Mail Art

While surfing some new blogs recently, I came across a few that have been talking about Mail Art.
This is meaning decorating the envelope in any manner you see fit to make it an enjoyable piece of art to receive.
This can be as simple as adding a sticker or 2 on the envelope or more elaborate as doing a painting or even making the envelope from fancy paper etc.



like my little extra bit on ths envelope (1 sticker and a transfer)

 Now I have always liked the idea of doing some scrapbooking, but seeing as all my other crafts have been on hold for the last 6-8 years whilst I have been growing my boys, and they are growing beautifully thanks to it, there was no way I was going to attempt to start something new. However this has not stopped me buying stickers and transfers when I see something I have liked.

So when planning the piece of snail mail I was going to send I decided I needed to decorate it.
So I went through the collection of stuff I already had, and oh man, was it ever a collection!
I have had to be organised and quickly find a folder to keep it all in so it is easy to find when needed for future mail art.

I even, whilst driving to Rotorua yesterday, thought about different things you could do for mail art. I saw so many things I would like to take pictures of to place on mail, different themes for mail. It was almost obsessive!
Although Ginger, did do a tutorial on her blog about this and mentioned about using maps etc to make envelopes. So whilst out today I raided the local tourist information place and walked away with all these free maps of places around New Zealand. Leaflets with interesting pictures of local places and lots of cool information.

No one said mail art had to be expensive, you just have to be creative and maybe think outside the square as to where you get your material from! So now I am on the alert to all things free and what else I could do with them, are they suitable for art, can I cut something out, will it fold leaving a nice design in a certain place?
Who knows, but I will have fun seeking.

Happy hunting all.