in the first email to me about the improv nature of the quilt - I have a stack of fabrics that need to be turned into something. Scraps from things my mom made back in the 50s and 60s - plus things I made over the years. This quilt has me reeeeally interested in adding some words to my projects.

Gina wrote:
You used a Gee's Bend quilt postage stamp on one of the envelopes I received from you --maybe a year ago? -- and I especially love the Improv look of perfect imperfection. For this quilt I drew out the hands/fonts as I went along and didn't measure. But all the various word or phrase blocks came together at the end in a way that pleased me. So I guess it IS an Improv quilt.

The book:
https://www.amazon.com/Quarantine-Quilts-Creativity-Midst-Chaos/dp/0764362011

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Gina. I know there are quite a few quilters who read this blog.

Back to the wedding tomorrow.

e&c - couples shower - mailing No 4

Way back in 1984, when E was playing dress up at nursery school, she met her No.1 BFF. They were friends all through high school and then K moved to Chicago after college and they shared a couple of apartments. Note to self: if I get around to posting some of the other items in my portfolio, post the Post Traumatic Moving Syndrome brochure. 

Anyhow, K hosted a couples shower in Chicago and asked me if I would like to help with the invitations. Of course she offered to pay me -- and I said, "Don't be ridiculous," and we had lots of fun putting this invitation together. 

Since I am trying to point out tips for addressing envelopes - I think this idea is simple - but the idea of putting the last name in all caps is one to have on the list of basics. Obviously, it can be exponentially larger and more of a feature. But, smaller is nice, too.

I happened to have just enough of the antique looking envelopes on hand. The info for where they had registered for gifts is on the little bandana. 
 

e&c - shower no 1 - mailing no 3

This was a shower invitation for the bride, held in Duh Moines. The style on the envelope was inspired by Nancy Hills' versals. In 2011, I was still going to the local vintage stamp store - so I was happy to find these LOVE stamps from a previous year. Once again, it was leftover paper from a custom job.

A big, initial cap, versal - that coordinates with the stamp - paired with tiny little script is a lovely layout to keep in mind for exchanges. (I'm talking to myself here -- as it is such a nice starting point and I seem to forget to use it.)

The photo of E is from halloween when she was 4 years old. At the time, she was going to a nursery school that had some dress up clothes and she liked the wedding dress. So, that's what she wanted to be for halloween. I made her a pretty nice little wedding dress. This was back in the day when I had time to sew. Wedding stuff appeals to some little girls at a very early age. It's probably related to the whole princess thing.

There is another post below - admin stuff.

 

Extra post - Blogger eliminated the email alerts

 Google does not charge anything for me to run this blog. Once in a while they make changes.

If you have signed up for an email alert for each new post, they are discontinuing that service.

I would like someone who has been getting the email alerts to tell me if they have already stopped - or if they are still getting them - please and thank you. Of course, if you did not get the alert, you might not have remembered to check the blog this morning. 

Google warned us that the email alerts were going away and I checked into alternatives - but nothing was easy enough for me to set up. I might lose a lot of readers who will not remember to find the blog every day, but, I'm OK with that. You probably have enough other stuff going on. 

For some of you the blog is a daily habit. Thank your for your continued interest. I'll keep trying to find fun new things to post - that will inspire you.

***

This was a blast from the past that popped up on Pinterest today. Uber stealworthy.

It's from Jannie. What ever happened to Jannie?

Are you still out there?

e&c - response card

I liked the layout on this - making the address stand out for the PO.

The top one came through without a cancel but has the bar code.

The fancy Crane's 100% cotton paper did not appreciate the mail handling machines.

The top layers of the paper would peel off in the edges.

 

I knew that I would not want to see unattractive penmanship on the response cards, so I filled in everyone's names using my own penmanship. There were a few invitations where the invitation was *and guest* so those people had to write in a name.

The response cards were postcards because I am not a big fan of the fussy little envelopes. I enjoyed getting a few comments on the response cards.

This one is my favorite

It was fun to get some nice reviews of the invitation design.

Little did they know what else would be coming in the mail.

This one is included because it is the BigHelpfulBrother and I noticed that he and WBSIL (world's best sister-in-law) did one X and one check mark. Very unusual. Did they do it just to give me something additional to ponder? Do they remember doing it?

This is one where the fancy Crane's paper peeled. Note to self: don't use fancy paper for postcards.

Another fun one.

