I've been at it again - the 3 envelopes above are all envelopes sent through the mail. (I've omitted the addresses) The top "Fish" envelope was for my Mom, she loves fishing, the other 2 are for customers of my rubber stamp business , MadRat Rubber. I like to do a little mail art as an apology when I screw something up on an order. In both these cases I sold them a stamp I hadn't actually had made - thought I did but soon found out I'd made a mistake. Damn - hate when that happens. I had my whole flock of flying monkey's laid out for a plate of stamps & inadvertently flipped one the wrong way, which gave me 2 identical images instead of mirror images. I'll be fixing that on my next bunch of stamps I make but in the meanwhile I like to send them something to cheer them up. Ladies - thanks for your patience - you know who you are...One of the reasons I love doing the mail art is that it gives me a chance to play with my own stamps & other items of inventory. Having a "deadline" of sorts assures that I actually take time out from all the other things I need to be doing & get a little creative. I, personally am always thrilled when I get something interesting in the mail, which unfortunately doesn't happen very often.
Some of the new products I've added to the store are papers and ribbons. I find patterned paper is a great way to jump start a project - kinda eliminates the blank white paper syndrome. On some projects I may end up completely covering up the paper so much that it's not recognizable. Even though it becomes obscured it still played an important role in the creative process. A good example of that is the flying monkey (Wizard of Oz rubber stamps) envelope. The paper used has yellow ochres & rust colors with a vintage flower pattern and I changed it up a bit by stamping patterns on the paper with a slightly darker colored ink, (as well as rubbing inks over it in general). The original paper color & some of the pattern can be seen within the address frame held by the monkey's.
Rubbing ink over really graphic patterns is also a good way to tone the paper down. The blue paper at the top of the fish envelope was originally white & blue, very stark & very visually busy, I used a similar shade of blue ink rubbed over the paper to tone down the contrast & give it a watery look. I was really pleased with the way it came out. The paper was not one I would have bought because of the very busy pattern (got it in a kit) but I was able to use it anyway & am happy I did.
Some of the other new products I've added are ribbons, my favorite has been the leaf ribbons used on the flower envelope. It creates a great silhouette & adds texture to a piece. I currently have it in black & orange but they can be painted any color you want.
Well, I guess that concludes my tips for the day. heh heh, time to get back to work, I'm hoping to have new set of stamps ready for August & have lots to do.
Cheerios!
These are GORGEOUS!!! I LOVE the flying monkeys envelope, the colors are incredible (actually they are incredible on all the envys, but I like the last one best)
ReplyDeleteAre you making your own envelopes from patterned/colored paper? That's what I'm getting from reading your post. Do you have a special template for your envys? When you rub the ink on the envy, are you doing DTP or using something like the thing Tim Holtz uses with his Distress Inks? Sorry for all the questions - inquiring minds want to know!
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I've been using plain white envelopes & glueing the patterned paper to it with spray glue. I find it's quicker & easier to start with the patterned paper which I can work on (actually ink & stamp on) before I glue it down. The monkey envelope was a solid piece of paper that has an underlying pattern of it's own - I just altered it by stamping patterns on it. I did kinda rub the ink directly on the paper & I've discovered that's much easier to do using the Cat's Eye shaped ink pads. After I got most of the stamping etc done on the paper I spray glued it to the envelope. The other 2 envelopes used 2 different papers, the seam is covered with the ric rac on the fish & is overlapped on the flowers. I finished off the edges by rubbing inks all around.
Thanks for the comments - I've been on a roll lately with the mail art and will have 2 more to post in a couple of days. Some day I'll do some cards...