Par "Avian" and other things of questionable worth

After a few weeks of constant posting, there was a bit of radio silence around here. I was off in San Francisco having a bit too much fun. More on that later, but let's just say I was here, attending Ex Postal Facto, being inspired and making new friends. I'll eventually get around to doing a post on it, but, for now, head on over to Pamela at Cappuccino and Art Journal and Donovan at the Letter Writers' Alliance (who I missed saying hi to!; boo) for their report on the weekend. For now, here's a bit of in and out from my office.

A new rubber stamp: "par avian." Clearly, I am easily amused.

 I think I will re-do this as the ink isn't picking up that smoothly, but I love the play on par avion.

Outgoing collage for the next person in the collage circle that I'm part of.

Grid paper, shorthand textbook, Japanese text, rubber stamp, tissue transfer, map and other bits.

Envelope for collage: side 1. This is a page from an old stamp album (with a new fish stamp.) 

Envelope for collage: side 2. 

Mail art to my new friend, Pam. Side 1. 

Mail art to Pam, side 2. 

Mail art to a swap-bot friend, Amy.

Mail art to Jennie, who organized Ex Postal Facto. Bits of used envelope. (Not entirely happy with how this turned, out so she might be getting a follow up.)

Mail art to Karen. These images from an old dictionary just cracked me up.

Weekend Wrap-up: incoming and outgoing

It was a good mail week.

Collage from Rachel Fontenot (part of my collage circle)

Outgoing to Sandy (collage circle)

On honour of the 40th anniversary of The Beatles playing on Ed Sullivan, a Beatle's envelope for Sandy. 

From Moan Lisa (front)

From Moan Lisa (back)

Outgoing to Miranda in The Netherlands

Incoming from Reyna in New Mexico 

Retro Rainbow Olympic Rings

It seems that Canada was on the cutting edge of making a statement about "putting the rainbow in the Olympics" (although I don't think that the rainbow imagery had the same gravitas 38 years ago when this stamp was produced for the 1976 summer Olympics in Montreal).

Found in the stamp collection I started as a child and have been hauling around for decades.

Garbage Grids

Karen over at Mail Me Some Art, posts some interesting challenges (like those stamp heads!). Another one that caught my eye was to play around with grids. When I've done grids in the past, I've spent a lot of time cutting perfect (or perfect-ish) squares. This challenge came at the same time I was soaking a lot of my stamps from their paper backing. Suddenly that paper backing started to look really interesting to me, so I started playing around with also those little bits of "garbage." Here's what resulted.

Slightly Random Round-up

A few upcoming events and things that caught my eye:

If you live in British Columbia, particularly if you're close to Vancouver, and you are interested in writing for children, mark March 10 on your calendar. That day, several talented artists and illustrators from CWILL-BC (the Children's Writers and Illustrators of BC) will be holding a workshop with lots of tips on the industry. And on March 8, there's Serendipity, an event put on the the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable. This wonderful event brings together writers, illustrators, publishers, bloggers, all with a shared passion for children's literature.  This year, Caldecott award winning illustrator, Paul Zelinsky, will be presenting as will be Canadian writers, Arthur Slade (winner of the Governor General's award for children's fiction) and Hadley Dyer, who just recently won the Children's Information Book award.

Who knew there was such a thing as a Rubber Stamp Archive?

There are (hundreds) more female writers on the Canadian lit scene than Atwood, Shields and Munro (obviously), but CBC gives us a list of 10 Canadian women you need to read. It's a great start. (Especially Ania Szado.)

And dust off your fountain pens, pull out that stationery you've been hoarding, February is A Month of Letters. The idea is to send out at least one letter or card a day. I had a pretty high volume in January, so I'll try to keep up the pace.

And would another country (or planet?) please take these jokers off our hands?