I like the boldness of this one.

Nicely done sad faces from a couple who had to decline.

e&c invitation - mailing No. 2

The USPS kindly offered a white cake with a touch of green for the wedding stamps in 2011. It was so perfect. I pulled out my nibs and white ink and did a casual pointed pen style for the invitation. I was wildly out of practice, but there were no calligraphers on the guest list, so it didn't really matter. I didn't bother with any caps - which was helpful. I lined the envelope with white paper. The envelopes were from Paper Source. As I recall, there were about 100 addresses on the list.

As you know, there was a time when wedding invitations came in double envelopes which was a hold over from Victorian times when the servants would collect the mail at the front door (often hand delivered by carriage drivers) The servants would take the mail out of the less-than-pristine envelope and the invitation would be in a clean second envelope which would be put on the silver tray and delivered to the fancy people to whom the invitation was addressed. Clearly, I think very little of most of the Victorian traditions that linger and do everything I can to politely stamp them out. 

But.......there is that little part of me that sorta likes the layers - so, I thought a translucent sleeve would be lovely. As luck would have it my dad had given me his stockpile of onionskin from back in the day when he had a typewriter and onionskin. So I made 100 sleeves by hand. 

I ordered the invitations from Reaves Engraving - letterpress. It is an old-time, Southern printer with very reasonable prices on offset, thermography, letterpress and real engraving.

https://www.reavesengraving.com

 

E+C wedding - mailing No 1 - Save the Date

This might work for addressing these days if the writing was not too slanted. But, I probably would not do this any more. Even if the writing was straight, I still think it would have a nice impact.
Plus, I like double stamps.

Once E&C chose the font I gave them some ground rules. We would use black ink on white paper. They were fine with that because they were picturing mostly black and white and the only other color would be green - spring green seemed right for May 7. 

I gave them some options using the font and I tossed out the idea of doing some extra mailings and having each envelope be a different color and a different size. That scribble font was perfect because it would go nicely with a variety of lettering styles.

For the Save the Date, I suggested they do a blind emboss of the E&C - actually it was e&c. It was also the only piece that I simply ordered from a fancy invitation company and I do not recall the price, but it was the most expensive of all the mailings. I was able to buy many sheets of the Louise Nevelson stamps. Obviously, the white ones were my favorites - but they were all very pretty. 

They sent invitations to the parents of all the groomsmen and bridesmaids to be polite, but did not expect them to come since the wedding was in Chicago and none of them lived anywhere near the midwest. Surprisingly, one couple responded that when they received the save-the-date they knew they would have to attend because the save the date looked like foreshadowing of a very cool event. 

The blind emboss is hard to photograph. In real life, it was very easy to read because it was so big. The envelopes were lined with a shiny black paper.

E+C wedding series

 

This envelope has nothing to do with the 2 week series of envelopes that is starting today. It is a pre-printed Mary Engelbreit design - leftover stationery. But, it has a *happily ever after* look to it.

For 10 years I have intended to post the mailings that I did for my daughter's wedding. I started dreaming about designing her wedding invitation when she was in 5th grade. Somewhere I have the very first layout that I did and next time I see it, I will photograph it and post it - and then hopefully toss it. I'm sure my family will appreciate me editing my hoard.

For some reason, my daughter always had lots of friends, but only one boyfriend in high school - for one year. And none in college. She was pretty crabby (for all 4 years plus one year of grad school) about the whole situation and I kept assuring her that she would meet someone as soon as she graduated and found a job. Of course, I was a nervous wreck on her behalf. When she would wail, "What's wroooooong with me?" I had no answer -- and I was worried what would happen if my prediction did not come true. 

As luck would have it, there was a darling guy who started at the same time she started her first job. Their first date was on Valentine's Day and the relationship was *official-ized* on St Patrick's Day. I love it when my intuition is/was correct -- that she would meet Mr Right at the right time and would not have to bother with a string of disappointments.

As soon as I met him I could tell that they were a perfect match. E and I were both on cloud nine. And then it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. for the proposal. A couple years? It must have been late 2009. It was too late to schedule a 2010 wedding, so they set a date in 2011.

Mr Wilson and I flew out to Reno for a wedding planning meeting with both families. I took 50 layouts for save the dates. I forced myself to stop at 50 -- and I kept a few of them.  Everyone was impressed with the multitude of options. E&C honed in on one right away. It had a very distinctive font that looked like scribbling - which we will see tomorrow.

