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.

Crossed Tusk Narwhal-velope

A dear friend and I have some running jokes about Narwhal. (Don't ask.) So when I found this photo in a wildlife photography book, I knew I had to make him an envelope.

I highlighted the tusk tips with Stickles glitter glue, and used a sea critter stamp to continue the theme.



Narwhal are real, of course, but I thought a unicorn and a mermaid would be good company.

Just a little something

I sent a little something to Jennie of Red Letter Day Zine, and of course I had to decorate the envelope.

I used a bit o vintage postage, a few rubber stamps, and some accents with Stickles glitter glue.

Elvis-worthy snazz

I jazzed up this already cool envelope from the Hammerpress Notecard Book (currently out of stock at Chronicle Books) with a little bit of mail-artsyness.

The silver border was already on the brown paper envelope, but I added some bling with Stickles glitter glue and a fountain pen rubber stamp. I thought the Elvis and Okefenokee swamp stamps went nicely together, too.

Dunno why I really love brown paper envelopes, but I do... Oh, and incidentally, the little blog icon (whatsitcalled, a favicon?) for my blog is taken from the back of one of these brown paper envelopes.

Gorey glitter fairy envelope

I got some brown paper envelopes to go with my moo.com photo postcards, and I really dig the look. This one got some decorative touches from my Edward Gorey rubber stamps, a Stickles glitter glue dot border, and Glimmer Mist glitter spray. Above is the photo taken without a flash...



... and here's a photo with the flash. I think I prefer without, but that glitter can be mighty persnickety to photograph well.

Incidentally, I realize my blog postings have been very heavy on the received and lacking on the sent, so I'm trying to even that out.

Anachronism mail art swap

Sometimes it's fun to decorate an envelope with a theme. The Anachronism Mail Art Envelope Swap on Swap-Bot seemed right up my alley, and here you see my creation. It seems a lot of my rubber stamps already fit this theme, and of course I tried to use postage stamps to fit the theme, as well. I colored the typing lady's fingernails with red glitter glue for a bit of bling.



On the back, a vintage air mail label and some more fun stamps. For reasons I can't even explain, I think this carriage scene looks like a fairy tale.

It's ironic, this Swap-Bot thing. I really, really spent a lot of time on this envelope, which I thought was pretty fantastic, but the recipient did not give me a heart. I don't expect hearts, but I get them for something as silly as a simple postcard. Hmm.

This is why I've decided I'd rather spend time away from Swap-Bot, but it's still a fun diversion. And I get to share the pretty mail with you. :-)

Fan mail art for Good Mail Day

A little while back, I kvelled over Good Mail Day. See that link for all kinds of nifty info on how to buy this awesome Mail Art book. Before I read it, I never would have called myself a mail artist. Sure, yeah, I decorate things, but I'm not an artist. Then I started reading the book, and I got totally inspired.



So I made this fan mail/mail art postcard to send to the fabulous gals who were responsible for the book. (OF COURSE they put their mailing address in the book so readers could do this very thing.)



We all know I can't really draw, so I went for a simple idea of various ways of punctuating "I love the book" written all over the back of an airmail postcard, in one of my ever-awesomeZebra Super-Marble 3 Color Changing Gel Ink Pens (about which I blogged so merrily in July). Then I drew over that and filled in a larger slogan with glitter glue. I think this photo, above (after about 15 different angles and attempts!) actually shows off the many glitter colors pretty well. (And if you have a Flickr account and can actually view large, you'll see it even better. But I know not everyone can access that. Sorry.)



And here's the "Star Wars view" angle. Yay, mail art with mail art book! I know I'm but a novice, but I have to say this was a lot of fun. I know I'd really get a kick out of pulling something like this out of my mailbox.



Finally, behold the front of this vintage air mail postcard, which even oh-so-meta-ly features an air mail plane. I'm pretty sure I added some silver glitter to the front of the card, but I forgot to photograph that before it landed in a mailbox.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, in my previous post about this book, that the creators of this book have an excellent blog, Make Every Day a Good Mail Day - check it out!

Then go make some interesting mail.

Supersonic Shag

I have blogged about my love of Shag (that's the artist, Josh Agle) before, but not until I searched around on here did I realize how little I've talked about his fabulous stuff. I write letters on his offerings from Dark Horse comics quite a lot, but I guess I don't blog about them nearly enough. (So many letters, so little time...) This set is called Supersonic, and it's peppered with very slinky hipsters doing groovy things. There is kind of a travel theme, but also kind of not - some rocking out to record players and other such things show up in the set. I just adore Shag's artwork and style.

Anyhoo, I wrote the letter featured in this blog entry in response to fabu pink-enveloped letter from the gal behind Goodnight Little Spoon. Her letter to me was so beautiful that I had to liven up even this Shag envelope with a little glitter-glue bling.



As I noted on the back of the envelope, I chose the supersonic flight stamp to match the "supersonic" stationery theme, but it doesn't say supersonic on it anywhere, so that's kind of an inside thing.

