Art in the Afternoon

Yesterday was a meeting of my wonderful mail art group, The SF Correspondence Co-Op.
I packed up the Rolodex Art project and took it on the road.....or should I say to the library where we had our meeting?
I put out a bunch of paper ephemera on the tables and everyone brought a glue stick and I asked my mail artist pals to make me some cards for the Rolodex Project.

They sure did! Everyone jumped and and torn and cut and pasted and made  some wonderful art cards. I love how every single card is different and has the stamp of it's maker. What a creative bunch of people.

See what I mean? They are all so different and all so great.
Thanks to all of you who made me cards -- much appreciated. 

But, you can't have all work and no play. (OK, making those cards is pretty playful but you know what I mean). We had a giant SWAP table. Since I have cleaned out my studio I had a whole lot of stuff to share...and others brought things as well...

....no one left empty-handed....

This was my haul. Ok, I know...I am not supposed to be bringing stuff  back to my studio.....but who could possibly resist old stamps in yellowed glassine envelopes? Dennison seals? Old postcards?
Well...I couldn't...

Some co-op members brought interesting things to play with, like the giant numbering stamp James brought....He brought a Ray Johnson Bunny rubber stamp too. I stamped my passport and a bunch of postcards with it...

Gregg brought the Bad Rooster, who is sitting at his table filled with tiny airmail envelopes.

And Barb made this -- it is a doll without a head...ok, she left the head at home...but I think the coolest part are all those folded security envelopes. I love the way that looks and I'd like to have a stack of them just folded and tied with string sitting on a shelf...

JU brought this -- it is a case intended for jewelry -- but....

.....she filled it with art supplies. Pretty fun.

Stamps, cookies, friends, glue sticks, Rolodex cards, swap table, artistamps....
really, what better way to spend an afternoon?
I can't think of one.
And, we get to do it all over again next month.

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Put a Stamp on It!

A good pal of mine gave me a big bag of stamps and it has been such fun sorting them and playing with them....
Can you ever have too many stamps?
(the correct answer is no)

There are so many categories to sort them into....by country, by color, air mail, postal related, birds, flowers, horses, heads (of course!).....

It's a good thing I bought a lot of these clear boxed with compartments at Itchi-Ban-Kan.
Even I have to admit the sorting can get a little tiring so sometimes you've just got to play....

Stamp Head time!
I made four stamp head postcards for a Mail Me Some Art Swap.....
Here is the swap!!!
You will have to work fast and get yours in the mail by January 11 -- Monday -- but you can do it, I know you can.
I whipped mine out fast.

Adding some dialog is always fun too. I try to imagine what they are talking about...

This guy is reading a book...(I tried to find an animal stamp to put on that lower left lion (or whatever he is) but I ran out of time...

The "Heads" get their very own box. I can tell you, white males get the most stamps....I'm just sayin'. If you aren't a queen and you're a woman your chances of being on a stamp don't look real good. I love the Eva Peron stamps though.....I am sending her on some good trips.

Helen Keller on a stamp from Spain. Sorry, Helen, I just couldn't resist......

INCOMING
Here's what Christie Juhasz sent me using some old stamps -- pretty great, don't you think?

What would YOU do with an airmail envelope filled with stamps?

Why don't you tell me? I am going to close my eyes and pick one name from the blog comments and I will send one person some stamps,
Who collects stamps for art projects? What do you make? What are your favorite countries for stamps? How do you store them?

I have more stamp-related projects and I'll show you soon. In the meantime, I am back to sorting and playing with stamps.

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J'aime les Cartes Postales - - Oh yes I do!

I have a thing about France. And postcards. And French postcards.

J'aime les Cartes Postals
I love the backs of them, the fronts of them, the vintage ones and the new ones....

The French really knew (know?) how to cancel stamps. There are often two, or even three, cancellations on each card.
(And, by the way, I could REALLY use some French mail artists to trade with if anyone in France is reading this).

