Taradactyling

 

Received this lovely woodsy letter from the dactyl and had to reply in kind.

 I really love those Martin Ramirez stamps.

Best sticker ever!

Back and forth to the dactyl in my life

After being penpals for a while it's pretty easy to identify most of my penpals from how they decorate their envelopes, or if they don't their handwriting, even before I look at the return address. Tara is one of these penpals with a distinctive style of collage. The fact that she frequently sends me dinosaurs helps too.     :)

 She's been experimenting with mixed media and I think it's really cool to see her using new mediums and how that changes her mail art.

In return for this lovely letter (chock full of dino bits too!) I sent her a packet made out of one of those things you used to get photos back in from the pharmacy.

Inside I used for the first time in forever, my sealing wax and seal. It's a quill feather... It's upside down in this picture. The LWA is now selling their own wax seal stamp set with a similar image! There's one with two crossed quills and another one with and envelope. They are only being sold in the members only section though.

I don't like using my sealing wax on the outside of envelopes because it's quite old and I'm afraid it will get scraped off or fall off during transit. So mostly I've used it to close sheets of paper and then put it inside the envelope. When I use up this wax I think I will buy some of the new flexible wax that's meant to be used in the modern post office.

And here is the inside, right before I'm going to tape it up!

DACTYL mail

A June letter to the DACTYL

I love this stationery.  The flowers are so pretty. They remind me of the illustrations that were in a book I had about hosting tea parties. It was a book for young children and I remember there being a horse themed tea party. I was kind of out of my head about that book. One of my amazing aunts gave it to me for my birthday.

The envelope I sent it in was not made for the stationery sheets. I think I found them both seperately at the IDEA store. But I thought they were nice together. I typed the address much higher than I would normally write it. I forget how small the letters are when you type!

And this is what I was responding to:

She knows how I love myself some dinosaurs.

time for joy and time for cheer

 Christmas, Christmas time is here! (or past)

I've had the Chipmunks Christmas song stuck in my head for a while now and I learned that my fiancé hates it! Not like I think it's the greatest song, but I'm attached to it from childhood.

In any case, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Anyway, I thought I'd take some mail photos with my fir tree candle as a prop. It smells so wonderful!

 Received from Taradactyl

 sent to Taradactyl

 two outgoing Xmas postcards- made from a box of green Christmas lights I got at Goodwill, sticker selvage, washi tape and a couple old stamps.

and Christmas puppy gets a treat!

We've been traveling for the holidays and this is my mailart travel pack.

Inside are : stamps, gluestick, scissors, red and green markers, pens, address book, address labels, Xmas washi tapes, a box of assorted holiday cards, and a big batch of mail to respond to!

I really love the gingerbread house stamps this year!

Oh! For Christmas one of my gifts was the Harry Potter stamps!!

I wish that instead of stills from the movie the USPS had chosen to use illustrations, but maybe it only happened because of the movie tie-in. Anyway, they are still really fun and I'm so glad I have some!

Please deliver to...

I promised photos of how I used the LEP printout address labels. Well here they are. I had a lot of fun doodling with crayons before pasting on the labels. 
 

Incoming

from Taradactyl

from Adrienne

very cool stationery!

 

from Dana

from Connie

 I love the little mice on the front.

Elephant Butt

A great postcard from Oriana.  Funny thing is that it took me like a day to realize it was a person's butt! For some reason it reminds me of an elephant.

from Taradactyl, I always love her envelopes

Doodles for the Dactyl

I've been saving that Snail Mail sticker forever. It is on a clear background which I just thought was really cool.  I have a few more from that sticker sheet.

I just found in my closet a few sheets of velum sticker paper... and now I have a printer AND a computer... maybe I will be creating my own amazing snail mail stickers soon.    :-)

A Modest Success

So, let's not bandy about the bush.  I had delusions of grandeur for sure.  I thought that any wanderers through the bookstore would see what we were doing and want to join in with all their heart and soul, because, hey if I saw this happening somewhere that would be my reaction!


Total participants: 8
We did attract 3 wanderers by... one of whom said that we had made her day! 
Others: myself, my boyfriend, Tara, her boyfriend, and Stephanie 

I had a super great time, although the first 15 minutes I was feeling really pathetic and like I had set up this whole thing for myself.


Tara and Stephanie brought yummy snacks, some even postal themed!

We made a huge spread of paper over 3 tables. All of us had brought things hoping to get rid of them, but we all went back with basically the same amount of stuff. Even though I have SO MUCH, it's always fun to use someone else's materials. I had a lot of fun with Tara's washi tape and stamps and also took home some of Stephanie's Pixar postcards.

Letters/Mailart I made at the social:

 trying to keep a little surprise for the recipients... who will get these??

I had so much fun at this event. I really want to have another one... I'll be moving to central Illinois at the beginning of August (my new address will be posted on the blog soon). So sadly I won't be able to plan anymore in Boston, but I think Tara wants to continue to have them in Boston or Providence.

It's the day I've been waiting for

In just a few short hours will be my letter writing social at the Brookline Booksmith! I'm so excited!!
Even if not many people show up I know at least I'll see Tara, who helped plan the event!

some incoming from May from JJalltheway and Taradactyl

Cambridge Typewriter Co. Type-out

Hello friends, 
Sorry I haven't been around in a while, I've been very busy.  I just wanted to stop by and direct you to these two posts about the Type-Out hosted by the Cambridge Typewriter Co.
I had so much fun! But I forgot to bring my camera...


So head over to Taradactyl's blog and check out the post on the Cambridge Typewriter Co.'s blog too!

Letters in the Park

Who is that letter going to??

I've been trekking over to the small nearby park a lot.  To eat strawberries, write letters, and read when alone... or to practice a little baseball with my boyfriend.  My back is really aching from swinging that bat yesterday!

Here is some recent incoming mail.  I love seeing mail I sent on other blogs and get very behind in posting the mail that I receive.  I plan to really try to keep up to date on that so that my penpals can have that pleasure.

mail from the Missive Maven, a new correspondent, Clara, and two wedding related invitations!  Thank goodness that everyone still sends real mail for that! :-D

from Tara

From Felicia in Canada. Such a cool stamp!

Friday Mailday Funday

This has been a pretty shoddy mail week for me... until today!
This might have actually been a good thing because it was a super busy week for me, being my first week back in school and teaching. Now that it's Friday I have time to answer the mail too!

So many beautiful things:

a little card from my mom, a letter & goodies from Patty of JustLetterRip (such a great name for a mail blog by the way), a letter and zines from Taradactyl of APurpleRat and a letter from my good friend Kijjit the Fox.

Tara's letter & 2 zines, Toto & the TV

letter from Patty and stationery goodies

Kijjit's drawing & poem included in the letter

cute card from my mom

Also,

here is an idea I had for displaying letters. 

I had a photo that was quite small so it was hard to find a frame that fit perfectly.

So I decided to use a larger frame and use little notes my mom sent me as a background.

The photo is of my mom's parents on their wedding day.

My grandparents died when I was very young, but my mom tells me that my grandmother was a great letter writer.

Sorry for the weird angle, it was the only way I could get the photo without the flash blinding it.

Happy Mailing and Happy Weekend!!!