For the Love of Letters

Hello Again Crafty Friends, 

it's Mail Art Monday!

Stamps Used: 

Binder Clip

Naked Painter Boy

Flowered Corner Joint

Postcard ATC

Vintage Flourish

Dictionary Page

Today I want to share something vintage and sweet with you all.  If you have followed me for long you know I absolutely love mail art and vintage.  I wanted this to be something sweet and vintage. 

 I was inspired by Suzanne Reed, to create something vintage and Victorian.  

I started by stamping my 2 focal stamps in memento ink, then masked them both off.

Next, I cut a post it note to the size I wanted to create my address mask (I used a black pent to trace the "address block").  Then, I stamped the flower corner joint in memento black ink. 

I used a piece of scrap from my post it to mask of part of the corner joint, then used various distress oxide inks to ink my background (speckled egg, broken china, faded jeans) The stencil was from "the crafter's workshop".  I colored the flowered corner piece with various alcohol markers (copics, dick blick markers, etc).

Now the detail adding begins...

Before removing the masks, (using the Tim Holtz Stamp platform) I stamped the vintage flourish in "Fossilized Amber" distress oxide 2-3 times, then moving the envelope just slightly I stamped it in Black archival ink 2-3 times.  To add extra wow to the recipient I then stamped in "golden Glitz" Delecata ink, this adds a lot of shimmer in real life. 

In "speckled egg" distress oxide ink, I randomly stamped the "dictionary page" for depth.

To finish the background layer off, I stamped "postcard ATC" in more "Faded jeans" distress oxide ink.

With the background finished, It's time to remove the masks for the big reveal...

With masks removed, I used various alcohol markers to color all of my base images. 

Finally, to finish everything off, I used colored pencils to add detail as well as extra shading.

I also used the more distress oxide ink around the edges to really finish everything and pull the eye in. 

Now, to find the perfect postage stamp...

I hope this inspires you to send a little happy mail out into the world too!!

Happy Crafting!