Envelope Art with Stamps

Today’s envelope art tutorial requires some creative thinking for whatever stamps you may have on hand.  The current forever stamps I had were the Classic Car stamps and a Christmas stamp.

Classic cars, specifically 1953 Ford Pickups, are a big thing in our house.  My husband has been working to restore a pickup of this kind and many of our conversations are related to his current project.  Naturally, when the post office received the classic car set of USPS stamps, I had to have them.  For this envelope art tutorial, I wanted to incorporate the classic car stamp into the art on the envelope.  I thought a 1950 style diner with a parking lot for classic cars would be appropriate.  Thus, this envelope began.  You can see the stamp is one of the cars in the parking lot.  (Don’t judge the quality of the pick-up sketches!  I like to think that red pick-up may have been in a wreck!)

For the Christmas stamp, I created a vision of a house where snow had just fallen.  I used the snow covered wreath in the window stamp as the window for the house.  The address has been written in the snow.  For both of these envelopes, I used colored pencils, a pencil, and a black sharpie marker.  I put the return address on the back of the envelope.

Have you created envelope art?  If so, share your pictures on Instagram with #theletterboxshop or in the comments below!

Envelope Art Using Watercolors

Receiving hand-written mail always brightens my day. And an envelope decorated in a one of a kind manner makes the mail more special.  If you’re looking for a way to decorate your envelopes in a one of a kind way, try using watercolors!

The supplies you will need are:

watercolor paints, paintbrushes, water, a palette for mixing paints, ink pen or marker

To begin, insert a piece of cardstock into the envelope so the envelope does not stick together.  Then, mix the paints of your choosing on your palette.  I chose to do an ombre swash in purples on the front of my envelope.

I took a large brush and brushed plain water across the area I would be applying the paint. Then, I took a smaller paintbrush and applied the first part of my swash.

 

To make the ombre effect, add white paint to your colored paint.  Once you get the white paint blended together, paint the second part of your swash.  Continue adding white paint to your colored paint and adding swashes to your envelope.  The envelope I created used four swashes, but you could do as many as you like.

After your paint has dried, place your envelope between two books to help flatten the envelope.  Then address your envelope.  I addressed my envelope using the Tombow Dual Brush Pen.  (It’s currently my favorite pen and comes in so many colors!)

 

Envelope Art with Vintage Stamps

Today was my first experience using vintage stamps on envelopes, and I am hooked! Vintage stamps are postal stamps that, if still UNUSED, can be affixed to your envelopes and used as part of the cost to mail a letter. The vintage stamp holds its value from the date which it was introduced. A four cent stamp from 1962 is still worth four cents today. Therefore, if using all vintage stamps on your envelope, you will likely need three, or four, or five vintage stamps to add up to the current postal rate of 47 cents.

Vintage stamps not only personalize the look of your envelope, but they add a history lesson (and math lesson) into your mailings too. While perusing through listings for vintage stamps, I noticed the Christmas 1963 stamp was more coveted than other Christmas stamps.  The reason is historical. John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated and the 1963 Christmas stamp shows The White House amid a dark background with a stream of light from a large Christmas tree-as if to say brighter days are ahead.

Other vintage stamps highlight historical events as well. Etsy is good place to begin your quest for vintage stamps. There are two types of vintage stamps: used and unused. Both are for sale. If you plan on using the stamps on letters to mail, make sure you buy UNUSED vintage stamps. Some Etsy shops even take the math game away for you and package stamps in individual packets that are ready to place on your envelopes.

The possibilities are endless with using vintage stamps. If you’re planning a special birthday party, you could use vintage birthday related stamps on the invitation envelopes. Planning a wedding? Use vintage stamps in your color scheme. Sending holiday cards? Vintage stamps for the different holidays could adorn your envelopes!

When you go to mail your envelopes with the vintage stamps, take the letters to the postal employees instead of the drop bins at the post office. If asked nicely, postal employees might hand cancel the stamps for you. Hand canceling will allow your mail to go through one less machine and will have a cleaner appearance at the top of the letter, so the receiver can still see all those vintage stamps in their glory!

I was pleased with the vintage stamp look on my envelopes.  What do you think? Do you have experiences with vintage stamps?