January 2018 - my daily project

I started my new project.

I'm writing a letter each day of the month (or more than one) and mailing it out using a vintage First Day Cover.

I was given a lot of these envelopes by a friend who "inherited" them from her husband's family. They collected them and stamps when the husband was young.  They are not valuable except, maybe, to a few people. I researched and found this out. I did find two envelopes with autographs by the person who designed the illustration and one with the illustrator and the Post Master General of that time. They sold for a bit of money and I donated the money to a charity.

So far, I've completed 21 letters. I'll post more of the images soon, but these photos give you a taste of what they look like. Oh, and I have to add current postage stamps.

Have you ever done a daily project? For a month, or longer?

End of one project, start of another - the letters

 Here they are, all of the letters that I wrote since my previous post the beginning of Sept.

I think the only ones that I didn't have photos of were the first three envelopes. But hey! I got all the rest.

The adresses are obscured for obvious reasons.

I've heard from three people so far, via e-mail, ha ha ha, thanking me for writing to them. Sweet.

Here are the last three of the month. Whew! That was fun. And I enjoyed making note cards using either one of my collages or one of the grand-girl's drawings.

I hope they brought smiles to the recipients.

Here are four more, out of numerical order because I don't know how to move images around without starting over.

But that's not important.
I just wanted to share with you and to encourage you to reach out to people you haven't heard from in awhile, haven't seen or spoken to, or have only met on-line through one of your social media groups. It's really important to connect or stay connected. Really.

And here's another plug - It's not too late to join me in Creative Sprint. We're two days into it, but you can still join. Go to the link HERE.

Stuff and other stuff

 My niece sent me a photo of some old art work of mine that she'd discovered in the last, little house my mother lived in. It's a lithograph that I'd made when I was in graduate school. Rather than having my niece return it to me, across the miles, and years, she's keeping it to hang in her place. Yay.

 Here's the Mailogram that Keith Bates made for me. I'm having a rubber stamp made of it and of the Ray Johnson Bunny name piece. I can't wait to use them. I've been printing this on adhesive paper and having a rough time peeling the backing off. Well, not that rough, but a stamp will be easier.

 Here's one way I've used the Mailogram recently. I started an add-n-pass, which I may never see again, but it's fun to think of this being changed up.

If I ever get it back, I'll let you know.

 Here's the treasure trove of stamps that a friend gave to me. She had no idea how excited, happy, elated that I'd be. Jackpot!! Lottery winner!! so happy. I've enjoyed using them and practicing my math skills.

We lost another good Mail Art friend last week. Lee Ashraf El Masry, Camel O-Rama, Poison Label, and most recently Veneno Estampo. He was very dear to a lot of us, very active in our Mail Art community. We are so sad for his family. My last conversation was in end of April on Facebook Messenger. Chit chat chit chat. How sweet to read it again. RIP my friend.

Mail Art Mail Art Mail Art

#127

#128

#129

#130

#131

Small prints of Tiny Town scene/ATCs? Maybe.

Catching up on Mail Art, again.

#68

#69

 This is an odd assortment of Mail Art, not in any series, though done on either the same day or successive days.

This one was only three bits but it needed more so I added the black square. It works.




 #70 is a collaboration done for #CreativeSprint. I was on the train headed north to Washington, DC, for the day when my friend Shelia got in touch with me about doing the collaboration for that day.

#70

We came up with a plan. I sent her some photos from my trip to give her something to work from, she photo shopped an image together, and I added collage to it, and voila, she suggested it'd be a good Mail Art piece.  It was fun to do this, as we had no idea what we'd end up with. 

#71

#72

I found that I had some Kandinsky stickers, and managed to keep one before our Grand girl used them all on her collage.
I had an idea for using it on some Mail Art and like the way it turned out.

 Here are some stamps that I bought at the Post Office in the National Postal Museum. The blossoms were no longer blossoming, so we didn't get to see them in person.

I love this part of the National Postal Museum, people getting excited about being able to take home stamps. A mother and two children, in this instance. And C and I chose some, also.

Mail Art plus

#153

This was my post on Facebook for MAM (Mail Art Monday.) I was really pleased with how I could take two scraps of paper with similar purples and a circle and create this landscape-like composition. I'm really please with myself. And what a good feeling that is.

What gives you that pleased with yourself feeling?

 Here are some chickadees by Milk, that are on display at Quirk Gallery. I had to buy one and I got a tiny one for free! How cool is that. Can't wait for the show to come down so I can have my bird!

 Here are some mice that were on display at the candy counter in Southern Season. I did not buy any. I was tempted, but I didn't do it. Maybe another day.

We've been fortunate to be able to take our grand, Zinn, to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art on Sundays recently. She loves being there and has some favorite pieces. One of them is this large Buddha. She says Buddha so clearly, it makes us smile. A Buddha smile!

First Day Covers

 I'm still not sure about what to do with all the First Day covers I got from a friend.

Here are a couple more that I've collaged the fronts of , and added current postage but left some of the original postmark visible.

 I put a card inside with the saying "Creativity is a Practice."

I hope that somehow the stamps and the recipients connect.

What would you do with these envelopes. I appreciate any ideas you have.

Here's my kitty, Bizoo, with his favorite morning thing. A heavy duty plastic zipper bag.

