Mailart 365 has moved

Back again with this piece, got to be something worth celebrating! Made it while I was up in Scotland last week and I actually had some time, also worth celebrating!!! Will be on its way in the postbox in about 10 minutes.

Well, it's been nearly a whole year since I've posted anything up here but I am now making and sending mailart again as part of an exhibition I'm putting on at the end of this June (all mailart contributions greatly received and will be put on display) at a local gallery so while I may not reach the dizzy heights of sending a piece every day a la 365, here's a piece I made yesterday and sent off this morning.

It is based upon being on a train last week on the way to see youngest daughter perform in a dance show when all of a sudden I heard this voice say "hello! hello! hello!". At first I thought it was one of those unusual ringtones but then I saw this guy with his parrot in its cage, partially covered over, sitting opposite sort of telling it to behave/keep quiet. I got off at the next station so not sure if it was about to swear, all in all a rather unusual experience but resulted in this mailart!

Raspberries and the coloured drawers came from one of my trusted mailart sources, The Times Saturday magazine. Rubiks cube was taken from a nightclub advert and as you might know I've got stamps all over the place so there's never a shortage of those for mailart insertion. All gives rise to Retro Raspberry Drawers, now I wonder what might be inside them....!?

Bought some new card pretty recently and I didn't realise how bright it actually is until I cut some shapes from it to create this abstract piece. The red rectangle actually came from the Post Office when I bought some stamp miniature sheets and the card was being used to keep them flat/divided so a little bit of free mailart material courtesy of Post Office Counters!

Still catching up a little bit, a few days behind! Most of this piece was made using an accounting and business magazine with a few other postal bits & pieces and stickers added for good measure, even the zebra looks intrigued! Who said accountancy and business could not be interesting!

Some bits and pieces from old Royal Mail stamp Prestige book, four Lords-and-Ladies(great name for a plant!) plants as featured on four used stamps from Ireland, tomatoes from a well known brand of tomato sauce (Dolmio)advert and the alphabet stamps to spell out "GROW", all rather appropriately!

This is a great example of somebody putting their foot right in it! Taken from the back of a Royal Mail stamp Prestige the words read as follows:
"At an auction in 1904, the future King of England paid a world-record price for a single stamp when he acquired a Mauritius 2d blue for £1,450. Reportedly, one of George's secretaries had read about the record-breaking purchase in the newspaper, and remarked to the Prince that "some damned fool" had parted with an exceptional amount of money for just one stamp. His Royal Highness is said to have replied, "I am that damned fool." Oops!

I made this one fairly quickly while waiting to go out, using a multitude of junk mail which we get put through the door very regularly, an almost endless source of mailart material! The 2 piece set label came from a shirt & T-shirt I bought last week, monkey from some wrapping paper and the "45th week-end Constructing a Rock Garden" from a very old and yellowing gardening book entitled 52 weekend jobs in my garden.

Today's mailart advises that things are moving and what to plant in March alongside a photo of Victorian children plus a £5 Queen Victorian orange stamp taken from an old stamp album, all set against some leopard print.

I found this old train ticket holder and so just added a few cuttings from the Saturday magazine I get free with the newspaper and discovered Obama had sent me/somebody a book he wanted made into a film.....the magic of mailart!

Had run out of white/coloured card and then I remembered I still had a few animal print pieces so used this tiger stripes one as the background, added two glowing ladies (they always look glowing in glossy magazines!), a clock on a yellow wall and the inside of a used 1st class stamp book, was nearly glowing myself when I'd finished!

Wording and well-dressed man taken from magazine, barcode and valid for items from a 1st class stamp book, patterned square is the security inside of an envelope and blue background an old train ticket holder, all saying "Hello brilliant"!

Arrow circling star came from a printer cartridge shop bag and the tickets were from the Paris trip which I rediscovered in the cartridge bag along with some other bits I've been saving to make future mailart!

The splash shape and wording "start with a blank canvas" came from the packaging of a pack of white card I've been using for any of the white background pieces I've made recently. I then cut up a piece of a Paris Metro map and stuck the strips to the splash so no longer a blank canvas!

This piece is made from a piece of packaging I found on the street quite some time ago and so I've used it here with some old train tickets and the accompanying ticket terms and conditions leaflet cut into much more interesting kite shapes. Added two used stamps and so it's now time to let's go fly a kite!

Printed a shamrock outline off the computer and then filled it in using green magazine cuttings and green oil pastel to colour in the remaining gaps - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Children round the postbox (and not a computer, shock horror!)was taken from a shoes advert in a magazine. I then recently rediscovered these letter stamps and pieces of postal ephemera stickers so put the two together - now just got to get those kids making some mailart to put in the post box!

Made using an envelope, and the enclosed packaging contents to stiffen it, which was sent in to work from Israel.

Presenting the Strawberry Laser taken from a beauty salon leaflet put through the door and other images taken from a luxury, high-end product magazine full of far too expensive items but a great mailart source and free, how ironic! :)

And so on with the next 365....a rather striking fly picture teamed up with dog and his/her suitcase saying "I heart travel"!