From a sheet of vintage stamps, I snagged this "mail early in the day" advice, which is now completely moot with today's sorting methods (I think).

Red Tango kitty + bling

Here's more from the Red Tango set, which is of course from the lovely Dark Horse Stationery. I love the curly-tailed cat, and I added in some Stickles glitter glue bling. Yeah, I gave the cat purple glitter eyes...

I really love the way the Marge Simpson stamp matches this.

Maybelle, chanteuse

The Jezebel love never ends. I go through her cards like penny candy.



The front of the envelope includes a little bit of bling from my favorite glitter glue, Stickles.

Quoth the raven

I added this raven tag to the back of a black envelope. There was a raven on the card inside, much like this.



Of course, a Poe stamp was required.

Evan Harris Birds of a Letter envelope

This is the envelope of the letter I sent in response to the artistic letter featured in yesterday's post. A pretty envelope someone else drew, gussified with some stickles glitter glue, is just about the best I can do to try to offer some merit of visual artistic value.

The stationery is Evan Harris Birds of a Letter from Dark Horse stationery. I didn't take a photo myself of the inner pages, which have FANTASTIC designs plus the added perk of a white writing space (all the better for showing off those pretty fountain pen ink colors, my dear), but I lifted the promo photo from the Dark Horse site just so I should share the pretty goodness:

Sexy stamps

This one is cheer-up letter to a friend who needed a smile. The envelope is a blue-purple, and I lined the edges with red glitter glue dots.

The rubber stamp is called "sexy French lady reading," and I always imagine she's reading a letter. I don't think it comes through in the photo (though maybe you can see it if you view large), but I also used "diamond" glitter glue on the French lady's ring, garter belt and ankle strap.

A Jospehine Baker/Vintage Black Cinema stamp seemed the right complement to the theme.

Really slow hand-decorated envelope

I call this one slow because I took a long time with it. I used colored pencils and Stickles glitter glue on the address frame rubber stamp. I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out! To see all the glitter glue dots, it's best viewed large.

I wish I knew a way to optimize photographing glittery things. The light never seems right, but if it's in direct sunlight, it's just too too bright. I'll have to experiment more, I suppose...

The "Letters Preserve Memories" stamps are among my favorites, by the way.

polka dots and plaid

Another surprise lovely from a blog reader. She used some delightful stickers on this pretty butterfly plaid stationery, and the envelope has glitter glue in every one of the white polka dots!

This doesn't do the sparklies justice, but maybe you get a better idea from this closeup shot of the envelope:


It was a really lovely letter, too. What a pleasant surprise! That day I received TWO surprise blog-reader letters. Photos of the second one coming soon.

My thanks also to Post Letters; this blog reader found me through them, and I get a lot of hits coming from their wonderful site. If you haven't visited them yet, do check them out! They are full of fine postal goodness.

Red Tango Horse

Here's another lovely from Dark Horse Stationery: the Red Tango set. It's a little girly-looking for me, but I like the sass and the shape of the horse.

I used Stickles glitter glue (silver and purple) to make the front sparkle a little bit. And I couldn't resist drawing a flower on my first letter to Flower Mound, TX.

White envelope with a little bit of bling

This rubber stamp is one of my favorites to spice up an envelope address, especially one that justifies use of the 5 lines. It is especially jazzed up with a few judicious dots of glitter glue.

(Yes, once again I sing the praises of glimmer mist and glitter glue. Sparkly-sparkly!)

To appreciate the bling, best viewed large.

I thought the Bette Davis stamp worked with the glam theme.

A little side note: I've discovered some new glitter glue. Before I just used a large bottle of something I'd found at Michael's, which was rather unwieldy, inexact and clogged all the time. But I've found Stickles Glitter Glue and now I'll toss my other icky stuff. The Stickles is precise, easy to use (you don't have to make your hands sore by squeezing the bottle so darn hard), and clog-resistant.

Glittery Living Dead Dolls letter

Here's a closer look at that black letter from yesterday's post. It's on the Living Dead Dolls stationery I blogged recently, dolled up with glimmer mist, glitter glue, and a fitting Poe stamp.



Poe has a glimmer mist glop on his nose. I am not so subtle with my spraying.

A few from last weekend

Since I insist on posting photos chronologically, we'll have to live with the backlog, since I'm not up to posting anything from THIS weekend yet.

But, I had a very productive letter-writing weekend last weekend, with MLK day and all.

Boston Tea Party stamps:


Terry and the Pirates, VFW stamps:


With dots of blue glitter glue.

This one went to a soldier in Iraq.

And last but not least:


Envelope sprayed with graphite glimmer mist. Again with the glimmer mist, I'm not a good enough photographer to catch the light properly to show it off, so I'll say, best viewed large

Robot Sparkles

This is from the Amanda Visell Don't Eat Paper stationery set from Dark Horse Comics.

The sparkly dots around the edges are my own addition of glitter glue.

I used one of my favorite vintage stamps here too, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. Mmmmm.