Food for Peace

The theme for this week's Sunday Stamps is food, and the stamps on this envelope that Jean sent almost two years ago fit the bill.

The 5c food for peace stamp promoting freedom from hunger was issued June 4, 1963 on the first day of the World Food Congress held in Washington DC.

For more links to food on stamps, click here to go to Sunday Stamps.

Orange is the warmest color

Incoming mail art from Pat L.

Sent in this envelope - with quite the stamp selection.

I love the simplicity of this exchange envelope from Jean, along with the vintage stamps.

Green!

This fantastic envelope from Grace arrived just in time for St Patrick's Day with a whole lot of green and gold.

1c

Once upon a time postage for postcards was 1c (in 1898, and again between 1919 and 1952). And of course 1c stamps were needed for make up rates.

Jean sent me this bonus envelope. The calligraphy details are beautiful and perfect to go with this stamp. The writing is greener in person, the scanner darkened it a touch.

P is for President, Progress, Producer, Poet, Politician, Philosopher, Playwright, Plane and Pentathlete (and Postage).

I bought a set of envelopes with vintage stamps in a 'masculine' theme from Edelweiss post. I had wanted to send one to Eric, so I had to wait until I could make up the international postage with two modern stamps that had a similar color palette.

I'll leave it up to you to make the connections to the P themes and the stamps.

For more P themes on stamps, head over to the links at Sunday Stamps.

Found on the street

In from Connie Jean. I'm loving the rubber stamps and the vintage postage.

To find out what was so compelling on the other side, click here.

Tall Ships on Sunday Stamps

Today's theme for Sunday Stamps is Tall Ships.

There is one on this envelope that I purchase from Edelweiss Post. Issued in 1983, it celebrates the tricentennial of German immigration to the New World on the Concord. This was a joint issue with Germany, and you can read more about this issue here.

I received this wonderful envelope and matching card (collage) from Susan. Of the many beautiful vintage stamps, one is titled Roanoke Voyages, issued in 1984 celebrating 400 years since the first English settlers arrived on the east coast. The names of the vessels involved are no longer known. More details about the release here.

One of the stamps celebrating the centennial of the US National Park Service features a tall ship. I have sent this one a few times, although never received it myself.

From the US National Park Service website: 'The San Francisco Maritime stamp depicts the square-rigger Balclutha and steam tugboat Hercules anchored in the park.' The Balclutha dates from 1886, and the Hercules from 1907.

You can read more about this National Park here.

And you can see more Tall Ships on postage by checking out the links here.

Sunday Stamps - places of worship

I had to look hard for a stamp for today - finally found this vintage one I received from Finland.

It is a picture of Lammi Church in Lammi, Finland built in the early 1500s. It was issued in 1956 with a value of 30, this version is from 1957.

For links to more postal places of worship, head over to Sunday Stamps.

Teeth

Christophe has a project titled MailArTeeth. You can see all his tooth-related mail art here.

He sent me this nice envelope and card to wish me happy 2017.

I've been contributing every now and again for a while now. Here's my latest contribution - I hope it made it, as it was 12 x 12 inches!

(And a confession - I mailed it in a mailing box and it sort of got stuck a little bit, fairly far inside - I couldn't get it to fall all the way into the box, so hopefully that didn't annoy a postal worker).

Update - it arrived in France, slightly bent, and not even postmarked!

Here it is before it's travels.

What do you think about teeth as a mail art topic?

Would you be grossed out or entertained by receiving something like this through the mail?

Gnome calendar

Great mail art from Steve, aka Minneapolis Gnome.

Arriving in this homemade envelope

A fun Gnome calendar for 2017!

And a bonus piece of protest art.

If you were making your own mail art calendar to send out, what would you choose for the monthly pictures?

Envelope exchange

I've been taking part in Jean's monthly envelope exchanges for a few years now. Always a great variety incoming. These are the March envelopes I received.

From Amy - I'm loving the silver technique she used on the envelope. And of course the note on the Charley Harper art. And as she wrote, check out the 5.3c vintage non-profit stamp.

Fun rubber stamps from Cathy. The colors work so well with the La Florida stamp from a few years ago.

St Patrick's day luck in green and gold from Jannie.

Jean sent this great graphic piece inside a glassine envelope. Love the clever use of the C as part of the address.

And this awesome envelope with one of my favorite stamps ever from Royal Mail from Tina M.

A couple of bags

One received from Jean - I love the coffeepots facing off (spouting off?) and the vintage stamps - in particular the fantastic Leif Ericsson stamp.

And one sent to Eric

January exchange from Amy

I love the bubbles and the chemistry stamp - and even the balloon has a similar shape to the flasks.

January envelope exchanges in from Jean and Rachael

Beautiful calligraphy and vintage stamps from Jean. The Illinois stamp is particularly nice.

Really clever rubber stamping from Rachael.

Wild Animals on Sunday Stamps

I received these vintage wildlife conservation stamps (issued in 1972) on mail art sent by JAD.

For more wild postage animals, head to Sunday Stamps.

October exchange - decorative writing edition

A fun modern font from Flo, and some great shaded lettering from Jean. Also, note the awesome vintage zip stamp.

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.

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.

Sunday stamps - invertebrates

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is invertebrates. Go here for links to more stamps.

Some time ago, Smash sent me this great envelope with a vintage stamp titled Synthetic Fuels, from a set of 4 designed by Charley Harper.

I have not received the others, however one of them is titled Fossil Fuels, and features the extinct trilobite.

Trilobites were marine arthropods, and had well-developed exoskeletons, which are readily fossilized. Over 17,000 species have been identified, and they were diverse in their biological niches.