Candy Cane

Now you can see why I posted one of these yesterday :)

This one was sent to Fabienne last Christmas.

Karen's exchange part 3

The first two genius incoming envelopes from Karen and Smash made me smile.

Karen's:

and Smash's:

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Maggie's feather and bird are stunning.

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Joi's envelope is so elegant. The writing is in gold, so the scans do NOT do it justice.

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Garth sent this beautiful envelope - orange calligraphy matching the Western Tanager's head. 

And inside, more orange on the feet and beaks of Charley Harper's 'Passing Puffins'.

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Although Jonelle's 'send to' address is in the US, her envelope was posted in Sweden. An abstract landscape - right up my alley.

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And one from Julie wishing me a happy New Year. Certainly this has been a great year so far for mail!

Bonus holiday envelopes 485, 552, 553, 612 and 613

A few bonus holiday catalog envelopes sent out before Christmas.

To Eva, one from the Philatelic. I always find it hard to break up the four stamps - three would have been enough.

To NancyLee, one from Paper Source

To Trula, another from Philatelic

To Julie S, Circus stamps from the Philatelic catalog

And another paper source to Adrienne

Winter exchange part 1

A fun hotrod-related envelope from Jean.

And the second of the four different holiday franks, even though the envelope was handstamped. Hello, Hermey! 

And from a non-exchange card, Santa!

A very blurry Bumble. If I get a better one, I'll blog it as well.

And here's a Rudolph cancel that happened to coincide perfectly with a design on the envelope:

And the vending machine 'sticker' version:

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And fun script in two styles from Florence.

I also like the style she used on the return address for her own name - I'll have to give this a try, although I bet it is harder than it looks.

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This beauty is from Janet F. Perfect stamp and accompanying scene.

And then you flip it over and it is faux postage and stamp city! Love the year of the horse artistamp.

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Fun envelope from Wendy, including some fantastic vintage Christmas stamps. Does she know that diagonals on envelopes are a feature of mine?

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And one from Karen. The details that she took from the stamp and incorporated/extended onto the envelope, like the tree line in the distance, are amazing.

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A traditional beauty from Smash with vintage stamps. The silver and black script against the dark green background is striking.

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Marti sent this one - a great combination of things, including a vintage Christmas stamp and a contemporary one from a few years ago.

The back of this one is also fun.

And I received an envelope with this vending machine 'sticker' - a forever version of the stamp above.

Winter exchange - test envelopes part 1

I had been thinking about doing all the winter exchange envelopes on the computer. Unfortunately the printer wasn't feeling too cooperative, and wasn't giving me the results I was hoping for.

Here are two test envelopes that I sent to Jean. You can't see them very well (or at least I can't see them that well on the monitor), but there are fainter 'stars' in the background of the envelopes.

Bonus mail misadventure

Not super exciting, but one of my Christmas cards was returned because I forgot my friends had moved.

I think it is entertaining that rather than deliver it to the new address (not so new any more, apparently), which is not that far from the old one, it was sent back to me rather than forwarded. I don't see how this saves the postal service money, but maybe this is just USPS standard policy? Certainly, they'll be getting another stamp out of me.

The real bonus is that the new Rudolph machine cancel shows up really well on this envelope, even though Bumble's face is partly obscured by a snowflake.