Last Grant Avenue Market of the Season!

Beltway Vintage will be right next to me!

Our last Grant Avenue Market for the summer is this Sunday! It'll also be your last chance to buy from me at a market until later this fall, too, so come visit me and my fellow vintage and handmade vendors.

Come visit us on July 14 from 10AM to 3PM on Grant Avenue where it meets Carroll Avenue.  Hope to see you there!

vintage cartoon notepads available at my booth! both photos courtesy of Megan at Grant Avenue Market.

Grant Avenue Market this Sunday!

Troll stationery! Photo by Megan of Grant Avenue Market

Come find me and 30 of my vintage and handmade-selling friends at this Sunday's Grant Avenue Market!  I'll have some sets of this fabulous troll stationery and other amazing vintage finds, as well as my usual handmade goodness. 

We'll be on Grant Avenue across from the Takoma Park Co-Op on Sunday, June 9 from 10AM to 3PM.  Come find something fabulous to start your summer off right!

sneak peek of prints available soon!

Were you wondering what it would look like if I took a picture of pretty new suitcase Gocco prints with my crappy cell phone camera? 

Wonder no longer!

(This also gives you a good idea of the excellent facilities with which I work: a wood drying rack with paper towels taped to it for this half of the print run and vertical metal file folder holders for the other. Nothing but the best!)

Nate Silver is my hero

AKA: Every liberal's rallying cry the night of November 6th.

Throughout the fall, my grandmother, a conservative Democrat who watches CNN in the afternoons because she wants to give herself another stroke (I can't think of another plausible reason), kept calling to tell me how worried she was about the election polls. I would respond by refreshing fivethirtyeight.com and telling her what the actual facts were.

Her: Who says that?
Me: Nate Silver. And math.

I called her just after midnight on November 7th.

Me: I told you Nate Silver wouldn't let us down.
Her: You were right. Thank goodness.

I made these Gocco prints on November 8th. They're printed on atlas index pages, the local place names reminding us that actual people in cities and towns matter more than polls on supposed national opinion.

You can buy yours here in my Etsy shop.

New card designs!

I'm pretty pumped about these new cards I designed.

The perfect birthday card makes sure the birthday guy or gal knows exactly what they are celebrating.

I love using reclaimed materials in my work; it makes me so happy to see old things have a new life again.  But I'm starting to recognize the fact that I can't only make things from reclaimed paper.  Finding it, storing it, and using it takes up a lot of time and space, and both of those are in short supply for me.  But I love the look of vintage ephemera and want to continue designing with it. What's a girl to do?

You can't get much more meta than mail that defines itself.

Well, she makes some new card designs with it instead, and has them printed locally on paper with recycled content.  Each measures 4 by 5.5 inches and is printed on matte cardstock (which means if your note goes a little long, you can use the back for more writing).

The backs of cards shouldn't be boring.

They are blank on the inside and come with crisp white envelopes.  Plus, I'm offering to ship them out free to customers in the United States for the rest of the year! Stock up and be prepared for all last minute mail-sending occasions that you may encounter.

To order mailman cards, click here.
To order birthday cards, click here.

Aerogrammes now in the shop!

My newest venture in stationery.

One thing that has been requested multiple times over the years at craft shows has been aerogrammes, or fold-and-mail stationery.  I love them too, so I've had ideas forming in the back of my mind for a while about what I would design if I made my own. 

Knowing that I had the September DC Meet Market coming up motivated me to get cracking on them and I was pleased to debut my first batch of them on Saturday.  I made two designs to start with: books and mail. Big surprise, I know.  

You can see the exterior and interior in this picture of the opened bibliophile aerogramme pad.

The binding on this first batch is done with bookbinding glue and covered with book-themed washi tape, allowing the letter writer to simply pull a page out when they'd like to write.  The guidelines on the inside indicate where to cut the corners out.

The address area on the book themed ones is based off an old bookplate.
Also, the spines of the books line up on the back when it's folded (!).

The flaps already have adhesive on them so once the aerogramme is cut out, the flaps just need to be folded in to give it its shape.

Of course there are mail-themed aerogrammes. Philepistolists unite!

I think the binding is fine on these, but I'm a perfectionist and wasn't totally satisfied with the way they came out.  The next batch might be in reuseable boxes.  (Don't worry; the first-run versions on Saturday were sold at a discount.)

It would be pretty ironic if I made stationery decorated with fountain pens that didn't take fountain pen ink, wouldn't it?

You can see the instructions for the letter writer on how to assemble their aerogramme in the lower left corner.  And luckily for those among us who use fountain pens on a regular basis, these are printed on thick part-cotton, part FSC-certified eco-friendly paper that takes fountain pen ink with no trouble.  It took only a couple seconds for the ink to dry.

