re-run - thornton idea

hmmmm. this looks like something i would have written and i know peter has some nice pieces that look like this. he teaches how to create texture with overlapping lettering. this caught my eye whilst searching for things to re-run. it would be fun to find the original post and see what i said about it. really strange to come across items that are completely gone from my memory.

penpals - chuck

chuck was one of the first people i met way-back-when i got into calligraphy. more than 20 years ago. and this is an envelope i have seen pinned numerous times on pinterest. it always makes me happy to see it.

i tossed it off in just a couple minutes and i am rerunning it to show that plain block letters can be fun and stylish. the secret is to put the widest part of the curves at the center or higher. look at the P-R-D bowls they are almost triangular. and the widest part of the C is in the middle. when you let the widest part fall on the lower half of the letter, they look sad and droopy.

this envelope also shows that you can condense and expand basic block letters as necessary. i've wanted more of these stamps, but have learned that they are highly sought after by stamp lovers which means you can buy them - but they are too spendy for me. i wish the too-big-to-be-aware-of-the-real-world PO would wake up and reissue the stamps everyone wants. they could even charge us more (not double - just a little more) and we would buy them. maybe we should write them actual letters with our good ideas. don't hurt yourselves when you fall off your chairs laughing.

cliffhanger continues...will the brother have mercy on me?  
sounds like he'll be arriving today.

karen's vegetable hodge podge

i pulled out the Pitt Big Brush markers to see how they would behave on this paper. i have about 150 envelopes with a printing error on the flap and they are not my favorite paper, but, geesh, 150 free envelopes....i sometimes get good ideas when the envelopes are already being recycled. so, i started with the colors, then started outlining in black.
horrific.
tried flinging some more black lines.
what's a word that means *worse than horrific*? 
covered it up with some white.
added gold
i would have thrown this one away, but saved it so you can see what launched a different series. i am calling it the veggie-bead series because i used the veggie stamp and those tear drops look like beads.
more to come.

stamp strips for janet

jan and i run a free lance ER. yes, an emergency room for bridal disasters. some poor bride becomes a victim of an unscrupulous printer, who will be named....Crane's....and then we bail them (the bride) out. we do the entire mailing and get it in the mail using top secret methods. we are also left with stacks and stacks of edges off the sheets of stamps. i can't fathom why jan doesn't want them. so, i get to use them. the results are never my favorites, but, i like doing something different. maybe someday i will discover something wonderful. i seldom give up on a medium.

i can't figure out why Crane's is taking such pleasure in running customers around the block. there must be some kind of conspiracy. my screenwriter genes are awakening.