1/4th of a social, and cousin mail

Here I am, watching the LWA social a day late, before being interrupted 30 minutes into it. No worries, just means I get to stretch out the fun even more. 

I'm using up some of my Ink Drop samples from Goulet Pens. I haven't ordered anything from them in ages, but I still get their newsletter, and they've discontinued their Ink Drop subscription. It's completely understandable. The amount of samples they were sending out is staggering! I'm just happy that they have so much business.

Semi-recently received from my cousin Aaron.

 I love his drawings.

And a reply:

LWA virtual mail social

So, today is another LWA virtual mail social.

I've only written one letter so far. I was very excited about printing out some of the free printable stationery made for the last online social. You can download it from the LWA site if you are a member. I had to go out to buy dog food, so I stopped by the Fed Ex office to buy some black printer ink. We've been out of ink forever and I just kept forgetting to buy some. But when I got home I discovered that our shit printer won't let you print unless the black and all the color ink cartridges have ink. We were also out of yellow and magenta ink. Apparently the printer lays yellow ink under the black ink to make it brighter (or really just to make you spend more money). Hopefully Fed Ex will let me return the ink, but even if it does, I'm pretty bummed that I didn't get to print out my stationery. BLURG.

Does this count towards my mail social summer wish? 

I think at least half-way. 

=)

LWA's Virtual Letter Writing Social

The Letter Writer's Alliance is having a world-wide virtual letter writing social today!


They've created a really lovely stationery download.

I'm not using it because I never remember to buy ink for my printer! 

But I have been writing some letters:

The top 5 are actually for a swap-bot swap! I haven't done swap-bot in a long time, but I decided to sign up for two swaps this month. It'll be fun to get some surprises in my mailbox.

Chicago LWA Halloween MailArt Workshop

This past weekend I was up in Chicago and I went to the Halloween mail art workshop that Donovan hosted at Greer.  It was AWESOME!

There were 5 of us there including Donovan. I just had the greatest time. Here's what the 5 of us had made at the end of the two hours: 

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I'm so glad that I had this as an impetus to start making more at home! 

The Frankenstein's monster heads that you see in the photos are actually from napkins. I didn't use one while I was at the workshop, but I took one home to experiment with.  I tried one yesterday and it came out kind of wrinkled and I was nervous that it would rip, so I covered that piece of mail with packing tape. Maybe next time I will try a different glue stick.

At the workshop I also used glue tape for the first time.  Donovan recommended its use for heavier cardstock or thick things (not the napkin).  It looked a lot like the roll on white-out tape in the way that it was packaged. I think I am going to buy some for myself, because I really liked it. Here is a link to the Staples brand.  


More photos soon of the envelopes I made at home and at the workshop!