Blog submission for LetterMo

Saw this "call for entries" on ig, and you know me....I rarely miss an opp. to send creative Snail Mail!

(The only thing is that it's int'l. mail, and I'm getting low on stamps!)

Did his name a bit akim-ish with my folded pen, trying to make it into a design too. (slant tip Parallel)

Did colors to match the stamp. (wish I had used teal instead of blue)

Then, did a side design for the letter ("hello"). Used color pencil and water color on some linen paper.

Was going to calligraph the letter itself, but decided to try my penmanship instead.

Day 27: Monster Mash

I kinda want to duplicate this one, but 1) am kinda burnout creating, 2) am running out of time and 3) am running out of people to send to!

So, am posting a repeat from 2019. Was so proud of my idea. 

Here's the post on IG where it went through the mail:

Day 23: Skeletons

Another cross-over (see Day 25)

So tricky for me, as it's hard covering with white ink (and for some reason, my pens aren't working that great. Grrr.)

Was happy with this idea though. The skull was so small that I ended up printing it out and touching up and the details were to small. And speaking of details, I'm torn between adding some from the stamp/skull and leaving as it. Loving the simplistic nature of it.

 

Day 17: Owls

So many ideas for this prompt, but I loved this owl I found.

(on IG I wrote, "Whooooo will I send this one to?")  😄

I love how the body is a leaf. Plus, just the overall simplistic stencil look of it.

I didn't know whether to break up the colors or do all as one, so I chose to break up. Maybe I'll do an insert with it all one color.

Finished env.

Matched her name!

And with the stamp. Didn't have much of a selection since this one is int'l., but not too bad.

Day 16: Embossing

The prompt is Heat Embossing, but I don't have the tools (or desire) for that, so I just did regular blind embossing (and some de-bossing as well).

Will prob. use the Day of Dead stamp.

Did eyes for the back too

And a little ghost on the flap.

Then, here are some earlier env.'s with de-bossing.

This is a cross-over from Day 7.

Before pic.

and another ghostface, this time with a liner (coming-up prompt, Day 20):

Day 15: Mushrooms

 At first, I wasn't going to do this prompt, as I had no idea how it related to Halloween. But then, my creativity started flowing! (plus, I also saw a ton of Hall-themed ideas for this.)

I was SO happy with my idea! (not sure yet which stamp I'll use, but am thinking a drawn floral one. Will update.)

THEN, was REALLY happy with my back flap idea!

Would have been more fun if I had thought this through to do the caterpillar on the front with the hello & name. Oh well. 😕

Also, I got the caterpillar idea AFTER drawing the cat face. Too much?

Here it is sealed, and with sparkle added to the eyes.

First, I did script lettering from the Jefferson Airplane song (white Posca pen)

Then, I added details from the movie.

Although I'm mostly pleased with this, there are a few flaws: 1) I didn't want to draw the mushrooms myself, but wasn't sure how well they'd turn out, so I just cut & pasted. Then, my flower face didn't turn out, so I had to cut & paste that one too. 

I am, however, extremely please with my idea for the back!

Hope Lina likes it (and her mom, Shannon, too).

Wanted to do a w/c insert to match but no time.

Maybe next year, I'll do a gothic/eerie, more Halloween themed mushroom one, as I'm seeing more & more ideas.

I won!!! (P&I contest)

 OMG, I won, I won, I won!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrvqzNlOjXx/

(*Swipe to 5th pic on IG post)

So, not only was one of my entries chosen, but.... they created an additional category as well (just for moi)!

This entry of mine was actually a last minute idea, so how fateful it was selected! 🙌

I'd love to know their thought process, however, i'm choosing to believe it's unique and lovely b/c of my expressive abstract nature, and the contrast of the foundational and script lettering. 😁😁

When I get my goodies, I'll post what all I won. SO excited! Yay for me!

*UPDATE:

Here is what I was messaged on IG (from P&I):

And here is my box of goodies!

I forgot to take a pic with them all laid out, but they're listed in the description. Mostly a variety of env.'s and a small package of gouache. Yay me! Thank You, Paper & Ink!! FUN contest (regardless of my win.) 😊

Entry 4, P&I (wc)

(*See Folded Pen blog for Entry 3:  

https://foldedpenfan.blogspot.com/2023/04/p-letter.html )

I got the idea (below) when trying to match colors to the stamp. I first did 

for Kristine's April PTEx env.

https://snailmailingmadness.blogspot.com/2023/04/wc-decorated-to-kristine-apr-ptex.html

Then, I decided to do for P&I.

