CappuccinoandArtJournal

Mostly postal but art and other things of interest too.
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Monday, May 9, 2011

Mail Art Address Book

I made myself a mail-art only address book.
I give little workshops in my studio on how to make altered books,
photo albums, scrapbooks, etc.
For the address book, I used a very ugly and inexpensive address
book (think Dollar Store).
First thing, paint the spine a color that will coordinate with the paper you want to use.


Cut some cool paper down to cover the front and back covers
of the book.

As I always tell my students, if you can wrap a present,
you can wrap a book.

After glueing the front and the inside covers, cover each section you used with
a sheet of waxed paper and put a bunch of heavy books
on top (preferably overnight) to press.

Ta da! The book is almost finished.

Here's the really fun part - get out your stickers, dots, labels,
cancelled stamps and rubber stamps and decorate inside the book.

I am trying to show a little restraint and not get too carried away
decorating my pages.
I have found having an address book for mail art only very helpful. Some
folks don't put their return addresses on mail and I hated having to go back
and sort through a bunch of old envelopes to find an address.
And, the book is also a record of everyone I have written to,
a mail diary.

Some of today's outgoing!
Got my first mail ever from Sri Lanka and one of these is going
out to Sara.

Mail -- sweet, isn't it?

Hope you enjoy the tour of covering an address book.
I am thinking I will have a give-away when I hit
101 followers and give one away.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me mail the last couple of weeks. My "Incoming" shot
wasn't too good so I left it off but I loved everything
that came to my mailbox.

Happy Mail Day.


10 comments:

  1. Very fun! Thanks for sharing. I have a mail-log-book myself but the key is keeping up with it! Haha. Organizing is easy but STAYING organized is tricky, ;) I hope this ends up being a fabulous system for you. It's gorgeous!

    PS - I am probably going to take my stamps out of their miniature accordion folder (organized by color) and follow your suit in a little bead box. Looks so much cooler!

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  2. Wow, nice change. An "ugly duckling notebook":P It's good to write the addresses somewhere. Besides, if you go for holidays and want to send postcards, you can't have the envelopes with you;)

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  3. What a great improvement. And I probably would have just given the book to Goodwill. Now I know better...I'm following your example next time.

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  4. Miss P: I love the "Cinderella job" that you've done for that address book; it will definitely have a far more interesting life as a mail art log book!

    Thanks for the tutorial -- as always, you inspire!
    --JH

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  5. Your "new" address book looks awesome . Seriously ! What a great idea !! :):)
    And i can see my name peeking out of your outgoing pile. WOW ! Thank you !:) I'll tell you as soon as I get it .:)

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  6. Hi Pamela, Loving the weather out here! Sweet address book, the typewriter paper is wonderful, did you make it as a collage? I like the idea of a handwritten address book. Technology can only go so far but you never have to back up something you write! xox Corrine ps wish we were getting together, oh, well maybe next time. xox Corrine

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  7. Wow that is one HUGE book! The one in the pile!

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  8. Thanks, everyone.
    @Dosfishes-enjoy my beautiful state. Wish we were meeting up!
    @Annejo--that huge book is a very old (very large) dictionary I bought to cut up - but I haven't brought myself to tearing it...
    @Christine -- when I travel I usually write addresses on stickers of the folks I want to mail to and just take the stickers - easy to slap 'em on and no addressing time .....
    I have been keeping the address book going for some time but I just covered it yesterday.

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  9. What a lovely address book--you did a fantastic job! I can't even wrap gifts so I guess there's no hope for me :p

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  10. Thanks for the comment, Karenann--glad this inspired you. I just wish I didn't delete your nice comment by mistake. That iPhone is hard to use sometimes....especially before coffee in the morning. Let me know how your address book turns out. I made a mini one for travel too.

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