S-FIMail

Pink Freesia

2012-02-12T15:27:00.003+02:00

I haven't seen pink freesias earlier, but saw them on Saturday in the flower shop close to us, and bought one. Now I used it as inspiration and painted this flower card to be sent as a Postcrossing card to Taiwan.

Scandinavian Shamanistic Drum

2012-02-10T21:38:00.001+02:00

I painted this card to a Postcrosser who wanted a card regarding the mythology of the sender's country.

Shamanistic drums are from Northern Finland and I used page http://www.thuleia.com/shamandrum.html to know what kind of symbols are used in them.

- Let's hope this kind of a drum could exist! :)

Flower Mail to Ivana

2012-02-05T13:33:00.000+02:00

It's snowing here and I'm waiting for the Spring, so flowers are in my mind.

Using flowers bought from flower shop as inspiration I then painted this card to Ivana.

Decorative Letter from Bree

2012-02-01T21:20:00.002+02:00

This beauty arrived today from Bree.

Thank you very much Bree for the lovely letter with beautiful decorations!

Stamps are gorgeous

and even the back side of the letter is decorated this beautifully!

Postcrossing Flowers

2012-01-29T20:39:00.003+02:00

This is the card I made by using ink and watercolor to a Postcrosser who said she likes flower paintings and Japanese style in the paintings.

To the envelope I used a stamp with a picture of a flower painting by the Finnish artist Eero Järnefelt (1863-1937)

Salvador Dali Cards from Ivana

2012-01-28T17:54:00.000+02:00

These three folded Salvador Dali cards arrived from Ivana:

Again so beautiful Czech stamps!

Also the non valued stamps are nice, especially the Czech Post stamp.

"Improved" Gustav Klimt to Ivana

2012-01-26T18:07:00.000+02:00

Piece of artwork by Gustav Klimt was on one page of my last year Metropolitan Museum of Art calendar.

I made a card of it to Ivana by attaching it on water color paper on which I had painted according to the idea and colors used by Gustav Klimt.

Cat Art

2012-01-25T22:18:00.001+02:00

I have had quite a long break in Postcrossing, but have now started again, and just received this wonderful cat card from Japan! Isn't it lovely?!

Christmas Letter to Bree

2012-01-22T16:40:00.001+02:00

We still had the Christmas tree in our house when I wrote my latest letter to Bree. Our cat Killi was staring at the tree so I took ink and watercolors and made a sketch of what I saw, and used the right side of the paper as a note paper to write the letter.

I used sea theme stamps and added some watercolor to the envelope to make it suitable for the stamps.

Glove Letter to Bruno

2012-01-21T12:41:00.002+02:00

This is the letter I sent to Bruno. I like to use pictures of my old Metropolitan Museum of Art page-a-day calendars in envelopes and cards, and here I used a page with a picture of a glove. I added a piece of paper so that it looks like the glove is holding it, and used it for the address.

The note paper I decorated to suite to the decorations in the glove.

Bats with Postman Stamp

2012-01-08T11:56:00.001+02:00

Ilona in http://www.missivemaven.com/ loves bats, and I just had to buy this card for her when I saw it in an art museum in Frankfurt, Germany in December.

On the last day to use old Finnish stamps I noticed that I hadn't used my favorite postman stamp which I had planned to use in mail to Ilona. - So the postman started to carry bats to USA for Ilona.

I had two of these postman stamps, so one is left for my collection. Collecting stamps is something I don't know if I do it or not. I really love stamps, and in a way I collect them, because I have a lot of them, and I even have several books where I keep them. Still I'm not active in collecting them, and I have several times changed the theme of what kind of stamps to collect: dogs, old buildings, statesmen,... This postman stamp made me to think that why wouldn't I start to collect mailing related stamps! This is such a new idea that I haven't even yet started to find out if these kind of stamps even exist so many that there would be something to collect. - Hints are welcome!

Goodbye Old Stamps

2012-01-02T21:51:00.001+02:00

Starting from the beginning of this year it is not possible any more to use old Finnish Mark valued stamps (we have had euro as currency since 2002) in mailing. For example this card sent on Friday couldn't have been sent today.

I have been a bit sad of loosing the possibility to use the old stamps, but actually now it's again lovely to start to wait for new stamps to be published without being stressed to remember to use the old ones as long as it is possible! :)

Happy New Year 2012!

2011-12-31T11:40:00.001+02:00

Looking trustfully towards the coming new year

Christmas Card to and from Ivana + Mini Lion Study

2011-12-28T12:42:00.000+02:00

This is the Christmas card I sent to Ivana

and this is the one she sent to me.

Aren't the Czech stamps beautiful?

