Letters & Journals

Letters and Journals was created for the pen and paper enthusiast. If you like any of these, chances are you'll love this magazine: pens and pencils, bottled ink and paper, notebooks and notecards diaries and journals, postcards and postmarks, ephemera and mail art, letters and stamps, day planners and organizers, typewriters and doodles. The website was launched as a prelude to the print edition of the magazine which is scheduled for a 2012-2013 publication.

Jackie has sent me these two postcards so far. The last one suffered a terrible accident in way, as you can see.

Pan de Naranja

Made by Heleen (The Netherlands).
Piece of packaging of pan de naranja (cake with orange rind and juice), with the word orange written in different languages, sent as a postcard.
Also published here (in negative!).

Incoming from China

Sent by I-Wen (China).

Lost Art

Sent by i'm a superhero (the USA).

It contained and add & return, so I sent my envelope:

And my own definition of lost art:

Feeding Your Imagination with Christmas Coffee

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).
Reused envelope. I just added the planes, the house and some stars. Then I sent inside a little Christmas present with this collage:

It says: "Another way to make coffee". It's Christmas coffee!

Bon Any

The Christmas cards I have sent this year look like these. They are all different, made of recycled boxes (of cereals, presents, etc). They have travelled to Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Jersey, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, PC, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom... So I hope one of them have happily reached your mail box!

I know it is not properly written in Arabic... Sorry! It is not my fault, but Moo's fault!

Also published here.

Smurf Noel

Received from Heleen (the Netherlands).

Stitched Christmas Trees

Received from Eva (Germany).
Sewn postcard.

Christmas Mince Pies

Received from Laura (the UK).
Food packaging turned into a postcard.

Mitre Shaped

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).
This is the mitre (bishop's hat) of Sinterklaas.

Ho Ho Ho Money

I got a letter from really far away... the North Pole!

It was sent by Robby (the USA). And I discovered inside one million dollars. That's really something! I guess this special money must be used to buy some Christmas presents, what do you think?

Incoming Mermaids

Salina Sagace, by Heleen

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).
Mermaids drawn by Heleen (the second one had the collaboration of a little person, I'm afraid).

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Mr. Popper's Penguins, by RICHARD and FLORENCE ATWATER

This amazing story starts with a letter...
The book, originally written in 1938, became more popular thanks to the recent film based on it. I read this new edition, but it contained the original drawings, like this one:

How to Be British

Sent by Laura (the UK).
Some postcards of the series How to be British Collection by Martyn Ford and Peter Legon.
My favourite one is, of course, number 28 (in the middle): Real Mail.

Lighthouse Shaped

Sent by Heleen (The Netherlands).

Bon et joyeux anniversaire

Sent to Émilie (France).
Letter for her anniversary with drawn cover and stickers in relief.

Brown Ugly Tape

Last month, I wanted to send to my friend Laura (the UK) her birthday present. So I gathered some items and put them together in a shoe box. Exactly like this one:

When I arrived in the post office counter, I was told that it's forbidden to put advertisements on the packets. I think my face was a sign of big surprise: I only wished to recycle! Then the woman said: "Don't worry". She started to cover the advertisement with sticky tape. Metres and metres of brown ugly sticky tape, I mean!  I hadn't any picture of the result, but I assure you that you couldn't see the advertisement. In fact, you could see the box with great difficulty. So... sorry, Laura!

Soft Red Frog

Sent by Tonina (PC).
Shaped card with soft texture.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,
by MARY ANN SHAFFER & ANNIE BARROWS

The Pen Thief (the USA) gave away an used copy of this book and I was one of the happy winners! I really enjoyed this epistolary novel (and now Hawwa's husband is reading and enjoying it).

Drawn Mermaids

 Drawn and sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

 

Also drawn and sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

This is a reused envelope with the Royal TNT logo (the crown), sent to Salina.

Also published here.

Drawn and sent by Ju (Taiwan).

 Drawn and sent by Valeria (Belarus).

Cup of Coffee

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).
Cup of coffee DIY.
The text says: "When you are stirring, your coffee will make a dance of joy in your cup".
Also published here.

The Miner’s Mountain and the Fall of Wall Street

Sent by Guido Vermeulen (Belgium).
Large painted envelope.
Also published here, here and here. It takes part of the mail art call #occupywallstreet by i'm a superhero.

Postcrossing Stamps

Have you heard about Postcrossing stamps? I think so, because they were launched on October 14th. I'm really lucky, because I received these (brand new!) stamps as a present only a week after the launching. And also I've found them on my mail...

 Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Mail Art from Argentina

Sent by Samuel Montalvetti (Argentina).
The mail contained a lot of artist items (artist books, add and return, etc.) like these:

Robots Cannot Be Creative

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).
Collage made on an envelope with a brochure, stamps, rubber stamps and colour pencils.
Also publishe here.