Beginning To Look A Lot Like You-Know-What

Ok, it is December 1st and we know what's in the air....
I am not a person is loves Christmas. I get into the holiday spirit about a week ahead of time.
But I do like vintage......and paper ephemera.....and playing with it to
make mail art.

All I want for Christmas is a stuffed mailbox like the ones above!

Holiday Stamps
I can break out my stash of holiday stamps......

and my vintage holiday mailing labels.....
(I swear, the old ones are so much more charming than the new)

And, of course, there are the old and very fun Christmas seals....

The colors have changed from (Halloween and Thanksgiving) orange to
Holiday Red!
I can't show you all the secret holiday projects I'm working on....because some of you will
be getting things in the mail.....
if you've been very, very good and sent out lots of mail this past year.

INCOMING
You know who you are (the good boys and girls). I have been so happy to receive
such terrific mail and make lots of new mail art pals here in SF and all over.

INCOMING
See what I mean?

You can get those cool Write to Me Please Postcards and really fun letterpress
bookmarks made by my pal Nina here
Nina's Neon Sprinkles Studio
Highly recommended!

INCOMING
Handmade envelope and letter on cool paper from SW.

INCOMING
The fabulous Kelly P -- as always, the most fun mail. This took about
eleven days to travel cross country from Chicago to SF but it finally made it.
I have driven cross country a lot faster but that's neither here nor there.
The day this arrived in my mailbox, I ran into my letter carrier earlier in the day, and she said
"You've got something interesting in the mail today".
YES.

INCOMING
Love the collaged and stamped cards from JU.

OUTGOING
From me out into the world....some "chicken mail", chocolates in the mail,
collages, letters....
I have been working hard to catch up but I have a lot left to do
so hang on if you are waiting to hear from me.

Listening to: Snow Angels by Over the Rhine
Working on: secret paper and ephemera projects to surprise friends
Eating: no more leftover turkey
Drinking: red wine and coffee but not at the same time

 Don't worry if you don't see your mail here, I don't have time to post everything I
send or receive.

Now, what's everybody else up to?

SEND ME MAIL!

Gobble Gobble

What could I be more thankful for on Thanksgiving than all the wonderful mail art I have been receiving all year?
I hope you all have been having good mail days too.
A happy mailbox is a stuffed mailbox -- better for the mailbox to be stuffed than all of you on Thanksgiving!

OUTGOING
Some of my outgoing Thanksgiving mail.....

Vintage Thanksgiving cards
I had a stash of vintage cards and decided to send them out into the world.
Quite charming, wouldn't you say?

It seems people used to send more cards - Thanksgiving, Easter, Get Well  - I think we should resurrect that and start making and sending more cards out.

These cards even had the original price stickers on them - 10  cents? 20 cents?
No wonder folks could afford sending cards.
I like to make almost all of my cards now rather than pay $4 or $5 for a card.

OUTGOING
Collaged postcard to Corrine at Dos Fishes

OUTGOING
Outgoing to Kelly P
Maybe she will enjoy an "Every Burger" for Thanksgiving.

OUTGOING

OUTGOING
I have been busy this week.
I sense a holiday slowdown coming upon me since I am the
"designated chef" for all the Thanksgiving cooking --
turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, and pies!
I'd rather be making mail art but everyone ganged up on me so it  looks like I'll be in the kitchen all day tomorrow and not in the art studio.

OUTGOING
This went out yesterday....hum.....what could be inside?
I'm not telling.

Happy Thanksgiving Flowers for all you faithful readers!
Your support of reading and following and commenting on the blog is very much appreciated.
And, all the great mail has really been a pleasure to receive, so--

THANK YOU on THANKSGIVING!

(I know a lot of folks read the blog from other countries that don't celebrate Thanksgiving but thanks to you too and bear with me on the turkey.......)

Wishing everyone in the USA a Happy Thanksgiving
and
Wishing you ALL very Happy Mail days!

