Sunday, March 14, 2010

Why yes, I HAVE been busy this weekend.

Lately I've been using up a lot of discarded paper goodies that were destined for the garbage can at work.  They make GREAT mail art!!  This time, however, I got my trash art supplies from other sources.  When I see promising bits and pieces, my eyes light up and my pulse speeds up and it's as if I had just seen a big plate of hot gooey cinnamon buns, not some junk paper.  But hey, whatever rings your bell, right?  

I have a few penpals that I just love writing to (and receiving letters from) and this is a blank booklet that I made up on Friday night.  I've already filled it up and it's going in the mailbox tomorrow morning. 




And if you're planning on making booklets like this, I really recommend picking up one of those loooooooong staplers so you can easily put them together.  I use mine all the time, and I think it was only around twenty-five bucks.  My kids love making their own books too, so it gets a lot of mileage.  

Anyway, here is the envelope that that little booklet ended up in:

 

(front) 



(and back).

That one... is sideways.  (I'm saying that in my very best Horatio Crane voice, where he says one line and then they cut to a commercial.)  (THIS is where I should have mentioned the looooooooong stapler!) 

Um.  Where was I?  Oh yeah!  I think I may have overdone it with the spots on the back of the envelope, because it looks a little chicken-poxy, if chicken pox ever showed up in a uniform sort of way.  It's just that I was having so much fun with the ink and I might have gotten a little carried away.

Also, you should know that I didn't intend to end up with this colour scheme again, but I guess I haven't worked it all out of my system yet.  Will there be more?  Yep, probably.  I still really like it.  I just have to remember who I've sent these ones to so that people don't end up getting repeats! 

But no worries, my little chickadees - I still remember how to use colour.  Here are two more envelopes that I worked on today while my kids were out bowling with their Nana.  I think I might send her flowers tomorrow... 


And now, since Blogger is acting so weird and I don't want to lose all this stuff that I just typed up, and plus because it's getting really late, I'm going to wrap this up.  It's time for a bowl of cereal and then bed.  

Goodnight everyone,
Love Shelley!

Just a little snail mail


Well, this started off as just a manila envelope, and I decided to draw a little birdie on it.  Of course, once I drew the little dude, then decided that he needed a proper tuft of hair, which was soon followed by the scallops at the top, and soon it got completely out of hand.  So much for a simple bird doodle!

This pic looks a little washed-out; it's a bit more vibrant in real life. 

I'm a bit behind on my mail so I'm trying to get caught up.  I'll show you all the outgoing stuff as it's completed.

Love Shelley!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The moose's name is probably Harold

 

 

  


I found, quite by (lucky, eye-poppingly amazing) accident, a how-to video by Roben-Marie Smith, showing how she makes envelopes out of old file folders.  Guess who has old file folders (I DO) so I thought I would try a couple of these.  They were so much fun that now I want to make about 25 more.  The only snag I ran into is that my file folders are pretty cheap ones - I don't remember where I got them from but they're at least   years old; and although at first glance they look perfect for this project... well, they're not square.  So I had to do some fancy folding and cutting to get the edges to all line up.  At first I thought I must be doing something wrong, but I guess my only mistake was buying el cheapo folders in the first place.  (The $20 sewing machine is a whole other story...)

Anyway, who needs files?  These are way more fun, don't you agree?

Love Shelley!