As soon as I found the remainder of my handmade envelopes I knew who I'd send the first one to. Jean's blog pushingtheenvelopes was one of the first ones to jog my memory, and she gave me such a warm welcome to her blog, that she was a natural recipient.
Envelope 100 stood out as being perfect to send to Jean - it was mostly text in a great antique-looking font.
One of the main things I picked up when perusing the many sites about mail art was that stamp selection and placement could greatly enhance an envelope. I had recently picked up a decent number of stamps using the usps.com website - ordering what you want online is extremely convenient.
These weathervane stamps worked out really well - the off-white background color closely matched the faded paper, the weathervanes themselves fit with the antique look, and there was just the right amount of space to fit them next to the text.
These stamps are valued at 45c. Rather than add a 1c stamp and spoil the effect, I was more than happy to pay a few extra cents. This also covered the potential cost of 66c for a non-conforming letter, since I placed the address in an unconventional way.
I am no hand-letterer, so I printed out a label using American Typewriter font (seemed to go well with the rest of the envelope), but didn't want to obscure the text on the envelope so placed the address inbetween the lines.
To see what Jean thought of it, go here.
receiving this envelope was pretty much the high point of my week. and the flap was sealed with a magic adhesive that released beautifully and then disappeared altogether. is it a trade secret? and what adhesive did you use on the other two seams? they are holding nicely.
ReplyDeleteGlad the mail can have such a nice impact!
ReplyDeleteSince the other two seams were glued together 20 years ago, I haven't a clue, although it would have been some type of glue stick. I was actually very surprised the envelopes were still glued closed after all this time.
The flap was sealed with Scotch brand wrinkle-free glue stick. I'm impressed that it released like that.
i might have to break my cardinal rule of not buying any new adhesive until i run out of what i have on hand. and you never know how a paper will respond to a particular adhesive. that glue might be different on newer paper. looking forward to seeing envelope 101. :-)
ReplyDelete