Plum watercolor to match the plum color in the stamp. Black an bronze accents.

Extra Fine Pt Posca pen for script lettering.

"Before"-ish pic.

With matching letter.

Backside.

P&I contest, Entry 2 (Caps)

2nd Entry for the National Letter Writing Contest:

Decorated Caps & Numbers. One of my faves.

White India ink and bronze accents.

With letter.

I alternated the caps in b&w. The squares aren't perfectly measured & lined up, but tried my best.

Also, I never like my penmanship, but again, tried my best with my gel pen.

3d "&" sign (puff paint).

Close up of back (messed up the T)

Did the back address with decorated caps too.

Close ups of letter caps:

P&I Contest, Letter 1 (Uncial, Paint)

April is National Letter Writing Month, and in honor of that, Paper & Ink Arts is hosting a contest. They are asking that letters be written to them and then they will choose 3 winners: Most Creative, Staff Fave and a Random selection. No idea what the prizes are, but I'd love to win!

I came up with numerous ideas, and submitted about 5. I will publish those over the next few days. 

Here is my first entry:

Although my uncial lettering with this didn't turn out as great as I wanted, 

I still submitted for the creativity.

Used my chisel-tip paint shaper tool, and acrylic ink. For "Arts", I used my extra fine point Posca pen.

For the letter, I just did matching colors & lettering vs. matching paper. Used my Speedball C-2 nib for the blue (India ink) uncial, and my C-5 nib for the smaller white uncial. Then, I tried to duplicate the acrylic paint at the top (again, in uncial, "hi"), but didn't like, so I added "hello" over it with another extra fine point Posca pen.

Close-ups:

 

Another STL Entry

 This was a last-minute idea for the STL Mailbox Halloween Envelope Art Contest. It's similar to a postcard I sent to Jean last year (which, was also a last-minute idea!): 

https://snailmailingmadness.blogspot.com/2020/10/last-minute-idea.html

I'm curious as to how it arrived, as some pieces of paper were dangling off the envelope. Hope they didn't tear off!

STL Mailbox contest

 So, on IG there's a Halloween Env. Art Contest via STL Mailbox (St. Louis, MO), and boy, did my creative juices start flowin'!

Here are my entries. (I don't know... maybe they're not a good as I think, but I like 'em!)

Was pretty proud of this one, esp. since i don't really draw anymore.

It's actually a take off the one below, but just how she made the Y in You, as to me, it looks like a tree.

SO, can you see what I did?

Hoping my lettering is ok, as i had to put my return address on the back.

env. inspo found on flikr.

Back of env. A little "Boo."

My trusty 'ole Spiderweb letters! Did in metallic red to match stamp.

Wish the pumpkin (O) showed up better.

Backside. Lettered "itsy bitsy spider".

LOVE this one!!! (before pic)

So mad about the lettering though, as it didn't turn out like my test below. The test lettering turned out perfect (used my slant tip parallel pen). I used a folded pen and metallic ink for the env., but I didn't get any splatters. (It would've prob. turned out better had I just drawn it on instead.)  😕😟😞

Also, it'd be SO cool if the stamp was unused/new. I had saved it from another Halloween mailing not sure what I'd use it for, then I got this idea. It's in "great" condition, b/c no cancellation and it peeled off easily. But I have to use my raven one. I could probably make it into a postcard and address it on the back, but that would kind of defeat the purpose.

With Raven stamp:

I actually did make it into a postcard, but wish I hadn't, as it's pretty flimsy. Hope it makes it through the mail unbent. Now, I'm really wishing I had put the Raven stamp on the flips side and just addressed both sides, as the Raven stamp makes it look cluttered. Oh well. We'll see how they like it.

Another entry. My good 'ole dripping-blood theme.

Mixed it up a bit this time though, as I added fangs to the M and a "Vampire"-like monster (love how my eyes turned out). I think the black shading adds a lot too.

You can't tell, but I also poked holes where the fangs end on the paper.

Backside. (Eyes are just to cover up my address when I post on IG).

Some fun filters: