January exchange birds from Smash

Lots of fun birds from Smash.

Envelope 126 to DKULT

Sent to DKULT

Karen's exchange part 3

The first two genius incoming envelopes from Karen and Smash made me smile.

Karen's:

and Smash's:

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Maggie's feather and bird are stunning.

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Joi's envelope is so elegant. The writing is in gold, so the scans do NOT do it justice.

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Garth sent this beautiful envelope - orange calligraphy matching the Western Tanager's head. 

And inside, more orange on the feet and beaks of Charley Harper's 'Passing Puffins'.

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Although Jonelle's 'send to' address is in the US, her envelope was posted in Sweden. An abstract landscape - right up my alley.

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And one from Julie wishing me a happy New Year. Certainly this has been a great year so far for mail!

Winter exchange - test envelopes part 2

Hester sent this test envelope, but as far as I am concerned it is the real deal. It is made from a sample of wallpaper! Sadly, even though the stamps are carefully hand canceled, they didn't escape a cruel scribble.

The back, with intriguing instructions on how to open - just as well, as otherwise I would have been confused. Love the birds in their Santa hats.

Hester made this neat resealable flap. And even the inside is beautiful.

And the note was written on this - I think this is also wallpaper. A very cool start to Winter exchange mail received!

Envelope exchange from Alyce, plus bonus envelopes

This came from Alyce. Color pencil added to some of the letters and loops is so effective in the right hands, i.e. Alyce and Jean. I doubt I could pull this off even half as well.

When I turned it over to open it, this line was mysteriously written on the back.

And inside was, as advertised, the exchange envelope.

Turns out the post office had delivered it straight back to Alyce - I guess the sorting machine must have read the return address on the back, even though the zip is larger and clearer on the front.

As a thanks for the bonus envelope, I sent Alyce #279, another one from an old Rothko calendar.

I even brought myself to part with the second of my sheet of Earthscape stamps.

Simple address.

Envelope exchange 2014: from Elena

This beauty is the first envelope to arrive in the exchange.

The back is very nicely done, too. Thank you, Elena.

Envelope 161 - whalebird

I've had this envelope in the stack for a while, waiting for a decent stamp to go with it. The sperm whale is a solid grey - for some reason the scanner tends to produce waves on many of my scanned images.

This bluebird fit the bill.

Addressed in blue to jean, who I need to send quite a few envelopes to to take care of the backlog.

And the back.

Envelope 263 - Charley Harper - Red-eyed Vireos

Jean sent me all the great FinnBird envelopes earlier in the year, and I finally found the perfect envelope to thank her.

This one's made from a Charley Harper calendar.

The front.

Stamped.

Addressed.

And the back.

FinnOreole

This is Jean's best one yet. She noted that she found it hard to part with, but I'm glad she did.

Songbirds on red

The songbirds stamps are great for pulling colors from to match envelopes.

I like to overpay for overseas mail to get a variety of stamps for the recipient. (Don't get me wrong, I do like the global stamps, but they get a bit monotonous).

Jan's small envelope and ATC

Jan sent me this great small envelope (4.5x3.75 inches) made from a catalogue page.

Inside was this unexpected and beautiful ATC of a bird. Tough to make out on the scan, but the bird's eye and on three corners are tiny black beads.

7 days of Jean - 4: Another FinnBird

Inside 'I'll fly away' was this beauty:

7 days of Jean - 1: FinnBird

A lot of mail from Jean recently as she's been in desk-clearing mode.

This one is really clever - Jean took the colors of the stamp and used them to write Finn in large letters, and Badger in small blossom letters. The scanner didn't do a good job of this:

And my own photo didn't do much better, but at least you can see the pale blue. This one is much better in person.