Urgent 2nd Class

I'm in a mail art kind of mood these days after being inspired by all of the comments on the post over at Good Mail Day. I wrote one article after receiving my first piece of mail and now I have received four more original and very cool pieces of mail art (photos to come in my next blog).

Looking for ideas and inspiration, I turned to Nick Bantock's book, Urgent 2nd Class. The book is about 'creating curious collage, dubious documents and other art form ephemera.' Some of you may be familiar with Bantock through his Griffin and Sabine stories, which were also about mystery and romance of the epistolary form.

As much as I love mail art and the romance of mail art, I am not very talented, but spending time this weekend on it, I found that I wasn't as hopeless as previously thought. I used a combination of newspaper images, old letters/postcards, calendar pages, used stamps, advertisements and favorite quotes. Now I have four postcards ready to send to those generous souls who sent to me, plus I plan to make some more (now that I'm on a roll) and send some to others.

Fun Mail

This fun little packet came in the mail earlier this week after I signed up at the Good Mail Day post 'Call for Scribblers, Mail Artists and Pen Friends'. I've been busy working on my return card and envelope to Christine from Edmond, WA, but haven't finished it yet. I don't have quite have the knack for mail art, but I do like trying new things and being creative and I have a TON of paper- old books and magazines, notebooks of various sizes and colors, maps, calendars, scraps, stationery, scrapbooking paper, recycled paper, advertisements, fliers, graph paper, used stamps, stickers and more.

Visit the Good Mail Day blog and read through the comments to see if there is someone you would like to send something to. Or leave your address with a list of what kind of what kinds of mail speaks to you. Make it a Good Mail Day!

The Fantatstical Postcard from Jennie

This fantastical B&W postcard came in the mail this week from the talented Jennie Hinchliff, co-author of Good Mail Day. Possibly you're familiar with Jennie's blog, Everyday Should Be a Red Letter Day,  or maybe you saw the fabulous article she wrote for the Letters & Journals website.

Jennie's article, Stationery Secrets of the City by the Bay, featured three of her favorite paper stores in San Francisco. I can hardly wait to visit them! Here they are:
Paper Tree
US Stamp Co
Patrick and Company

Fun Mail Sites

Here are some fun sites and blogs I've visited recently on Mail and Letter Writing. Enjoy!

This blogger has set up a stand for her Letter Writing Service. What a concept. Cute Photos!

Carolee and Jennie at Good Mail Day and Red Letter Day. I love their book and their blogs! If you like decorated envelopes and interesting mail, be sure to check them out.

The Art of the Letter writes about finding a book of collected letters of Isak Dinesen her local library.

The fun envelope in this post is from Postmuse. Isn't she talented? There is a matching card that came with the envelope, which I believe was from a calendar. She has a postcard project that is pretty cool and if you're willing to help out, you can visit her site for more information on that.

Sending Mail

If you enjoy sending mail, you might want to consider signing up for Send Love Today. This nonprofit organization sends mail to kids with brain tumors.

If you go to their About Us section you will find the email address and postal address of the two ladies who run this wonderful organization.

For the next two months I will be sending mail to 11 year old Claire along with one or two other volunteers. All you need to do is let Linda or Sandi know who you are and that you are interested in doing this and they will send you the information to get you started.

Good Mail Day

I love this book! Good Mail Day arrived last week after I had read about it on the Missive Maven's blog and decided to order it. The book is nicely written with vibrant colorful pages- all having to do with mail!

The authors, Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler, have two websites:
Podpodpost.com
Good Mail Day

Inside the book you'll find pages of lovely pictures, directions, illustrations, guidelines, suggested ideas and envelope and postcard templates for designing your own mail art. They also include a list of resources which include books, websites and zines.

They stress that you do not need to be an artist to take up this hobby (which is good news for me!).

Some of the chapter headings include:

Correspondence Charm School
From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Judging the Post by its Cover

I plan to create one of these two postcards where they recommend:
1. Fill a postcard with things you hear eavesdropping
2. Buy candy you've never tried before and use the wrappers to make a piece of mail art

I'll update this blog with a description and picture of what I create.