I mailed one to Dan to make sure they'd work alright. Whew!

Based on some feedback from friends I mailed them to, I may add a small line on the back instructing recipients how to open them.  Apparently aerogrammes are too rare a sight in one's mailbox!
To order an introductory set of 6 for $8 on Etsy:
Bibliophile Aerogrammes
Philepistolist Aerogrammes

postal products

Benita of Chez Larsson put a post up on Friday that immediately caught my eye.  See if you can guess the reason:

Has the USPS ever issued posters of their old stamps?  I can think of several that I'd love in poster form.  Right now, I have to settle for framing the blocks of stamps themselves.

While we're at it, here are some Royal Mail products that I own and love:

 First Class Machin mug, available in several other color schemes:

 

First Class Chef oven mitt, available in one other color scheme:

I feel like other countries do marketing and sale of products featuring their postal service better than we do; I'm not sure, however, if it's that the USPS is just bad at it, or if it's that they're not allowed by Congress to do so.  The way our postal system is set up is so flawed for the world we actually live in.  I love them and want them to flourish, and they're so stymied by such ridiculous rules.

Any other well-designed postal products that I ought to know about?

hello again

I've been busy with some temporary work (which has become a good source of fun crazy-people stories). It was only supposed to last a few weeks, but here it is mid-July and I'm still plugging away. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but I wanted to explain that I have to strike while the iron's hot.

Today, however, is humid and gross and drizzly, which means it's disgusting out, so I'm avoiding the outdoors by sitting in front of a fan and unloading images from my camera. This has the added benefit of being a quiet activity, which means it won't wake up the birds, who are still sleeping in their cages. (Yes, plural birds. We rescued another cockatiel, because we didn't have enough projects going on.)

Here are just a couple things I've been working on lately.

These were for a handmade notebook swap through a mail art group I belong to on swap-bot.com. We were to mail the notebooks as they were, so I had to think of a way to keep them shut in the mail. Then I realized that I usually have the problem of keeping it shut in my bag, too, so I designed my partners' notebooks with a little flap to protect the pages inside from the postal system's machinery and their errant pens, lip balms, and other purse whatnots. I used color-coordinated rubber bands to keep them from "flapping about like a wounded bird," as one swapper put it, with the intent for them to continue using the rubber bands as a fastening device.

Su's a big postal nerd like me, so I made for her a collage of pretty postmarks on typically American stamps to go on the back of the notebook. The front I designed to look like an airmail envelope using a mostly steady hand and trusty Sharpies.



Lisa enjoys public transit, so I covered her notebook with a Metrobus schedule and stamped it with a bicycle stamp of my own design and carving. Among the themed sides of postage stamps, I also snuck in a vintage one featuring honoring the 200th anniversary of the "treaty of amity and commerce" between Sweden and the U.S., which means she gets Ben Franklin on both sides of her notebook. Lucky gal.

"Mr. Franklin, I would say you are probably one of the sexiest presidents ever." --Michael Scott

The insides are all mixed papers and maps, along with a few little envelopes and other pockets into which I tucked surprises (like "par avion" postal stickers for Su and Metro tickets and found stickers for Lisa).


Both ladies have now received their notebooks (intact!) so I feel safe sharing without ruining their surprise. :)

The other thing I've been working on are these sweet Gocco-ed bicycle map prints.


I drew the bicycle and burned it onto a Gocco screen. Then I cut down a bajillion maps or so into 5x7 pages, then screened the bicycles onto them. (I also did them onto colored cardstock, but I'm more excited about maps because, well, I'm a nerd.) I have them available for a bunch of cities, including Portland, eastern Canada, Dublin, Lourdes, Hamburg, Istanbul, Lisbon, San Francisco, Copenhagen, and of course, the mid-Atlantic/DC-MD-VA region. Plus, sweet jesus, they're only $15! What are you waiting for?

Let's hope my next update won't be 7+ months in the making, shall we?

Stacks and stacks

Why are stacks so satisfying?

This one is especially satisfying, as it took a few days to finish. First, I cut each envelope individually; you can see that some of the pages from which they were cut are visible at the bottom of the stack. Each one is then folded up to make it functional, and then I seal the sides to the bottom flap. I then make a crapton of secret-recipe peel-off strips. Finally, I apply each strip to the top of each envelope flap and organize them into countable stacks. Voila!

Here are 300 envelopes organized into sections of 25. Later this week I will organize them into groups of three and work to make sure each set gets envelopes from three different maps. This will be enough for 100 packs of Recycled Stationery Sets, available to you at Crafty Bastards or through craftgasm.

I can't believe that there are only four days left to work until Crafty Bastards!

