Who's excited for Halloween?!?

Halloween is my favorite holiday. If you've been following my blog for long, you'll know I've done many, many posts about Halloween and Halloween mail. Partly this is because I adore bats, but also because I just like the spooky autumnal mood. I can't really explain why I love Halloween so much, I just do.

So it tends to be around Halloween that I'll jump back into Swap-bot for a couple of Halloween-type postcard swaps. I just participated in a Bat-themed Halloween postcard swap, which involved a handmade bat postcard. Can do! I had great fun using my bat washi tapes and stickers.



Of course this was a perfect occasion to use one of my brand-new Batman stamps, just issued last week.

Now that I'm posting the photos, I just realized that I never used any of my great bat rubber stamps on it! Oh well, there is plenty more mail (October and otherwise) for that.

Happy Halloween mailing!

Happy Halloween 2013!

Happy Halloween!! I have gotten much fine bat mail so far, but I have not photographed it yet, so today's image is a Vintage Halloween postcard courtesy of The Graphics Fairy. You can go there to download the graphic, too.

Watch out for ghosties and ghoulies in your mailbox!

Happy Halloween! / Cannibal Pumpkin

Sorry I don't have any photos of my Halloween mail - I've sent and received some - but I do have tonight's photos of the fabulous jack-o-lantern duo that my best beloved carved...



...Cannibal Pumpkin!



Happy Halloween, everyone!

Handmade Halloween envelope

This was a combination birthday/Halloween letter for my cousin (also a sometime pen pal) whose birthday is almost on Halloween. I made the envelope out of a small file folder that came in a Letter Writers Alliance RSVP Halloween package. The black label also came with that package, so it was like a letter-making kit right there! The stamp with the kitty on the moon surrounded by bats is one I found on Zazzle.



That big-eyed witch face is all kinds of creepy awesome, if you ask me.

By the way, Soda likes Halloween mail, too

Back in October, Soda was exceedingly helpful with Halloween mail.



She was particularly fond of all the goodies in the Halloween RSVP packages from the Letter Writers Alliance.

Halloween postcards with Halloween tape

I spiced up a lot of my Halloween mail with some recently discovered Halloween paper tape - from Martha Stewart Crafts, of all places. I don't know if one is allowed to call this "washi tape" as it's not Japanese, but it is paper tape and tears essentially the same way. Of course the bat tape is my very favorite, and I found this Swap-bot Halloween postcard swap the perfect occasion to use one of my skull envelope stamps. A sparkly bat sticker, also by Martha Stewart (who knew her Halloween stuff was so great? I didn't!), livens things up.



More Halloween tape here, though these stickers are decidedly NOT Martha Stewart.



Finally, a shot of a bunch of Halloween postcards together before they went out for their swaps. I love these vintage reproductions! They came from three different postcard books: Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear Postcard Book, Old-Fashioned Halloween Cards: 24 Cards (Dover Postcards), and Halloween Postcard Book by Darling & Company. Very few are actually spooky, most are cute, and some are just downright weird, like the bottom right-hand corner card that shows a kissing couple standing in a Jack-o-lantern.

Silver Halloween letter

Yes yes, I am terribly behind in blog posts. I'm working my way through October letter photos now. So, here we have one of my more decorative and exciting Halloween letters! I do hope the metallic silver envelope went through with no problems, along with the day-glo green gel pen ink for the address. (That ink isn't totally waterproof, so I covered it with tape.) The envelope features some of my favorite Halloween stickers, and is being modeled by a cute bendy skeleton I got from one of the Letter Writers Alliance RSVP Halloween packages.



Naturally, Soda had to get in on the photographic action. I took a bunch of her with this letter - she seemed really to like this one especially - but in an effort not to barrage you with a million Soda pictures, I just picked my favorite.



And ta-daa! - the back. I love those stickers that make a play on words with favorite alcoholic beverages and spooky imagery... skin and tonic! Eyeball highball! HA!

More spooky Halloween letters and postcards to come in future posts... because I know a lot of you readers, just like me, love Halloween year 'round.

Happy H-OWL-oween!

This postcard is from one of my vintage Halloween postcard books that I purchased via Amazon.com, but in all honesty, I forget which one. It was either this one or this one.

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a fun and spooky day.

One more for Halloween postcard?

We need ONE more for the Halloween postcard... USA only swap, though more than one would certainly be welcome! Any takers?

Halloween postcard swaps!

I adore Halloween! I have a bunch of awesome Halloween postcards, and have already participated in a couple of great Halloween postcard swaps on Swap-bot.

There are two more that close today and tomorrow; if you're looking to sign up for a Halloween postcard swap on swap-bot, the more, the merrier!

Halloween PC swap: this one is technically international, though right now all the swappers signed up for it are from the USA. Last day to sign up: TODAY, October 14.

