MLK weekend

Here's the happy pile of letters I wrote over the long MLK weekend.

A few from last weekend

Since I insist on posting photos chronologically, we'll have to live with the backlog, since I'm not up to posting anything from THIS weekend yet.

But, I had a very productive letter-writing weekend last weekend, with MLK day and all.

Boston Tea Party stamps:


Terry and the Pirates, VFW stamps:


With dots of blue glitter glue.

This one went to a soldier in Iraq.

And last but not least:


Envelope sprayed with graphite glimmer mist. Again with the glimmer mist, I'm not a good enough photographer to catch the light properly to show it off, so I'll say, best viewed large

Pig Pig with glimmer mist

It's a little hard to tell from this photo unless you view large, but I sprayed this with pearl glimmer mist to make it a little glittery.

This is some of my only official kawaii stationery, with four designs: bear, cat, frog and pig.

Not glimmer-misted, but here's an older photo of the frog envelope, with a little dress-up:


(a bit blurry, sorry...)

Curb your dog

Exceptionally awesome postcard from my MIL, who has a tendency to send awesome postcards.



Soda approves.

Robot Sparkles

This is from the Amanda Visell Don't Eat Paper stationery set from Dark Horse Comics.

The sparkly dots around the edges are my own addition of glitter glue.

I used one of my favorite vintage stamps here too, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. Mmmmm.

Photo pcard + Gorey Stamps

This is a fabulous Sendsomething postcard from Margaret, which arrived the first week in January. She took this photo of her street in snow, and then stamped the Gorey people on it. Awesome!! I had to do a double-take when I first got it to figure out that she had taken the photo herself and then stamped on it.

Owls + California

My grandfather, who worked for the post office for most of his adult life, has bequeathed his stamp collection to my mother and me, on the condition that we'd actually appreciate it and use it. We're saving some, I think, but he has masses and masses of them. My mother has the stamps, and she's taken to sending me a few sheets in each letter, so I get her letters PLUS the gift of cool vintage stamps!

They are such a treasure. More wonderful old stamp photos are sure to come.

(On this letter, I was proud of myself for using the California stamp, since this letter went to California.)

One nota bene for vintage stamp enthusiasts: old glue does not hold well. They tend to fall off envelopes, as my mom and I report to each other on our letters which ones make it and which don't... (and some of my faithful correspondents have clued me in to this as well). The letters still seem to come through okay, but my little tip is to dab just a tiny bit of glue on the envelope where the stamp goes, to ensure a safe passage.

JB's gorgeous letters

One of my correspondents makes letters that look like calligraphy throughout. She uses a flexible-nib dip pen with ink using metallic powder, which cannot be used in fountain pens because it will clog the pen.

Her letters are works of art! I won't post the text for privacy, but here is the date of her last letter. I tried in this photo to capture how this metallic powder, which she said is called "scarab," alternates from red to green based on the angle of the light. Amazing.

Best viewed large for full effect.

Fireside letters

My favorite thing about winter correspondence is writing by the fire. It does make me drowsy, but I love the contemplative coziness of it. I was so pleased with my fire on 1/6 that I had to photograph it; of course I was writing letters at the time.

Folding bat card

Another sendsomething.net bat enthusiast got this folding bat card. I got them years ago from Bat Conservation International. (I don't think BCI sells them any more.) They're small, but much fun to write on.

metallic sparkle letter bliss

This truly amazing decorative letter came from Wolfidy, who actually APOLOGIZED for not having cool stationery - whereas I think the home-made original doodles are better than any printed product! Wow. I held this under the light just admiring the metallic gel pen ink for quite a while.

It featured an awesome purple/silver salutation:


and a bat doodle which I love.


Hooray for snail mail! This letter, of course, made my day.

Wonder Woman fold and mail: the invisible jet

I keep vowing to photograph more of my stationery as I use it, so here's the excellent Invisible Jet sheet from the Wonder Woman fold and mail stationery from Chronicle books. This is one of 5 different designs in the 40-sheet set.

Inside snappy Wonder Woman:


Full sheet, outside:

Bat-tastic return

My first venture with sendsomething.net yielded a most awesome return: a handmade card with envelope art including THE BEST BAT STAMP I'VE EVER SEEN:



Whoa.





Thanks, Joy! This is a cooler response than I ever could have imagined.

A letter-full weekend

It was a good weekend for writing lots of quality letters.

Here are a few that are going out today:

Civet stamp from Singapore

This was the lovely stamp on the first letter from Singapore I've ever received, which just arrived earlier this week.

I LOVE this stamp! Are all stamps from Singapore this groovy??

(Now I've got to reply to that letter!)

Sendsomething surprises!

There was a blizzard on Dec 31 here, so I didn't venture out to get my mail until Jan 1. I had a lovely New Year's surprise of TWO postcards from folks at Sendsomething.net! I was totally not expecting that deliciousness, and they were both great.

From Margaret:




Love the bats! LOVE the Gorey Unstrung Harp sticker!!

From Wackystuff:




Teenage catgirls in heat?!? Awesome! Also the owl is terrific.

So, I had to get some p'card responses out to the lovely senders right away, too.

To Margaret:


To Wackystuff:


I admit I'm not much of a postcard person, and I don't have a whole lot of cool postcards on hand (unlike all the letter-length stationery which infests the nooks and crannies of my household), but the Sendsomething thing has been full of so many pleasant surprises that I may need to stock up. I get the sense that most Sendsomething senders use postcards as their medium.

...and when I first posted this a few minutes ago, I posted images of the back of the postcard. Then I felt bad about that, in case the recipients saw it before it came in the mail - shouldn't that be a surprise? So I took those down. Hmmm.

KILLER letter-themed stamps!!

This came in earlier this week from one of my newest LWA pen pals. AAAAAAAA!!! I was squealing, folks, positively SQUEALING, when I pulled this out of me mailbox. These are some seriously cool stamps.

I have a real "thing," almost a kind of "meta fetish," for letter-writing-themed postage stamps. Boo yeah.

(Also - I cannot tell you why, because I have no idea myself - I am secretly thrilled by 13-cent stamps.)

She's gonna get some SWEET stamps in return, lemme tell ya.

Kitty stickers from Moo.com

This is sooooo cool - a booklet of 90 teensy tiny stickers, printed from your own photos, via Moo. Of course I had to have 45 photos, with 2 copies of each sticker. (I wanted to try for 90, but just didn't have the patience.)

I'm gonna have WAAAAAAAY too much fun with this. They are fabulous little accents for letters or envelopes.

(Sorry it's a wee bit blurry - I've got me a BRAND NEW CAMERA and I'm still getting used to its macro options.)