Sunday Stamps - Music Makers

 I like this theme as it has a wide interpretation.

I chose the stamps I used on this envelope to highlight three individuals who made contributions to music: Johnny Cash, Edith Piaf, and Miles Davis

The Johnny Cash stamp was issued in 2013 as part of the Music Icons series. This remains one of my favorite USPS stamps ever.

The Edith Piaf and Miles Davis stamps were part of a 2012 joint issue with La Poste (France).

Head over to Sunday Stamps for links to more Music Makers

Women on stamps

I sent an envelope with these stamps featuring five different women.

Another bag for Eric

From a fantastic local stationery store that, sadly, has now closed.

A lot of the bags I've sent whole have not been postmarked. This one did receive a giant one, as you can see at Eric's blog post.

Arm Off I & II

Sent to Brooke and Mim in envelopes 669 and 890.

Homemade envelopes

Making my own envelopes started over twenty years ago. I use a template that I made from a commercial envelope, and number them sequentially. Some of the early ones sent back then are in this blog post. I don't remember why I started making them in 1992, or why I stopped (in 1993), but I found some of them a few years ago, and, uninvited, sent the one numbered 100 to Jean. That's the origin of the title of the blog.

Originally I planned for the blog to be dedicated to these envelopes, however I got sucked in to all the aspects of mail art, so they often take a bit of a back seat.

Currently I'm up to number 890. This is what (part of) my box of homemade envelopes looks like right now, with envelopes waiting for the perfect stamp, or occasion:

And here are some recently sent ones.

Number 352 to Patricia (slightly shiny paper from a magazine)

Number 436 to Honi (matte paper from an arts flier)

Number 792 to Eva (thick paper from an old calendar)

And number 846 to Eric (from butcher's paper)

Have you ever made your own envelopes? 

What materials would you choose, and what do you think would make a good envelope?

September exchange - awkward photo calendar envelopes part 2

To Shoshana

To Peggy

To Jean

From Chuck - wonderful art nouveau design in red and black.

Jean & Jan's April envelope exchange - sent

Another great envelope exchange from Jean and Jan. I went with a (mostly) black and white theme, with a little metallic thrown in here and there.

Here are the five for the exchange.

Envelopes for the hosts, plus a bonus one for Hester.

And the group photo.

Tucker is... going shopping

If it's Tuesday, it must be Tucker.

Turned into an envelope.

Happy New Year!

It's midnight in Columbus - welcome to 2015.

Celebrate with a bonus belated birthday envelope I sent to Jan.

Very hard to see the silver writing on the scanned version.

Here's a photo to compare.

Celebrate responsibly!

29 faces in september part II: envelopes 387, 295 & 357

4/29: # 387 to jan

Accompanied by Ms Piaf and addressed in lower case

Au revoir

_____________________

5/29: #295 to Terrie

I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of Johnny Cash in this series. 

The back

_____________________

6/29: # 357 to Tony

The colors on the envelope reminded me of Lydia Mendoza's stamp as well as the cut paper heart one.

The back.

Envelope 95 / Exchange 3

Jean W requested this - she wrote that it is her new favorite. Hopefully Jan liked it, too (Jean didn't say). This is one of the vintage ones from 20 years ago, so I have no recollection what the article was about.

As part of the envelope exchange Jean organized, I sent out my handmade envelopes (with 1 exception).

Here's the one I sent to Jan. This one must have been part of a large newspaper sheet as I managed to get the main subject centrally located.

I had a couple of ideas about a stamp for this one to keep with the black and white theme. I really like placing the Johnny Cash stamp in unusual places.... the portrait above the seated woman almost had his face instead. Finally I thought the best choice was the Edith Piaf stamp. The lettering on the stamp is very subtle, you can hardly even see the 'USA' and 'Forever' on it. Even the dark red 'Edith Piaf' doesn't stand out. I liked the contrast between the severe-looking women on the paper and the sophistication of the stamp (and the woman on the inside).

For the address I went with simple sans-serif all caps on either side of the main subject's face.

One of the factors that swayed me to use Edith Piaf's stamp was the fact that the inside of the envelope shows part of a woman's face. 10 bonus points for identifying her.

And, as always, the back. The black and (faded) white gives a nice effect, and there's the third portrait.