Envelope art

Postcrossing has opened a whole slew of collections for me. Aside from the usual postcards and stamps, I've enjoyed getting back to the art of snail mailing and writing to penpals. It feels just like high school all over again. The idea of receiving a long letter or even just a simple, but warm greeting on a postcard drives the pains of stress away. 

One of the many things I've discovered in the Postcrossing forums and in a Facebook group on Penpalling & Letters has something to do with envelope or mail art. A lot of creative forumers have posted their own envelope designs and I was quite inspired that I decided to decorate my envelopes too.

 Envelope art from Postcrossing forumers

I never really bothered to do anything artsy on the envelopes I send to my penpals and people I swap with. I use a typical white baronial envelope and I just make it a point to use stamps when I mail them. My first try at designing was rather lackluster. I fumbled with the colors and my early attempts to draw something on the envelopes turned out to be an ugly disaster.

 First attempt

I figured that I'm not really cut out to draw anything, so I settled for magazines and worked on some cut-outs using colorful, glossy pages. 

My second attempt looked promising and I found myself making some more, sometimes using the pages itself to make an entire envelope. It felt therapeutic to do something with your hands, and I found myself enjoying the task as I listened to some David Eddings audio books. 

Some of my recent works

I was able to make 11 envelopes today and I hope to swap them for other people's mail art. Perhaps as I get used to this little project, I'd be able to come up with some of my own designs instead of just using magazine pages. That means I have to stock up on some art and crafting supplies.

I feel immensely proud of myself today. :)