Smash in disguise

I'll let this one speak for itself.

Here be Dragons!

Another (almost) spontaneous envelope from Adrienne M. Adrienne will be the next destination when my next Friends & Faux postcard goes out.

In the meantime, she sent me this great envelope - my mail has been very colorful lately. The Canadian dragon stamp is fantastic, and it is embossed which I haven't seen on a stamp before (although I'm sure they have existed for a while). Thank you!

The dragon continues onto the back...

Year of the Horse part 3

The final three postcards in the MMSA Year of the Horse swap arrived 4 days after the first batch.

From Joyce and Gina:

From Hester:

Envelope 106

Envelope 106 is another one of the orginals from an old newspaper sunday magazine.

The front:

Continuing my mini-obsession with hiding Johnny Cash in dark space, although he's really not that hidden on this one:

Addressed (correctly, this time!):

Contrasting mountain view 'liner':

And, as always, the back:

St Valentine's Day final part - altered Smash

Smash often sends her envelopes marked 'not to open', meaning they have nothing inside for the recipient to read. This one said 'open' - inside was a description of the paper - a chemically altered  page from National Geographic.

The stamp and writing are perfectly matched to the mysterious paper.

St Valentine's Day part 3 - Cut Paper Heart Color Cancellation from Colorado

This was also waiting for me in my bumper St Valentine's Day mail. I ordered some pre-perforated, dry-gummed sheets for making my own faux stamps from the Olathe Poste. The sheets feed into your printer, you just need to design your stamps and you're in business. No more making perforations by hand with a hypodermic needle for Finnbadger.

Their service is very good, and then on top of that they sent me this thank you card, with a fancy St Valentine's Day cancellation. There's also one of their faux stamps on the envelope.

St Valentine's Day part 2 - triangular envelope from Jan

In addition to the 8 postcards, there was also a neat card/envelope all in one from Jan H.

The front (with extra postage because of the irregular shape)

The back - the whole thing is held together with one large dotty sticky dot.

And when opened, it is really a circle - very clever design.

Thanks, Jan!

St Valentine's Day part 1, Year of the Horse part 2

Last Friday ended up being the best day for mail since I started sending out envelopes, postcards etc under the broad guise of mail art - a total of 8 great postcards and 3 great envelopes!

I received 8 postcards from the MMSA postcard swap, the theme was the Year of the Horse. I sent 11 in for the exchange, so hopefully there are another 3 to come. Scans do not do them justice - many of them are collages, so each has a different feel, and they are different sizes, which the scanner tends to obscure. It was amazing to get all these at once, even though I'd seen many of them on Karen I's website

From Karen Y and Valerie K (the seahorse is a great interpretation of theme, and is one of my favorites):

From Eric (all the way from France!) and Tricia J:

From Susie H and Tina W (the green is an overlay with the horse shape cut out - very cool, and my other favorite of a very cool bunch):

From Currie S and Naila M: 

Pink ink from Smash

Another love-related envelope - Smash breaks out her pink ink. I like the spirals - they make me think of the cancellation wavy lines a bit. I definitely like the address all on one line like that - creates a striking effect.

Colorful chalk from Cathy

I don't know if this is Cathy O's first glossy magazine envelope or not... but it looks great. Who knew that chalk would photograph so well?

Cathy was worried the writing might rub off, but it arrived intact.

Cathy also made a great liner to go with it. Great contrast with the outside.

Friends & Faux postcard 34 addition

I added my faux stamp to the F&F card. It is one of a few stamps I created with faux classic sci fi titles. My own titles were inspired by, and used the colors of, Adam McCauley's genius monster stamps. 

[Adam also has a fantastic sense of humor - check his Comix section out - these would also make amazing stamps]

Karen covered up the previous stamp with a muscle car one. Since it was not franked by the PO, I added 66c to the 49c of a forever stamp to get to the international rate of 1.15, since this one is heading to France next. Nice to have some easy options for variety when sending mail abroad.

I'm getting very interested in the whole faux stamp/artistamp aspect of mail art. And where is the Finnbadger post office located? Fauxhio, of course. I have another F&F card heading my way soon, so there'll be a future update about that.

Valentine from Betty

Betty sent me this great valentine envelope and card. This is one that looks quite different in the light after dark (looks more peach/orange) compared with daylight.

The technique is great - I like the 'splatter' effect a lot (I am sure there is a correct term for it.) I also like the fact that Betty continued the art over and onto the flap - her 'signature' art move, perhaps?

Envelope 192

More black and white face, although no Mr Cash.

Envelope 192.

Stamped.

Addressed.

Interesting pylon on the inside flap.

And the back.

Envelope 190

This is one of the newer ones. Jean will be happy to hear that this is from a glossy magazine.

The way this image was put together reminded me a little of Jan's superb mail art.

It must be Johnny Cash week.

I chose a font that came close to the one used on the stamp.

Lots of faces/face parts in this one, including an interior one.

And the back.

Envelope 117

I seem to be drawn to black and white photographs of faces, both 20 years ago as well as now.

Envelope 117. Sometimes the scanner has a mind of its own in deciding what to scan...

Another chance to hide Mr Cash...I like to think he could be whispering advice in her ear.

Addressed...

And the inside of the flap had another, more candid, face shot (the scanner *really* didn't want to scan this one properly)...

Finally, the back.

Envelope 85

In the envelope exchange, Cathy O was the only one I didn't send one of the envelopes to. I decided it was time to fix that.

Don't be shocked by the non-diagonal format, regular viewers. I love the blue horse in the lower left painting.

The modern art in America stamps are perfect for these vintage envelopes.

I mimicked the painting captions for the address.

And the back. 

Envelope 75

I finally sent some envelopes out...

Number 75 is one of the originals, taken from a glossy magazine. 

I definitely like 'hiding' Mr Cash in dark space. 

This one went to Betty R.

And last but not least, the back.

Paisley

Michelle W sent me this fantastic envelope. I like the address in the corner like that, and the PO didn't mind her cheeky folding of the stamp over the side. My mail is definitely getting more and more colorful and interesting as time goes by.

With my latest arrivals, looks like I should be sending some of my own out...