Making

Good Morning
Greetings from windy, rainy, cold San Francisco. I'm loving it. Perfect time to stay inside and work at my studio work table.
After coffee and breakfast and admiring some vintage flower postcards.....

It may be messy but it is where I am happy making things for hours and hours.
I've been busy at this table trying to catch up with my outgoing mail.
But, we never really catch up, do we?

On January 1 I started my Rolodex Card a Day project and so far so good. Of course, it is only January 22 so I have a long way to go...but I am enjoying it..I have posted more photos of them on IG. And we all know I have endless amounts of paper ephemera to work with...

INCOMING
I have had some lovely incoming mail so there is a lot to catch up on...

I decided to "reprint" some of my older zines and send them to my newer mail art correspondents.

And, being me, I had to make little folders to put the zines in.....I do love a good presentation.

OUTGOING to Cuan in South Africa

OUTGOING to Virgo in Russia

Collages for Virgo

It always feels good to have a stack of outgoing mail.....

Rolo cards for Michele C

....tucked into a little folder....

The start of a mail art book.....more about this later....

PROJECTS: Mail Art book, a Rolodex Card a Day, Altered Passports,  Collages

It is raining AGAIN but that ought to keep me busy for a while....you think?
What are you all working on?
Remember, ART SAVES LIVES

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You Can Do It (Almost) Anywhere

Making mail art in my studio is always fun. I have everything I need there (and more). But, sometimes it is nice to take it on the road...

Writing at the Library

I love to hang out at the library for a while when I have time. They have big, beautiful wooden tables and comfortable chairs and and wifi and you are surrounded by books.
And they often have flyers around that are good for using to write letters.....

All you really need is a pen!

Huntington Gardens, Pasadena CA
It is always fun to sit outside and write some postcards and the beautiful Huntington gardens  is one place that's fun to set up a writing station outdoors at a table.

Sitting out in the sun, watching the world go by and writing some postcards....

Anytime I go anywhere a part of the fun is packing up a mail art kits, either large or small....
I love a road trip when i can bring A LOT of stuff, including my small portable typewriter, but I am good with going small on a plane too....

MOTEL ROOM MAIL
Nothing better than mail art in a motel room. My favorite. I always tear up every tourist brochure/menu/map I can get my hands on and I make stuff....
What does the maid think?

Breakfast and Mail Art
Home or traveling, I like to start each day with a little art of some kind. Gets the day started off right.

What I did and what I didn't do ----
I don't really enjoy "holidays" so Thanksgiving isn't a big day around here. But I am thankful.
Thankful for my wonderful blog readers, Instagram followers, FB blog readers and real life mail art pals who are so generous with good mail.
It is a truly wonderful community we are in.
I've found my tribe!
So, thank you ALL.
I certainly didn't get involved in the so-called Black Friday marathon of excess and shopping.
Not my thing.
I am making things for friends though. I can't show you you till after Xmas but I'm taking photos for you.
I'm packing up a little travel bag for a very few days away now and you know I will be making some mail art.
And, then, back to the studio for some more art-making.

Hope you all are having a good time these days......don't let the crazy "holiday season" make you crazy. Just make things and have some fun with friends and take care of yourselves.
Have a cappuccino.....

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Altered Passport Project

In the fall, I am usually dusting off my own passport and getting ready to go on a trip.
This year, my trip sadly got canceled so I may have to send some others off to travel instead of going myself...
The travel journal was all prepped and ready...

I love to travel and I've always loved passports....little books filled with exotic rubber stamps? How could I not like them?
So, I started picking them up any time I got a chance....and one thing lead to another....and....
I started creating fantasy passports for imaginary people going on imaginary trips...
just my type...

When I found these small, vintage photos at the Vintage Paper Fair I knew these ladies were going to have to go on a trip.

I change the photos of the travelers. After all, who ever likes their passport photo?
We need new and glamorous photos for our fantasy trips.

I collect small photos (especially when I travel in other countries) to add -- and I add in rubber stamps and postage stamps and really, anything that seems to suit the trip...

