In & Out

bought washi tape for myself for the first time! fun :D

Marijane went to a singalong of The Sound of Music. She mailed me the props they were given!

my first time using my LWA stationery!

Halloween Mail

but just a smidge, because I haven't taken pictures of most of it!

a friend gave me a TON of scrapbook paper a couple years ago and I finally got around to using some of the Halloweeny or spooky ones, like this candy corn.

I also found some envelopes in my stash that had already been stamped with the awesome Poe stamp from several years ago when I had meant to send them out for Halloween and then never did. I REALLY wish that the post office would make Halloween stamps.

Clay's pumpkin

my pumpkin

an odd pair

with Ms. Bea once we brought them inside. She was very interested. She was also very interested when we were carving them and we had to keep pushing her away lest she come to a goopy end.

Boston Era Mail

awesome package from Karen of http://iamrushmore.blogspot.com/

 It was a giveaway that I won. I believe you had to tell a joke to enter. Several awesome little zines.

A Jennie Hinchcliff postcard

 

Some outgoing

I bought a set of letter stencils while I was in Boston. The smallest ones I can't even use because I don't have a pencil or pen small enough to make the letters.  We had one of these when I was a kid as well as some stencils of barn animals and things like that. I loved the horse one, of course.

I've been hanging on to a bunch of security envelopes that I've gotten here in IL, but I still haven't done anything with them.  Most of them were ripped open, so I'll have to use them for something else than turning inside out.

This plaid green sticker selvage came from some Curious George stickers.  I can't bear to throw away a sticker sheet with a background like this when all the stickers are gone. I think it turned out quite nicely.

LaTonya's card

Hello folks,

So I got a job! Hence the not posting. And it's not a very good one : part time, barely above minimum wage, etc.  But it is trying to pay the bills and I'm looking for something better.

Anyway!

Wanted to share with you a cannibalized card I made.  heeheehee
But it wasn't for Halloween.

It was for my sister-in-law, LaTonya, for her birthday.

It's hard to go wrong with graph paper and blues, pinks, and purples.

 So I drew a picture with colored pencils... everything normal here, right?...

 But when you open it up all the way... 

TADA!

My friend Dana gave the remnants of a lights & music card (luau) and I remade it with my own drawing.

It was fun to draw a picture that matched up with where the lights were, but was also different from the original.  Every time I opened it to work on it (or just enjoy the thrills myself) I was a bit nervous that it would run out of batteries before it reached its final destination.  But happily there were no problems in that quarter.

Ms. Bea and Rascal

Introducing my new cats!!!

Ms. Bea and Rascal

They are super sweet and they make me so so happy.

Here's Ms. Bea again.

and close ups of the mail she's posing with:

eeBoo stationary

I think I was at Daedalus Books in Maryland several months ago when I picked up this cute stationary.  It's made by eeBoo and they say on the packaging that they are "Children's Stationary".  Psssh. What do they know?

I got two different designs, one "Peaceful Letter Papers":

 Nice bright colors and I thought they went perfectly with the Romare Bearden stamps.

The actual stationary is quite small, perhaps that's why they say that it's for children.  But it is still really nice for a quick note.  

And now we get to the "peaceful" part of it. Included are 20 stickers of a child's face and the word for peace in a different language.

very nice

And here is the "Lucky Letter Papers" set (stickers in this 1st photo aren't part of it) :

I don't understand some of the images in this set... there are papers of 5 designs, one with a shooting star as above, one with a 4 leaf clover, one with a horse shoe. Those are clear enough. But then there is a jumping hare/rabbit.  Perhaps for a rabbit's foot? And finally there is an elephant's head. Is there some lucky legend about elephants that I'm not aware of?

I really like this new stationary, but I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't for sale at Daedalus because I'm a cheap skate.  Or maybe because I'm unemployed.

Back in Business!!

Hello everyone!

So when I said I'd be gone a few weeks I guess I actually meant more than a month.
But here I am, finally with wireless internet at my new home.

I've received some lovely mail welcoming me here.  Thanks so much to those penpals who have sent me things. I've been making a start at replies.  

But first I'll show you some things I sent before I left New England:

I love these two stamps of the snail and the 2 letters.

Recently I've really been loving Crayola's "Twistables Slick Sticks" crayons.  They really are slick and give a really lovely bright color. They aren't good for detail though.  It's a really broad tip.  But they are so much fun.  I've also gotten into glitter and in more recent mail art I combine the two.  Can you say awesome?

The old man is actually a sticker that I MADE! with my awesome friend Dana and her cool sticker making machine.  :D

a postcard that I made for my parents from a map used on my recent trip to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, home of the highest recorded wind gusts on Earth. When we went there in July it was winter coat weather on top and blowing over 80 mph.

back of the postcard.... this is a joke to my parents from one of our favorite movies... I passed by the location of the film. Do you know the film?

found an old check book log and made some mail.  I love grids and things on mail art.

the twistables are in use here again

a cool dino fold-and-send that I think I got from Tara at the letter writing social that we had.  With an added skeleton sticker of some watery monster. :-D

Well folks, that's all for now, but you can expect some more frequent postings from me.  Cheers!