Love Letters

Mail Art Across the World

I stumbled upon a terrific calligraphy exchange while visiting my friend Jane's blog, and thankfully it's not too late to participate!!! Just go to this website: Mail Art Across the World for the details, and get your envelope in the mail quickly, the deadline is April 1st! (No fooling!)  There's also a gallery of the incredible entries from past seasons, definitely eye candy to inspire even the most timid among us! 

This is a chance to participate in a free calligraphy event, one without judges or fees to enter, and entries will be posted on the web.  The evelopes will travel around France, Hungary, Germany, Russia, and the Ukraine.  This is a terrific opportunity to participate in the celebration of both mail art and calligraphy!

from Celeste

Card for Miss Yvonne

 

 

From the very talented Heather Victoria Held

 

Card for Joan

Hey, wait a minute!  How did that picture of Bubba and his Pig get in there?!?

 

From Rena

 
It is so much fun to receive something like this in the mail, especially when most of the other pieces of mail are bills or advertisements... so while you're at it, why don't you make more than one beautiful envelope and send it to someone you've been thinking about?!?  

 

I hope everyone has a sunny, happy, wonderful first day of Spring!

 (The image above is out of my journal, and I've put together two cards that are going out in the mail today, using the same colors and flowered wrapping paper as the base for the collage design. )

I'm off to work, so this is just a quick entry... I hope wherever you are, the sun is shining... and I especially hope the sun is shining in Japan, where so many are suffering. My heart goes out to the Japanese people, and I desperately wish I could do more than send money to the Red Cross... 

Look at this!!!

I felt like the luckiest woman in the world yesterday when I went out to retrieve the mail and found this juicy, delicious, spectacular riot of color and joy in my box!!!

I mean, really, how fun is this?!?  This is from Miss Rena, artist extraordinaire, and I LOVE it!!!  

Inside, I found more delights... 

and two of Miss Rena's business cards, which I think are SO charming and delightful...

this is her new card...

and this is her older version...

I honestly cannot say which one I like best!!!  Both are so inventive and fun... what's not to like?!?  Not to mention, included in the envelope was a Hello Kitty message pad, and who doesn't love Hello Kitty?!?  

(Did I ever tell you how my daughter Corey named our big orange kitty Danny

 
after "Dear Daniel", who is "Hello Kitty's" little brother?!?)

Anyhow, I just want to thank Miss Rena for her VERY generous mailing and I am working on a return surprise for you, my friend!  

I hope you all have a wonderful day, thank you for "stopping by", now... 

Birthday card for a friend

In an effort to send out special cards for special friends, here is a birthday card I made for my gal pal Yvonne, recently... The card is made from paste paper with various collage elements placed on top of the paste paper, including a postage stamp from the Netherlands and a little orange bird from a paper sample from French Paper Company of Niles, Michigan, in addition to some calligraphy scraps of mine...

and the envelope addressed with a brush pen.

 
I'm not terribly proficient with the brush pen, but I'm working at it, and will continue to work at it until I am comfortable with it!  The envelope was made out of tyvek which I painted with gesso mixed with acrylic paint.  The gesso dries to a nice matte finish which can be writen on and has a really nice flat finish.  The kitty on the stamp resembles the kitty at Yvonne's, so it was appropriate.  I don't know about you, but I love postage stamps, and I wish there was a bigger variety to pick from sometimes.  

So, if there's someone in your life you've been thinking about and meaning to write to, or call, take a minute and write them a letter... it's much more personal and will last a lot longer than a phone call or text message!  

Selvedge magazine

My online girlfriend, Lisa Hoffman, turned me on to yet another wonderful find... Selvedge magazine... I just subscribed to it and can't wait to get my first issue in the mail!!!  Until then, I'm heading out tomorrow morning for a copy from Barnes and Nobles near our house, I'm that excited!!!

I mean, really, how gorgeous is that cover?!? I'm giddy, I'm so excited to get this magazine!  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear back from you!  And once again, thanks Lisa for turning me on to something else new and beautiful!  

Is it Friday already?

I can hardly believe it's alrdeady Friday night... and I never would've imagined the Wings would be playing game 7, down two goals to 0 in the third period, at home to boot!!!  I need to calm down...

Here is my current Friendship Friday postcard, thanks to Marie, our host at Vintage Postcards...

Note the colors, Red White & Black - does it make any of you think of the Detroit Red Wings?  It should! :D  This card was made with black cardstock, painted and stamped tyvek, handmade paper scraps, a punched heart from watercolor paper, a punched square with scribbled writing, and a red ticket to some event somewhere... I can't remember where I got the red paper at the very top... it's came from a piece of cardstock, approximately 8"x10", with  cut out circles... what you can see is just a torn scrap of that piece of cardstock... I used a rubber stamp and red ink to do the swirly in the upper right hand corner and the 1959 down on the lower right.  There are gold speckles scattered randomly across the piece... it's Schmincke rich gold gouache, in its dry state, sprinkled around, while the acrylic medium was still wet.  

