B is for Butterfly

For the letter B of the Sunday Stamps A to Z I chose butterfly.

Here is one on envelope 780 (scanned with envelope 782, which has a 150th anniversary of Louisiana Statehood stamp).

This particular butterfly is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and was issued by USPS as a non-denominational stamp bearing the mouthful 'Non-machinable surcharge'. It is the fifth in the series, and is square to give an indication that it is intended for 1 oz letters that are square or non-rectangular. This stamp can also be used to mail a 2 oz machinable letter.

To see what others chose of their letter B, head over to the links at Sunday Stamps.

Colored pencils

A calendar page I colored with inktense pencils, then went over with a paintbrush, and sent to Jean.

And a bonus envelope from Kathie M from a coloring page. I like the bonus ladybird on the back.

April envelopes received

Here are the fab envelopes I received in April. There's a lot of green... must be spring.

From Cathy. I love how the colors match the flowers on the stamp.

From Jean. I'm loving the draw out letters here. And the color matched stamps.

From Jeanae. Great calligraphy. And I always have to think twice when typing your name :)

From Hester. Great artistamp, insect and Oscar stamps.

From Kathie. Love the WPA Posters stamp here, hiding in the bushes on this John Rush painting.

From Smash. I never thought I'd receive this stamp myself - thanks so much!

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.)

December 2016

Another calendar page, sent to Kathie.

Ides of postcards

A handsome buck from Kathie.

And New Year's wishes on a clever card from Eva.

Black Forest

Kathie's black and white dendritic piece... perfect for Halloween, or if you're watching American Horror Story: Roanoke.

Cars and dendrites

Kathie sent me an envelope made from a bag from a shop a friend received in South Africa!

And inside was this great dendritic art piece.

If you check back in around 1pm Pacific time (4pm Eastern), you can see another piece she made that is perfect for Halloween.

And she's also on the Year of the Monkey blog today.

Thanks for a great mail art package, Kathie!

It's in the trees...

Also from last year's October envelope exchange, this stunner from Kathie.

Paper Source & USPS in Cahoots over Colors?

The colorful celebrations stamps seem to match perfectly with a recent Paper Source catalogue.

An envelope and collage to Kathie

And one of each to Rose.

Ides of postcards

Another postcard from Keith.

And one from Honi, thanking me for sending chicken-related MMSA postcards.

The statement on the back made me smile.

A cigar box graphic on a postcard from Kathie, with vintage postage stamps added.

And another postcard from Keith - happy Dada.

Ides of postcards

Another message from Keith.

And this is what Jackie did with her left over easter egg coloring supplies.

And a postcard from LWA.

Kathie sent this wonderful art piece.

Flies from Mail Art Martha.

March exchange envelopes received

From Jean - love the vintage airmail stamps

From Florence - great idea to use the 3c star stamps with 20c stamps to get to 49.

From Marti - I like how she chose a couple of different things in the address to highlight with a thicker pen.

From Kathie, an envelope made from wrapping paper with lovely matching stamp.

And Nancy's envelope, where she used a fun ombré effect for my name, and extended the thistle the bird is perched on.

Jetpack

Envelope 414

Who is Eduardo - this was supposed to be the finale but the deadline was extended to April 30th!

This one really is not the last one. You still have time to send Eduardo something!!

I was playing around with all the Os in the address for Who is Eduardo Munez, thinking about using them as a large interchange station for another metro-themed envelope, when a different idea emerged.

This style also worked really well for Eva, stripygoose,  and MomKat. The printer didn't always cooperate perfectly, but that's life!

I also sent a couple out in Jean & Jan's March envelope exchange.

White shapes III - VI

To Malok.

To Jon F

To Kathie

To Jason

Still more brown red and white envelopes

Number 633 to Eva

...numbers 653 and 654 to Kathie and Adrienne...

...numbers 649 and 650 to Nikki and Rose...

...and numbers 647 and 652 to Honi and Pamela. That's the last of them!