Spacecat: The Case of the Empty Envelope

I recently received this phenomenal handmade envelope from Allison Anne, a mail enthusiast with whom I connected via Twitter. We'd exchanged a couple of postcards, and she sent me a letter... but alas, I only received the envelope! It appears the letter fell out en route somehow.

The envelope is so spectacular that I had to share it with you. She tells the full story on her blog, and we both blame the tape used to seal the edges. It wasn't too sticky, and on one edge the tape had come unstuck, giving the letter an escape route as it was squeezed through the mail sorting machines... or so we surmise. (I had to secure it with transparent tape for this photo.)



I'm sure it was a spectacular letter - how could it not be, transported by such a space cat? - and I'm so sorry to miss it, but nevertheless, I am delighted by this excellent envelope.

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!

Handmade envelopes: dreams and fantasies

I've been listing all kinds of new items in my etsy shop over the past couple of weeks, but two of the humblest are those of which I'm most proud, because I made them myself. I've had the urge to make some handmade envelopes for ages now, and I finally sat down and went on an envelope-making spree.



First we have a set of envelopes from The Twelve Dancing Princesses, a classic fairy tale. The artwork in this children's book took my breath away, and when it came into my hands, I was so excited to make envelopes out of it.



Each page has a beautiful, ornate border that I incorporated into the flaps on the back. I can't get over how rich these colors are...



Also, from the classic children's book, Where the Wild Things Are envelope set.



Max cavorts in his wolf suit with some Wild Things, terrorizes his dog, watches his bedroom become a forest... the fun of the book comes back to me as I look at these envelopes.



I managed to get a nice green tree inside the flap of one of the envelopes, a treat for the sender, too.

Both sets include 5 envelopes, and they have a water-reactive glue as an adhesive sealant, so all you have to do is moisten the flap and it will seal. No adhesive required!

Twelve Dancing Princesses upcycled/handmade envelopes

Where the Wild Things Are upcycled/handmade envelopes

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.

Dutch-themed mail art from Sirpa

The artistic, talented Sirpa is at it again! She and I both went to the Netherlands recently, and she used one of the very cute Delftware-themed gift bags to make a wonderful envelope. It also features photo stamps of her adorable kitty, Killi! As I told her in my response, this was the first time I had seen photo stamps from any country other than the USA. As always, leave it to Finland to make amazing stamps... I think her photo stamps are prettier, and the photo printing resolution is great. Ah, Finnish stamp envy...



Then, inside the letter, Sirpa really put her talent to use! That's a hand-painted cover to a letter book she wrote, showing a watercolor bouquet. Wow! Sirpa also blogged about this letter booklet; have a look at her post on it, too. Of course she beat me to it by a long shot... and she's already blogged about my response to that letter, which I'm pretty sure I didn't even photograph from my end.

Tarot reading envelope

I felt that my response to the most exceptional "Unpick to open" sewn letter deserved something special, so I sent it in this envelope I made from a painting of young girls reading tarot. It came from one of those 1980s Time/Life "Mysteries of the Unknown" books. (Those are fodder for some fine envelopes.)



On the back, a vintage-image sticker... I think I might dig one of those pedestrian hobby horses.

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.

Edward Gorey smorgasbord

A blog reader sent me this wonderful array of Edward Gorey mail art. The envelope is decorated with Gorey illustrations, and she included handmade Gorey cards with handmade Gorey envelopes. What a treat!

Purple cat lady envelope

It's been AGES since I posted about a sent item instead of something received, so this is long overdue. I had a crazy fun time making this envelope from a page of the crazy weird book "Why Paint Cats" by Burton Silver and Heather Busch. (You can see more of the book on Amazon.com.) It is a parody of art books, and I hope that is sort of obvious as the shots are kind of hilarious, but anyway... they make killer envelopes. I have a hard time looking at that photo without smiling.



Because of the light at the time, I scanned this instead of photographing it. So the sparkly stickers may not look their best, but you get the idea.

I sent this to some very fun people in the UK; hopefully they've received it successfully by now.

Glorious glittering bird

Wow, was this ever a sight to behold! This fine pen pal is (obviously) a fabulous artist, and I've been treated to her wonderful artwork before. The explosion of color on this hand-painted stationery is so exciting!



I hope I am not misremembering, but I believe she called this bird a quetzal, a tropical bird with brilliantly colored plumage.



I know you wanted a closer look at those glittering feathers! Her use of glitter accents is ever so masterful.



This beauty came packaged in a handmade rose envelope. I could almost smell it...

Reader response: Decent high fashion exists

This charming blog reader letter came to me in response to this post featuring scary (to me) fashion models.



My astute beloved pointed out that the model had been posed leaning over just to make her stomach fat into rolls... had her spine been straight, we would not see these rolls. So it is a bit sensationalized, but still - I will take this any day over an emaciated anorexic!



I have left the text of the reader's letter visible because I found her comments so insightful that I wanted to share them. (I hope she doesn't mind, and if she does, I hope she'll let me know!) It reads:

Missive Maven-
I really enjoy your blog, fountain pens, and fashion. After your recent post, I thought I would send you some fashion magazine images that aren't terrifying. I don't normally read fashion rags (the street fashion blogs are much more diverse and therefore interesting), but this one had Gabourey Sidibe on the cover. So I gave it a shot. I found good photos with different sized models who weren't looking a)vacant, b)violated or c)dead. Yes, it was a "size issue" and I'm sure they do this to sell magazines, but it was still refreshing. There were also interviews with artists and actresses who talked about their craft (gasp). I'm with you on distancing yourself from bullshit, but I hope you find this somewhat repairative. Decent high fashion exists.

Hear, hear! This letter absolutely made my day; I hope it makes someone else's day, too.

Meanwhile, go have a look at Operation Beautiful, and then go write a letter. ;-)

Van Gogh envelope, ripped

This wonderful handmade envelope (containing a wonderful letter!) came from the lovely Queenie and the Dew. (She blogged about it when she sent it, too.)

Alas, do you see the rip in the bottom?



Maybe this angle shows it better.



Here's a nice bottom rip view...



...aaaand one more. Fortunately the letter itself and one of the fun inserts (a flying butterfly, which for some reason I forgot to photograph) arrived safely, but after reading the letter I learned she also enclosed a pencil. Maybe it was the rigid object in the sorting machines, but the pencil escaped through the rip somewhere on its transatlantic journey. Oh well - the letter was lovely!



On the back was this AWESOME kitty sticker, one of those that changes views depending on your angle/perspective.



I think the kitty-looking-up view is the cutest of them all.



I leave you with kitty in double vision. Happy Saturday!

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.

Moo!

I made this envelope from a wonderful, colorful page of the Dr. Seuss book, "Mr. Brown Can Moo." The picture makes me happy.

Blastoff

This is one of my favorite envelopes I've made. Not sure why, I think I just love the old-school space-style illustration. Here we have two of the other recent Zazzle photo stamps I've ordered: Soda guarding a Curb your Dog postcard, and Magic yawning on a porch. Had to throw in a Skylab space stamp to complete the theme.



Mmm... starry.

A whale for a rooster

I got this fine handmade envelope featuring a cocky rooster. Very great colors and contrast.



It had a fine red wax seal on the back...



...which looks even cooler close up.



In return, I sent an envelope with a whale and an underwater theme.



I have this great old wildlife photography book that is the perfect size for making sure the animal and photographer's name appear right at the bottom of the flap.