He's so pleased, if a cat can show that, when I bring it out in the morning from the closet where I stash it over night.

Mail Art and Mother's Day.

 Back to my old "tricks" with Mail Art collages. I found some left over scraps from a previous series and used them to create two new pieces. They remind me of landscapes.

The random letters spell nothing but with the addition of a question mark and en exclamation, wow, they sure do seem to be telling us something.

 I think this one is a particularly strong landscape. Alien, with so many suns in a black sky. What do you think? Evokes landscape, right?

 I made cards out of the photo that I posted on Facebook of my little arrangement on my porch rail. People thought these were small, like salt and pepper shakers, but the cactus is a large cookie jar in reality.

People gave me nice captions for them.
So I made up the postcard and sent them out to people with their caption on the reverse.

 I made lots of cards, so here are a couple that I added text to, making my own conversations.

These strike me as quite amusing. I have more cards to work with so you might see more examples of my silliness.
If you'd like to receive on in YOUR mail box, let me know.

 A friend asked me if I'd like some old stamps and of course I said, yes. BUT I got something even better than stamps, though I did get quite a few of those. What I got lots of were first day covers! I don't know if they have monetary value, but for me what a treasure trove for Mail Art. Here's one envelope that I changed up a bit to send out to someone. I popped a card saying "Creativity is a Practice" into the envelope so it wouldn't go empty.

Today was the American holiday called Mother's Day. It's been all changed up from the original idea of it, made so commercial. I never required that my kids celebrate me on this day. I felt pretty much honored on a regular basis year round, but it's nice day to be out and about. Every year for a long time, I've sent my kids cards on Mother's Day - if not for them, I wouldn't be one. But now we have a little grandgirl, and I like celebrating this new life and our DIL. We walked to Carytown where Z went to her favorite restaurant for her usual, a mini-baguette. She walked lots, amazing how fast she goes. We were exhausted but she still had energy.

So back to the First Day Covers: do you know anything about them, did you ever collect any? What did you do with them?

National Postal Museum, Mail Art, and more

 On Sunday, I took the train up to Washington, DC, a lovely 2.5 hour ride during which I got to visit with some friends heading to NYC.

I was going there to meet up with some Mail friends. One I'd met before but not the other two. This was very exciting to me. I'd "known" these people for many years through correspondence.

One is PostMuse, the other is Missive Maven, and the other is my friend Juli.

We met at Union Station, had lunch, then headed over to the National Postal Museum. The new Stamp gallery is AMAZING! We were, of course, like kids in a candy shop!

PostMuse had all of her fabulous pens with her and Juli got to try out quite a few and I came away thinking that I needed to increase my collection of pens. Neither Missive Maven or I carry our pens with us. I'm always afraid that I'll lose one of my favorites. Do you have a favorite pen? Do you carry it with you?

We got to take home stamps from a whole bunch that were on a table just waiting for us to play with, as you can see above. We were even provided with cool envelopes to take them home in.

There were lots of postcards for us to take home as souvenirs and we did! Like I need more postcards, right? Here's what I took home. You'll see these in the coming days, altered, as Mail Art.

Later in the day, Melissa of Craftgasm met up with us. I'd met in her NYC several years ago at a huge craft fair. She now has a shop: ANALOG, stop in if you're nearby. It's full of vintage goodies and mail related items. 

#311

Now to Mail Art -  I've decided to add Victorian scraps to commercial postcards again. I love that a new narrative is created with the addition of one item.

#312

#313

#314

This card was created while at the National Postal Museum using stamps provided there. I was at Mecca, as Juli noted when posting on fb.

Here's Bizoo interrupting my work the other day. He now covers my entire keyboard. I should put up a comparison photo from a few months ago. This cat is HUGE!

  I was quite delighted to come up on this bicycle and it's sweet shadow.



What more can I say about my trip to D.C. except that is was like a wonderful dream, to get to spend time face-to-face with people I've corresponded with for years. I felt like I was with old friends, and I was. 

Catch up time -

Blue Bird of Happiness, my new ink!

So many things have happened since my last post. I don't know where to begin! So I'll begin with my new body ink. I had wanted to change up the little purple heart for a year and finally was able to do it. It's blended into the blue bird  so nicely. I'm very happy about this. Thanks to my dear friend, Amy, super #1 tattoo artist in RVA.

We left for a trip to Philadelphia and NYC the weekend before last (right after my ink work.) While away, I made only 4 pieces of mail art. Long story made short, I got sick with bronchitis and didn't have much energy, though the trip kept going. These hens went to my little neighbors whose chickens couldn't stay with them.

 I am SO fond of this piece. I used a Miro painting for the background, a Japanese postage stamp on top of that, and the four lawn chairs on top of all, with some stick on letters for fun. I love that it looks like the chairs are in front of a wall mural. Right?

 Skulls were on my mind because we were in Philadelphia at the Mutter Museum for the 2nd annual Skull Appreciation Day event.







Simple works for me - I had a exhibit card that I cut in half. I added the stamp and the two letters. It works. I think it has a nice quality of depth. What do you think?

I'm hoping to get back to making mail art now that I'm feeling better. I'm at #942. I'd wanted to get to 1000 by my birthday; I've only 58 more to make.  yay!