I got MAIL!!!

Wow, did I get mail...   My Mail Art Swap envelope showed up today. Lenna only mailed them on Tuesday and she's way down in Florida, so I didn't have much hope it was here, but I took my keys when I walked the dog. I made sure our route took us past the community mailbox, and sure enough, there was a great big decorated envelope in there. I almost tore it open standing there on the sidewalk, but managed to make it home to my kitchen table.



Lenna used all mail art related stuff to do this envelope and I really like it. All the little stamps and quotes are cool. I need to get that round Mail Art stamp cause I'm gonna keep doing envelopes for friends and relatives.











This is the front of Thelma's envelope. She made zentangle-like drawings in colors. I'd never even heard of zentangles until a few weeks ago and they quickly became a favorite thing to just go look at. Mostly they're done in black, which is neat, but the few I've seen done in colors are great. This one is no exception. There's so much going on... I haven't had time to just sit and look at it yet, but tonite on the couch I'll discover it. it went from Arkansas to FL to CA.

This is the front of Cynthia's envelope. The scan just doesn't do it justice. The silver paper is textured with sparkles and two little snowflakes in the bottom left and upper left corners. There's a doily at bottom right, something that hadn't yet occurred to me to use in collage. The stamps are wintery and the image of the woman has been wonderfully enhanced with silver and gold markers.

The back has her address and artful splotches of gold paint over what seems to be tissue paper. It's just altogether lovely, like a fairy tale envelope. It's a well-traveled envelope also. It went from Connecticut to Florida to California.

The front and back of Sharon's envelope are ocean themed and the colors are soft turquoisey blues and browns and golds. Very peaceful, like a day at the beach.

It's all stitched together on a sewing machine from at least 5 different papers, and has given me all sorts of ideas.

That's the really cool side benefit of a good swap. Not only do you end up with cool stuff made by talented people; you get all sorts of ideas of things to try.

Here's the back. Every bit as wonderful as the front. I just love this combination of colors and think maybe I'll do a bathroom in them. Then I could frame the envelope and hang it in the bathroom.

Don't laugh - I hang some of my favorite art in the potty cause I'm in there a fair amount each day.





I could tell Sharon's envelope has stuff inside, so I very carefully opened the flap and oh my... what goodies. I was very fortunate to receive one of her envelopes because she included all sorts of neat collage things - old, paper, book pages, music, a cigar band, tickets in my fave shade of green, aged hang tags, play money, a snippet of poem, some gorgeous patterned paper, and more.





Hopefully I paid back some of this largess with the images of my grandmother's old postcards that I included in my envelopes.

She wrapped all of it in a large sheet of handmade paper and the crowning touch was a postcard from the beach.

What a fabulous swap this was. Thank you so much, Thelma, Cynthia and Sharon. And thanks to Lenna for making it all possible. Can't wait to see what her next swap will be.