mailbox roundup

I've been the delighted recipient of three mail-art surprises lately, from Jeannine Saylor, Toni Rica and Jessica Gowling. I really want to thank all three of them for the happiness their mail creations brought to my mailbox!

The most recent envelope was from Jeannine @saylor_made ~ a delectable envelope of tentacles and deep sea circular suction cups, undulant negative shapes, which she also blogged about here.

Inside were some of the most thoughtful items! Thinking of my recent road trip, she sent me a U.S. postcard that she made from her globe and one of her gorgeous watercolor silhouettes ~ this one of a camera which is perfect as I was almost never without my camera on the road. I'm planning to put them in my road trip scrapbook where they'll also remind me of the company my twitter friends kept me on the road.

 She also sent me a little watercolor of a school of fish (since I work at a school) that I've photographed here with a little sketch of the view outside my window. Somehow, they seemed compatible to me.

We were also both on the theme of butterflies ~ 'tis the season ~ in my California fields and gardens I've seen many flitting past. Jeannine had an old Polaroid that she etched and painted into this natural phenomenon:

and she also sent some cut-outs:

Some of the other interesting items were stickers and magazine cut-outs. On her blog, Jeannine shared the clipping of a girl with a sewing machine, so I thought that here it would be fun to show the other side of the same page with its rugged-faced piano player. I could also definitely appreciate her mom-ism "blarg" illo. I've got some of those replacement-swears myself that will be fun to pass back to her!

And, a blue mushroom!

Now you'll know that I'm quite belated in posting this, because Jessica Gowling's envelope had a royal theme, appropriately timed with the royal wedding. I've no idea how she came to have this image of a very young Prince Charles but I'm so glad she sent it to me as she's got a brilliant sense of humor. Its hilarious caption had me laughing as soon as I read it. The washi scissors tape and the stamps were also a nice touch, I thought.

If you read her post about it you'll also get to see another royal envelope and a herd of other mail art exchanges. I met Jessica via Twitter and she started me on the game of mail exchange. Besides running her Etsy shop and creating nonstop, she is kind of Mail Art Royalty herself. I don't know how many artists she exchanges with, but I think she mentioned that she now receives something just about every day. That's a lot of correspondence!

This is what she sent to me ~ patterned origami paper, a note on a neon bird print (gorgeous!), cool stickers, cute foxes, a homemade "to do" list, vintage advertisements, a clipping of hunters and a bird bookmark passed on from Twitter friend, bird-rescuer and print artist Ashley @GaiaPrints.

I felt so lucky to get all this treasure!

Both Jessica and Jeannine are from Canada, but living very close to me here in the Bay Area is Toni Rica, who sent me such an exquisite set of delights. The envelope already told me I was in for a treat.

Cupcake, tea and my name card on a cute table! ^_^

Through our tweets and conversations, I learned that Toni is not only an artist but also a musician. The sea monster on her envelope is a singer, too. ~ la la la ...

When Toni blogged about our "great mail art exchange", she created an entire flickr set in which she staged the things I sent her around her house and selected close-ups of certain pieces to showcase just part of them. I loved that she couldn't resist drawing on the notebook I stitched for her with washi paper, rice paper and metallic paper.

Her presentation was so unique and charming, just like the contents of the envelope she sent me! Take a look and revel in the cuteness and allure of her drawings.

I was completely floored by the detail in the topiary "K" and fell in love with the cardboard painted cut-outs ~ the yellow flower bug and the spoon-and-jam tied with raffia! Some recycled cardboard with a little face for me to draw on, botanical book pages, a pretty paisley card on amazingly soft paper and ... a CD of one of her favorite bands with a painted fox! Adorable!

The music was so good I listened to it in the car all the way up to San Francisco to see the Sketchbook Project. I'm so impressed by my very first exchange with her. She mentioned that the drawings she made were inspiring her to create her own line of cards. I definitely think she should!

Truly, all three packages were glorious. I collected a number of things along my road trip to send back to these talented and lovely ladies, but am also making some new things to personalize each one. There's as much fun in giving as receiving with mail art. ^_^