snail mail

My Patterned Security Envelope Collection

October 3, 2012

I don’t collect many things, but I happen to collect patterned security envelopes. You know the ones: they come with your junk mail, your bank statements, pretty much any official document that might have an account number on it comes in a patterned security envelope. I find the patterns totally inspirational, and often turn to my collection for ideas when I am designing for Cotton & Flax.

I am totally fascinated by them. Who designs these intricate patterns? Why are there so many different designs? Is there a reason so many of them are blue? Why are there no pink security envelopes? So many mysteries behind these patterned beauties. Of course, approaching them from an artist’s perspective, some envelopes are better than others. I’ll take a beautifully executed wave pattern over your standard crosshatch pattern any day. But each envelope has it’s own appeal, and taken as a group, it’s hard to deny their charm.

Snail Mail Saturday – Letters of Note

September 29, 2012

If you’re a fan of snail mail like I am, you’ve probably heard of Letters of Note. If not, you’re in for a treat. Letters of Note is, “is an attempt to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos. Scans/photos [of the originals] where possible.” In essence, the editor, Shaun Usher, finds amazing letters from people of all walks of life (actors, scientists, writers, artists, musicians, philosophers, and on and on), and shares the transcripts on Letters of Note. I have been captivated by what I’ve found there, and have (on more than one occasion) found myself laughing or crying over the amazing letters Shaun features.

The letter above was written by Mark Twain, and you can read the transcript on Letters of Note.

DIY Typographic Snail Mail with Letraset

September 24, 2012

After finding some old sheets of Letraset letters at a garage sale a few weeks ago, I was looking for a creative way to use them up. I wasn’t very familiar with Letraset, but knew they were a relic of the graphic design world from before computers were ubiquitous, which made them seem just outdated enough to be fun. I’ve got nothing against computers, but I have an affinity for archaic technology in all it’s forms. I decided it would be appropriate to try out the letters on some envelopes to see what it would look like.

In case you’ve never encountered them before, Letraset are sheets of dry transferrable lettering, which can be transferred one by one onto a piece of artwork by rubbing directly on the transfer sheet over the letter you wish to transfer. It’s a tedious process, but before computers were available, the alternative was to draw out letters by hand. It seems that Letraset was available in many different colors, although I only found black and white.

I even made a little time-lapse video to show how it works:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/48405013 w=700&h=393]

It was easy enough to transfer over my friend’s addresses to the front of different colored envelopes, although I did start to get a cramp in my thumb from pressing down on the transfer sheets over and over again. I’m not sure that I would recommend this method for everyday snail mail, since the letters seem like they could potentially flake off a little during transit, and the black letters could easily be replicated using a computer. In fact, with most household printers being able to accommodate different sizes of envelopes, I’d say you’d probably be better off just laying out something cool in Word or Photoshop, and then printing out your designs that way. The only exception to this? The white letters!

The white letters are so unique, since you can’t print something like this out from your standard ink jet printer. You’d be hard pressed to even get these types of results with a stamp and white opaque ink. The white Letraset looks super bold on the black envelopes, and I’ll be using it often to label my darker envelopes.

Snail Mail Saturday – DIY Hand Stamped Envelopes

September 22, 2012

Remember those stamps I made for the Hand Stamped Gift Wrap DIY? Well, I just got them out again to stamp some patterns on some snail mail that I’ll be sending out this week. I even used a little of the leftover gift wrap to write the letter! I printed the envelopes using a standard stamp pad, grouping the stamps in new ways to create variation. Just make sure to let the ink dry before handling the envelopes (to avoid inky fingerprints).

If you take good care of your linoleum stamps, they can last for years. Just keep them out of the sun and away from dry, dusty areas, and they should keep their shape quite nicely. You can reuse them over and over for all sorts of projects, on both paper and fabric. That’s right, you can stamp on fabric, too! I’ll be posting a DIY on that topic soon, so stay tuned.

Snail Mail Saturday – Vintage Stamps

September 15, 2012

Stumbled upon an amazing Tumblr this week, simply called Vintage Stamp Designs. It features tons and tons of beautiful stamps from all over the world, many of which seem to have been collected and compiled by Karen Horton, who also posts her beautiful finds on her vintage stamp collection on Flickr. She does an amazing job sharing information about the stamps, and I admire her dedication to cataloging all these beauties. I spent way too long saving all my favorites, and then compiling them into the collage above.

Snail Mail Saturday – Rainbow Snail Mail Supplies

September 8, 2012

I refuse to believe that summer is almost over. For one, it’s still 88° around here most days, and it’s not going to start cooling down anytime soon. Secondly, I still can’t get enough of summer brights, as you can tell from this rainbow hued roundup of snail mail supplies that I compiled this week.

1. Spectrum Eagle USPS stamp 2. Neon Pink Heart Card from Banquet 3. Neon Stamp Pad 4. Presentation Envelope from Paper Source 5. Neon Alphabet and Number Stickers from fromsoul 6. Block Card and Envelope from Present and Correct 7. Hi Stickers from Sparrow Nest Script