The Good, The Bad and the Lunch

Good Cancellations

Received this week, some mail with the fabulous Ex Postal Facto special cancellation.

Bad Cancellation

Also received a lovely collage and envelope from Stan Askew with this horrible Sharpie "cancellation" ruining the stamps and envelope.
Doesn't this make you mad?

The BUZZzzzzzzz from Ex Postal Facto continues but I have been seriously trying to catch up and spending a fair amount of time at my (temporary) work table.

Speaking of cancellations, I have been making some cards using some of my postal rubber stamps.
Nice?

Collaged Postcards

A couple of folks from out-of-town had a rather...shall we say, interesting.....ride on a local SF Muni bus and here are the collaged cards to remind them....or maybe they want to forget..

OUTGOING

OUTGOING

I cannot help myself. I can't stop making these Stamp Head ATC's. And certain people were egging me on. (You know who you are). This one cracks me up.

Stamp Head

I rather like this one too -- what do you think?

Kelly P sent me these two......but they needed a little something...

So, I collaborated with her (now she knows) and stuck them on ATC size painted paper and hit them with a couple of rubber stamps. Better?

Connie Rose got in the game and sent me these two -- I love the woman with the red stripes!
Thanks, Connie.

And...I am working on some "starts" of collages to collaborate with Allan Bealy....these have been slow going but I am almost finished.

OUTGOING

A little booklet about my town -- San Francisco -- another trade with a mail art friend.
Hope she likes it.

BEFORE

You know I had to pack up my studio a couple of weeks ago....I am still in a mess...

....but look! It is painted and the floors are finished. We need to get a rug and then move the (very) large work table back in there....

We are playing with cut outs to see what goes where and how to make the best use of the (somewhat odd) space.
I want to invite everyone over for wine and cheese and cake and mail art when it is all finished.
Who wants to come over?

I've been working hard but there is always time for lunch! Dungeness Crab Louie and sour dough bread and avocado....and California wine....not bad at all.

I remember when I didn't like rubber stamps. I guess that was in another lifetime.

That seems about it from here. Still thinking about what a great time I had at XPF and all the terrific people I met.
Trying to answer all my mail, send out the zine to those who ordered, make those crazy Stamp Head ATC's and generally have as much fun as possible.

And you?

YOU'VE GOT TO SEND GOOD MAIL TO GET GOOD MAIL!

XPF Passport -- Don't Leave Home Without It!

Ex Postal Facto lives on!
If you follow the Cappuccino&Art blog on Facebook you have been seeing loads of photos of the  unbelievable mail art event this pasty weekend here in San Francisco --
Ex Postal Facto
Thanks to Miss Red Letter Day herself (and her XPF team) this was three incredible days of mail art,
artistamps, panel discussions, rubber stamps, vending, meeting old friends and making new ones....
an event many of us will be talking about and thinking about for a very long time.

And did I mention the mail art passports?
Each day of the event had a special stamps and many of the participants brought along artistamps and rubber stamps to stamp in the passports.
The best souvenir ever!

One vender brought along a large set of vintage rubber stamps from a classroom and let everyone have at it --
Let the stamping begin.

Artistamps by John Held, Jr

Sticker Dude (and others) brought stickers and this absolutely lovely photo of the much missed mail art queen Patricia Taverner is by Susan Backman (bottom right).

There were rubber stamps and artistamps to purchase and all kinds of wonderful things to look at and two amazing panel discussions at the SF Library on West Coast Mail Art and Artistamps and the fabulous Mail/Art/Book show at SF Center for the book (which runs for quite some time so if you are in the the area try not to miss seeing that).

There were so many incredible things going on on for the past three+plus days I didn't even know what to show you all.
What do you want to see?
Maybe a few photos from each day's events?
Let me know and I will try.
Check out the blog's FB page and the XPF Website as it is updated.

Hello to all the wonderful new people I met --

Karen Isaacson (Mail Me Some Art), Anna Banana, Carl Chew, Niko Courtelis, Melissa Esposito, Olive Cinnamon (aka Miss Polly), TS Crow
April Gunther, Dame Mailarta, Jack Latteman,  Nina Hermus (who came all the way from The Netherlands), Adreinne, Stan Askew, B. Lee Auchter, Mary England
and everyone else.

MAIL ART -- The ETERNAL NETWORK LIVES ON!

Kitted Out

A lot of you are coming to San Francisco soon and I bet you are packing up those mail art kits!

I love to pack up my kit because that means I am going someplace but it's more like re-pack the kits because I always have various pouches stashed here and there with art supplies...you never know when you might need one.
Correspondence co-op meeting?
A sudden urge to create at a cafe (having cappuccino, of course)?
You never know.

You can never really have too many mail art kits....and since I have kits for planes, road trips , cafes and co-op meetings I do need a variety to just grab and go. Besides I collect little pouches that are postally inclined.
(That's my story and I'm sticking to it).
This one is from Itchi-ban-kan in Japantown.

These Blue Q pouches have been around quite a while and I love them...
and I have actually stuck some address labels and stamps on them and mailed them off to far flung places -- like The Netherlands and Budapest. And they both arrived! Pretty cool, huh?

But it's nice to have some that are a little more unusual too....this one is from the Plumfield shop on ETSY.
I don't know if they are still available but you could check if you're interested.
Just think, if I could sew I could make some cool pouches.

And then you have to decide what to put inside your mail art kit.......I try hard to keep mine pretty simple but there are some things I can't do with...
I love my double stick tape and glue sticks. I can give up the scissors (if I have to) because I like to tear and get a softer edge most of the time.

Of course I must add my little mail art address book and some nice postcards stamps.
Always have to send postcards from the road.
And I love to look at other folk's kits -- here are a couple of inspiring ones --

Yellow Daisy Art
I love the way she put tiny things inside the decorated Atoid tin. I think I'm going to put some of my tiny rubber stamps in one. Thanks for the inspiration, yellow Daisy!
&
The Always Inspiring Red Letter Day
I've seen Jennie's red letter kit up close and personal and it is great. But then just about everything she does is pretty terrific.

How many of you long time C&Art readers remember my mail art call way back in October 2011?
What's in YOUR Mail Art Kit?????
And I promised documentation to all? Ever wonder what happened?
Well, that envelope (above) holding all the entries was lost for quite some time. I just found it behind a bookcase when moving everything out of my studio......

......and I got busy right away......

What's in YOUR Mail Arty Kit?
The zine has been made and sent off to you who sent in submissions. I hope you all enjoyed it, especially after having waited so long and so patiently to get it.

If you want to buy a copy of the zine, I am selling them for $6. Just email me through my profile and we'll arrange it.

Unfortunately I could not fit everyone in....including my own submission. So maybe I will have to do a new call for entries and make a mail art kit zine number two. Surely there is more to be said on the subject.

Just remember -- leave some room in your kit if you are coming to SF. The Japantown town
$1.50 shops have pencil cases, pouches, washi tape, double stick tape, glue, mini staplers, sushi-erasers....on and on....

So what do you think? Another zine?
Or just leave word here in the comments about what YOU pack in your mail art kit.
 Here's a little something about mine from the original post

My mail art kit (2011)

What's in YOUR Kit?
The Mail Art Kit -- Don't Leave Home Without It!!!!