Russian Rainbow Circus Stamp

I recently received this spectacular stamp on a Postcrossing postcard from Russia. The postcard was less memorable, but that stamp is a keeper. I know lots of folks are creeped out by clowns, and this one hardly looks harmless, but somehow the combination of excessive rainbows makes it an absolute winner. And the bear on the bike? Priceless!

One of my favorite things about Postcrossing is receiving these fascinating postage stamps from all over the world; in many cases, the stamps are a lot more interesting than the postcards!

October 11 is National Coming Out Day

Happy National Coming Out Day, everyone! I did a much longer first official National Coming Out Day post on my blog a few years ago, so please do check that out. In case you didn't know, I"m bisexual and my husband is FTM transgender, and we both identify as queer, individually and in our marriage. (In addition to his amazing novel "Revolutionary," my beloved, Alex Myers, has written some wonderful essays on the topic of being queer, transgender, and married, and if you're interested in this topic I suggest you check out "Are you a boy or a girl?: our trans-bisexual love story on Salon.com and Multiplicity on The Rumpus.)

I believe it's important to be out for visibility, civil rights, support for questioning youth, and a whole host of other reasons. So, here I am! Happy National Coming Out Day! You can learn more about National Coming Out Day on the ubiquitous Wikipedia.

And in relation to mail, the fabulous rainbow unicorn postcard pictured above is available on etsy from Pink Toe Press.

In other news, this blog post is my 1000th post! Woo-hoo! That's a double reason to celebrate.

German rainbow stamp

I've seen this fabulous rainbow spectrum stamp from Germany on a few German Postcrossing postcards now. I love it! The colors just jump out when I pull the postcards from my mailbox.

This stamp honors German optician Josef von Fraunhofer. Honestly, I'm most excited about the fine rainbow spectrum. My love of rainbows is childish, primal, and somewhat inexplicable.

Along with the fine postcard surprises one gets from Postcrossing, I am often just delighted with the postage stamps, too.

Rainbow pens are back...

I thought they were gone for good, but I stumbled on some more of these great pens. I now have a few more of these awesome Zebra super marble rainbow gel pens back in my shop... which I'm also using a lot of myself! They're great on postcards, and the rainbow colors really stand out. I was kicking myself because I sold my last pens and didn't save any for myself, so I'm doubly glad I found some more of these!

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...

Happy time handmade postcard

I got assigned a rare Postcrosser who likes handmade postcards, conveniently at a time when I could actually make a postcard - so I broke out some rubber stamps and stickers for US-1248400 to Australia. I got a kick out of making this one. The mangled English stamp reads "Happy Time: flowing of waited interval is itself time." Deep.

Rainbows for sale!

Here's an update on some new rainbow items I have for sale in my etsy shop. First up, these awesome vintage 80s rainbow hearts postcards, which I love and am using them all up myself already. I'm loving these really fun, simple happy rainbows to send through the mail. The rainbow beams ending in hearts. The front has the rainbow with a space for address and stamp, and the back is completely blank for your message. Each postcard is roughly 4x6 inches, and they're for sale in lots of 10.



Also, I now have multiple color options for these awesome Zebra super marble rainbow gel pens, which I'm also using a lot of myself! They're great on postcards, and the rainbow colors really stand out.

I guess its my vintage kitsch side, but I'm really into 70s and 80s rainbows right now...

Unicorn postcard swap update

Remember my Unicorn postcard swap? This is what I sent. I jazzed up the back because I know the recipient, and she really likes rainbows, too - so I tried to incorporate those on the stamps. And of course, glitter and stickers. The silver borders were made using silver washi tape.



I did indeed use this fabulous rainbow unicorn postcards by Pagey on etsy for the swap.

Hope everyone else who participated loved their unicorns! I got a really perfect unicorn postcard for the swap, myself, but of course forgot to scan or photograph it.

Rainbow envelope from chewy tulip

Another one of my very favorite etsy shops is Chewy tulip. Her tag line is "pickles, postcards, puppets" - what's not to love? I first discovered her shop when I did a search for "Narwhal postcard" on etsy, and her narwhals are not magical postcard is my favorite one ever. My latest order from her - because I have vowed never to be without some of her postcards - came in this wonderful rainbow-decorated envelope.



I highly recommend her pick 5 postcards/make your own custom set offering (which inspired my own, to be honest), to get a nice taste of her designs. The two horn unicorn, hey ladies turtle, and Hey! kitten designs are a few more of my favorites, along with the aforementioned narwhal, but to each her own. Go browse. Her stuff is really fun. (She has lettersets and notecards, too.) I should have photos of the actual postcards but I am blogging from my couch and it's hot and I'm lazy. Someday, I am sure you will see more of them on this blog...



Not only did this order include a sweet little note from her - and we've been exchanging postcards, too - I got this hand-drawn unicorn! Gaaah! This whole set of envelope/unicorn is now hanging above my writing desk, providing daily rainbow-unicorn letter-writing inspiration.

Chrysotomontum 2005

Just a fun postcard I just sent via Postcrossing today. This is US-783106 sent to Ignorancee_ in Poland. This comes from the Rex Ray postcard book by Chronicle Books. I'm not fond of all of his works, but this is one of my favorites, titled Chrysotomontum 2005. It's oil, acrylic, and mixed media on linen. The Rex Ray postcards are oversized - meaning they require full first-class postage instead of postcard postage if sent in the USA - but it's all the same, postage-wise, sent internationally. They are matte, uncoated paper stock on the back, which is great for fountain pens or any kind of pens. Plenty of room for writing.

Mork from Ork vintage postalette

This gem came from a fabulous eBay find (ah, eBay, you are my budgetary downfall): a mint condition, NIB (new in box) set of Mork from Ork rainbow postalettes, from the show Mork & Mindy.

Yes, folks, I remember watching Mork & Mindy as a child - I adored that TV show, and it gave me a lifelong admiration for Robin Williams. This postalette shows Robin Williams in his Mork role, wearing his space suit, and the words are his catch phrase. I'm stumped by the spelling, though, because I recall it sounded like "na-noo" and not na-no. Oh well, discrepancies aside, they're fabulous. The moon and stars sticker came with the original set to seal the postalette, but I gave it a little help with some removable tape.



As if these weren't awesome enough, they're covered with rainbows! The rainbow element wraps around the front, on the address side. This one deserved some very cool stamps, so I tried to go with either the rainbow theme or a space theme, to complement the postalette itself. These are some of my very favorite stamps, too. On the left is the "It all depends on ZIP CODE" mail transportation stamp (of course I love the meta mail theme, but the rainbow puffy artwork is delish), in the middle is the Expo 74/Preserve the Environment stamp with artwork by Peter Max, and on the right is the Love stamp with hearts forming the Os in rainbow colors. The Project Mercury stamp is my nod to the space theme.

This was a fun postalette to send and construct; so far I've only sent the one, but I think I've got 11 left. Hmm...

Lovely Rainbow, Happy Color

This rainbow kawaii stationery is the bomb. I love the various weird phrases...

"Happy?? This is new style."

"Oh!!"

"Cute!! Love Rock!"



Unfortunately for my friend who sent it, it got returned to him and he sent it again to me in a plain envelope... these foreign envelopes with different positioning of address and name, and return address, can be confusing - I always try to address them closer to USA convention, and hope that will make delivery less problematic.



My favorite sweet color... wtf??



And of course we mustn't forget the inside pages.

Forgive my clumsy swirling... it's not as elegant now that I'm using Gimp instead of Photoshop, but... it does the trick.