Scream for Zines!

What is not to like??? A beautiful, warm sunny day here in SF. And the SF Zine Fest this weekend -- with zines (of course), artistamps, rubber stamps, book-making workshop,
friendly people -- and a green typewriter to play with.
Who needs Burning Man?

I learned how to make this teeny book today and I had fun doing it! Free workshop given by (my pals) Monica Lee and Dorothy Yuki of Mad Made SF.
Their business card says "Monic and Dorothy are a little crazy & wild and make repurposed designs in San Francisco".
They have a Mad Made SF Facebook page if you are interested -- check it out.

I love a good work table.....

Monica taught us how to make that adorable tiny accordion page book and Dorothy showed us how to make an envelope booklet....

Here is the cover -- pretty cool, isn't it? Quite a handy booklet for a mail artist....

Mad made SF table --  selling really cool stuff too.....

After the workshop, just strolled the isles...lots of great stuff to see and to to buy, if you are so inclined...

One room is a zine library. No, you can't check them out but you can sit for as long as you like and read through them.....

Buttons -- Bet You Can't Buy Just One!!
Buttons and artistamps by the fabulous Maureen Forys, book designer of Good Mail Day and Mail/art/Book -- check out
Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Sorry I didn't get a shot of her artistamps because they were wonderful!

And what have we here?
Postal rubber stamps?
Red Letter Day?
Miss Good Mail Day herself?

The newly launched line of postal rubber stamps, Red Handed Rubber Stamps, by Jennie Hinchcliff
is here (for all of you who have been asking me where I got the amazingly cool new rubber stamps I have been flaunting.
You can buy the stamps at FLAX, here in San Francisco and the Ink Pad in NYC and
Guadalupe's in Santa Fe. Just google them to find the addresses.
I know both the Ink Pad and Guadalupe's do mail order for those of you who are desperate to get your hands on these fabulous stamps (you know who you are).
And you can check out Red Handed Rubber Stamps right here

You know we haven't had any food pictures on the blog in a while and you KNOW I am having lunch....so after all the excitement at the Zine Fest I had to go have some lunch -- join me?

Egg Puffs?
Freshly made and hot and paraded around the restaurant? Who could resist? Not me!

After all that I had to go home and hang out in my studio for a while and chill out.
There are just so many fun things to do around it isn't easy to keep up with everything.
(Library Big Book sale in September anybody?)

It's a holiday weekend, right? So why not crack open a nice bottle of wine, set out some cheese and work on art for as long as I want? And I know there is a dvd and some BBQ take-out waiting for me when I'm ready. We know how to spend Labor Day Weekend here in San Francisco.
What are you all doing?
Come on over for some wine and art if you want.

Happy official end-of-summer. I am ready for fall -- bring it on!

Hope you guys are all having fun this weekend, wherever you are, and making some art.
Tell me about it! 
Make a zine!

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Mail and the Meet-Up and More

SF Correspondence Co-Op
August 2013 mail art meet-up and a good time was had by all. The group was a little bit smaller than usual probably due to August vacations.
But you wouldn't know that the group was smaller by looking at the work table......

Our fearless mail art leader
Red Letter Day 
always makes the best signs. I may have taken one home but don't tell her....
and
be sure to read this link about the fabulous mail art event happening here in San Francisco starting the weekend of February 14, 2014.
I'm sure going to be there and I hope I see some of you too.

August 2013 meeting
We worked on postcards and ate cookies and made plans.  If you are local to the Bay Area or visiting SF you are welcome to attend one of our co-op meetings.

I just love to see all the mail art kits everyone brings -- photos of six mail art kits posted on the Cappuccino and Art Facebook page.
Another thing that is really great is to see how each person has a distinct style and even though we pool our materials and work from the same ephemera
all the collages look completely different.

Cut and Paste -- my idea of a fun afternoon!

Events are us!!!
SF Zine Fest, Mail Art Call and the fabulous Ex Postal Facto event on Jennie's blog.
Ex Postal Facto

When GOOD MAIL goes BAD
I have received a number of plates in the mail so when I saw this Lady of Guadalupe plate I knew I had to mail it to a certain person who loves the Lady......
I put loads of postage on it and dropped it into the postbox
but.....

....sadly...it never arrived.....
I am kind of disappointed in the USPS on this one....the friend who sent me a plate (which I did get) told me she sent several and one was returned to her in pieces in one of those dreaded
"We're Sorry" plastic bags...she thinks the postal workers were playing frisbee with it.

OUTGOING
I bought a big sheet of cool playing cards Italian paper for $2. Cut it up into eight double sided envelopes for some of my mail art friends...the washi tape is also playing card inspired...

OUTGOING COLLAGED CARDS
I just love to tear and paste and collage....so fun and relaxing...I could do it for hours. Oh yeah..I do do it for hours..

OUTGOING COLLAGE CARDS

OUTGOING COLLAGE CARD
(security paper and stamps)
And Winnie&39sGirl--you asked how I store my stamps--I sort a lot of them by color and by country and store in these compartment boxes.

OUTGOING COLLAGED CARDS
Among other things, I am working on a road trip/airplane travel series.

POSTAL ATC'S from the Mail Me Some Art swap.
These are just too wonderful -- what a fabulous package to receive in the mail.
I loved them all -- especially the two with letter carriers on them.
I hope Karen does another Postal ATC swap because if she does, I'm in!

Many thanks to all -- rhozza, Susie, Indigo, Ellen, Leslie, Colleen and Terrie...and to Karen for hosting the swap.

Just wanted to be sure you could see these two -- aren't they great?
Thanks to Christie (left) & Lynn (right)

And this one? Just so cool.....thank you to Julie


Ok, now I know you want to know who won the little Chinatown zine. Are you sure you didn't just skip to the bottom to check?
It's OK, I understand.

And the winner is..........TAMMY......
but wait...I got into the spirit and pulled two more winners
Melissa of craftgasm
&
TamoyoHime (I need your address -- can you message it to me please?)

Thanks to all who entered the drawing and commented. I got some good suggestions and ideas and really appreciated the input. It isn't always easy to know what to blog about so I need help thinking things up. I will work on some of your suggestions. Unfortunately the questions about how I organize maybe take a while to show you since I'm in the midst of a big studio re-organization project which will continue in to 2014.

I wanted to show some shots from yesterday's Zine Fest but this post is long enough. Check out the Facebook page for the blog for more updates and
SEE YOU IN THE 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.