Transition to Full-Time Crafter

It's been a while, hasn't it?

To sum up my absence, I was busy getting unemployed and then going on an already-paid-for-and-at-that-point-much-needed vacation.

Now, however, I'm busy getting ready for the massive crowds of shoppers who are coming to Crafty Bastards next Saturday, October 3. This full-time crafting thing has me working more hours than I did at my old job, but it is much more satisfying to have something produced at the end of each day. ("Plus, the dress code is much more relaxed," she said, typing in boxers and a T-shirt.)

Today's happenings in full-time craftgasm-land (FTCL for short):

I trimmed, folded, and assembled 600 sheets of paper into 100 packs of Recycled Stationery Sets this afternoon and evening. I didn't really need to band them up, but it is rather satisfying to do so. These now just need to have envelopes wrapped up with them and they'll be good to go.

Which means I will be cutting, folding, and sealing up 300 envelopes tomorrow. All in a day's work.

(P. S. Have you voted for your favoritest Craftiest Bastard yet? Not that I'm advocating stuffing of ballot boxes, but you get one vote per email address...)

Oh hypocrisy.

Oh Marion. He's been back in the news for allegedly stalking his girlfriend, and has stayed there this week because it came out that his office seems to have improperly hired her, but his most infamous line is what the rest of the country knows him for. What a lot of people (at least, a lot of people outside of DC) don't know is that hizzoner must live in a bubble, since both the quotes shown on the above pins are from him. Apparently, you can smoke crack with a hooker while married, hire your girlfriend on the city's dime, and care about the sanctity of marriage while being on your fourth wife (on whom you were cheating!) but still be "a politician who's moral."

These are made using pages from junk mail and will come matched up color- or pattern-wide (as seen here with the pink plaid). The quotes are typed with my awesome vintage (+ cursive!) typewriter, then cut and assembled into buttons.

I'll be packaging these with fun information about our boy's complete hypocrisy.

I'm thinking about making a line for Mark Sanford, too. Great idea or greatest idea?

50+ and counting!

I was so happy to watch my hearts climb upward last night, reaching 50 shortly after midnight (Eastern time, that is). I went to bed super-excited.

So imagine how thrilled I was to wake up and see that people had continued adding me to their faves even after the goal was reached! I'm currently at 52 -- and of course, always welcome more hearts! Thank you so much for your support.

As promised, to celebrate I'm going to host a giveaway of a handmade product of mine. I have been getting feedback about the Recycled Stationery Letter Sets --people love the maps and want more of them in the package. The map envelopes are time consuming to cut, so to keep costs down for customers, I had only included one map envelope in each packet, and used reclaimed envelopes for the rest of the set. But so many people have found the letter sets while searching for maps that I am going to split the product line. There will be a set with all map envelopes and blank labels, and then a set with all reclaimed envelopes with handmade map stickers at a lower price point. This will more accurately reflect the skill and time that go into making each letter set.

I'll be repackaging all of the letter sets this weekend to reflect the change, and I'll post here once they're live in my Etsy shop. However, one lucky commenter will be able to get the very first revamped set! If you want to play, leave a comment here with either a) your re-use resolution for 2009, or b) why you like something in my Etsy shop, along with a bot-proof email address to reach you. (While not required, you are more than welcome to pimp my giveaway on your own blog, linking back to this post.) To celebrate the United States' new beginning along with the new beginning of the Recycled Stationery Letter Sets, comments will have to be received by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, January 20th. I'll use the scientific method of putting the entries in a box on Wednesday and pull one out. The winner will be posted here (maybe along with some pictures I take at Inauguration?), so tune in!

And, of course, if you want to heart craftgasm you are still more than welcome to do so. ;)

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

I'm sure that folks have been constantly refreshing their browsers, anxiously awaiting the official blog-unveiling of my newest product line. No longer! The time has come!

After amassing a huge collection of stationery as "The Queen of Correspondence" (according to my friends), I started making my own when I couldn't find exactly what I wanted already being made. Enter the Recycled Stationery Sets. They are made entirely from reclaimed, reused, and repurposed papers. Notebooks, old ledgers, and abandoned printer papers are some of the sources of the sheets, and the envelopes are a combination of old maps and reclaimed stationery from an out-of-business company. (Their return address was on the back flap of the envelope, but it is now covered by a plain white label [also reclaimed from the trash heap] that is stamped to coordinate with the rest of the set.) Each set comes with six sheets of paper (two each in three designs), three envelopes (one map, two plain), and assorted stickers and labels made from maps. I'm thrilled with how well they've turned out!
You can see more details about them at my Etsy page, but feel free to ask any questions in the comments section!
How do you keep in touch with faraway friends? And how do you reuse any paper you find yourself swimming in?