Envelope 72

Following a link on jean's website led me to tony's mail art blog. In French, which I can't read, it seems mostly dedicated to faux stamps and real mail art, as well as odd things sent by mail (flip flops, sardine tins). Really interesting stuff.

I sent him envelope 72. Sadly, I forgot to scan the envelope front before affixing the stamps. This envelope is made from glossy magazine paper - not very easy to work with and quite flimsy, with a tendency to tear easily. I have only used this type of paper when the image has been worth it.

Due to the lack of variety of stamps for airmail letters, I often use 3 first class stamps for variety when sending mail overseas - for a small cost it adds variety for me and the recipient. I've had this idea for this particular envelope for a while.

Stamped:

I did not do such a good job with the address label - it is not very easy to read, so I hope it gets there.

Addressed:

And as usual, the back. I didn't notice Jose Ferrer on the back - this would have been a great envelope to put his stamp on.

Edit: it arrived unscathed and unfranked.

Not one of the envelopes 3

I picked out a birthday card for a friend, and it had this fantastic orange envelope. I chose to add this to the blog because I think the Ray Charles stamp looks great here. I like this stamp regardless, as it is such a happy image of Mr Charles.

Finnbadger 4 & 5

 Two from Jean arrived on the same day, much to my surprise.

I like the white on red - early Christmas tones - even though Jean described it as a 'dog' - she has very exacting standards... maybe I should adopt them as I've noticed all of my new batch envelopes are not nicely rectangular.

The writing on the second one is stunning. I love how it is not perfectly straight, yet still looks elegant. So glad I sent Jean envelope 100 earlier this year, she has definitely brightened up the mail arriving at home.

Envelope 153

This is the second of the new batch. I would never have imagined that I would have an envelope that would be perfect for one of the Go Green stamps.

Naked envelope:



Stamped:



I thought for a while about how to address this one. With the (mostly) clear printer labels I picked up I can use appropriately colored text, but I ended up going in a more literal direction to compliment the envelope. Jean liked it - you can read her reaction here.

Addressed:



And as always, the back:

Finnbadger 3

Jean sent me one of her grid envelopes with one of the stunning modern art stamps. I'm a fan of geometric shapes, and modern art, so the combination was very pleasing.

Just a pity the post office worker scrawled in pink marker on the stamp to cancel it - I wish they all had nice franks with which to cancel stamps that make it through the sorting process unscathed. Makes me want to scan a clean version of the stamp and photoshop the image.

I like the clever way Jean wrote the address, although she felt it was a little forced in places.

Not one of the envelopes 2

Another Halloween-from-the-couch effort (with better stamps!).

Envelope 127

This is from a new batch of envelopes - so 20 years between sets, not too bad.

Envelope 127:

I really didn't ever think there would be a perfect envelope for one of the cycling stamps, but a local magazine proved me wrong. The orange helmet on the stamp and the envelope are almost identical. Of course the stamp cyclist is going the opposite direction...

I stuck the address on in a speech bubble to match the rest of the text on this one. I love the fact that there is a passage bemoaning the loss of courier work to email. It was tough to get the printer to print a clear font, for some reason the text ended up a bit blurred regardless of settings. 

And, as always, the back view.

Not one of the envelopes

 

This is not one of the envelopes. After seeing this post by Jean I had to steal a couple of the ideas. Not nearly as slick and sharp as the posted example, but easily done sitting  watching TV and sending out Halloween cards. Wish I'd either drawn the spider's eyes a bit bigger or given it an evil grin like the skeleton.