No Actual Mail Was Harmed in Making This Post

What do you do when you get a bunch of pretty boring vintage envelopes and a box of vintage stamps from the post office?
Well, you PLAY, of course!

See those plain white envelopes on the bottom of this shot? No fancy cursive, no beautiful stamps.....

You have to admit these mono printed envelopes look a lot better than those plain white ones.....
don't you?

I just printed over the whole darn thing, stamps and all....I am happy with them.

Some I just went to town with my Post Office vintage rubber stamps. Too much fun. I just love playing post office...got everything out, including my favorite faux cancellation stamps..

I think the eclipse inspired that envelope up top. I just settle on some kind of vague theme and add postage stamps and rubber stamps and just have fun.

I think the theme on these two was green and brown....

I left the original postmarks (of course) and added my SF faux postmark..I love BLOOMER Wis. and had to add a flower rubber stamp to go with that cool postmark..

And Krakow, Wis.???? Who knew? I have been to Krakow, Poland but not Krakow, Wis. And, look at that shaky handwriting....

What would Melba think of her mail?

Thanks to my friend Margarete for sharing the post office stamps with me. So much fun to play with....

Next I may have to play office. Who wants to come on over and play with me?

When I am finished playing around I fill the altered envelopes with ephemera and a letter and slip it into a vellum envelope and send it out into the world....(that one in the back is in vellum...)
I have been pretty useless now for the last few days. San Francisco has had a record-breaking heat wave with temperatures of 103" and 106" and it has been miserable here. This is a City that is cool and gray. We wear leather jackets and boots all "summer". We don't actually have summer. And then BOOM a horrible heat wave.
I hid out in my studio and stamped things. And waited it out.
The fog always returns...

So, the Vintage Paper Fair is next weekend. I'm just sayin', in case you are looking for me. I will be there for sure....
maybe I will find some more old envelopes to alter.
What would YOU do with those envelopes?

SEND GOOD MAIL --  GET GOOD MAIL

Mixed Various

Yesterday I went over to my pal Monica's studio and that is always fun. Trust me. If you ever get the chance to go to Monica's studio, you want to go.
There is always so much to look at and I always learn something new too.

Our plan was to do two different origami folds and photograph each other doing each step. We were going to post one fold on each of our blogs but technical differences have caused problems in our plan.....I'm not sure when they will get figured out but I will show you the origami wallet fold pretty soon....I promise....what we need is a techie expert on blogs/blogger etc to help Monica get her blog back in business -- any volunteers out there?

She let me play with her Big Shot die cutting machine.....whoa....I never knew how much fun it is to cut out little envelopes and things.....now I want one for my birthday.
Maybe you guys can take up a collection?
(just kidding!)
(well kidding about taking up a collection but I would like one for my birthday...)

I did return home with a pile of various sizes of envelopes to play with....

And, being the way we are, we had to go out for a terrific lunch of spicy minced pork in lettuce wraps and roti (bread) with curry dip......

Now, it is pouring rain and I am hanging out in my studio with this guy....

I've been altering old envelopes with watercolors, rubber stamps and foreign postage stamps...

And prepping new envelopes with rubber stamps...

I've been making LOTS of wallets in all sizes...very easy and very fun...it took me years to find out how to do it and now that I can there is no stopping me.

I've been working on a few altered book pages....

Sending some good mail out...

A friend gave me these cards and I just had to add some little stamp heads to them..
I just can't leave things alone.

Worked on a pocket letter....but gee...those things are A LOT of work. It is like making nice ATC's.

I was going outside to shoot some photos for the blog but the rain stopped me. It is so wonderful to hear it pounding on the rood right now. Poor dry California really needs it and I, for one, do like to take showers so keep it coming!
I guess I better post this and get back to work on the various projects I've got going.....a rainy day is a good day to make things.
But then, every day is a good day to make things, right?

SEND GOOD MAIL  --  GET GOOD MAIL

It's All About the Envelope!

I recently shared a link on the Blog's FaceBook page about making envelopes. It got me started thinking about how much I like envelopes.
Vintage envelopes, handmade envelopes, tiny ones and large ones, envelopes that are sewn together and (especially) altered vintage envelopes.

So, of course, I got started working on some envelopes.......

Altered Envelope
I love to alter vintage envelopes using cut out faces (usually from postcards) and images torn from old books and rubber stamps and some splashes of paint.

Altered Envelopes
Here are two I really like....I'm sending that bottom one to Virgo in Russia. It says Vargo on the envelope which made think of Virgo.....The top envelope was sent from Russia to the USA.....maybe it will make a return trip.

Altered Envelope
I added this guy and some additional postage and rubber stamps to this one. A red envelope is a bit unusual to find.
In fact, it is hard for me to find old envelopes to alter -- any of you out there have a cheap source? If any of you have an old envelopes you can spare or trade I would really appreciate it.
SPECIAL REQUEST
I am looking very hard for cancelled passports with ZERO luck. I have lost all the eBay auctions.
If anyone out there can send me one passport or more I would be so happy.
I am trying to work on an Altered Passport project, which isn't easy to do without being able to find passports to alter....
We thank you in advance
I can pay a reasonable amount for them or make you stuff in trade....

(New) Altered Envelope
When I can't find vintage envelopes to alter, I just make some new ones and pay with them...I thought this guy would like a Levi jacket...you think??

(New) Altered Envelope

(New) Altered Envelope
This one just might have to go off to Russia...I just love that onion dome building...

Tiny Vintage Envelopes
Going through my stash of old envelopes to alter, I found these teeny little envelopes..

They aren't even close to the minimum size that the USPS requires now...

This is to give you an idea of the scale....I put the tiny envelope on top of an envelope I recently received and one underneath...see what I mean?

And here's a quiz for you -- when is an envelope not an envelope?

Why, when it is a letter folded up into itself to make a envelope....very common in France..way back when...and so cool.

OUTGOING MAIL
I always have a stack of outgoing mail and that stack always has a few handmade envelopes going out.
It is really easy to just make a trifold and use double stick tape on the sides.
I never measure.
The link I posted on the FB page had templates and some long, involved, complicated way to make an envelope.
Get over it!
Life is too short to make a huge production out of sending good mail.
We are busy people, right?

Tomorrow there is an big all day ART FIELD TRIP.
There will be a full report.

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

And please, if you have old passports or envelopes sitting around, think about what I could do to them.
Happy May Day.

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