a month of mail art – outgoing – part 2

Today is the final post chronicling late February & most of March’s mail: outgoing part 2. I’ll start with my mail art for Barbara Wanhill (@2catsandapencil). Her quirky twitter name inspired me to make a little custom moleskine, and it was sent along with a bee eater pocket mirror and paper ephemera.Jeannine Saylor‘s (@saylor_made) reply envelope began with an adorable bee notebook that I thrifted. Add in some maps, gardening ephemera, a sexy model dude et VOILA!Dana Davis (@dzynmkr) collects bottle caps; lucky for her my beau drinks unique brews often. I spent several months collecting specific caps, and to my pleasant surprise, she recognizes only 1 of the 10! Vintage alcohol ads & stars were sent with the caps.I’m surprised the Zine Queen Marissa Falco (@czarcastic) is still friends with me, after taking nearly 4 months to reply to her!!! I was waiting to finish ANY of the 5 zines I’ve had on my brain or partially in progress. I recently completed my two sketchbook project zines and thus sent her the very first 2 copies as soon as they were cut, folded and stapled. I was playing around one night in the studio altering postcards, and a super epic mixed media collage emerged. Although I was tempted to keep it on my studio wall, it seemed like the perfect postcard that Rhya Tamasauskas (@rhyat) would truly appreciate.My ABC/123 pen pal Amanda Nicole White (@amanda_ink) got package #3 from me this week. Three epic outer-space items, a trio of bats, and a pile of 3-themed items were sealed into the “part 3: the rendezvous” envelope decorated with airmail tape & stamps.The beautiful Caren Gibb has been super upset about the deer cull going on in Invermere, BC right now (and rightfully so!). I sent her a few antlered friends and two of my new sketchbook project zines to cheer her up. My UK pen pal Anna Jane Searle (@annajanesearle) found a bird chirping her name and address on a large white envelope this week. Inside was a wonderful storybook about pet owls as well as many map, nautical and DIY craft clippings. I sent it with a gorgeous $8 grizzly bear stamp. Check out Anna’s blog post about it to see a beautiful shot of the bear.Crystal Plett (@thehouseofheart) is not only a lover of lions, but she has recently been collecting and trying tons of recipes. These 3 vintage cookbooks ought to make her smile.Another feather and bird loving gal like me, Carol Whitley (@imsilverfeather) was sent one of my screenprinted / handmade envelope plastered with vintage postage stamps was stuffed with tons of fun paper ephemera and craft feathers.And last but certainly not least is a gentleman emblazoned handmade envelope that was sent to Sarah Churchill (@scjammycustard) filled with whiskey treats, a lego card and an envelope informing her of some of my favorites.I hope you had fun with these past four posts that featured the piles of letters and mail art I’ve sent & received. Another set of postal pleasures posts can be expected in just a few weeks time, as I leave for a week-long sunny vacation in just two days, and will inevitably be away from postbox and mail art duties for a few more weekends.

my monster valentine

My lovely pen pal Rhya Tamasauskas is the co-founder of The Monster Factory and told me about a fantastic contest they were hosting for Valentine’s Day. If you write your favorite Monster a valentine (& it arrives before the 6th), you will be automatically entered to WIN one of their (still top secret) upcoming monster creations! My favorite monster (and secret crush) is Mr. Munk. We have quite a bit in common so I wrote him a valentine on a mini red postcard covered in hearts. I typed out a personal and romantic note for him using my vintage typewriter and red ink. On the other side of the card it says “You make my heart flutter.” I sealed it up in a classic air mail envelope, typed out his address using my trusty typewriter once again, then picked out some of my favorite vintage Canadian postage stamps to send it with. I hope I made this upcoming holiday extra special for this adorable guy! If you hurry and write your favorite monster a valentine, it could make it in time to be eligible for the contest or if you live in the Toronto area, you could hand deliver your Valentine directly to Monster Factory Headquarters this weekend (the address is on the envelope above)!

happy postboxes all over the world

After creating a flurry of replies during my holidays, for the 22 people I owed mail art to, packages have now begun arriving in mailboxes around the entire world. Marcus Jackson (@luckyjackpress) got a real gem from me that I was SO proud to send his way: The Deer Hunter’s Bible, complete with BB gun shot holes from target practice. I added a few goodies to the front cover and decided to send the book as is by, sealing the edges with airmail tape, and adding hunting-esque vintage postage stamps & a typewritten address. I wrote a lovely little postcard to Kira Walker (@gali_gal) with a festive holiday fox on the front drawn by Helen Macdonald. I’m glad this treat as well as a fun order from my etsy shop showed up recently to give this deserving girl a big smile. It makes me feel happy to send rainbows off to Rhya Tamasauskas (@rhyat) who often sends me more than my fair share of postal sunshine. Hannah Montana stickers and magnets, Minney Mouse rainbow card, triplicate owl drawings, and a typewritten letter on one of my holiday advice cards are the surprises she found hidden in a rainbow and cloud adorned envelope.For Tessa Brown (@talulabblogger), I found a hilarious section in a tiger beat magazine called Fashion OMGS, which I thought she would have a chuckle about. I sent clothing themed stickers and paper ephemera, a mother flash card, an illustrated postcard and an info card. I sealed it all inside a animal kingdom envelope with vintage postage stamps.  Valeria Poropat (@valeriadraws) was gifted one of the prints from my first ever intaglio edition. The image is of a tower in Italy, a photo I took when I visited in 2004. It made sense for my Italian pen pal to own one… I sent along a bunch of fun stickers and wrote on a postcard for her then had to add quite a few stamps to the envelope to get it there. Sarah Hutchinson Burke (@thesecondmagpie) got an envelope that had to fly all the way to Ireland, but luckily it had a lot of wing-power inside: three bird postcards (2 of my designs), bird postage stamps, bird stickers, big bird flash card, bird covered mini card, book & magazine bird cut outs and a little graphite portrait.Jenny Cutnam is a doll who I met at the OOAK show. She was there working for a friend who was also a vendor and she ended up purchasing one of a my large scale etchings of a fox (“Curled Up”). We instantly had a connection and I was excited to hear that she is also into snail mail. I started our pen pal relationship with a little letter, some funny postcards, garfield cartoons, stickers, a/p screenprints and a red maple leaf. Nick Oostyen & Olivia Delorme (o_delorme) found a plethora of silly items in their postbox this past week: grafitti stickers, cookie monster flash cards, drug facts for young people (since they are living alone in Victoria, they need to be educated on these things), world map stickers, music & record ephemera (Nick collects vinyl), an illustration that looks like the Oostyen family greenhouse and a couple nature’s my friend badges. I wrote ACAD buddy Amy Liebenberg (@amygillian) a letter on a screenprint proof of my animal kingdom piece and sent it along with french matchbox stickers, typewriter poetry about printmaking, and blank postcards. I sealed it all up in an air-mail color themed envelope covered with Christmas and Canadian pride stamps.And lastly, this morning Anna Gwenllian (@annagwenllian) found her Birth of Adam parody envelope which contained a screenprint of our glorious queen Liz, a handbound mini notebook, postcards,matchbox stickers, paper ephemera and typewriter poetry! It feels so good to start the new year spreading my love out across the globe to friends near and far with snail mail! I hope you all loved your treats… tomorrow I’ll be sharing what I discovered this past week in my postbox.