Envelope 83

In my note to Jean I did say that I thought this one was made an easy choice by the incredible fine art stamps issued in March.

The stamps are relatively large, so the great thing about the article this envelope was made from is the large amount of white space (now well-aged off-white) to accommodate it. I also love the running hare painting by Colin Finn (no relation to FinnBadger, sadly).

Here is the sealed envelope with the stamp:



I attempted to mimic the captions on the paintings for the address. 

In hindsight the stamp should have been lower down with the address above it, like painting 14. I was thrown off by painting 15, and I think I am still too fixated on having the address too central. Must use other part of brain more. I also opted for clear labels. They aren't 100% transparent, but better than bright white for my purposes.

I might need to find an envelope that doesn't require a slanted address next time - Jean is going to think I'm a one-trick pony.



I didn't add additional postage, so I hope there wasn't too much delay in delivery.

Edit: it arrived unscathed. See Jean's response.

Fin(n)badger 1

Jean sent this fantastic envelope in response to envelope 100.

I have no idea what pen she used to make the large letters, but the strokes have a great even weight to them, and the edges look almost as if they've been outlined (I assume that this is a quality of the pen). Love how easily she made the address stretch across the entire length of the envelope.

The thought bubble is extremely cool, I've never seen anything like it. This envelope is the best thing to drop through the letterbox in a very long time. Jean blogged about it here.

Envelope 100

As soon as I found the remainder of my handmade envelopes I knew who I'd send the first one to. Jean's blog pushingtheenvelopes was one of the first ones to jog my memory, and she gave me such a warm welcome to her blog, that she was a natural recipient.

Envelope 100 stood out as being perfect to send to Jean - it was mostly text in a great antique-looking font.

One of the main things I picked up when perusing the many sites about mail art was that stamp selection and placement could greatly enhance an envelope. I had recently picked up a decent number of stamps using the usps.com website - ordering what you want online is extremely convenient.

These weathervane stamps worked out really well - the off-white background color closely matched the faded paper, the weathervanes themselves fit with the antique look, and there was just the right amount of space to fit them next to the text. 

These stamps are valued at 45c. Rather than add a 1c stamp and spoil the effect, I was more than happy to pay a few extra cents. This also covered the potential cost of 66c for a non-conforming letter, since I placed the address in an unconventional way.




I am no hand-letterer, so I printed out a label using American Typewriter font (seemed to go well with the rest of the envelope), but didn't want to obscure the text on the envelope so placed the address inbetween the lines.

To see what Jean thought of it, go here.

Introduction

While looking for something unrelated on the web, a couple of links led me to the multi-faceted concept of mail art. This reminded me that I had made some envelopes by hand around twenty years ago. One rummage through my basement later, and I found fifty  long-forgotten, individually-numbered envelopes. 

This is their story.