Mail Art & Having Fun

My friend Pat (http://www.birdsnestontheground.blogspot.com/) does envelope art. If you buy something from her on her www.etsy.com site you might get an extra surprise. I can't promise, but you never know. Her items are wonderful in themselves, but she is a sweet person that will go that extra mile. Anyway she got me interested in doing some mail art.

I took gesso and base coated 4 envelopes. While I was at it I gessoed (is that a word) 2 books that I bought for $1 each at the used book section at Savers. They still need more gesso and lots of work. Back to the mail art, I digress. The fun part was using different paints - the one I completed was done in #565 Metallic Bronze a Lumiere Paint by Jacquard. The colors are shiny when they dry and just glow. The side paper is a copy of a paper out of one of the Stampington Magazines by Somerset Studio. I like to copy my images and use the copies in case I want to use them again. The picture is a postcard "Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec - A La Mia, 1891. On one of my flea market searches I found a book of Postcards from the Museum of Fine Arts. It contains 32 French Impressionist painters art work, so I have a wealth of cards to work with for future art. I added the woman in the oval frame from some other pieces of art I collected. My idea was the men in the picture had to be talking about something - what better for 2 men to talk about (especially French men) than a beautiful woman????? The papers were added with Mod Podge. Haven't we been using that for years. I used it in the 60's and it is still a good product today. You can use white glue with water, but I like the consistency of the Mod Podge.

This envelope will be sent to my friend Mary Lou with some information she had requested about paper piecing a quilt. I could give it to her in October when our Beaders group meets again, but I think she might enjoy a little regular mail. She used to be the Postmistress in her town so mail seemed like a good idea. I hope she has as much fun with the envelope as I did making it.

The other envelopes are painted and ready to be decoupaged. Inspiration for another day!