pushing the envelopes - exchange

Jean and Jan are organizing an envelope exchange.

Check the details here and consider signing up - this was a lot of fun last time.

Envelope exchange.

Year of the Horse Preview

Today is the final day of the Year of the Snake. For the past 6 years the USPS has issued really nice cards to go with the stamps, particularly for the Year of the Ox, but for some reason (financial?) they did not so for the Year of the Horse.

I had been playing around with a circular design for the Lunar Year animals, so decided to color them taking cues from the Lunar New Year of the Horse stamp, which I think is very attractive. I printed them out in 12 different designs as postcards and sent them to everyone from Jean W's envelope exchange plus a few friends and family members. 

I stumbled upon Karen's postcard swap blog in time to send a duplicate set off to her for distribution. The way Karen I and her super-organized swap works, I should receive 11 postcards in return (I sent one to Karen to thank her for organizing the swap).

Good fortune to all this year!

Betty brightens my day

Betty R sent me this lovely card thanking me for the envelopes I sent her in the exchange. Turns out she is a huge fan of Man Ray. The card is Betty's own art. Great to receive in this cold freezing arctic, snowy weather when it feels like the White Witch will reign forever.

The envelope has fun tape on it - a nice detail is the cut-out for the 'To:" flag.

Exchange 15 - Candy heart

I received this from Candy W in the envelope exchange.

I really like the flourishes on the ascenders that loop down below the letters. Thanks, Candy!

I have always admired calligraphy, and had a lot of respect for calligraphers. I would love to be able to create these amazing letters, but don't have the time to invest in learning. So it has been great to see so many different styles of writing on the envelopes.

Envelope 88 : Exchange 14

This should be the last of the envelopes I sent.

The front:

Stamped: I popped the international stamp where three countries' borders come together.

Addressed: I chose an area for the address that wouldn't cover the neat city-markers, and emulated the font of the country names (see the back view below or the front view above). Maybe I should have tried to cover the '?' a bit better? 

The back:

Envelopes 79 & 93 : Exchange 13

I still have a couple of envelope exchange entries to go.

My first response to Betty R was envelope 79. The front: the lady at the very top of the flap is my favorite.

Stamped: I like the contrast of the sharp-eyed poet with the deckchair sleepers.

Addressed:

And the back:

When I was finished, I wasn't 100% happy with it, so I sent a second envelope. I'm not quite sure what I didn't like so much, maybe the address should have been horizontal. I like it better on the blog, I think - maybe I was just being nitpick.

This envelope also had a woman's face on the 'liner', and in this case I have no idea who she is, an actress most likely.

The front of number 93: this is one of the glossy magazine envelopes. 

Stamped: there really was no other choice here.

Addressed: I emulated the stamp lettering. Perhaps this could have worked better if it was lower down, but I liked the overall effect.

And the back.

Exchange 12 - olives

I bought a card from my local card & wine store, and the card came in this bag - the red is very similar to the outer petals on the red/green kaleidoscope stamp...

...which I sent to Jean as an envelope thank you for organizing the envelope exchange - her address has a lot of Os and zeroes so I retrofitted them to the circles on the bag...

...unfortunately I used the incorrect address, but the PO came through and delivered it correctly!

Exchange 11 - Mr Charles, resplendent in orange

Cathy O sent this as part of the envelope exchange.

I think the Ray Charles stamp would brighten anyone's day - and he really looks good on this orange (hand made) envelope with the fun white dots. I also like Cathy's penmanship on my name - I have been trying to create a neat 'PL' logo, and I may have to steal the P and L from here and see what i can come up with. 

Just like the envelope I sent to Cathy, hers also made it through the system unscathed.

Jean's Gingerbread Letters / Exchange 10

Jean W has had many creative ideas for using the Gingerbread Houses stamps.

I like her Gingerbread House 'font' very creative!

This one contained a thank you from Jean for my taking part in the envelope exchange.

Envelope 136 / Exchange 9 / Happy New Year!

I think out of all the envelopes I sent in the exchange this one that I sent to Smash was my favorite. I think it was also the only one of the new batch.

Envelope 136

Stamped: this one was such a colorful envelope that I struggled a lot with what stamp to choose. In the end I felt that the vibrant colors and energy of the Celia Cruz stamp worked really well. (This is one of the stamps that never thought I'd have an envelope for).

I copied the style of the pink-on-turquoise text for the address - I had some concerns about legibility, however I went with it - I like sending things out into the mailverse and seeing what happens.

And finally, the back.

Thanks for stopping by the blog, have a great 2014, hopefully with some creative mail ideas.

Envelope 81 / Exchange 8

Here's the handmade envelope I sent to Jack M.

Since I placed the stamp on top of the pyramid-shaped address, there is just a stamp+address scan. I placed the global stamp upside down (as an aside, apparently some people have had trouble deciding which way up it is supposed to go - to which I say, it is all a matter of perspective, or maybe geography).

And as always, the back.

Happy New Year!

Exchange 7 - Mail Art with a capital M

Jan H sent me this piece of mail art - and by mail art I mean MAIL ART.

The stitching of the plastic outer 'case' is hard to appreciate on the scan (that's the zigzag pattern). The scan really doesn't do it justice, as the envelope has a lot of depth due to the layering of the paper strips. The contents look great - and the stamps used are an excellent compliment. I wonder if the contents of the envelope resemble Jan's brain?

Envelopes 68 and 92 / Exchange 6

Michelle sent me the great racetrack envelope as part of the exchange.

I first sent envelope 92... it is one of the 20 yr old ones, but I think it is a Georgia O'Keefe poppy.

I chose the O'Keefe stamp from the modern art set. I think it may have been a bit too large for the envelope, and perhaps competes too much with it for attention.

I tried to get the address to be a reflection of the red on black, but really it didn't work for me at all. The black is too stark, too square, too something. I felt that I had completely disfigured this envelope!

Fortunately I hadn't touched the back, which I think is stunning. Hopefully if Michelle displays this one she keeps it turned this way!

This is the problem with these unique envelopes. Once they're done, they're done - and so my options were to send it or trash it (and the stamp). So I sent it, and I also decided that Michelle deserved better, and sent her a second homemade envelope. I think this one worked much much better. 

Envelope 68 - another one on flimsy glossy magazine paper.

Stamped - I am really enjoying hiding Mr Cash in the black parts of my envelopes.

Addressed - I tried to evoke the name tags on the astronauts.

This one also came with a fun 'liner' - an orange that reminded me of a rising (or setting) sun.

And of course, the back.

Thanks to the inter webs, I could find out a little bit about the image on this one - it was from Capricorn One, a British film from 1977. Link to IMDB if you're interested.

Exchange 5 - Gingerbread snow scene

As part of Jean's envelope exchange I sent everyone on the list one of my home made envelopes except Cathy. No real reason other than I had an idea for something that would work with the gingerbread house stamps, and I'd already sent all of my Christmas mail. (I'll have to remember this one for next year).

The stamp and dark blue 'sky' matched better in real life than they do on the scan (at least I think they did).

Hopefully this one didn't suffer any delivery issues.

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.

Exchange 2

This one's from Betty. Very cheerful and colorful.

And I like that she continued her artwork on the back flap (I smudged the return address out)...

Thanks, Betty!

Exchange 1

The first envelope from Jean's envelope exchange list arrived.

Thanks, Michelle! 

And thanks to Jean  for organizing.

I really like the placement of the muscle car stamp on the track.