Raven Story

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is stories and fairytales. One of my favorite stamps with this theme is the Raven Story, issued by USPS in 2021.

The National Postal Museum website has a nice description of the meaning of the Raven in northwest American native cultures. The stamp features a Raven that is transitioning from human form to avian form - you can see the hand shape at the bottom of the stamp. The stars and orbs are highlighted in gold foil, representing the Raven as lightbringer.

I used these stamp in a Pushing the Envelopes envelope exchange earlier in the year, making envelopes from calendar pages showcasing inuit art.

For links to more stamps with today's theme, head over to See it on a Postcard

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see...

...except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together. 

JD Salinger

I sent one of my literary calendar cat envelopes to CJ. I love the clever design of the main image. CJ liked it, too, and you can see how it traveled on her blogpost from last week.

Strawberry Moon

The June full moon is known in the US as the strawberry moon. This was sent to MomKat.

Flower moon

The last in this series of moon mail, sent to Fabienne. Blogged today as it is the full moon known in north America as the flower moon.

Earth's moon in all its glory - and a place humans have been to, and will probably go to again.

1984

It feels sometimes and in some ways that we are living in the novel 1984.

Pink Moon

Today's full moon is known as the pink moon in north America. This is moon mail sent to Heleen.

This one of Saturn's moons, Iapetus, which is named after a Titan in Greek mythology.

Heleen's cat...

A great quote on this envelope I made to send to Heleen.

It seems to me to be just as apt for today's world.

Fafa's cat...

A cat family sent to Fafa, made from a calendar page.

Worm moon

Here is a piece of moon mail sent to Eva, shown today in honor of the full moon - known as the worm moon in north America.

This is Phobos, one of Mars' moons, and shaped a bit like a potato. Perhaps one day humans will land there.

Snow moon

Here's some moon mail sent to Katerina. Tomorrow is this month's full moon - in north America it is referred to as the snow moon. So far this year we've been almost snow free with no significant snowfall.

This is Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.

Not all those who wander are lost

An envelope made from a calendar page and sent to Eva, with a famous quote from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

You may not be able to tell but the cat's eyes are yellow, which led me to choose the moon stamp.

Anyone doing any happy wandering this month?

Space

An exchange envelope for Suzanne made from a calendar.

Q is for Quilled Heart

The watercolor calendar envelopes work well with other stamps, too. Here is the Quilled Heart stamp on envelope 778 (and the 2015 non-machinable butterfly on 779).

Quilling is the art of using scrolled paper to make 3D artistic compositions. Wikipedia has some info, but better is to google  'quilling' to look for images, many of which are stunning.

The Quilled Heart stamp is the 2016 entry into the USPS Love series. Digital images of this stamp do seem more vibrant and show more detail than the actual stamp, although it has grown on me.

For more stamps with a Q theme, head over to browse the links at Sunday Stamps.

Watercolor calendar envelopes

Some more of the envelopes I harvested from a large watercolor calendar titled 'Fairies'. I continue to be impressed by how well they pair with the botanical art stamps. These are envelopes 784, 808, 793, 795, 783, 786, 807, 777, 794 and 810.

Calendar envelope from Katerina

This nice envelope from Katerina...

...contained this collage and another colorful minizine.

Aerial views on Sunday Stamps

Perhaps the ultimate aerial view of the earth on the first US international stamp to bear the non-denominational designation, 'Global Forever', issued in 2013, and replacing previous air mail stamps issued with a small plane symbol.

Used on this 'envelope' made from panels of a kleenex box and sent to Eric.

And if the camera turned around, you'd have an aerial view of the moon, issued as a Global stamp in 2016. Tonight is supposed to be a giant full moon, so I hope it is clear this evening. If not, I'll just have to make do with this envelope I sent to Eva, made from a calendar page.

Hopefully I didn't break the rules too much this week. For more aerial views on postage, head over to the links at Sunday Stamps.

Two cool cats

A cat by Charley Harper, and the coolest of cats, Ray Charles, on a calendar page envelope sent to Fabienne.

The Politics of Dancing

A double collage

sent to Katerina

and Erni.

Full moon today

These are the moons I sent out for the February envelope exchange.

And a bonus moon envelope to Eric, showing his birthday month. The writing and moons glow in the dark.

Solar system (II)

S is also for stamps. Not every mail artist cares about the postage stamps - for many they just serve the purpose of getting the art from A to B through the postal system. 

Since I got back into mail art I do try and think of creative ways to use postage stamps to enhance the mail art by theme, color, and sometimes even number.

The planets of your solar system set issued by the post office last year are very nicely done, and have afforded me the opportunity to make some fun envelopes.

Using old wall calendar pages to make the envelopes, here are the exchange envelopes I sent out for April.

Do you have a favorite stamp?

And if you're wondering why this post is titled Solar System (II), you can see my first Solar System blog post here.

I used all of the planets stamps on another piece of mail art here.

(PS: I have a bonus letter S that will show up on the blog tomorrow if you feel like checking back in.)