July Exchange - Sign-up

The last of the quilt stamps.
Also the last of the 6 envelopes from long ago (Sept of 2020)

 To participate in the July exchange email me by the 4th and the lists will be sent on July 5th (or 6th at the latest)

Please send your info - in the following format. 

It is so helpful when I can copy and paste, rather than reformat your information, or find your email.

Add (CARDS) after your name if you wish to exchange handmade cards.

Add (Birthday) at the bottom, if July is your birthday month.

Add (2 Lists) at the bottom, if you are willing to be on 2 lists - if I need to add people to make the lists come out even.

Jane Smith (CARDS)

123 Oak Street

Ames, Iowa 50010

jsmith@gmail.com

(Birthday) (2 Lists)

Send the above info to me at:

jmwilson411-at-yahoo-dot-com

Additional information about how the exchange works is on the tab that says *envelope EXCHANGE rules*

Or if you have questions - just email.

From Chuck and Kristine (Pondering) (hidden message stamps)

Chuck's (above) and Kristine's below look like they were working at the same desk and sharing their markers. 

***

This might be the last pre-scheduled post where I forgot to put in an add-on. I keep thinking about all the similarities between the people in creative careers who either write books or have documentaries made about them. Just because they are famous, does not mean that their experience is any different from the kinds of things that we all go through when we are *creating* things. 

So many people who took classes with me were emphatic that there is a difference between people based on their skill levels. Famous people have something else going on - different from hobbyists or wanna-bees. (not sure how to spell that word)

I have given up trying to convince people that famous people or professionals are not all that different. Of course there are some differences. But, those questions, insecurities, indecisions, frustrations that the non-famous experience -- are alive and well in the famous. IMHO, the only difference is that those who end up with fame -even a modest amount- really only had one thing that made them different. 

They couldn't make themselves stop doing that thing they felt like doing. Of all the common threads I see when reading the biographies or watching the documentaries - that is the one I see the most.

So, with that -- June is complete -- and we will launch ourselves into July and if you are bored to death with two full weeks of wedding mailings -- I apologize. But, of all the things I've ever done, I'm pretty sure it is my all time favorite project. 

***

link to story about the hidden message

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0614-mystery-message-forever-stamp.htm

Is this a repeat ? (CathyO)

Hopefully this is the last post where I am confused about whether or not it has already been posted.

I got such a kick out of this note. I assume that after all these years of exchanging mail, Cathy knows that anything that crosses my desk might appear on the blog. Her work is consistently gorgeous. So, it should be comforting to all y'all to see an example of someone having a rough time with the exchange envelopes and just letting it go.

There are other posts where I encourage people to relax, have fun, experiment, and not get stressed about perfection. I don't think I have beat the topic to death. It seems like it's not something that I have mentioned for a while.

Some of you get little notes expressing my deep regret about things that do not please me in my own mailings. Deeply regret -- the comment from RachaelT -- which has stuck with me forever. 

Shout out to anyone who has been thinking about exchanging - but hesitating. Go ahead. Take the plunge. It really is fun to putter about, drop 5 envelopes in the mail, and then get 5. The sign up for July is the day after tomorrow.

 

Lily from AmyG - (upcoming topics)

 As usual, I have lost track of which folders full of images have been posted. When I find images rather than the actual stack of mail, I have trouble  remembering if it is actual artwork or collage. Either way, it's really pretty. I like the combo of stamps.

****

In filling up the blog, I've mentioned that my new method is to just fill it up day by day and not jump around. That's been helpful. I am also going to go through my folders and pick one- and post everything so that I do not lose track of what's been posted.

I finally have the folder of the mailings I did for my daughters wedding and I am going to start a very long series about mail and a few other tidbits about the wedding. It will start on July 2nd. Since it has envelopes, it is not off topic. My jabbering will be off topic. It occurred to me that my daughter or granddaughter might be interested in all the little details of the mailings. Maybe not. It might just reinforce how unusual I am. Of course, some of you may not think I am unusual. Some of you might be on board with sending a ridiculous number of mailings for a wedding.

I also read through and edited all the June posts and found a number of topics to come back to. That has inspired me to go back and review the entire blog and find the items that I think are worth storing in my official *Jean's Perspective* blog. We'll see -- slogging through 10+ years of blog posts seems like it might be more than I can handle.

