Crafty Catz Guest Designer

Hello and Happy Day everyone! Today I am sharing my last post as the Guest Designer for the month of July over at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenges, where it's always Anything Goes with an optional twist.  This week for Challenge #381 the optional twist is "Not a Card" and I decided to share with you some "Mail Art", something that is taking North America by storm these days. 

In today's world it is such a treat to receive something by old fashioned mail so why not create even more of a gift by decorating the envelope that houses that mail.  When the recipient pulls it out of the mail box it is ALREADY a Gift and now they get to go home and open it!

This particular envelope will be housing these two Artist's Trading Cards (ATC's) I am swapping with another artist from the United States so I wanted to create something deliciously eye-catching and I think I did!  Since I always seem to be rushing to get something into the mail, I have developed a method of creating Mail Art that takes only a few minutes and I am going to share it with you now.  

 

First I select one background stamps, one "feature" stamp and one sentiment stamp to use.  I lay down some washi tape to mask off the area where the address is to go - remember the post office may not deliver your letter if they cannot easily read the address.

I use my Kaleidoscope Ink pad (this one is called Melon Melody) and a brayer to quickly add some color to the envelope, front and back and then I stamp the background stamp all over the front and back in either a light colored ink or my favorite sepia brown as I did here.  I always use  Archival ink because it is waterproof, that way if the envelope gets wet the ink will not run.

 

I added some stamped butterflies to the front and back for a focal point and to make this envelope feel extra Summer-y.  And don't forget the back - I usually add some sort of sentiment to the back for a little extra something. (Note: stamping words on the front of your envelope is not a good idea as they may confuse the post office.) And I always add some washi tape to the back of envelope to make sure it does not come open before delivery and because it looks pretty.

 

That's it!  This particular envelope was ready to go in under 10 minutes and well worth the little bit of extra time.   

So please do consider joining us and linking up your creation over at Crafty Catz for this week's Challenge #381 - Anything Goes with an optional twist of Not A Card.  You have until Noon on Thursday, August 3rd and there is always a Winner and the design teams top three picks.

As always, Thank You for poping in today to see what I am up to and I hope you enjoyed my little mail art tutorial today and all the other projects I created for Crafty Catz this month.  And please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!  

Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist

Guest Designer for Crafty Catz Challenges