World Post Day: Mail Social Club at the National Postal Museum

I celebrated World Post Day at the National Postal Museum with their fabulous Mail Social Club, coordinated by Melissa of Craftgasm. It was one heck of an awesome way to celebrate World Post Day, and I found myself wondering, why haven't I been to one of these before?!? Circumstances in my life conspired against me, but the event is now monthly, and I am sure this was only the first of many I shall attend.



The evening began with a tour of the stamp gallery with the head Philatelist, which included a very interesting lecture on "covers," aka envelopes. Unfortunately none of my photos of that bit turned out very well, except the photo above of the table of freebie covers - one lovely cover for everyone. I took an aerogramme, because hey, why not? (Canceled stamps don't excite me nearly as much as ones I can use and send.)



Then, the real fun began! We headed to a lovely education space upstairs, which was a phenomenal workspace for our mail social. The theme of the evening was envelope making, and every table had scissors and envelope templates already set up, including the fabulous 2014 postal rates graphic by Donovan of the LWA. The event was held in a private room, part of the Byrne Education Loft.



Here you can see the front of the room. Not the greatest photo, I know, but you can sort of get the idea. What you can't see is all the AMAZING FREE MATERIALS that were provided! I knew I would love any mail social, and that it would be a grand event, but I had no idea how very generous Melissa and The National Postal Museum would be. Not only did they provide scissors, envelope templates, glue sticks, and all kinds of awesome envelope-making paper, but they also provided washi tape, used stamps and other embellishments, pens and pencils - more than everything you'd need to make gorgeous envelopes. You could have arrived completely empty-handed and still come away with awesome goodies. Thank you, Melissa and the Postal Museum, for your generosity!



Here is Melissa teaching us how to make envelopes. Check out the very awesome George Washington stamp design on the window behind her! Yes, this is a place for mail geeks to get all nerd-tastic over details such as these.



Above, my table at work. Another amazing benefit: meeting other mail geeks, some of whom were already pen pals! I got to meet and share a table with Allison of OMG Crafties and Mary of Uncustomary Art. I am good with candids and casual background photos but very bad with engineering poses, so I'm sorry I don't get to share their smiling lovely faces with you (d'oh! We all should have posed for a photo together! Damn my shy social introversion...), but sharing a table and mail-making with them was beyond fabulous. Mary and Allison were veterans of the Mail Social Club scene, and they knew to bring a lovely array of supplies. Mary also wrote lots of mail while there, which I thought was a pretty neat trick. You don't have to participate in the planned activity, you can just do your own mail thing. I'll have to keep this in mind as it's now getting into the season for people to make (and freak out about) holiday cards, and, well... y'all know how I feel about that scene. But now I know I can just participate in mail camaraderie and ignore the holiday hubbub when the time comes.



I made a short little Vine video of my envelope-making; this is my first time trying to embed a Vine video so we'll see how this goes. (Feedback, anyone? Like the video or is it distracting? I could do more of these in the future, or consider it a novelty. I'm undecided.)



Here's one of the envelopes I made at the event. I'd like to note that all these materials - envelope paper, glue stick, washi tape, Canadian butterfly stamp embellishment - were provided at the event!



The event was well-attended, with many happy folks making mail and envelopes. The room was alive with chatter, and the organizers even played some good tunes for our working inspiration. I commented to Mary that the only thing that was missing was wine! (I understand well why the National Postal Museum can't provide THAT for free.)



I had to leave a bit early and unfortunately couldn't stay for the whole event, but on my way out I snapped this photo of the stamp gallery, alone and quiet at night, with the reflection of the neon "Celebrate" stamp sign. It was certainly a cause for celebration.



Finally, here's my haul from the event. I was able to get there a bit early and just make it to the post office (within the Postal Museum, of course!) before it closed, and not only was it World Post Day, but it was also the date of release for the brand-new Batman stamps, so even though I pre-ordered them online, I bought myself a couple of sheets right there. (Good thing, too - my pre-order still hasn't arrived yet.) I also picked up these fabulous $2 bobcat stamps, which I'd not seen before, and thought were too awesome to pass up.

