a little pile of outgoing mail for 2013!
We can safely say that we have made it through to the other side, you and I. The holiday season that was 2012 has passed, leaving a trail of pine needles and cookie sprinkles in its wake. Looking forward to the whole of 2013 spread out before me, I can tell you that the year is going to be top notch: a bevy of beautiful USPS stamps coming out, teaching gigs galore, and a spiffy new batch of RLD projects on the horizon.
a lot of handwriting going on there…
I had promised RLD readers a series of three All You Want For Christmas write ups. I’ve saved the best for last — even though it’s a bit after Christmas I think you’ll find a few items of “want!” listed below…
Look at it this way: now you don’t have to operate under the pretense of shopping for someone else – it’s all about YOU, baby!
fun for all ages? indeed!
As a fan of the Olathe Poste, I find their gummed and perforated papers are easy to work with. Don’t have an easy way to make those pinhole perforations for your artistamps? A pack of 25 dry gummed and pre-perfed sheets may be exactly what you need! A bonus? You can run these sheets through a standard, inkjet printer.
which do I love more — cake? or postage?…
What do we always need, as postal-ish people who send A LOT of mail? Postage stamps, that’s what! One of the best gifts I received for Christmas this year was a charming array of postage old and new, (uncancelled!) which could be used for future mailings. For those folks in the audience who didn’t know: “vintage” postage can ABSOLUTELY be used to send letters and postcards through the mail; just be sure to affix the correct amount before dropping in the blue box. You can find uncancelled, face-value postage of your own right here. (and remember: the price of post is going up January 27th…)
swoon…
I ordered both Going Postal and Meta Mail Art Zine #1: A DIY Guide to TangleStamps a little while ago (like, a year or so) from Su Mwamba at Tangle Crafts; these two goodies still remain in my top 10 favorite postal-related zines. Going Postal chronicles the mail art received and displayed for a show of the same name, while Meta Mail Art Zine #1 outlines Su’s process and tips for creating artistamps. Both zines feature color pages and come mailed inside a hand decorated envelope – a great gift for getting people “into” mail art! You can place your order at Su’s TangleCraft etsy shop.
a glimpse inside mail art zine “Node Pajomo”…
(some of my other favorite postal zines include: Node Pajomo (above), Gianni Simone’s Kairan, and the hard-to-get Arte Postale by Vittore Baroni.)
That being said, there are a couple other things you could treat yourself to: a copy of Good Mail Day (if you don’t already have one), a membership to the Letter Writer’s Alliance (a gift for a friend perhaps?), or you could sign yourself up for the February 2nd “Mail Art 101” class I’ll be teaching at the SF Center for the Book!
what’s not to love about this freshly minted stack of mail?
Bringing you more mail art in the new year, with a stack of envelopes to boot! —
–JH
Everyday should be a Red Letter Day... 
Excellent¡ I enjoy it so much.
mail art – very nice!
[…] I only have 7 copies left of my Going Postal zine! It might have had a few more views thanks to this fantastic review by Jennie Hinchcliff (co-author of Good Mail Day) on her RedLetter Day Blog (thanks Jennie!). But […]