Friendship Friday Postcard

Here is today's Friendship Friday postcard I made for Marie's weekly Postcard project... 

I decided to up the color factor a bit, after last Friday's dark postcard, so I chose my favorite color and went to town... there's a bit of an EKG tracing of mine in there, a square of wrapping paper, some gold foil from a Ghiardelli chocolate bar, and even some transparent tissue paper with swirls... mixed media collage is just SO much fun... it's a great way to use up paper scraps that are too pretty to throw out, and include some meaningful things, too.  The word consequences came from a very old book (it was already falling apart, honest!)... I like the mystery of it... consequences. Perhaps there's a connection between those flames next to the word?  Certainly not intentional, but interesting at any rate!

Now, go make something!

Flourishes in the mail...

An envelope arrived at my house yesterday, not just any envelope, but perhaps the most beautiful envelope I have ever received in my entire life... it was sent to me by a calligrapher named Heather Victoria Held, and if you've never seen her work, you have now...

Here's an up close view of the flourishes at the top:

This was all done impromptu by a master penman (penwoman), and if she isn't a "certified" master yet, it doesn't matter to me... she certainly is in my book! (Heather may be a Master Penman, I just am not certain, so forgive me Heather, if you read this!)

In person, there are metallic inks in the drawings and it is truly spectacular.  

Thank you, Heather, I will treasure this envelope!  

Postcard Friendship Fridays part deux...

Here is this week's Friday postcard, done for a weekly project hosted by Marie at Vintage Postcards... (click on the image to see it in a larger format, please... it looks much better up close and personal!)...

And even though my postcard isn't vintage, these lovely folks have graciously welcomed me into the fold as a lover of postcard art... very cool.

(This is version No. 1, see version No. 2 below)

Perhaps a bit dark for this beautiful time of year, and it's not intentional, it's just the color palette I am most often drawn to, just not usually with so much black.  

The postcard started out white, and I did some hastily drawn letters that later I didn't like... so I tried to put a layer of pastels over the letters, which turned out okay... but being inexperienced with pastels, I put a layer of acrylic gel over it, to protect the pastels, and turned it into a smeared mess... so the next logical thing to do is to cover the muck with black gesso, right?!?  

OK, well, it's all I could come up with... so here's the final image... there's torn paper from a french book, torn paper I've done some calligraphy practice on, torn tissue paper, a tyvek square, and a paper heart glued onto the card... in the black gesso is some beautiful gold ink, which does not show up very well on this scan. 

 Anyway, good Friday greetings to you all... and now... :D

 GO MAKE SOMETHING!!!

Addendum to original post:

After a reader told me very bluntly, that this postcard looked like someone rubbed coal all over it, I had to agree, sort of... it was pretty dark to start with, and I wasn't especially happy with it myself... 

so, here is Friendship Friday postcard part deux.deux...

It's still quite dark, but I think it's a bit more interesting, and I am happier with it... can you spot the differences? :D

Paper Salad everywhere!!!

Today's newest and brightest idea of mine is to present you with my very own, unique "Paper Salad"... I'm offering a smattering of my paper scraps and pieces of calligraphy practice, all things I'd use myself, and do use, all the time! Lots of the paper is painted tyvek and it's beautiful... too beautiful to ever throw out!  When I teach classes I always bring my tyvek leftovers for my students to go through, to take as a sort of "give away" gift.  It makes me feel good that they appreciate how pretty these papers really are...

   There used to be an awesome paper store in Royal Oak, named Sheets... they carried incredible handmade paper, imported precious papers, and unusual cardstock, etc.  They did the same thing with their leftovers, and called it something like "Scrap Salad".  I LOVED it, because that way I could have small pieces of very expensive papers to use in my collage.  I couldn't have begun to afford an entire sheet of those specialty papers, nor would I have wanted to rip it up to use in collage!  

It's kind of difficult to really appreciate some of the papers... the metallic paints don't necessarily photograph all that well. But there is a nice variety of painted tyvek, calligraphy snippets, beautiful german written in an 1893 journal (see in photo below, on the left side of center), punched leaves and hearts from my painted papers, a few old tickets or cards or old book pages... and yes, scraps of some of beautiful handmade papers I've purchased over the years.

So here's my question... would anyone be interested in a side of "Paper Salad"?  I'd like to charge $10.00 per container, and will ship for free for the entire month of April (continental US only!).  I will happily put together custom orders, by color or colors... or you can just order a random "Paper Salad", and be surprised!  I didn't take the time to count how many pieces of paper is in the container, but I promise you'll love it.  If you don't, you know how to reach me.  

I don't have a Paypal account, and don't want one (long story, but I didn't do anything wrong... really!). If you'd like to order a salad, email me for my address, send me a check or money order, and I'll get your salad out asap, so that it arrives just as fresh as possible! 

And if you think this is a nutty idea, I'd like to hear from you, too... I know how much I like things like this, but I'm only one person.  I'd love to hear your thoughts! I will be giving away one Paper Salad to a random commenter, so talk to me!

So, please order something healthy for your studio, & now, go make something!