Sunshine from Debbie (more games and puzzles)

 

This exuberant design is from Debbie and she included a fun card to celebrate the sunshine.

There is a second layer of loops in gold gel pen that add a nice touch of sparkle.

They probably don't show up in the photo.

***

I forgot to add a list of games and puzzles that Janet included in her envelope that came yesterday.

I have not tried them yet - but whether I like them or not -- if you like morning games and puzzles to get your brain up and at 'em -- you need to try them and see which ones you like. 

The Daily Quiddler

The Daily Set Game

logic-puzzles.org

I lost track of where I am on the resolution of my *doldrums.* I'm sure I announced that everything was resolved and I am back in a groove. I'm pretty sure that I announced that the remedy was a combination of two new pens from Chuck. So, I'm supposed to be posting some new stuff. So far, I have only written one letter with the new Uni-Ball Signo Ultra Micro. Oh.My.Gosh. It is fine-fine-fine. It took a while to get it to write without skipping but it was so worth it. I'm not sure it will produce anything that is wildly impressive in photos. But, I'll post some stuff pretty soon.

The other pen is a Jinhao X450. I need to fill it with ink. First I need to figure out if I have any ink that works in fountain pens - and then I have to fill it. Chuck forgot that I am not a fountain pen whiz. 

Coffee time with Janet (dream dolls)

I love this lettering from Janet. It will be easy for me to steal it and send my own version back to her because she did the J-E-A-N which are the first 4 letters I need for her name - and then I only need a T.

I also love the sentiment on the back of the envelope.

 ***

After reading just the first chapter of the scary sci-fi story about ISU, Hester sent me this link to *nightmare catchers.* I called them dream dolls, when I typed in the heading because I could not remember what they were called. I'll post the link to the blog where she saw them. 

https://bayouquilts.blogspot.com

That link looks like it might go to the current blogpost. I can't make it add on the date. You may need to scroll to the May 26, 2021 post to see the nightmare catchers. She also has some nice shots of her garden.

I admire people who have such pretty gardens. From time to time, I have made an effort to improve the situation in my yard. This was the year that I announced to Mr Wilson that I am through with the yard. I give up. The weeds have won. He is free to do whatever he likes. I also gave up on the houseplants. One of them had a lot of sentimental value as it came from a cutting from my *that person* in college. I can't remember what you call the person who has to sign off on all your decisions. Advisor? I guess that's it. Anyhow, I thought the world of him - and was delighted when someone who had a cutting from his pencil cactus gave me a cutting. So, I've had that plant for longer than Mr Wilson and I have been married.

Composted.

Just like that.

The pencil cactus - not Mr Wilson.

Not to get back into sci-fi again -- but, I've been on board with any and all of the research that discovers the way plants are just like people - they communicate and look out for each other. So - I did feel like a murderer. But, I got over it. I think the cactus was relieved to get out of my house. I think it's going to be a lot happier. Or, perhaps, someday it will exact some revenge on me. 

Curly caps from Kate - (Chuck-motivator)

 

Kate said she was not all that thrilled with how these curly caps came out. I think they are just fine. My only suggestion was that they might not feel as spontaneous as my version because she used a pointed nib and it is a little trickier to get your speed up with nibs and ink. I told her that I was going to try to do that style with some nibs and ink - and hopefully I will actually do that. I need to keep a list of all the things I blog about that I want to do. I might feel like I am accomplishing more and better stuff if I had a list and could cross things off.

***

As promised - for quite some time - Chuck thought of something to drag me out of my doldrums. The doldrums are gone - but I think I am missing them. No. That's a joke. But not really. It was a wretched phase and I apologize for putting you all through it.

Although, I did enjoy the part where I looked up words and learned a few things. And I enjoyed a few of the other things that went on during the dark time. Darkness is relative. And relativity is dark. I think I just made that up.

Is it obvious that I am having my noon cup of coffee -- and that Mr Wilson is grilling lunch? When I was whining about my disinterest in meals - and I said he could only make grilled cheese and pancakes, I forgot that he can grill. And he uses real charcoal. Whoop-whoop. My apologies to Mr Wilson.

Oh.My.Gosh.

Is she ever going to get to the Chuck-motivator?

Did anyone offer any guesses?

Are you all bored to tears because you know he sent me a new pen?

Wrong.

TWO new pens.

Yup - that's all it took. Voila. I snapped right out of it. Miracle, huh? Details tomorrow.