Sometimes I give the pages a watercolor wash....or collage on them...

A trip to Morocco inspired this page....I didn't see any camels but I saw donkeys.

A France inspired page...

Those two ladies look like they would enjoy an English Tea - so I sent them to the UK.
(real immigration stamps)

I always leave any existing  stamps and visas showing and work with them. This is a real visa for a trip to Japan so the two pages are Japanese.

Japan Passport picked up at the VPF
I found a Swedish one too....
You want to see them? Let me know in the comments.

This Japanese passport had A LOT of wonderful stamps from entering and departing Japan....
I think I will just leave them as-is. So cool.
One thing that really bugs me is that many times I just breeze thru immigration and my passport doesn't even get stamped at all. I really hate that.
If I am talking to a person I ask to get it stamped, but
I took a train thru a few countries in Eastern Europe and it was oddly like there were no borders,
No stamps in my passport at all....

A Russian Passport
Don't you love that handwriting? I am going to have fun with this one. Since I've been to Russia I have some wonderful bits of old ephemera from flea markets there to add....

I find that passports are difficult to find. They are very expensive on eBay. I have gotten lucky a few times at the Vintage Paper Fair.
But -- that Japanese store - Muji - has little, inexpensive notebooks (pictured) that come in red or blue and are the exact size as many passports, rounded corners and all.
So now I think I will be making a few of my own own passports -- I wonder if I will have to invent a new country?
Himmmm......I could give a workshop in my studio on making these......that would be a lot of fun.
Would you come?

I am kinda sad because of my trip....but the best remedy for that is making a lot of art in my studio so that's where I am headed off to now...

Ciao bella.

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Good Things from the Mail Box

Don't you just LOVE getting mail?
I know I do. It is often a highlight of my day. But when there is NO mail.....well.....let's just say I get very crabby.
Lately my mail box hasn't been as happy as it sometimes is....
BUT
I have gotten a few beauties to share with you.

From the lovely MISS MILLICENT this cool envelope arrived recently. A red security envelope folded inside out and stitched together -- oh!
And some roses sewn on to complete whole postal beauty.

See that stitching? Miss Millicent is a whiz with a sewing machine....

DORI SINGH MAIL
Anything I get from Dori I love.....two terrific envelopes with Rolo cards inside....

DORI SINGH MAIL
These two came in another envelope.....The colors on them are more beautiful than in the photo.
My Rolodex fie is getting fat and happy.
Everything Dori makes is wonderful. Thanks, pal!

Susanna Lakner  (Planet Susannia)-- wonderful collage artist from Germany added these two beauties to my Rolodex Art Project. And a rumor has it I just might be meeting her here in San Francisco next month.

Susanna Lakner
The flip side of them....

Margarete Minar
A new member of the SF Correspondence co-op and new pal sent me three Rolodex cards tucked inside this charming little pocket....

And, these two from Margarete have stamps on them -- of course! You can check out her blog on my sidebar.

Barcode Barb
Another co-op member sent me these two Rolo cards -- with a money theme -- so cool.
Barb has been into making books and various themes with a money/banking theme and when I saw those coin stamps at ScrapSF I knew I had to get them for her...

Erica Lang
Now this was fun -- Erica contacted me and asked if I would do a swap of Rolodex Art with her -- why not? And she sent me these three lovelies for the trade.
I love the couch with the stamp "paintings" above it and the real feather glued on --
thank you Erica!

Delwen Tatton
And just today -- from Australia -- this lovely mail arrived and I got to squeeze in one last photo to show you. I love those cartoon woman with the mail comments....and those great Aussie postmarks.

I have had some pretty pathetic no mail days but when I do get mail it is
GOOD MAIL
so thanks to all of you lovelies who keep sending me such delightful mail and cheer up my mail box -- because I am kinda like those kids at the top of the post waiting to see what the mail man will bring.

I have other things to report on. Stamp bundles. Library Book Sale. Co-op meeting. Altered Passport Project.

But that's for another time.

Get any good mail lately?

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