Envelope 64

A bed of nails...

...and butterflies...

...for mailarteeth.

Christophe received the envelope, and described it as:

Rêve de Fakir

Elles sont fines, acérées et d'un bel acier bleuté.

Les beaux papillons bleus qui volent au dessus d'elles sont totalement insouciants, mais ils sont si légers, que pourrait-il leur arriver ?

Translates as:

Dream of the fakir

They are thin, sharp and a beautiful steel blue. 

The lovely blue butterflies flying above them are totally unconcerned, but they are so light, what could happen to them?

Sounds so much better in French!

Envelope exchange 2014: from Jean

Jean sent me this minimalist envelope. I think the fern stamps are excellent. You don't see them much, as they are used on mass mailings unless you order them from USPS directly.

And there was a bonus envelope inside. I am a big fan of Warhol; this was perfect. And it's a bird on head.

At first I thought the minimalist envelope was for the exchange... then the *real* exchange envelope arrived.

Envelope 424

One of Picasso's women.

With Duchamp's Nude descending a staircase, No. 2.

Sent to Jean.

There was an another woman in the 'liner'.

Bonus post - pumpkins to Cathy O

Not sure why I keep sending orange envelopes to Cathy. Here's my thank you for her cool envelope in the exchange.

Stamped with a Farmers Market stamp.

The orange back.

If you're in the US - Happy Thanksgiving.

Envelope exchange 2014: from Cathy O

One of the things I love about Jean & Jan's envelope exchange is the wide variety in artful envelopes I receive.

This cool one is from Cathy. She covered up blue and red color pencil with black crayon, then carved my name out!

Thank you.

Envelope 208

These rowers made me think of New England. Sadly the scanner decided to find a million waves that weren't there.

Which made me think of this stamp.

Sent to Hester.

And the back.

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I just noticed that this is post 300... and the blog just passed 20,000 views - thanks, everyone.

Triangle 817 to Valentine Mark Herman

Sent to Valentine Marke Herman (from IUOMA).

Envelope 415

More cartoon drawings for Cara.

And one of the cool Pixar stamps to accompany it.

I had a hard time deciding where to put the address. Maybe it should have been handwritten on the comic book.

And the back.

Envelope exchange 2014: from Chuck M

I love the graphic design of this envelope. I *think* Chuck drew all the small lines on the border - I would never have the patience for that - great effect. Thank you.

Envelope 438

This is another one from a Walter J Philips calendar, Poplar Bay, the Lake of the Woods.

Even though it is not a Far East scene, it does make me think of a Japanese woodblock print, so I used a bonsai stamp.

Addressed in the shimmery part of the lake to Care.

5éme Journee Mondiale Du Faux Timbre D'artiste

For the 5th Annual World Faux Postage Artist Day, Tony M designated Eni Looka to receive all the free mail.

Tony is documenting all the mail on his blog (in French) - the link is in the list to the right of the blog.

Here are the faux stamps I made on the mail I sent.

Envelope 315

I liked this chicken.

And I was entertained by hiding Johnny in its rear end. Maybe I should have used one of the chef stamps?

Addressed around the feet.

And the back. (Yes, another one for the 'sick mind' file - that is indeed fried chicken on the plate).

Petrolpetal

I finally did decide to join IUOMA - a couple of people from MMSA are active there. There are some extremely welcming people - Petrolpetal promised to send me mail art, however a postal strike in South Africa lasting around 3 months prevented this from getting here until recently (arrived 10 November, postmarked 26 September).

She wrote 'messy' on the back - I love it, very abstract. She included three great mail art postcards - now I have to decide if I should keep them or mail them forward.

In the interim I had sent envelope 446 sent to Petrolpetal of IUOMA. I love the small yellow lego face.

Stamped - I'm beginning to like this global stamp a bit more, very useful for envelopes with lots of colors - and of course I only have one left and USPS is sold out of them.

(Edit: mysteriously these stamps are for sale again at USPS.com)

Simple address label.

And the back.

Post is on the move again in SA, so hopefully Petrolpetal will have a mail bonanza this month.

Update: this just in from petrolpetal... the mail must be on the move as this envelope arrived. It has a really odd frank on - or maybe it was franked twice? In either case, even though the stamp and address are in fairly standard positions, the address was cancelled.

Maybe it should be petrolmetal, as part of the contents is a stamped piece of metal from a beer can!

Envelope 360

Fantastic image on this one.

It looked better vertically aligned.

Really interesting image in the 'liner'.

Addressed.

And the back, which I also like.

Bonus mail and artistamps

On Halloween I mentioned there was a part of Carroll D's 'ghost' card that would feature in a future blogpost.

She makes amazing faux postage, and included one of her stamps on the card.

I was very lucky to receive an amazing envelope from Carroll as part of the MMSA envelope exchange. Normally the participants send the postcard mail art to Karen, who mails them all out. Many of the people involved decorate the envelopes they send their inbound art in.

For the envelope challenge, Karen sent the envelopes back in someone else's inbound envelope.

I love this rabbit, and the artistamps. Definitely lucky to receive my envelopes in this beauty.

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On the subject of stamps, this graphic card came the same day as Carroll's card from Eva , who is one of 2 (official) followers of this blog.

And on the back was a great cat stamp, as well as this very attractive Spanish stamp.

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Another bonus card showed up with Eva's, this one from Terrie thanking me for the found poetry card I sent her.

I've been receiving some amazing mail lately - thanks to everyone who takes the time to send me something.

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USPS has released some of next year's stamps.

Check them out at virtualstampclub's website. 

I like the Year of the Ram stamp, the new $1 and $2 designs, the waterlilies, and my favorite is the Summer Harvest set. 

Which ones are you looking forward to?

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And bonus stamps received. I don't think they are truly vintage, but they have that look to them.