Guest blogging at Positively Postal

My week of posting at Positively Postal is up. Head over there to see what I had to say about these pieces of mail art I received recently from Mail Art Martha...

...Brooke...

...Eric...

...and Scott.

And mail art I sent out to Linda...

...Marti...

...MomKat...

...Keith...

...and stripygoose.

Cheerios

I'm guest blogging over at positively postal this week (link lower down in the right hand column).

Today is a joint blog, in that I used the back of a cereal box to create two odd-shaped pieces to send naked in the mail.

This one is to the Artist in Seine.

And I thought you'd like to see how I fit the stamps, address and message on the back.

The other one was sent to MomKat.

In from Nikki

Nikki and I have been exchanging mail art since we ended up receiving cards from each other in the MMSA favorite book challenge. This card is highly entertaining.

And I'm guest blogging at postivelypostal all week.

Tucker is... PrinterPo

The printer decided to get in on the action and do some Tucker alterations.

This envelope is one I made when sending the Tucker stamps to Tucker FC HQ, but a couple of the Tuckers on the end were altered.

One is half-way to Robert Smith.

The other one is just plain hair-raising.

Eyes wide shut

Fascinating envelope from Jean. It contained a very cool envelope which I will be blogging about in the future.

Sunday Stamps - Lighthouses

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is lighthouses - a popular subjects for stamps, and certainly the US with its extensive coastline, including the Great Lakes which have lighthouses too, has plenty to choose from.

The last set issued in the US featured five New England coastal lighthouses. Above is the commemorative panel from USPS, which is still available at their online store. The strips and sheets of stamps are no longer available, however there is a nice write up here. The stamps are also sold accompanying a set of notecards featuring the lighthouses.

I have sent a few of these stamps, and received at least one - this one is in a creative setting. And it also has the light-related energy-saving finger turing off the light switch on the machined cancellation. Many people noted that this frank looked more than little weird/creepy/odd.

The other stamp I want to highlight today was sent to me from Morocco by Eva.

This stamp celebrates the Cape Spartal lighthouse, which turns 150 this year. It is located on the southwest approach to the Straits of Gibraltar, and was built on request of the King of Morocco following a shipwreck where many sailors lost their lives.

And bonus - I received this nautically-themed envelope from Hester this week featuring a set of 4 stamps from 1972 celebrating Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a national park stretching along 70 miles of the coast of the Outer Banks. The top right stamp features the distinctive black and white lighthouse. The current lighthouse is the second to have been built on the Cape. In 1999, due to encroachment of the ocean and erosion, the entire lighthouse was moved 2900 feet (880 m) inland.

The lighthouses of North Carolina all have their own distinctive black and white design - this one's 'barber pole' design seems to be one of the most famous.

Not of the robot hive

Another great homemade envelope from Keith C

Containing his latest addition in our collaboration.

Update:

Scott asked me to guest host his blog for a week while he is away. You can check out daily links to Positively Postal on the list in the lower right side bar.

WTF is a Bocksbeutel?

Roland has a new mail art call - the theme is Bocksbeutel. The card announcing the call made me laugh.

Details and received submissions are here.

Roland always does an amazing job of documenting his mail art calls - this one is no exception with cool artistamps and a catalog planned at the end. Deadline is 31 Dec 2015.

July exchange - received part 2

Here is part 1 of the envelopes that I received in the exchange.

Soft dark grey was a mini theme for this exchange. The envelopes look so much warmer in real life than they do on scans.

From Chuck - I still marvel at all those hand-drawn lines. And I'm enjoying the splash of red to compliment the black and grey.

A bonus one from Jan - this time with an older style airmail stamp for color.

Hester sent me a bonus envelope. This is the reverse of a wall paper sample. Very cool, and I really like the unusual printed instructions/codes. It is also fun to see the pattern on the inside.

Thanks, everyone, for another great exchange.

July envelope exchange - part 1

From Bridget - great splattered colors from Australia

From Rehj - I love how the letters reflect the penguins on the stamps

From Elizabeth - this starry envelope is a big wow

 From Kate - the perfect accompaniment to the Maya Angelou stamp.

Marti was putting together her exchange envelopes and kindly sent me this bonus envelope.

Thanks, everyone, for another great exchange.

Bonus update - incredible bee stamps from Royal Mail.

I do like the variety of US stamps, and there are some great designs, but I think that overall Royal Mail has, on average, the best commemorative stamps (Royal Mail calls them Special Stamps now) in the world.

Just look at these incredible Bees of Britain stamps that were issued today. I can only imagine what Jean or Smash could do to accompany these beauties.

The flowers the bees are collecting pollen or nectar from are also lovely and unusual - from top to bottom and left to right they are: Field Scabious, Bird's-foot Trefoil, Wild Carrot, Bilberry, Horseshoe Vetch, and Ground Ivy.

Royal Mail is also issuing this mini sheet that highlights honeybee behavior - also a fantastic set. I knew nothing about the 'waggle dance' of communication before seeing these.

Scott over at PositivelyPostal has announced a mail art call with the subject of Bees to tie in with this release.

Royal Mail has a great feature on these stamps with some huge images.

Tucker is... out of this world III

A summertime of VQR

Eva sent me this great piece of mail art encased in a plastic CD cover (I think). And there's Spain's Europa stamp for 2015.

Update - the stamp has the smell of pine trees. At first I didn't smell it, then after touching the stamp the scent was strong - like a pine air freshener.

The four seasons of VQR! Very clever stuff.

A summertime of inkblots

When I had the mini 'ink blot' challenge it made me think of real inkblots.

I used up the rest of my watercolor postcards (good) but purchased blue ink (bad) to make them.

I kept a terrible record of who they were sent to, as well as of how many there were.

Here's a sampling.

I know I sent MomKat one, in this envelope that was made from the reverse of a poster Erni gently removed from a wall in Hamburg and sent me.

The reason I know this, is because she collaged it into a face.

 

The card arrived in a Greek Summer Time envelope, complete with a great stamp - it must be summertime if you're bathing naked in a stream! Although this stamp, issued in February this year, depicts Thermal Springs, so maybe it would work all year round.

Accompanied by one of Kat's owls, and an artistamp in her signature blue.

For more stamps related to summertime, head to Sunday Stamps.

MMSA - Silver Muse - received

The great set of four art cards received in the MMSA Silver Muse exchange.

From Laurie, Claudia and Sheri. Silver scans as grey for the most part, these cards are completely different in real life.

From Gina - love the tiger logo.