Envelope 398 to Theo

I was attracted to the conveyor belt graphic when choosing this magazine page for an envelope. I like how the rocket ship kinda points to the earth on the stamp.

Update

Eva suggested a line between the rocket and the earth. I really wish I could print exactly where I wanted onto an envelope, but my printer-handling skills are not fine enough!

Here's what i did on the computer....

Royal Mail 500

Today Royal Mail is issuing a set of stamps celebrating 500 years of mail service in Britain. The service was started by Henry VIII (much more famous for his eight wives). Of course, as the name implies, this was just for the Sovereign for over a century until Charles the First opened it up to the public in 1635.

There is a great site here with an interactive timeline showing the development of the postal service in the UK. Lots to investigate!

Royal Mail's self service kiosks are also issuing Post and Go labels with this theme today, looking at mail delivery from the 1600s to the 1900s. 

There's also a miniature sheet showing classic GPO (General Post Office) posters.

These are fun, but the top right isn't the most mail art-friendly message :)

Royal Mail is also celebrating the 175th anniversary of the issue of the penny red, which replace the penny black. These stamps will be issued tomorrow.

Best wishes and fishes for 2016

These two arrived on the same day!

Beautiful painted new year wishes from Richard B.

And best fishes for new year from Honi C. This is made from gelli print and stickers.

MMSA stencil - white shapes VII

A recent MMSA challenge was to create postcard art based on using a stencil. I used a 'white shapes' stencil (reversed) in different positions to send these four in for the swap:

And I applied the stencil to the bonus card for the hosts.

An IUOMA valentine, and bonus stats

A valentine from Diana H at IUOMA.

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Bonus stats

It has been quite some time since we had a change at the top. There is a new leader in most viewed posts. During the last year or so, the blog hit a new monthly high for visits in December 2016 of 3920, driven I'm sure by the blog advent. Also, the blog passed 50k views in the last couple of months - thanks!

Top 5

1 (-) Edelweiss Post

2 (1) St Valentine's Day

3 (2) Exchange 11 - Mr Charles resplendent

4 (-) Camels on Sunday Stamps

5 (5) Sunday Stamps - boats and ships

Sunday Stamps - Red

Interesting topic for today's Sunday Stamps. I'm going to try and steer away from hearts and ribbons :)

I was recently sent a vintage postcard with this pre-stamped Red Barn postage.

Of course to be brought up to the 35 postcard rate, two definitive stamps were added. The 3c definitive is red... well maroon maybe.

And the new 10c definitive issued Jan 17 is red... in the form of pears.

One of my favorite red stamps (well, there is a tiny bit of blue and quite a bit of gold, but it's mostly red) is the Lunar New Year stamp from 2008, the first in the current series of twelve being illustrated by Kam Mak celebrating the clever rat.

On the topic of Lunar New Year, the Year of the Monkey stamp has red peonies on them, and the USPS stamp page covering the stamp has a lot of red.

Happy St Valentine's day.

Ides of Postcards

Lynne sent me a photo postcard of a torn paper collage she made. 

Eva sent me this nice postcard of a famous mailing slot in Madrid. Once upon a time sending letters within the city had special mailing slots and also cost less. Ah, the good old days.

This was mailed with very nice stamps. The one composed of words only is one of Eva's all-time favorites.

A Painted card from Steve D.

An altered gallery card from Thom C. Check out the amazing artistamps he added.