And did I mention the handwriting?
The most beautiful cursive writing....

And they really know how to SQUEEZE a whole lot of cursive writing onto each little card...

Why don't we have lovely little paper bags made especially for postcards?

And look at this -- is it early mail art? Some little French kid drew on this card. Looks like a drawing of a kid riding a dog???

I also notice the hotels and tourist spots back in the day had had special stamps too....

I get endless pleasure out of my French postcards....besides admiring the postmarks and stamps and cancellations...I use them for art projects too. I found out you can get two ATC cards from each postcard. I love using them for ATC's and including some of the markings on the card into the ATC.

I spent all day last Sunday making Postal theme ATC's using French postcards as the starts...

So fun -- I got 25 ATC's -- and I'm still at it.
Want to see them all?
Let me know if you do.

Oui, it is kind of frightening, isn't it? But I work best with all my stuff out where I can see it...
I'll clean up...really I will...(someday).

I've always loved these rows of trees you see all over France...

Here's a photograph I took of French trees....same ones as the vintage postcard?

This is me in another life.
Oh yes it is!
I wonder I will come back as next time? Got to be something postal.
So, I hope you enjoyed the ode to postcards.
And, if you're going on vacation, I hope you will mail some postcards out and make some mailboxes happy.
Or, even if you are staying put, you can still pop a postcard in the mail and try to squeeze as much cursive writing on the back as those French people did...

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

It's All About the Stamps!

It's All About The Stamps!
I could play with them for hours....

....and I often do...

I just love looking at them. Tiny little works of art. I sort them into piles of the same colors...or subjects....like air mail or flowers or states...

Or HEADS -- for Stamp Heads. There are sure a lot more men on stamps than there are women. I'm just sayin'.

Here's a Stamp Head now -- hello George.  Did you know he enjoyed playing cards?

Sometimes you just find the perfect stamp to fit the body (but it's hard!).

A nice couple, don't you think?

These red, white & blue flag cards might be good for a 4th of July mailing.

I scored some cool Japanese stamps...

These were all stuck on one envelope...someone cut them out. I think it looks kinda like a collage..

The postmark is very cool too -- I have never seen such a long one before.

Some more cards I made featuring stamps -- both postal and rubber.

Stamp Inspiration...
On the right is a vintage book a pal sent me about making little pictures using cut-up stamps. Quite charming.
And, on the left, an article my pal Monica, the artful recrafter, passed on to me (via her sister who sent it to her).  It has some great ideas for using cancelled stamps but sadly there is absolutely no trace of what magazine it came from....and believe me, we tried to figure it out. We think it was written for a parenting magazine because it seems geared to kids. 

Here are some vintage stamp craft cards I picked up at an antique shop...right after my friend gifted me with that vintage stamp book. It was kismet. 

And, here are some cards from that article I mentioned. I think these are very cool, especially the Eiffel Tower.....
anyone want to make me one?

And these two are cards made by Monica -- aren't they cool? I took photos of a whole bunch of photos of cards she made she made using cancelled stamps and I have been been bugging her ever since about doing a post on her blog (link above) about making them. She finally told me I could show you these on my blog -- probably to shut me up. But I bet if you go over to her blog and comment and ask very nicely we might be able to talk her into a blog post about what she does with stamps.

I'm not actually a stamp collector...well, not the type who just sticks them in a book and looks at them....I like to do things with them...but I do have a few books of stamps I picked up at flea markets in my travels...I'm only human...

I love triangle stamps.

From the mysterious article....

Stamps just look cool!

These guys probably thought they looked cool back in the day too. But, I've gotta say, not so much....
Stamp Heads here I come!

There is so much more to say about stamps -- storing them, collecting them, soaking them off envelopes....
So what are you all doing with your stamps???
I know there have to be some ideas out there that I haven't thought of.
What else can we make?

PUT A STAMP ON IT!!!!!