Gilded

I was feeling golden in my decorative mood for a recent (well, November) letter to Donovan. I combined some large plasticky deco tape with a Martha Stewart Crafts label. I think the stationery is Crane something... it's certainly cottony.



I went with a simple vintage label on the back.



I used a couple of vintage stamps - Abigail Adams, known as a writer (corresponding with her husband, President John Adams), and that lovely rainbow-edged United Way stamp.

Only a few more days where two 22-cent stamps = the current 1st class domestic letter rate...

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.

Fun with washi tape

I sent this letter to my pen pal Sirpa in Finland. (Wow, is the mail service between the east coast of the USA and Finland ever fabulous! Have I mentioned I can exchange mail with Finland significantly faster than with the midwestern USA? But I digress.) Sirpa blogged about this letter when she received it, and she also posted lovely images of the back of the envelope and the inside of the stationery; if you want to see those, take a look at her "Beautiful letter" blog post.

I used Japanese washi tape to form the top and bottom border. I had been noticing it online and on letters and mail art from other correspondents, and I have to say, it's really neat stuff. One can remove it easily, and it is essentially paper tape (we also call it masking tape here in the USA) and can be easily torn by hand. It tends to look pretty classy, and the designs are more sedate than some of the plastic "deco tape" options. Anyway, I bought about 7 or 8 different designs, mostly patterns and stripes, and I've really been having fun with them. I got mine from PrettyTape on etsy, and was very pleased with her prices and service.

A fancy package

This went out to a special acquaintance who moved on to another phase of her life. She never responded to the letter or gift, but I think she probably appreciated it anyway.



Sometimes you just gotta send something really special, even if you think you may never get a response.

My stationery is not stationary swap envelope

Way back in July, I participated in a wonderful Swap-bot swap called My Stationery is not Stationary, hosted by the lovely PostMuse. She sweetened the deal with a giveaway on her blog, too.

I knew any swap she hosted was going to be well-organized, and it sounded great, so I participated with glee. Above you see the envelope I decorated for the swap,



...plus a little glitter-pen embellishment to the deco tape. The recipient liked birds, so I used a bird theme for the stationery and used more birds on the envelope.

I miss the summertime, when I had time to decorate envelopes like that...

PostMuse later did a summary of the swap, with her wonderful follow-up, if you're looking to read more about it.

It was one of the best swaps I've participated in - thoroughly enjoyed it.

Today we battle in the tub!

Here's one of the envelopes I've made so far (using the PaperSource envelope templates I reviewed a while back) from a wonderful, fantastical children's book called King Bidgood's in the Bathtub. The premise of the story is that the King doesn't want to get out of the bathtub, and calls all of his daily activities to happen with him in the tub. I really, really love Don Wood's illustrative style. Oh, and I tried to continue the theme somewhat in the stamps, where I used a 29-cent Columbus landing in America anniversary stamp that showed a similar kind of sailing ship.



Above is the back of the envelope as you would open it; I reinforced the seal with some deco tape and gold stickers...



...and now you can see the illustration continue, with the envelope upside down.

I had a lot of fun making this one! It kept making me smile, to look at it.

More deco tape border action

I am blogging with heavy eyelids now, so please excuse any incoherence. I haven't posted in a few days... I've been really busy with work stuff, but I've also been writing letters! Woo-hoo!

Here is another deco tape border with some vintage stamps.



The envelope flap required securing of some kind, because the Edward Gorey stationery oddly doesn't come with any envelope glue. So Marie the Disney cat helped hold down the flap on this letter.

Bedtime. G'night.

Happy Darwin Day!

Well, it's not Darwin Day quite yet, but I won't have time for a blog post tomorrow so we'll just make this post a little bit early.

You saw the Darwin Day mail I received in my blog post yesterday; here I give you what I sent. It's funny that I saw this graphic in a months-old newspaper, just as I had it in the back of my mind that I'd need to be making something for a Darwin Day envelope. I don't usually incorporate newspaper graphics into my envelope decorations, but this was too perfect for the occasion to pass up... as was the "Happy Birthday / Celebrate" gold deco tape.



There was plenty of evolutionary goodness for the back as well. I don't always enjoy making mail art with a specific theme, but this one was oodles of fun. You might even say I went ape over it.

A pretty package

Here's another recent use of the lace deco tape I got from orientalflea on etsy. This here is the silver glitter installment, which I foresee using even more than the rest. It was the first one that merited an "ooh, must have that" thought when I saw it. Oh yes, and this silver-outlined-in-purple writing on the package came from this Pentel deco outline marker. Fun stuff.



Gotta love how a slight change in angle will totally change the glitter of the bling. You can see that this is a larger version of the lady cat sticker I got from Janetstore that I featured in a blog entry last week; the stickers come in a bunch of different sizes on one sheet.



I love this sassy winkin' kitty. I took these closer photographs so you can get a better look at the design of the deco tape, too.



Here's the bottom bling.

The package's lovely recipient blogged about it recently, so you can get some more views of it (and of the contents, which I did not photograph but probably should have) there.

Black lace deco tape

Generally I am not a fan of pink, but I do like this pink and black combination. You can see I've been playing with my new deco tape. (Because I know people will ask, I got it orientalflea on etsy. It shipped from Hong Kong but was reasonable, especially since I got it on sale.) I colored in some of the hearts... the lace design deco tape does lend itself to such fun. I chose the Marge Simpson stamp because hey, if you're gonna go pink, you might as well go all the way.



This particular letterset came from a Swap-Bot swap, so I don't know the brand name, but I like the scalloped edge on the envelope flap. In keeping with the pink theme, I went with a lady cat sticker I got from Janetstore.

I guess this is the overseas shipping theme post - Janetstore is in Taiwan.

Deco tape on Hammerpress envelope

I got some new deco tape lately, and I've been having fun with it. This is an envelope from the Hammerpress Correspondence Cards set from Chronicle Books.



On the back I put a very large Marie the cat (Disney) sticker over the deco tape. The Marie stickers came to me in a Swap-Bot swap, so I can't tell you from whence they came, but I do think they're kinda cute, if possibly on the border of cutesy.

Sending you my joy

This lovely decorated air-mail-esque envelope came to me bearing a letter and even gifts:



...the best ink blotters ever! I am indeed smeary, dearie, and these made such a lovely little surprise gift with this letter. Instead of putting them on a rocker blotter, I just lay them over the top few lines of my letter as I write. (I am right-handed, but an overwriter, so I smudge almost just like a lefty.)

I love how the two halves together form a heart, and the text is quite witty. I think you can read it if you view large. (Hey, does anyone ever have trouble viewing links to my photos or viewing large? I know some people can, but someone else mentioned in a letter that they couldn't do it. Let me know if this isn't working.)



The deco tape on the back of the envelope rocked, with phrases like "Sending you my joy," "EXPRESS: to those who struggle with time," and "A gift full of dreams coming straight to your door."

Hello, yellow!

From a favorite correspondent in the Netherlands, a bright yellow envelope with pretty deco tape. You can see her pretty fountain pen handwriting here, too.

I'm stuck on you

One of my correspondents is from New Zealand, and she sent me this surprise package covered with wonderful deco tape: awesome arrangement on the back!

It contained some very cute kawaii stationery, which I'll have to photograph to show to the Missive Maven readers. All in due time...