Summer Envelope Exchange

I came across the Elevated Envelope blog in the spring, and knew I wanted to participate in her summer exchange. When I first started this blog, it was mainly to share my mail art projects, as that was a hobby of mine (pre-kiddos).

The theme was "sweet" and I was inspired by Kenley's berry-covered birthday cake. Part of the project involves including a little gift inside the envelope. I included a photo of the cake and a copy of the recipe.

For my envelope design, I carved a 4"x6" stamp. Obviously, I was a little rusty, because I forgot to carve the words backwards. Whoops! I just flipped it over and started again.

Once I finished carving my design, I printed it on the envelopes with black block printing ink. The sound of the brayer rolling in the ink really took me back to my days of teaching elementary art. I needed 11 envelopes for the exchange, but I printed up some extras to have on hand, as well as a few on white cardstock to use for mailing labels on boxes. When they were dry, I colored in the berries with colored pencils.

It was time consuming, but also fun to dip my toe in that world again. I'm glad I participated, and look forward to receiving lots of artful mail in the next couple weeks!