MLK weekend

Here's the happy pile of letters I wrote over the long MLK weekend.

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

Pig Pig with glimmer mist

It's a little hard to tell from this photo unless you view large, but I sprayed this with pearl glimmer mist to make it a little glittery.

This is some of my only official kawaii stationery, with four designs: bear, cat, frog and pig.

Not glimmer-misted, but here's an older photo of the frog envelope, with a little dress-up:


(a bit blurry, sorry...)

Curb your dog

Exceptionally awesome postcard from my MIL, who has a tendency to send awesome postcards.



Soda approves.

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.

Photo pcard + Gorey Stamps

This is a fabulous Sendsomething postcard from Margaret, which arrived the first week in January. She took this photo of her street in snow, and then stamped the Gorey people on it. Awesome!! I had to do a double-take when I first got it to figure out that she had taken the photo herself and then stamped on it.

Owls + California

My grandfather, who worked for the post office for most of his adult life, has bequeathed his stamp collection to my mother and me, on the condition that we'd actually appreciate it and use it. We're saving some, I think, but he has masses and masses of them. My mother has the stamps, and she's taken to sending me a few sheets in each letter, so I get her letters PLUS the gift of cool vintage stamps!

They are such a treasure. More wonderful old stamp photos are sure to come.

(On this letter, I was proud of myself for using the California stamp, since this letter went to California.)

One nota bene for vintage stamp enthusiasts: old glue does not hold well. They tend to fall off envelopes, as my mom and I report to each other on our letters which ones make it and which don't... (and some of my faithful correspondents have clued me in to this as well). The letters still seem to come through okay, but my little tip is to dab just a tiny bit of glue on the envelope where the stamp goes, to ensure a safe passage.

JB's gorgeous letters

One of my correspondents makes letters that look like calligraphy throughout. She uses a flexible-nib dip pen with ink using metallic powder, which cannot be used in fountain pens because it will clog the pen.

Her letters are works of art! I won't post the text for privacy, but here is the date of her last letter. I tried in this photo to capture how this metallic powder, which she said is called "scarab," alternates from red to green based on the angle of the light. Amazing.

Best viewed large for full effect.