So, the final verdict -- the Mail Social Club was utterly marvelous! I am already excited to attend another one. Mark your calendars: the next Mail Social Club is on Thursday, November 13!

Sewing envelopes: extra postage?

A dear friend of mine, a talented artist and seamstress, wants to sew the envelopes for her wedding invitations. She asked me about postage and special procedures for that, and since I don't sew a stitch, it's nothing I've ever considered.

I've received a variety of lovely sewn envelopes, in a variety of different styles, but I've not sent any.

Those of you that sew, or that are far more knowledgeable about this sort of postal practice than I - will that require extra postage? I'm inclined to say, better safe than sorry and throw on that 20-cent non-machinable extra, because I'm worried about the threads catching in the sorting machines. But my beloved suggested taping over the stitches, or sealing them in some way, to make them less inclined to be problematic.

Has anyone done this? I'd love any insights or suggestions, particularly those with experience behind them. As these are to be wedding invitations, there will be a fair number of them, and of course we want to make sure they are delivered successfully!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas.

CLARIFICATION: The idea is to sew stitches on paper, not fabric. The main component of the envelopes would still be thick paper, just sewn instead of glued.

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...

Bright birthday card + Gelly roll moonlight pen

I sent a birthday card to a friend at camp. I wanted to make sure the envelope was nice and bright and cheery. It was fun to decorate. I save these Beaker muppet stamps for special occasions, of course.

Are you wondering about that BRIGHT pink ink? I would be. I am loving it - it comes from my new Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight gel ink pen from JetPens. They call this color "fluorescent vermilion orange" but it looks more pink to me. I guess it depends on the light. Anyway, it POPS off of both dark and light colors, and I believe it's waterproof. Apparently it glows under a black light, too, and best of all, it dries pretty quickly. I bought this pen in red, too, and now I'm considering getting a lot more colors. They write really well on postcards, and always look really bright. I realize I didn't take any photos of the pen itself, but let's consider this a mini-review: I love this pen and highly recommend it.

Nib Head Skull

I've been playing around with my favorite envelope skull graphic. The cross on the top of the crown has been bothering me, so I made it a little more letter-oriented... I took the nib from one of my pen photos and put it on top the crown.

I think this guy will be popping up here and there...

Penvelope

This correspondent remembered my love of (and devotion to) fountain pens, and made this fantastic handmade envelope.



In fact, they're all vintage fountain pens. Swoon!

Looking at them makes me want to pick up one of my fountain pens and go write a letter right now.

Bobberdilly's cat conversation

I met this pen pal through Swap-Bot... amazing mail art, heartfelt and real and unique letters and it's just such a joy to exchange letters with this incredible artist. I probably don't deserve Bobberdilly's patience, because it took me about 6 months to respond to this letter...

You can see other letters Bobberdilly's sent me or go right to the artist's blog to see more of this fabulous artwork.

Oh yes... and Happy New Year!
May 2011 be a Good Mail Year for everyone.

Bobberdilly's envelope critters

Here is another fantastic artistic envelope from a wildly creative and interesting pen pal. He turns stereotypes about Kansas (and hey, a large part of my own childhood was spent in Kansas, so I have a reason for my stereotypes) upside down and all around. His letters are as interesting as his artwork, but I have to say - this is pretty damn unique and interesting stuff! Yes, every envelope is a work of art. (Here's a past example of another envelope he's sent me.) You can see more of his work at his own blog, Bobberdilly.com.

My name in sparkly red letters

This fine handmade envelope came from the lovely Zoë. I am so taken with those sparkly, puffy red letters! They were sticking on very well, and must be low-profile enough not to cause problems in any sorting machines. I was a bit surprised they came through so unscathed, because they definitely have a texture that sticks up from the envelope.



Zoë made this envelope herself, and she has become quite the devotee of making her own envelopes: she even has a fairly new etsy shop, strandedhero, where she sells her handmade envelopes and photo postcards.