Stay tuned.

Envelope/Stationery Making (part one)

So you want to learn how to make envelopes?
I've been asked a number of times lately
so here we go -- an envelope/stationery tutorial.
This was harder to explain than it actually is to make the envelopes themselves.
Here is an array on my work table...
for inspiration.

Nothing is sacred -- I re-use, re-purpose everything I can get my hands on --
catalogs, cooking magazines, calendars, sheet music, ledger paper,
take-out menus, vintage magazines, old books, maps, comic books......
any paper ephemera that you can possibly think of.
You can also buy big sheets of decorative papers at art supply stores.

Free form envelope making
I prefer making a tri-fold envelopes. Very fast and easy. You don't even have to measure anything.
Cut a piece of paper and fold down about an inch for the "seal", then fold in half and use invisible tape to seal up the sides of the envelope. You can use decorative tape over that if you want.
Just be careful not to get over-zealous with the taping. I try to leave a small place at the top of each side to stick a knife or letter-opener in so people can get my envelopes open.
I have had to really tear some beauties that were sent to me because there was so much tape
and no little opening..

Handmade envelopes from a Japanese cooking magazine and a comic book.
It's fun to design the envelopes with the person you are sending to interests in mind.
And if you are sending them to someone in another country, chances are they
will enjoy seeing things you take for granted.

After sealing up the sides, adding decorative tape if wanted - just stuff the envelope and seal.
Et viola!
Slap a mailing label on the front, address, stamp and you are ready to rock and roll.
Or, take a walk to the post box.....

Templates for envelope making
If you don't want to do free form envelopes, you can buy clear, plexi envelope templates from Amazon
and, here in the USA, from The Paper Source. The advantage to the clear templates is that
you can position your template just the way you want it and see what will be showing on your envelope.
You use position template, trace with a pencil and cut out. Then tape or glue together.
This one was $1.50 from the Japanese Dollar Store here in SF.

Thanksgiving envelopes - catalog arrived today and I have a couple of envelopes ready to go out for Thanksgiving.

And here's a look at some great envelopes made by my pal
Corrine
These are very cool - there is no end to ideas for envelope-making.

Edible SF magazine - a freebie. After reading it's envelope making time...

Stationery
A lot of folks like to buy stationery and there are lots of places to do that - but I love re-cycling and re-purposing (again). I find old pads of paper in thrift shops and at
SCRAP
(think Korean Airlines stationery).
If your friends and family know you are into mail art and re-using they may clear out their basements or attics and offer up old hotel stationary or postcards that have been stored away.
Use rubber stamps to decorate.

Stationery
I got a hold of some very old copy-right free designs and went to the copy center and got 100 great pieces of stationery.
If I wanted to get really crazy I could get out my colored pencils and color some of these in.

Charming, don't you think? And cheap!

Handmade cards
I like to make all kinds of cards as well....I found a stash of old romance novels at the thrift shop for 25 cents each and cut the covers off to make cards and postcards.
Anytime I can I pick up cool vintage photos and use them in the window cards...

These are just some of my ideas -- I will do another post about the subject  (collage cards, postcards) after Thanksgiving --so if you have any questions, please leave a comment.

And if you have any helpful advice to add, please do.
Making cards and stationery and envelopes is a lot of fun and also very "green" if you are re-cycling.

Send Good Mail (in a handmade envelope) to Get Good Mail!

Comments are always appreciated and welcome.

Mail Holiday

OUTGOING MAIL
Some of my outgoing mail from this week.

Today is a very dark, rainy day and a holiday. Well, not really a holiday for me because  there is no mail delivery today.
But, on such a dreary day what better to do than bake something that made the kitchen smell wonderful and linger over yesterday's beautiful batch of mail?

INCOMING
These all came yesterday and it was a very good mail day indeed.

