Mail art from Egypt

Remember my post about my first postcard from Egypt? I wrote her back, of course, and she has sent me some fantastic mail art!



I am totally enamored of the skull theme, which she carried on to both sides. I am so taken with envelopes that people draw on so much like this... I decorate envelopes with stamps and stickers and washi tape, but I don't do so much with my own hand drawing. I have said many times I wish I drew more, and I think I need to let envelopes like this inspire me! It is really a gift to know that someone took the time to illustrate something like this all by hand.



Here's a closer look at those excellent stamps, too - she even enclosed a couple of new, uncanceled ones. So cool! I know it's almost cliche for Americans to have Egyptology crushes, but I admit to having a fascination that stems back to childhood... so these stamps were an extra treat.

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...

She's batty

A dear friend sent me this wonderful bat card from She's Batty Designs. You know I love that name! The skull-embossed paper was really fun, and of course the sparklebat was my favorite part.



Groovy logo.



It came in a black envelope.

Love it.

Treasure map letter!

This wonderful letter from a very creative correspondent carried a pirate theme. I have to note that these are not stickers or stamps - this beauty is all hand-drawn.



Part 1 beckons with a bloody knife and a skull-and-crossbones warning.



Inside, part 1 is a fabulous treasure map. Not only are all the edges decorated with doodles (the legend to a treasure map, really) and witty spellings, but she also creatively crumpled and "aged" the paper. Was it coffee or tea spilled on the paper to stain it? It's a VERY cool effect, and I'm afraid a lot of it was lost in my blurring out the words for privacy. For details, view large.



Gotta share some close-ups of my favorite corners. Love that octopus.



HA! Widow's Peake!



Part 2 (page 2) is a message in a bottle.



Finally, a hand-drawn cut-out skull glowers from over the Crane marker on the back of the envelope.

What a treat!!

Wallace and Gromit: teatime

Here's another fabulous Chronicle Books fold and mails, again of the Wallace & Gromit variety. This time I DID photograph the other side:



I've found it's best to "help" the glue of the fold-and-mails by adding stickers, because some folks have reported that they've arrived intact but unglued. So I thought a skull would be the perfect accompaniment to this twee tea party.

Two letters on Dark Horse stationery

This week saw a lot of letter action on Dark Horse stationery. Shown here are Rachel Williams' Miss Anne Thrope (top) and Shag Cats (bottom). I love this fun stuff - very wild and colorful designs, on the envelopes as well as the inside paper.



And now for a totally random side note: this is my 100th post! Yippee!
(Anybody wanna follow my blog to help me celebrate?)
Tee hee.

The Scurvy Pirate

Dig this awesome pirate/goth stamped letter!



I am having such stamp envy!



This was a delightful letter all around, for both content and style. I am totally coveting those scroll border stamps. Also, check out the spider attached to the web! I think he did that with a pen, but for a while I just couldn't figure out how he had a stamp that big that JUST fit the page size.

spooky swirls

More lovely hand-drawn stationery from a sendsomething pen pal. I wish I could do this! It's such a treat to receive and open a letter like this, with such unique and personal artwork.

Incidentally, I wrote her on sendsomething and she's since become a faithful pen pal! How cool is that?

First venture with sendsomething.net

I won't say who got it. Gotta keep some privacy goin' on.

This is Rachel Williams' Miss Anne Thrope stationery, with an Edward Gorey bat rubber stamp, and a postage stamp featuring my bitchy tabby cat Magic with a jack-o-lantern.