Janis Joplin's Wig Out

Fabienne had mentioned how much she likes the Janis Joplin stamps. I thought I had used all of mine, but found a few to surprise her.  And I managed to find an equally psychedelic envelope.

America runs on Dunkin

For Eric's paper bag mail art call.

Tigertree

This is one of my favorite bags that I kept to send to Eric for his paper bag mail art call. You can't tell from the scan, but the tree has a different texture (a bit like letter press) compared to the rest.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it traveled - hopefully the stamp placement didn't earn any nasty biro or sharpie marks.

August envelope exchange part 6 - the bonus envelopes part 1

To Jean

To Jan

Reused package from Erni & Sunday Stamps

I didn't realize it at first, but Erni reused one of my mailing envelopes - I am not good at adding things to the outside - to send me a package of wild and wonderful things.

The envelope, with fantastic faux postage.

The things.

The back of the Virgins of the Seven Seas poster had a fantastic bleed-through effect (not to mention half a wall of Hamburg stuck to the back). It looks much better in person than in this photo.I have plans for this side.

Response to Erni in an envelope made from the above poster - Hamburg wall and all :)

With one of the envelopes inside (number 517).

Which contained some of the hive in blue.

I used Janis Joplin stamps on the envelope.

The Janis Joplin stamp is part of the USPS series music icons, and was issued last year. Janis Joplin died at 27, but in her short career became known as the Queen of Psychedelic Soul. Her remake of Erma Franklin's 'Piece of My Heart' is one of her most famous songs.

Each stamp is supposed to resemble an album cover. Stamps are issued on square selvage in sets of 16, designed to look like a record sleeve. Here's the large image from USPS.

For other music makers, check in on other submissions to Sunday Stamps.

Envelopes 276 & 277 - rothkos for rebecca & roland

I was searching for something to send Rebecca, and this Rothko envelope jumped out. As it was heading overseaes, I decided to add a few different stamps that, hopefully, have similar colors, rather than my usual habit of adding three of the same stamp.

Likewise, I was looking for something to send Roland to thank him for all his work on the great documentation for the Malerwinkelhaus mail art project.

The remaining Rothko envelopes caught my eye, but I didn't think I had good stamps for them. I finally went through the stamps one by one and I think these vintage seed packets are a great fit.

Squares

Envelope 350 to Brooke C, who spontaneously sent me mail art.

Envelope 700 to Terrie (spelled her name correctly this time!).

Envelope 709 to Nancy.

Spontaneous envelopes - 207, 351 & 565

CJ had commented on the rowers from envelope 208, so I sent her its companion.

I sent this one (similar to one I sent to Petrolpetal) to Kyosuke in Japan.

And on Eva's blog she wrote about a calligrapher's 'confuse the mail delivery system', aka 'Annoy a Postman' so i sent this is as my request to put Ohio on the map. Not sure if Schin is still running this project, but I thought this was a fun envelope to send regardless.

Happy Boxing Day

A day for games and lounging around the house recovering from the post-Christmas feast in many English-speaking countries. 

Unless you are up for post-Christmas sales in some countries. 

And unless you are in the US, in which case you have to work, even though this year the 26th is a Friday - just how much work do you really think will be getting done?

This heavy piece of mail arrived:

From the back it is easier to see that it is a travel game of checkers.

And the vignette on the back of the board.

I wasn't quite sure who it was from, so I went looking on the web. Laurence G uses the same striking address labels, and the boy and girl are common stamps she uses in her mail art. Of course if I had looked closely at the moon, I would have noticed it is embossed with her name and address!

I was wondering what to send back to Laurence. None of the envelopes were jumping out at me, then a few days after receiving the little game this appeared on my trash can.

And the back. I have never seen such a thing, and the lid has been slightly damaged for over two years!! And crazily I need an appointment for them to repair it?

Perfect! Not sure if it counts as trashpo, but it certainly counts as upcycling, as it would definitely have ended up in the garbage otherwise. Sorry, Janis, the colors on your stamp are too good of a compliment to this bright pink thing that is going on a trip across the pond.

Update!

It made it to France, and was hand cancelled beautifully by someone at the post office.

And I didn't need an appointment to have the trash can fixed, just a work order number which took one simple phone call (and my trash can's number, which to be honest I never even noticed before!!)

And now the lid has been replaced and all is well in the world of refuse management.

If you're looking for stamp-related activities today, you can vote in Linn's annual poll of US stamps, or vote for your favorites at USPS stamp blog.

Envelope 353

Nike jump to Jazzie.

Janis has many of the same colors (I just wish her stamp was colored edge to edge like the other music icon stamps).

Addressed.

And the back.

Envelope exchange 2014: #282 to Chuck M

Oil on canvas.

Joplin on Rothko.

And a great font called Bellbottom Laser. 

And the back.

FinnStar

Very cheerful envelope from Jean, complimented by the Janis Joplin stamp. The colors are a lot brighter in real life.

Thank you.