Halloween PC... USA only swap: Last day to sign up: tomorrow, October 15.

Come join the spooky postcard fun!

Best. Halloween Card. Ever.

I don't usually blog about mail before I respond to it, but this one must be an exception. This lovely Halloween card came on Friday, and I squee'd and squee'd and squee'd. Like a stuck little pig. This is the most amazing Halloween card ever! It's got everything: a bat, some wine, little silver dots, the bat is wearing a bowler hat...



..AND the envelope had a glow-in-the-dark spider secured in the corner! There was transparent tape over it which I removed for photographic, but I am amazed and delighted that the spider made its journey intact and unmangled. And how much do I love those Legend of Sleepy Hollow stamps? They are pretty amazing. The sender of this fantastic card, one of the amazing gals behind The Letter Writers Alliance, even wrote a great blog entry about these stamps; if you're itching to know more about them, this is the place to start.



The back of the envelope is graced with some pretty silver-tinged washi tape and a marvelous paper sticker of a running moon-man pumpkin-head man. You can see the legs of the spider on the front poking out from the corner there.

The letterpress on this card is particularly well-done; it comes from Greenwich Letterpress in NYC, a shop that I've actually visited in person on one of my Big City ventures, and I can attest that all of their work I've seen is really fine. I am sore tempted to order a set of cards now.

Anyway, I wish a Happy Halloween to those who celebrate this spooky holiday! Remember: anything can happen.

(Don't let a bat steal your wine.)

Midnight Rendezvous

One of my faithful blog readers sent me yet another gorgeous PaperNosh notecard. She sent me the first one last March, which I blogged about at the time, and this time she sent an extra card for me to use as well.



How apropo - it's a bat lady! This design is called Sorcière Femme d'allure Diabolique, "Midnight Rendezvous" (is that a direct translation? I think not).



The silver accents on the black envelope are the sender's own embellishment work, fitting bats around a cloudy moon.



Even the backs of these cards are lovely. The extra she sent was a joy to write on, though the price per card listed on the website puts them a bit too rich for my blood. It was a delightful special treat, though, and I feel so spoiled!

When you give a hoot, we deliver

This spooky envelope came to me from Carla of 365 letters. It looks like all these decorations were printed right on the envelope. My favorite is the Owl Post: When you give a hoot, we deliver. Love it! (Have I mentioned I'm a huge Harry Potter fan?)

Metallic ink powder calligraphy on black paper

One of my pen pals is an artist who writes every letter in calligraphy with a flexible-nib dip pen. She often uses these marvelous metallic powders (dip pens only, not for use in fountain pens) for sparkly flair.

After a conversation on The Fountain Pen Network (FPN), she sent me this letter, which was even more a work of art than usual!



The theme at the time, of course, was Halloween - I love the artistic embellishments!



I'll end with two different views of the same section, so you can see the different sparkles and the orange undertones of the metallic powders (I hope).



And in case you're wondering... NO, I can't do this myself! :-)

Fishing for letters?

A pen pal sent me this fun "A Jolly Halloween" postcard (yes, she did send it in time for Halloween, so you see how behind I am with blogging as well as letter-writing). What is the little witch doing? Is she pulling letters out of the pumpkin, or putting them in?



This was a mistake shot with the flash, but I'm posting it anyway because it really shows off the glitter accents.

Halloweeny decorated letter

This one went to Bianca of Goodnight Little Spoon, who got extra Halloween decorations to help compensate for the fact that they don't get Halloween in Australia.

Of course she blogged about it already, and she scanned the back of the envelope, too, which I didn't think to photograph before sending.

Oh - and I'll mention this because she is my cat who appears on this blog least - the tabby cat on the far right postage stamp is my kitty Magic. She enjoys pumpkins and often manages to get herself photographed near them. I'll leave you with the original photo (taken in October 2007) from whence that photo stamp was made:



(Magic is so named partly because of the M on her forehead, which I gather is quite common for tabby cats, but she's super-special because she's Magic. But she's also very shy and doesn't hang out on top of my letters like Soda and Memo do, so that's why she doesn't pop up on this blog very often.)

Happy Halloween!

In honor of this fine, fine holiday, I present a fine, fine letterpress card by hello! Lucky, which I received recently from a dear friend. I am so grooving on this black cat with the bold orange stripes emanating from his head.



Even their insignia is beautiful. Ah, the gorgeous texture of letterpress...



Said friend drew me a l'il pumpkin on the orange envelope.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everybody!

(heh heh... BOO!)

Sparkly Halloween stickers

I've been having fun with these little sparkly Halloween stickers that I found in the Christmas Tree Shop. They're small and silly, but they put me in the mood... and I've vowed to use them all up before Halloween! Nearly there. Here we have a ghost with bats, a single bat, a cat with a pumpkin, and some candy corn.