re-run - red-white-black

yup - still a fan of red-white-black.

still a fan of pointed nib doodling over the top of black. the black is usually a waterproof marker of some kind.

tall lanky letters - love them
these are a bit like neuland. once again, if you have never done any neuland, i highly recommend them.

doing all these re-runs gives me an opportunity to do better labeling.

inspired by sunday - maggie's fern

this was, bar none, the ugliest envelope ever when it only had the green lettering. i had no idea that i could save it. all i did was scribble out all the green with white gel pen. it reminded me of pine needles, but the fern stamp goes pretty well. of course, there is no way to know what it will look like on the screen. sometimes the ones that look fine in person look really awful on the screen. not sure where to place the stamp. i might end up centering it and also centering the address in the bottom. might fill in with some more checkerboard designs using yesterday's post as inspiration.

sept exchange - don't stress

 jan suggested that i mail to all 30 people who signed up for the sept exchange. i decided to get out nibs and ink and just play. it was a lot of fun. i can't say that i was impressed with the results. but at the very end, i made some designs with the nibs and ink that were really fun.

then i ran out of time to scan these to post on the blog. but, at least they are in the mail. remember, the exchange is about having fun and experimenting.

don't stress - just address your envelopes and get them in the mail by the end of the month.

thanks to everyone who participates.






today's regular post is right below this one

marker lettering

this is a scan of a poor color copy. i always liked the way i crossed the t in kate. there are so many angles in K-A and that particular style of E that the X on the top of the t-stem just seems to go along with the other letters.

this is also a good example of layering markers, imho.

kathy 30

lots of fun to draw pine needles. started with the base lettering using a dry or light marker.

doodling

the cinco de mayo stamp has great colors. this envelope is done with zig markers on a vellum envelope. the doodles inside the letters are from the set of 100 doodles that i have in my head. in my classes, i suggest people come up with 100 random doodles to have in their heads, ready to apply to envelopes.

ellen no. 9

brush marker, layering, another detail off the stamp used by the lettering.

ellen no. 8

cute little detail on the stamp tucked into the faux uncials done with brush markers. don't forget the layering.

ellen no. 4

not much to say about this. i like brush lettering, but i am unable to teach it or say much about it. layering is a go-to technique. soft colors on the stamp.

ellen no. 2

this stamp did not look like it was going to be a good inspiration. i use it as an example to take a minor color in a stamp and use it for the major color for the lettering. then use the major stamp color as the accent on the lettering. in this case, a stamp that looked pretty blah at first glance turned the envelope into one of my favorites. fun layering on the letters. cute little flourish mimics the smoke in the stamp.

john no. 2 (of 10)

this illustrates *shape*. the flat shape of the olive branch is used as a design element. i often look for a tiny element in the stamp to repeat on the address. outlines and layering.

envelope no. 7

another from the kathy series. i used ZIG brush markers, wrote kathy in pale blue for the sky, schneider in med green for the land. i added some shading on the green letters and added some darker green plants growing out of schneider. landscapes offer a very easy layout for any envelope. one does not need to be very literal in the execution. the horizon is horizontal, the growing things can grow in any direction. half of them are plants, half are covering up the quirks in the lettering. the style is a quickly done graffiti