Booklets & Zines -- Oh My!

The oldest stationery store in Chinatown. A fixture since 1908.  This shop has been a goldmine for me for the last year or so. The woman who bought the shop has been been
cleaning out the basement and brought up a treasure trove of vintage
paper ephemera, greetings cards in both Chinese and English, Xmas wrap,
vintage erasers, onion skin paper......the list goes on....

Sadly, the run has just about come to an end and the shop is no longer a stationery shop but  just another Chinatown shop with scarves imported from China just like about 50 other shops...
But it was sure fun while it lasted.
There were a few more pre-Cultural Revolution school children's booklets left this week
and I couldn't resist picking a few up.
And my rule is -- if I bring stuff home I've got to use it for art and not just let it pile up
so.......

I got inspired...
I love the colors of vintage papers....and I love the characters and the drawings in these old booklets.
Even if i can't read them, they are much appreciated around my studio.

I decided to make some booklets using the various paper ephemera I had around . I settled on using these pretty envelopes for the covers and making pages inside of joss paper
as well as vintage paper from that shop I mentioned above.

Cutting out the pages......

Some of the finished little booklets....quite charming don't you think? 

Then i got busy and made a new little zine called -- Let's GO to Chinatown -- what else?

My favorite part of the one-page-wonder zines is embellishing them at the end of the whole process....I stuck Chinese postal stickers on them and some real Chinese stamps....

And I decided to put each little zine in a special Chinese good luck envelope and add some other
ephemera so it's a nice little package...
I think I'm going to sell them...

You know you want one.

Tell you what -- I only made 15 -- I think I'll do a give-away for one of them.
Here's what you do --
leave a comment on the blog and tell me what you are interested in seeing on
Cappuccino and Art.
I need ideas. What do you like to see? What don't you like to see?

I will pick a random number and if your comment is that number I'll send you a Chinatown zine.
The next post will have the winner.

OK? Is that a deal?

Another little booklet that went out to V.B. and it seems to be taking an awfully long time to get where it's going...

Incoming
It's been a good mail week for the most part. My trusty and loyal mail art pal,
Kelly P Fearless Mailer
sent me some vintage stamps from Hungary since she knows I'm going there...
These are going to look great in my travel journal.

Lunch
You didn't think I made all those trips to Chinatown without stopping for lunch, did you?

INCOMING
This beauty is from Karen Ann. The picture doesn't do it justice. That mailbox is on both sides of the envelope -- hand painted, I think -- and my address and the stamps are on the other side.
So cool.
That was a good mail day.

There's Nothing Wrong That A Letter Won't Cure!
My sentiments exactly.

SF Correspondence Co-Op meeting tomorrow. SF Zine Fest next Saturday. Expect updates!

See you in the mail.