Mail Art Egg

Mail Art Egg was organised first time in 2012 with the aim of changing the original paradigm of egg by creating postal letters considering egg as a shape. There were 164 letters received from almost all parts of the world, created by kids to grown-ups from Brazil to England, including Hungary as well. All of these masterpieces were exhibited at different places in Hungary at Easter-time followed by an official handover-ceremony to the Postal Museum in Budapest, Hungary. This museum owns the biggest collection of stamps in the world – which is now complemented by these Mail Egg masterpieces as well. This is the 15th year that Mail-Art Egg Project is being announced!

More information & works 

Little Joys

Mailasmile's newest mail-art challenge. You can find all the details here.

The Graceful Envelope Contest: Mapping the World's Cities

Karen Burgess (one of the 2023 winners)

The world’s great cities have distinctive landmarks, cultures, histories, cuisines, or geography that are said to put each town “on the map.” There is even a tradition of depicting such characteristics on actual maps. Your challenge is to pick a city and consider what contributes to its unique character. For example, what makes New York bustling, Paris romantic, Tokyo energetic, and Sydney beautiful? Then—using artistry, lettering and the integration of postage stamps—create some sort of map on your Graceful Envelope that captures the spirit of the city of your choice. Artistically address your envelope to:

The Graceful Envelope Contest, P.O. Box 3688, Merrifield, VA 22116

(Read here all the details of the contest)

Mail Call from Hungary

Dear fellow mail artists,

I invite you to participate at Mail a smile’s newest challenge. I know this is a difficult period for everyone, but I believe creating art can bring us a tiny bit of peace. I am planning to organize an exhibition of all the mail that arrives, because I am confident your wonderful artwork will bring smiles to all the visitors.
(Location: Győr, Hungary. More details of the exhibition will be shared later.)

Topic: my home
Deadline: July 31st

Please, send your work to this address:
Pálma Puskás
Győrzámoly
Pf.9.
9172
Hungary

(More info: mailasmile.org)      

Поезд №1

The Museum of the Railroad History at Alexandrov railway station invites you to take part in the mail art project Train №1 dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the first passenger-train arrival on the 1st of January 1870. 

The idea: creation of the work of authorship (postcard) which should be sent to the project address via post. 

Style of execution: free (drawing, appliqué, collage). It is desirable to send the works without envelopes. 

Size: no limit.

Encouragement for participation in the project is not provided. All works will become a part of the exhibition of the Museum.

Deadline of works receiving is 31 December 2019.

The project's blog: www.tutu150.blogspot.com

Works can be sent to:

The Museum of the Railroad History at Alexandrov,
Railway station
1, Komsomolskaya Square
Alexandrov,
Vladimir region,
Russia,
601654

Transparent Postcard

I have contributed several times to Eduard's mail art call, Windows to the World. This time, I decided to sent him a postcard with a window located in his own city. 

I. e.: if you look through this window, you can see the city you are living in. It is valid for every city in the world ;-)

Really, it works! See the postcard after reaching its destination:

La Grande Poste

I made this envelope of a baker's bag for Eric's mail call about mail art made with reused paper bags. You can translate La Grande Poste or البريد الكبير as 'The Main Post Office'. I have bought bread from that baker's (close to the post office, that is) before, but I had never realised what was written on their bags.

Houses in the Mail

2018 will be a year of changes for me. At least, of country and house. I will move back to Spain next summer, but that is all I know. I still don't have idea where I am going to live. I wonder how my next house will be. So I decided to give the mystery the form of a postal project: Houses in the Mail.

Send...

The outside or the inside of one or more houses. It can be your house, your ideal house, a typical house of your country/town, a famous house you have visited, a fantasy or literary house, etc.

Write as much as you want to answer one of more of these questions:

• What makes your house special?
• How is the house you would like to live in?
• How are the typical houses in your country?
• Why do you like/dislike about the house you live in?
• Which one is the most wonderful house you have been to?
• ...

Technique

Free (drawing, picture, collage...). Commercial or altered postcards are also very welcome. Sent by snail mail, naked or in an envelope.

Size

Postcard: 10x15 cm / 4x6 in

(Please, don't send anything much bigger)

Deadline

You have the whole 2018 to send as many contributions as you wish. (But keep in mind that my address will change at the beginning of the summer.)

Documentation

This is a personal project, not to take part in any public exhibition. All contributions will appear in this blog (unless you don't want to, of course). 

Reply

You will receive a piece of mail back. (Don't forget to let me know your address!!)

Address

In case you don't have it... ask for my address (or more information).

See the contributions to the project so far. And some houses I have sent. The project is still alive in 2019.

Send Your Sun

Philippe Charron is an amazing mail artist. You can see some works he has sent to me for instance here, here, here, here...); and also find them on Eric's blog, on Phillip's blog...

Now he is launching a mail art call and I am glad to publish it to encourage you to participate. Here are the details:

Theme: Send me your sun, and you will receive mine.

Size and techniques are free.

No deadline.

Send your contribution to :

Philippe Charron

5 Impasse de la pierrière

17220 Bourgneuf

France

Don't hesitate to spread the news so that Philippe receives lots of sunshine!

Paper Bag Envelopes (Sent)

Two envelopes sent to Eric's mail art call:

We get more and more paper bags to wrap our purchases, so let’s recycle them! Let’s use a paper bag to create an envelope. Use any technique you want: keep the structure of the bag or deconstruct it, keep it plain or decorate it… Do what you want, the only rule being that the paper of the envelope must come from a paper bag. No deadline. Received items will be published on his blog
Send your creations to: 

Eric Bruth
92 rue Maurice Arnoux
92120 Montrouge
France

On Eric's blog: the jackals / the tea.

Greek Postcards

This week's theme in Postcards for the Weekend is: from a country you would want to live in if you have the chance/choice. I am currently living abroad, and the next country I will live in is... mine (from 2018 on, or that is the plan).

If I had to choose another country, it would be (probably) Greece. It is funny that I have sent more postcards from Greece (see here, or here...) than I have got! Actually, I have received only four postcards from that country in my whole life: two of them through the Postcrossing site, and two of them are a similar view, but with different light.

But it was looooong time ago. So, if you are reading this from any place in Greece... Would you like to swap a postcard?

Lesbos (Λέσβος)
Sent by Angela

Daily life in an Ionian island (Western Greece)
Sent by Dmitris

Athens
Sent by Wahiba

Athens
Sent by Ana

#AtoZChallenge | Theme Reveal

This year, I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. This is my first time, and it was Maria who inspired me by completing the challenge in 2015. 

Click the link to learn more about it. But, to summarize: it consists in posting every day (except Sundays) during April, and do it thematically from A to Z.

There is not compulsory to have a theme. But, as they say, it is fun. My posts will be mainly about postcards I have got. Some will be short, some will be more elaborated and containing my usual mail adventures.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I am. Let me know what you think! And also, let me know if you decide to join the challenge, too.

Endangered Animals Mail Art Call

• We here at Mail a smile love animals and think it’s time to dedicate a mail art call to them. We believe it’s important to take care of our environment including all living creatures. Since so many are already extinct, we’d like to raise awareness of critically endangered animals to prevent further extinction.
• This challenge lasts until December 31st, 2017 
• Create a postcard/letter or anything you wish to mail. 
• No entry fee, no returns, no size limit 
• Multiple entries welcome

• Send your art work to this address: 

Mail a smile

Budapest

Pf.:20

1554 – Hungary

• The art-works will be displayed in an exhibition in 2018 in Budapest. 
• Send us a photo of your work so we can add it to our gallery and Facebook or we can take a photo once your art work is received. 
• Be sure to use hashtag #2017MailASmile on instagram and tumblr. 
• Pick an endangered animal from the list or feel free to choose any others that are not listed. We would be happy to receive more than one entry for the same animal.

More information:

• Mail a Smile 
• info [at] mailasmile [dot] org

Altered Monkey

Altered postcard and hand-made envelope sent to FinnBadger (the USA). He uploaded the envelope to his blog, and added the monkeys to his mail art call about... monkeys.

Unconventional Monkeys

This was my third contribution to FinnBadger's mail art call: The Year of  the Monkey. It is a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, printed on balsa wood. I couldn't go to the post office to sent it, so I wasn't sure about the postage. Happily, it arrived safe and sound to the USA.


And the thank you mail that I received was everything but conventional: a monkey-shaped paper plate! A little ear wound, but, anyway... I would have never thought that an item like this could survive an intercontinental mail travel.

Mail Art Call: Brüder Grimm

Every time I think that I am not going to participate any more... I receive an attractive mail art call! Who could resist that theme? Especially if it has been delivered by flying fly, with a bonus lighthouse...

The Year of the Monkey, Incoming (1)

Unexpectedly, I have received some mail to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Monkey from FinnBadger (the USA). (Can you see the golden monkey on the stamp?). This pictorial postmark arrived well protected inside this envelope with the label Cancelled Stamps Enclosed:

The postmark is on the back of this cheerful monkey postcard:

And still another beautiful postmark, for the first day of issue of this beautiful stamp. (But there is something odd about the days, isn't there?)

I like that the postmark was so perfect, and that it arrived also dutifully protected in a plastic envelope:

This second monkey arrived as a thank you for my first contribution to FinnBadger's The Year of the Monkey mail art call. If the theme inspires you, you have untill January 2017 to contribute as well.

I Love Windmills on Stamps

But I have also received windmills on stamps:

The postcard of the beautiful site of Kinderdijk that I posted yesterday arrived with this matched stamp. 

The second stamp shows one of the mills at the Zaanse Schans (again in the Netherlands). 

And the third, somewhere in the region of La Mancha (Spain), where part of the story of Don Quixote was set; and especially the famous windmill scene, with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants.

This stamp was designed by a 16 years old girl, and won the prize for youngsters of Disello, a stamp design contest in 2015. By the way, the third edition of the contest is still open.

I am adding this post to Sunday Stamps-II (Today's theme is free).

Delivered by Flying Monkey

Sent by FinnBadger (the USA) for the Oz Postcard Project, printed over an old map and delivered by flying monkey.

50th Birthday

Envelope made of tracing paper and tape, sent to Eric (France), for his 50th birthday. It contained a knitted 50:

It arrived one or two days after the due date. But Eric is still 50, isn't he? And his mail art call about this subject (Fifty) will remain open until the end of 2016. See the details in his blog, and all the creations he has received so far.