Jean & Jan's February exchange

I showed the envelopes I sent out back in February. In case you missed them, here's the group photo. I dodged the love/red theme and wished the recipients a happy new year of the ram in gold and blue.

Here are the incoming ones.

Aquarium style from Hester, and the first time receiving this year's Love stamps.

With dragon tea - first time I've received tea in the mail!

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Marti saw my St Valentine's Day post where I blogged that I had never sent or received a Garden of Love stamp. So she parted with one on her envelope to me. Thanks!

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I'm not 100% sure if this is an exchange envelope or not... I'll have to keep count. Karen matched the stamp to the envelope perfectly on this one.

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Then another one from Marti showed up.

And another, with some cool dice stickers on the back! The blue colors of the flower on this stamp are stunning. The envelope was a tiny bit injured on one side. 

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Kathleen H sent this one. The red in the lettering is cool - and a bit bloody - but then when was love ever easy! And the paper additions below the address are very tactile. I'm enjoying the vintage stamps, too.

Amongst other fun stuff inside, Kathleen enclosed this card. Thanks - I enjoyed it all!

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And I thought this was the final one, a stunner from Christy.

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Then this one arrived from Marti.

With this inside.

And a note explaining that it has been damaged in a postal sorting machine and returned. At least the stamp made it! And quite a story for this envelope. Interesting that it would be returned, rather than delivered in one of their apology envelopes, as the address is largely intact, and should be able to be verified in the database.

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Cathy O sent me this lovely envelope - I think it is a reply to my exchange envelope above rather than part of the swap, but it fits perfectly in this post. Make sure you click and enlarge it to see her clever use of hearts on the capitals.

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Some outgoing stamps on a red envelope - just to show I don't always avoid it.

Winter exchange part 3

This beauty arrived from Candy. The design is taken from one of her paste papers she made, and the snowflakes are embossed, which adds texture. I love the way the serifs on the first 'i' and the 'l's form a diagonal, echoed in the flourish on the 'h'.

This is what the scanner thought of it on first scan. Really crazy how it likes to invert the colors when it senses certain ones. It left the snowflakes silver, though.

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Cathy sent me this outstanding take on a Christmas tree. So many clever things going on - the small basketballs as ornaments, Wilt placing the treetopper, the tree itself, and the ornaments with my name that reflect the ornament stamp.

And the note inside has amazing cutout-snowflake edges - delicate, too, you can see where it tore during scanning.

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This envelope from Christy is one of the most beautiful of this exchange. The colors of the vintage stamps are perfect for the envelope and script. Thank you.

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Winter Exchange - the Christmas catalogs

For the largest portion of the envelopes I sent out for Jan & Jean's winter exchange I used a Paper Source catalog. The colors in the catalog went really well with Winter Fun, Rudolph, Holiday Bauble and Global Wreath stamps.

On the topic of Paper Source, Eric had admired the bag I sent to Jean, so I sent him another one I had acquired.

The USPS philatelic catalog also made for some great holiday envelopes that worked well with a lot of the holiday stamps.

This one to Jack isn't from a catalog, although it looks a bit like it. It is from one of those pages of a magazine suggesting gifts for men. I thought this looked good with one of the modern art stamps.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope your day is peaceful.

Bonus update - even more Halloween!

Owls from Christy R in the envelope exchange. This envelope is amazing. The way the lines are done to outline a moon is fantastic, and a great choice in vintage stamps to accompany it.

I didn't want to open it, as the design continued on the back, but there was something inside...

...a great bonus Halloween poem.

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And an outstanding bonus Halloween envelope from Hester. Dark and brooding, with Monster stamps.

There's even a great Romanian spider stamp used as a seal on the back (and a post office barcode in orange - does this help solve the mystery of Adrienne's triple barcoded card, or just add to the puzzle?)

Inside, another fantastic bat.

And even better, a creepy Halloween story.

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And speaking of creepy, here's what Julie S sent me...all the elements work well, and the vintage stamps are fantastic.

The back has a brilliant chalk body outline, and I love the fact that the return address is on a tombstone.

Inside was a bonus postcard - I don't think I can part with it. Also, Julie included a signature Laboratory note. The smiling skull on the poison label is a hoot.

Envelope Exchange 2014: #258 to Christy

A part of Two Lakes by Walter J Phillips.

I thought the colors on this stamp matched well.

And the back.