Cat postcard from Japan

This excellent cat postcard came to me from Japan via the Cat-cards #3 swap on Swap-bot. I get a lot of crappy cards from Swap-Bot, but this one really delighted me - something about the composition and illustration style make it one of my favorites.



Also - it had killer stamps! I am loving the elephant holding the heart-envelope, of course.

Bobberdilly's mail art envelope

Another of my new pen pals is also an artist! This is first-class mail art, and I was in awe when I pulled it out of my mailbox. It's like my own piece of original artwork! The letter was really special, too. It took me waaaay too long to finally write back, but I finally did.

You can see more by this artist at Bobberdilly.com.

Shy little kitten envelope

Here's another handmade envelope from the pages of the book. I made this one with a page from The Shy Little Kitten by Cathleen Schurr.

I found this illustration nearly unbearably adorable.

She calls them flower bats

I wonder, with Florida's recent weather... is Frostproof, Florida really still frost-proof?

Can you go BUZZ BUZZ?

My latest new practice in correspondence is making envelopes out of old children's books. I have oodles of points over at BookMooch, so I've mooched a few fun picture books and have been getting a kick out of making little envelopes out of some of the pages.



This comes from Dr. Seuss's "Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?" Each page features something (usually, but not always, an animal) and the sound it makes... and because it's Dr. Seuss, the illustrations are bold and fabulous.

Bat punch fun

A friend gave me a gift of some autumn-themed paper punches last year. There's a cat, two different leaf shapes, and a bat (my favorite, of course). I like to use them on envelope flaps and color underneath for effect. I photographed this process for you...



...and Soda helped oversee the procedure. (The punch, with the envelope, is at her feet.)



First, I colored underneath the punch area with a silver gel pen.



Then I closed the flap without sealing it just to make sure I had the whole area covered.



Here's a photo of the punch itself on top of the envelope, before sealing - with Soda's paws in the upper right-hand corner. (See how helpful she is??)



Then, voila! A silvery bat window. (Alas, it's not quite centered, but hey, that adds to the charm, right?)



Soda thinks so.

Moth mail

One of my correspondents in Canada always uses the most gorgeous decorative envelopes. I always know a letter is from her as soon as I pull the envelope out of my mailbox.



The glittery Hello Kitty peacock sticker is such a fun touch.

Pod Post!

I am just in love with this postcard, sent to me by the intrepid PostMuse. I have seen PodPost and its wares touted on the Letter Writers Alliance site, but alas, I cannot find this postcard available in their shop. In fact, they're out of almost all of their letter-writing supplies. *sigh* They're a small business, whaddyagonnado?

Still, I wax dreamy on the meta-old-fashioned vibe of this postcard.

Namascar: Om envelope

I'm unsure what I should even title this post - this envelope deserves better prose than I can give it. The border is printed, but the sender embellished it with much glitter, inside and out. She paint-wrote the Om symbol herself.



On the back, she wrote the Marathi greeting, Namascar, in Marathi. And on the inside, she wrote my name in Marathi, too!

Now, I could have photographed the inside, but I don't think I could do a better job photographing OR explaining than she did herself - she posted about this letter on her own blog! I HIGHLY recommend a visit to her blog Damaged Goods, and while you're there, you can check out some of her beautiful artwork on other projects.

So hey yeah, blog readers - if any of you blog about letters you write or receive from me, send me the link! Heck, if you blog about letters you write or receive to ANYONE, I'd love to know about it.

I made an envelope!

I have this fun 2008 Warren Kimble cats calendar that my MIL gave me, and until a few days ago it was still hanging on the wall because it was so cute I couldn't bear to throw it away. I was looking at this page and realized it would make a really fun envelope, so I gave it a shot.



No fancy folds or anything for me - the sides are just taped closed. But it preserves the artwork, I think. Maybe I'll photograph it again once it's actually stamped and addressed and ready to go. Right now I can't figure out whether I should send it to my MIL (who gave the calendar), or send it to one of my cat-loving correspondents.

buggy

I love this card, from a Flickr pen pal, and I love the hand-drawn heart border on the envelope!

I kinda dig insects.