Find Your Fun

Envelopes 823 & 824 made from a paper bag, one sent to Eric. Bonus points if anyone knows where the bag is from.

Double the green from Jean

Jean sent something green...

...which had something green inside.

Thanks for this great pair, I love that Italian stamp.

Eric Mondays - part 5

Eric and I have sent each other a few paper bags as envelopes in the past.
I have sent this particular bag to Tony, and to Jean. 

The circles (I think they are stylized olives) made me think of adapting it for Eric's theme of 50.

MMSA - all things chicken

I made three postcards for the theme of All Things Chicken, and one for the host.

And sent to Honi, the guest host, in envelope 200.

I'm guessing this challenge will bring some really interesting art.

Sunday Stamps - Words

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is stamps with words or numbers, no pictures.


USPS first issued a stamp celebrating the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha in 2001. This gold-on-blue design was reissued in 2002 (37c), 2006 (39c), 2007 (41c), 2008 (42c) and 2009 (44c).
I think the stamp is an attractive design. Interestingly, it has been the subject of much misinformation and politicization during Obama's presidency (even though it was first issued in the first year of the GW Bush presidency, and even though the president has nothing to do with stamp production whatsoever), as you can read here at factcheck.org.

Even more entertaining is the fact that somehow the Kaleidoscope Flowers stamps (one of my favorite designs, which were only available online in strips of ten cut from the giant coils used for automated stamping of junk mail) have been associated with being issued 'to celebrate Muslim holidays', even though this is not the case, and had a viral email/online campaign against buying them.

A slightly different design was issued as a Forever stamp with a red background, and no white border, in 2011.

The current version, issued in 2013, has a green background.

Big Cow

My response to Eva was a Warhol cow from an old calendar.

Sending a whole calendar page costs a bit more due to the dimensions, so I used up most of my kaleidoscope stamps to mail it.

Envelope 749 - kaleidoscopes to Philippe

Continuing my mail art connection with Philippe C.

The pattern reminded me of the kaleidoscope stamps from a few years ago. These were among my last few left.

Envelope 743 - electric peel

Great ad for an IPA went well with the kaleidoscope flower stamps.

And sent off to Tomoe in Japan.

Bananas, kaleidoscopes, brain cells

 Ryosuke turned one of my banana faux stamps into a rubber-stamp shape in issue 911 of Brain Cell.

Like before, I find the whole sheet fascinating, always seeing something new. And also resisting the urge to turn it into cool envelopes!

Using an envelope that I had leftover from test-printing the one I sent to Roland.

I sent 150 banana life cycle labels in for Ryosuke's next Brain Cell.

Malerwinkelhaus

At the end of 2014 I sent in my entries for Roland's mail art project on the Malerwinkelhaus, a famous tourist attraction in the German town of Markt Breit.

Roland put together an amazing booklet that was handed out at the exhibit of the mail art. Great to see some fellow mail artists in the book - Jean, Eric, Eva, Heleen.

Here is the page with mine, and a bonus page.

He also created an artistamp for every piece of mail art he received, and sent one sheet to each participant. My two stamps are on this sheet, and Heleen's also.

And there's more! (Do you feel like you're on a game show?) Roland had a postcard made from one of my pieces. Amazing. 

I sent the card to Marti right at the end of postcard week, stamped with one of my remaining kaleidoscope flower stamps that are favorites of mine.

A big thanks to Jean for pointing this mail art call out to me.

Mini-French Series part 2 - canines

Yesterday's update can count as part 1.

More Mailarteeth... this time, canine dentition.

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Bonus link, appropriate for the snowy scene outside. 

Are you available to run a Post office, Shop and museum in Antarctica? (Among other things). If you do take this job and read the blog, please send me mail! British Antarctic Stamps are stunning.

Mail Art Calls - Parallels, Angels & Demons, Twisted, Malerwinkelhaus, Spirit of the Forest.

For Parallels, in Siberia, made from postage selvage (thanks for the link, Eva!):

And one made of the stick-on mail barcodes the post office uses.

For the 'Twisted' call, a photograph manipulated in photoshop

This one had its own misadventure, and was delivered to me, even though my address was on the back, scrawled in my bad handwriting, and in the 'wrong' direction. I reposted it inside an envelope.

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For the 'Angels & Demons call. The images were taken on my cell phone the same night as the blue image above (lights were part of the band Alt J's concert performance). All the pictures include the exit sign which was distracting/fascinating me through the lights.

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And, spurred on by the beautiful artistamps that are the documentation for the Malerwinkelhaus call blogged by Eva, I sent these in. Jean had suggested this one for me ages ago, and I had set it aside. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute.

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Spirit of the Forest, to be displayed at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester in February, coinciding with a performance of Hansel & Gretel.

Christmas Eve with Tony

Mail from Tony always feels like a present. 

I sent my entries for the 5th world day of faux stamp artists to Tony, and none of the stamps were cancelled, so he used them on his return envelope:

The back:

His message was to reuse the stamps, so I made a few small alterations, and sent it back:

And the rear view:

Envelope 245

I finally sent an envelope to Richard B in Marseille.

Another odd shirt envelope - I almost went with the orange-shirted Ray Charles, however I liked the pink and green kaleidoscopes better.

The envelope.

Stamped.

Addressed.

And the back.

Minizines: FrogMickey

Karen I mailed the minizines in one envelope. I'm not sure if the postage was 70c (the 2oz rate, or an uneven thickness, which this was) or 91c (3oz, or 2oz uneven thickness), but I liked the way the stamps were hand cancelled. 

Mickey Mouse profile, or frog face? You decide.

Paper bag 2

I received another great paper bag from my local card & wine store, which I sent to Tony M in France. Fortunately I still have some kaleidoscope stamps left that go well with the reddish color.

Exchange 12 - olives

I bought a card from my local card & wine store, and the card came in this bag - the red is very similar to the outer petals on the red/green kaleidoscope stamp...

...which I sent to Jean as an envelope thank you for organizing the envelope exchange - her address has a lot of Os and zeroes so I retrofitted them to the circles on the bag...

...unfortunately I used the incorrect address, but the PO came through and delivered it correctly!

3D address 3 - Smash

Smash gave me permission to post this - I had run out of the blue/red kaleidoscope stamps, so tried a different color combination for her envelope. I think the colors matched a bit better in reality than they do on this scan - Smash may have to confirm or refute.

Envelope 181

This is one where I paid a lot of attention to avoiding having any white on the front.

I'll miss the kaleidoscope stamps. This one's going overseas so there are 3 of them. They are a great match for the colors on this envelope.

Addressed so as not to cover up any topiary figures:

And the back. Not one of the best rear views, but this graphic wasn't all that wide.