INCOMING
And look what else arrived this week? An entry for the Call for What's In Your Mail Art Kit --
a mail art kit itself!
Send very kindly by Daisy
What a fun surprsie. More about Daisy's kit in the post about mail art kits that's coming up.

INCOMING
Always exciting to see an envelope from Miss Jennie H
of
Red Letter Day Zine

and yesterday I got two!  And I am so going to that rubber stamp shop  in New York City
when I go (read her post).

INCOMING FROM RED LETTER DAY

Lunch Break (you knew it was coming)
Since it is so dark and so dreary I decided to make a pot of Thai  Chicken, Lemongrass and Coconut Milk soup to heat up the afternoon.
Came out great. Tossing in those Thai red chilies certainly heated things up around here.

INCOMING
LR sent some lovely fall leaves inside a handmade envelope featuring the same.
Lovely to get the leaves.
 The only other person to mail me leaves in the fall was my mom so this was a treat.
And, a letter tucked inside too.

INCOMING
Mail Art/Postal/Travel zines from a series by Alice So. Every time I see an envelope from Alice I am immediately cheered up knowing another fabulous zine is most likely inside.
Thank you Alice!

OUTGOING
I don't just GET fabulous mail -- I make mail too. A perfect  project after
baking and making soup is to
MAKE MAIL ART.

OUTGOING

This has been a great week for incoming mail (which helps the pain of no delivery today).
I am very lucky to be in the circle of so many lovely people
making and sending mail.

Planning some future post - the Mail Art Kit post and one about stationary, envelopes, ephemera
(that's for you Pocci).

What else would you like to see here???

MAKE MAIL ART ON RAINY DAYS

Travel, Snow and some Mail Art

Post Office on Charles Street, Beacon Hill
Boston, Massachusetts...
Taking this shot on Friday, I saw the Snow Emergency sign but didn't
expect to see actual snow the next day on
October 29th!

SNOW
Well, I was wrong. New England got a blast of snow the next day in a freak snowstorm and this
California girl was in a state of shock
(and underdressed).
This was taken on Sunday morning in New Hampshire.
In October. Before Halloween.
Yikes!

Back to Beantown -- I saw lots of lots of mailboxes all over Boston.
Do you think people write more letters there?
I mailed some of my mail art in these babies.....see them?

A friend sent me to this one in Lewisburg Square so I had to stick a couple of postcards
in here too.
I was loving the brick and cobblestone streets and all the pumpkins on the steps of the
homes surrounding the square.

After just about freezing to death, I mailed the last of my cards
right inside the hotel lobby in this old beauty.
The hotel staff was quite amused by the crazy woman taking pictures
of a mail box.

Laconia, New Hampshire Post Office
in the snow.....
36 degrees  at 1 PM.

LOBSTER
It certainly wouldn't be a trip to Boston without lobster
(and a lobster roll and clam chowder).
This just about made the whole thing worth it!
YUM.

INCOMING
I came back to sunny, 74" San Francisco, and found some great mail waiting for me.
Ok, I am behind.....
Probably why I didn't get anything but one little postcard in today's mail.
I have my work cut out for me.

INCOMING
From Asta in Finland - a lovely message inside a bottle.
Thank you so much, Asta. What fun to get this (yesterday).

What's In Your Mail Art Kit Entries
Well, November 1 has come and gone and the entries are a bit weak in
quantity but really great in quality.
I loved them all and will be working with them soon.

Thanks to all of you who sent me an entry.
Will post some on the blog and send documentation to all.

OUTGOING (In progress)
I am working on this booklet to send out. This weekend I have some serious mail art
time planned.
So, in my next post I'll show you what I sent out.

Our weather in SF has just gotten colder and I am happy to spend some
time working in my studio on making mail art.

Have you sent out some mail this week?Just got a message that Google Reader no longer supports the blog. Have no idea why but my guess is some of you won't see the post. You can subscribe by email if you want.
Have a Good weekend, everyone.




SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL