Jan Neuland to Leslie - minimalist

Leslie can probably see a bunch of pencil pondering that has been erased. I was trying to do some rooflines - and finally decided to just leave this one with all that gorgeous white space. Gorgeous to me. I have no idea if Leslie likes white space...
but, I am quite fond of this one.

Hopefully you can see how the lettering is somewhat inspired by Neuland.

3 Re-Run 2010s to KathyS

Three more from late 2010 that show how much fun you can have with Neuland.

Top one shows how much Neuland likes to be packed together - overlapping as much as you can but still leaving enough space that it is legible.

Second one shows a bit more space - but the variation is to put a bit of curve into the strokes. Just a tiny bit. And if you look closely - often times the bit of curve is a tiny tweak near the end of the stroke. Many of the strokes are pretty straight.

When I see people who are trying to do their first loose and curvy Neuland, I notice that they tend to put way too much curve into all the strokes. Start with just a bit.

And then there is the skinny version of Neuland. It might not be Neuland at this point...

Jan Neuland to Jean R

This was an early one - where the Neuland still looks like Neuland.
The red marker was so dry - I knew I would not do any others. First I tried to make the name into a sleigh. Then I forgot it was a sleigh and added the roofs. Then I added the smoke and was not happy with how that looked. So I added googlie eyes and some words to make the whole wretched mess into something whimsical.

Jan Neuland to Maggie and Jessica

These were the last two that I did before I figured it was time to move on - or perhaps I had run out of these stamps. I suspect it was the latter.

I love Maggie's.
I love the style on her last name.
I struggle with her name - the double Gs are so hard.
But this one makes me very happy.

Compared to Maggie's, Jessica's is a little wimpy. It needs a pop of color - but it was time to get these in the mail. Often times, when I am reading the blog on the day it pops up, I will see what I wish I would have done.

Jan Neuland to Carolyn and Shirley

After I did Chuck's I knew I would be doing some more that were pretty close to his. There was no planning whatsoever and I'm fine with how they turned out. A few rough drafts would have been better - but sometimes my impulsive lettering is a little better than too much structure.

I botched the Coop and had to cover it up with some of that adhesive paper that has a no-show-through backing. I love that stuff.
 I had to use it on Shirley's, too and I I forgot to trim it on the bottom. It really bugs me. I was tempted to add some pale blue lines - but - again - was nervous about a botch.

Jan Neuland to Chuck + Book of Kells Link + 101-yr old

See the Neuland in the C?
And the K?
And then it gets a little wild - but I was very pleased.

Then I did that rectangle and -ugh-
not a good idea. Not horrific, but we will not be doing any more.

I was going to put the whole address inside the rectangle, but forgot and wrote his last name which was probably a better idea.

Also --
in case anyone is interested - the Book of Kells is online.

Book of Kells

I posted a couple days ago about Sheila Waters' upcoming birthday. Sheila's husband Peter was a bookbinder and conservator. When he was working on the Book of Kells, Sheila was fortunate enough to be able to tag along and view it up close. Tag along probably isn't the right phrase - but you get the drift.

And while I am adding links....
back in February when I was jabbering about birthdays, I posted a link to the man who went skiing in Utah on his 100th birthday which falls in the summer. He is now 101 - and here is some footage of him on his latest ski trip which is impressive. However, they have included footage of his 45 minute workout. Oh.My.Gosh.

101-yr old skier's workout

Jan Neuland (windows) to Lauren & Heidi

It's hard to see the Neuland in these three. But, once I started looking at the details on the stamp I headed in a better direction.

The roof lines are not like the ones on the stamp, but that detail does not bother me in the least. That's the tip of the day. Don't be a slave to the stamp.

Jan Neuland to Anthea and Jadie

Both of these are a little wimpy. Right after I did these two , I turned a corner and had some better ideas. Although they did drift away from the Neuland.

Again, I was thinking some more dark green would help both of these, but I was nervous about botching them. At some point, I will show you the one that intimidated me into doing these wimpy ones.

Jan. Neuland to Patty, Finn and KathyS

Another batch of Neuland, done for the Jan exchange. I had planned on using up the 25-cent Greeting stamps in December and forgot all about them. Since the rates are going up, I figured it would be fine to use them up in January rather than hold them over for Dec 2019 - and have to use three - or add an oddball.

One tip for Neuland is that it is a good style for stacking. I like to make names into rectangles or squares. Because the stamps are usually rectangles of squares - it's nice to harmonize those two shapes.

This was an early one in the series and it isn't wildly exciting. There are 15 in this series and they do get pretty wild.

Phillip's is a little busy for my taste - but I do like the idea of writing things in the horizontal lines.

Kathy's is a little tame. I did not have a good pale blue marker and none of my greens were the right shade - so I thought layering greens was a good option. I was tempted to add some of the dark green to Kathy's, but chickened out after I botched some of the others that you will be seeing in the coming days.

Jan. Neuland to KateR

In Dec-Jan, Kate decided to give Neuland a try. I told her I would do all of my January exchange envelopes in Neuland and pass along some tips.

The number one thing I like about Neuland is layering. This one was done very quickly and if I had time, I would do some spectacular tiny details on the lettering, inspired by the details on the stamps.

My set of 48 ZIG calligraphy markers are nearing the end of their lives. Dry markers are fun - to a point.

Mean Jean warning. - to exchangers - non exchangers may ignore this:
Tomorrow, there will be some requests in red - to catch your attention - on the March Exchange Sign-up

There were complications with the Feb exchange -- and I have a couple simple requests to help avoid mistakes and complications, (i.e. mistakes made by me)

I hope I don't sound like I am yelling. I struggle with my computer keyboarding skills.
If you do not type your email - I can't always figure out how to copy and paste it - plus some people have more than one email and I can't keep track of which one they want on the list.

Thanks for your help.

I'm not yelling.

re-run - red-white-black

yup - still a fan of red-white-black.

still a fan of pointed nib doodling over the top of black. the black is usually a waterproof marker of some kind.

tall lanky letters - love them
these are a bit like neuland. once again, if you have never done any neuland, i highly recommend them.

doing all these re-runs gives me an opportunity to do better labeling.

rerun friday - christy who started it all

looking back at the first year of posts is a treat for me. i find things like this one which included the story about how my envelopes to christy in 2002 were the beginning of my whole obsession with envelopes. she is a niece who headed off to college a year ahead of my oldest offspring and i made envelopes for christy's mom to send to her. after she told me how much she, as well as dorm mates, enjoyed them, i started stockpiling envelopes for my daughter and they were ready to be mailed to her freshman dorm the following year. i wish the PO would be as vigilant at keeping a happy birthday stamp always available as they are with the flags.

purple snowflakes for marti

a fairly easy idea to go with the snowflake stamps. it helps if you have an assortment of pens and markers in the same shades. the scan probably does not show that there are snowflakes in Gelly Roll Clear Star. they are very sheer but have wonderful sparkle.

that big MARTI is neuland, but any big bold style would work.

cathy 3 pink dot

this one isn't finished. there will be a third pink dot in the zip code. cathy sent me some of these stamps, so i was just having fun thinking of ideas to go with them. i will be really sad when the rates go up. these are not forever stamps. the p.o. issues one design at the current rate for bulk mailing. you can order ten at a time online.

i used a chisel sharpie. i really like them for neuland-esque style writing. the tip is not crisp at all, but, you can easily square off the strokes with a white gel pen.

ellen - film strip

there is at least one other envelope in the archive that shows the film strip lettering. it is a variation on neuland with white gel pen squares.

the black was done with a huge marker. probably prisma color with a wedge shaped nib. they are so much fun and great for making posters or signs.

ellen - birthday

another old one that isn't very exciting. although stacking smaller letters on larger letters and adding confetti is something you could do very quickly. in this case, it looks like the marker was getting pretty dry and i don't think i have mentioned for a while that dry markers should be saved....they usually have enough ink to write one name, add an outline, and some confetti and it's good to go.

50-50 stamp

i bought a big packet of stamps for less than face value. they were all 25-cents, but i only had to pay 20-cents. it seemed like a bargain, but, they are not really very pretty. some are. but this one seemed so bad, i didn't think i could make anything pretty with it. but, i love a good challenge.

what i really dislike about the stamp is the flag, the red and blue and that diagonal. yuk. but then i looked at that cool grid work on the left. i don't know what it is, but i love it. so, i did a loose interpretation on the lettering and now it looks just fine to me. the scan isn't very good because blue does not scan very well. so squint and pretend it is blue-er.

new mail

the address will go below the line. joie took a lettering class from me. i needed to send her one more handout and was going to do it electronically, but her email bounced, so i am sending snail mail. i discovered that most of my ZIGs are drying up. big problem. not sure i can justify new markers. this might spell disaster for the blog. but, it would make my mom happy. she disapproves of how much time i spend blogging. i was thinking of posting her email address so you could flood her with your perspective on whether or not this blog is a good use of my time.

and joie, if you read this blog, email me :-) please
my email address is right over there under my mugshot.

saley

never finished. should send it to her on her birthday this year. she is an event planner and i have done a fair amount of work with her over the years. she has a real appreciation for calligraphy. she even had me do a brush character in chinese. i had no idea what i was doing. she thought it looked great. maybe i will post it and see if anyone cares to critique it for me. are any of the followers of this blog qualified to critique chinese? lemmekno.

sandy 29

fun way to cram all the words into a box that mimics the shape of the stamp. you should probably pencil it in first to make sure it will fit.