Zero

Tony is the king of faux postage, and sent this to me in 2017. 

Pinup

Tony blows my mind as he mails almost everything with artistamps.

Bonus Christmas Mail

Some great mail arrived on Christmas Eve, so not enough time to blog it.

A December envelope for Jean and Jan's exchange from Eric...

...and Eric sent me a beautiful Christmas card...

...which had a fun Santa postage sticker on the envelope.

More surprises arrived on the 26th. Large Christmas and New Year's wishes from Tony M.

With a cool personalized postage stamp on the front...

and neat rubber stamping on the back.

Thanks, everyone, it was wonderful to receive such great mail around the holidays.
_________________

Bonus video. I have a link on the right side to OpenInkStand Calligraphy. For her Christmas mail, Schin Loong sent out her cards addressed in the shape of a santa face. How I'd like to be on her Christmas list! Here is a video she uploaded showing her work.

Reused

I often think Tony has a deal with the devil. Here he reused my return address label to send this envelope to me, placed it in an unusual position, used a faux stamp, and it still arrived!

This was in thanks for my participation in the 6th world faux stamp artist day. The envelope is actually half of a reused envelope. Great stuff.

Today is the 6th World Day of Faux Stamp Artists - 6ème Journée Mondiale du Faux Timbre d'Artiste

Every year for the last 6 years, Tony M, of Post Nomade, has been able to get La Poste, the French postal service, to allow artistamps or faux stamps to be used for one day as real postage. The mail has to go to a specific address. I have taken part for the last few years, and usually mail my envelope to Tony for him to post in France for me.

My stamps.

Real and faux stamps on the big envelope to Tony.

Smaller envelope for the special day.

You should be able to see other entries by clicking here.

POSTNOM&DE

Tony M is having an exhibit, and it is something to do with &. I have done very little stamping like this, and although I like the result it is by no means the nice clean envelope I had in mind when I started. Even though I was using a cheap kit from target, it gave me a new appreciation for stampers.

Mini-French series - finale

Remember last year's world day of faux stamp artists organized by Tony M? For 2014 all the faux stamped mail was sent to Eni Looka. I created 5 pentagonal stamps celebrating the 5th year of this festive occasion, and sent 5 pieces of mail to Tony so that he could mail them in France, where La Poste agreed to allow faux postage on mail to Eni to be accepted and delivered.

Eni sent this amazing and huge (9x9 inches) envelope in thanks. Note the beautiful circular faux stamp he used. not sure what the big blue T is about (presumably a postal mark), but no actual stamps anywhere to be seen.

The underlying colors behind the cut design came from this. I think this is pretty fancy wrapping paper - sumptuous colors. Amazing how something can be covered up a little and change its appearance completely.

He is clearly a master of cut paper. Inside were these well wishes for 2015. So clever that the letters e and a, and the numbers 2 and 5 all have the same shape.

And a large, uncolored design of the stamp with Eni's note.

Thank you very much, Eni, this is amazing.

Christmas Eve with Tony

Mail from Tony always feels like a present. 

I sent my entries for the 5th world day of faux stamp artists to Tony, and none of the stamps were cancelled, so he used them on his return envelope:

The back:

His message was to reuse the stamps, so I made a few small alterations, and sent it back:

And the rear view:

Triangles 818 and 819

To Tony

To Laurence

5éme Journee Mondiale Du Faux Timbre D'artiste

For the 5th Annual World Faux Postage Artist Day, Tony M designated Eni Looka to receive all the free mail.

Tony is documenting all the mail on his blog (in French) - the link is in the list to the right of the blog.

Here are the faux stamps I made on the mail I sent.

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.

Tony M sends my circles back

I have been placing postcards inside most of the envelopes I send out to give them some weight.

Looks like I forgot to write anything on this one I sent to Tony, so he wrote the address on the front. I like how he used one of the circles to center his return address stamp.

Then he put his message on the back. This is another piece of mail art with postage divided between the front and back - not sure that would be allowed by the USPS, maybe it's time for a post office test.

Fun face from Tony M

Tony sent this fantastic piece of mail art from France.

Sadly, the red nose didn't make it all the way here.

The stamps are the French version of US sites like zazzle where you upload your own images to make stamps (and no nasty giant barcode or company name!!). The image on the stamps is from Tony's world's largest artistamp.

You can see what the collection originally looked like before they were all sent out at this link: postenomade

Paper bag 2

I received another great paper bag from my local card & wine store, which I sent to Tony M in France. Fortunately I still have some kaleidoscope stamps left that go well with the reddish color.

Mail art from France - with bonus stamps!

I love getting mail art from Tony M - he always has such interesting compositions. This one has a postcard inside, with a story behind it (and a behind on the front of it, badumbum).

And the other sides....

Now go back and take a look at that stamp on the envelope - it is a stamp made from the sheet of faux postage stamps of my 3D letters that I sent Tony way back when - very cool! The French equivalent of Zazzle etc is so much better - much more focus on the uploaded picture, and none on the company. 

Thank you, Tony, this was a very special envelope indeed!

Lundi Lettres - Mail Monday finale

Tony M sent me this great envelope with a picture of him at 5, some faux stamps including one of him at 57, and some real stamps including one made on line where you upload an image and, for an extra fee, they make stamps from it. I like the French version of this more than the US version (like Zazzle) because you can upload multiple images (Zazzle is only 1 image per sheet) and there is no ugly barcode , allowing the image to dominate. Love the size, too. 

Front and back:

New number one, and aluminum can mail

I check my blog's stats occasionally, and the post about the first envelope I sent to Jean (envelope 100) has been the most viewed... until now.

The new top dog is envelope 81, which I sent to Jack M in the envelope exchange.

Tied in third place are the gingerbread snow scene I sent to Cathy O in the exchange, and the paisley envelope Michelle W sent me.

Rounding out the top 5 is the 3D address I sent to Smash.

And in completely unrelated news, Tony M has blogged about a piece of mail art that you have to see to believe. Kudos to La Poste for delivering it, and to the mail artist who made it.

Incredible mail art

This post over at postenomade contains one of the most amazing pieces of mail art I have ever seen. It is the last image in the post, so you may need to scroll down. Tony's blog is in French, although he does answer my comments in Emglish.

La Poste - verso verso

Tony M sent me a great postcard labeled Verso Verso. The idea is that after receiving the card you flip it over and send it back.

Of course Tony sent it with a faux stamp.

I did send it back with a faux stamp in the shape of a cat, but did affix postage. I placed the inverted Jenny stamp on its side. I'm such a rebel.

La Poste

Tony M sent me these great art postcards in response to my faux stamp entries in this year's World Faux Stamp Artist Day.

And in true Tony style, he used faux stamps to mail them, which La Poste and USPS delivered without batting an eyelash.

Vive la poste!