Put a Ring on It!

What to do when you have so much good mail you don't know what to do with it?
Put a ring on it!

I love those Reader's Digest book covers -- perfect size for adding greeting cards and envelopes between the covers....

See?
A card goes right inside too...

My mail art pal Dori Singh sends me the best mail and I like to look at it -- so putting it in a book like this makes it easy to pick up and flip through and enjoy.

I just love how FAT this book is!

This works well with postcards too -- and oddly shaped envelopes. I've got  GOOD MAIL all over the place.

Now, I think I deserve a break -- a nice walk in the sunshine in Chinatown.

And, I definitely deserve a bowl of wonton noodle soup. Working on art projects makes you hungry.
Short, but sweet post from me to you.

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Postal Play Day

Friday was the long awaited all-day-all-fun play day with my mail art pal --
Kelly P the Fearless Mailer.
She had just one day in San Francisco to visit me and we intended to make the best of it!
First stop -- SCRAP.
Always a good place to start....

We each filled our bags with lots of great ephemera and there was no fighting.
Really.
There were multiples of just about everything and we shared. We are good like that.
It is fun to use these inter-office envelopes and see what's in side peeking out through the holes.

I found a whole bunch of these cards -- with stamps printed on them. I can't resist stamps.

Kelly found this rather grungy old envelopes and I said look inside to see if there is a cool pattern -- score!

After Scrap we went over to my studio where we met up with the wonderful S Wurlitzer --
maker of fabulous artistamps and mail art and a correspondent of Kelly's.
(I am under strict orders to use small photos of the people involved!)

S Wurlitzer gifted KSP with several sheets of her fabulous artistamps.

Me with Kelly P --

I might have been jealous of those coveted artistamps but Kelly gifted me with -- are you ready? -- this amazing small portable typewriter -- to bring on all my road trips from now on.
She carried the typewriter on the plane. What a pal.

Itchi-ban-kan
It almost like they knew Kelly way coming to town, doesn't it? Just look at this fun display.
Lots of tape,,,,

.....and this nice display of little origami paper envelopes. I will have to try making some of those.

Right in the middle of all the shopping and oohing and ahhing there was a sighting of
Miss Red Letter Day ...

What a treat!
We couldn't have planned it any better. And what else is funny is, Kelly also ran into Red Letter Day in in NYC when they were both visiting there.
Small world.

After lunch (sushi) in Japantown we went over to Chinatown to look at the paper in the joss shops. Made a stop at the shop where S Wurlitzer and I both found so many treasures in the past...
most of the vintage paper inventory is gone but we managed to pick up a couple of things.

Cappuccino
We had to make a stop at Caffe Puccini for a cappuccino. Needed a bit of  caffeine after running around all day long.
And, well...you know, it is part of the name of my blog. 

LAST STOP
Last stop, back to my studio for a little mail art. KSP & I worked on some mail for the postal pals we have in common.
We had a little wine and a few olives too.

Now that was a GOOD MAIL DAY.

Thanks to S Wurlitzer for driving us around and being such great company and to Red Letter Day for the surprise hello.
I'm just a little sad they aren't all in my studio right now so we can play.

That was one fun day.

This and That...

Ex Postal Facto passbook production line at SF Center for the Book on Saturday, February 1.
Yesterday the SF Correspondence Co-Op joined forces in cutting, folding, punching, sewing, dating and stamping the passports for the upcoming XPF.
And when we all get together it's always a lot of fun.

300 passports later.....and we're done...

No cookies this time -- we wouldn't want to smudge up those beautiful passports -- but we did get the opportunity to buy an XPF rubber stamp and see the cool postcard for the show.
And we got to preview the catalog/book for the mail art show.
You are going to want that catalog if you like mail art!

BOOT SALE
And outside the SFCB one of our members set up a trunk sale or a boot sale on the hood of her car. She was selling all postal memorabilia -- including typewriters, USPS lunch box, postal themed fabric, tiny UK metal PO Boxes......
Pretty cool sale, Anna! My wallet is lighter now.

I wanted this -- but I resisted. If anyone wants to send me one....

POST OFFICE GAME
I resisted this too. I surprise myself sometimes...

That was the fun stuff...now this is the not so fun stuff....I had to empty EVERYTHING out of my studio so we can paint it and sand the floor.
I am in total chaos, working out of boxes and feeling displaced.
All for a good cause though.

My husband set me up with a temporary work space in the studio kitchen. Bless him! But he knows it was for his own good -- I would be going absolutely crazy without a spot to work on my projects.
Like that ancient 50's metal sink?
It is nice to have a window to look at while working.

At least it was easy to move these from one room to another so my stamps and washi tape are
 close by.

Working on some more Stamp Head ATC's. I am getting the hang of it more now and they really are fun. But I am finding there are almost no stamps with children's faces on them and I need some.

MAIL ART KIT ZINE
One good thing that came out of emptying out my studio is that I finally found the envelope containing the submission for the call-for-entries I had way back on October 2011 for
What's In Your Mail Art Kit?
I have been looking for them for ages and found them behind a bookcase. I immediately got busy and made the zine.
The zine has been mailed out to those who submitted entries and there will be more about it -- and mail art kits -- in an upcoming post.

CHINATOWN
Next stop -- Chinatown for the Lunar New Year Flower Market (and lunch, of course).
Will be reporting on the paper shops there soon too. It isn't always so busy on Grant Avenue. The street was closed for the flower market (as it will be for the Parade).

There is always a lot to enjoy looking at in Chinatown -- especially at Lunar New Year.
And if you are coming to town for XPF - the famous Parade will be Saturday, February  15.
I'm just sayin'......

OUTGOING

I've been busy!! Helping out with the XPF passports, moving boxes, trying to find stuff in the studio, wandering through Chinatown, sending mail, making zines, having lunch...and there is Valentine's Day coming up too.

What are you all doing these days?

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL!!!

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.