The lion stamp looks a bit like some Finnish stamps, because both Finland and Czech seem to have a lion in their coat of arms! Interesting!

This is an example of a sheet of Finnish stamps from year 2006.

Christmas Cats

2011-12-26T19:30:00.002+02:00

This is the Christmas card to my friend Lieselotte in Germany.

Watercolor and gold ink has been used to the surface preparation and then there are pictures of our cats Sissi and Killi.

Letter from Bree

2011-12-11T16:43:00.001+02:00

This letter with a lovely drawing and beautiful stamps arrived from Bree in Malaysia.

Bree's way to decorate the letter with her drawings is wonderful.

Colorful Letter to Bree

2011-11-01T20:59:00.000+02:00

I used a photo and watercolor also in my letter to Bree, like I did in my letter to Elle. - I just was a bit more wild with watercolor in this one. :)

Autumn Letter

2011-10-30T19:17:00.002+02:00

This is my latest letter to Elle. I used photos taken this autumn in our garden and added some water color as decoration.

Lednice-Valtice Area in Czech

2011-10-23T13:19:00.001+03:00

This very big size card of Lednice-Valtice Area in Czech arrived from Ivana. - Looks really beautiful! From Wikipedia can be read that The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape is registered in the list of monuments protected as World Heritage by Unesco.

Also the stamps which Ivana has used in this big card are really big, 5,4 x 4,4 cm!

Artistamp Card

2011-10-20T19:50:00.002+03:00

This beautiful artistamp card arrived from Elle.

I love your artistamps, thank you so much for this Elle!

Bat Letter to Ilona

2011-10-15T15:57:00.001+03:00

Ilona likes bats, so when there was an article of bats in our local newspaper, I saved it to be used in the letter for her. I wish I would have had a bat stamp. A stamp of a flying squirrel was the best I had for this purpose. :)

I glued the dark pictures on the notepaper and

used black color to write on white and vice versa.

Post Plates

2011-10-11T20:31:00.003+03:00

I got four plates like this more than 20 years ago and I've never really liked them, so now I planned to get rid of them in connection of the coming kitchen renovation.

I have never really looked what is in the picture of the plate, but did it now, and what did I see: POST in the middle of everything! - Now I just CAN'T throw these away! :)

Siri Derkert

2011-10-07T18:19:00.001+03:00

This card having a picture of a painting by Siri Derkert was sent to Hsin-Yi.

I and my daughter visited Siri Derkert's exhibition in Sweden this summer and I bought the card from there.

I hope Hsin-Yi has already received my card though I forgot to add the priority label on it!

This is what is written in Internet about the exhibition:

Siri Derkert (1888–1973) is a pioneer of Swedish 20th century art. Her early cubist paintings are attributable to international modernism, while her later work for the Östermalmstorg underground station (1965) in Stockholm marked a radical change in the notion of public embellishment.

For the first time since 1960, Moderna Museet is featuring Siri Derkert’s unique and multifaceted oeuvre in a major retrospective exhibition. Works from her youth, cubist paintings, fashion drawings from the 1910s, profoundly psychological portraits of children and adults, drawings and later experiments with materials such as concrete, iron strips and clay – all presented in a generous show that also highlights the life of Siri Derkert. Her works for public spaces often deal with the peace movement and feminism – issues that are as relevant today as they were for her generation.

XL Butterfly Card to Ivana

2011-10-02T21:24:00.001+03:00

Ivana liked my big bird card so much, that when I saw this similar kind of a big butterfly card at the book store, I just had to buy it to her.

I just have to become better in stamping. The middle part of the stamping in the upper left corner of the card didn't get any color at all. - I filled the empty place with a drawing colored with green stamping ink. :)

To and From Bruno

2011-09-25T10:58:00.003+03:00

Bruno loves rock concerts, so I made the envelope for his letter by using an advertisement of a local rock concert in our local newspaper. As a note paper I used a whole sheet of the newspaper which included an advertisement of another rock concert and also a lot of free space to write into. :)

This is the letter I got now from Bruno. He tells he liked my rock concert theme. :)

Beautiful Letter from Malaysia

2011-09-20T21:05:00.003+03:00

This gorgeous letter arrived from my new Malaysian friend Bree.

I love her way to decorate the letter and tell about her hobbies!

Malaysian stamps are very beautiful; she sent me also some additional stamps inside the letter

+ this beautiful bookmark made by herself.

Thank you very much Bree! :)

To and from Ivana

2011-09-14T21:58:00.002+03:00

This is the Moomin card I sent to Ivana

and this is the beautiful card which just arrived from her

Win in Missive Maven Postcard Giveaway

2011-09-08T21:18:00.004+03:00

I was lucky in Ilona's giveaway

http://www.missivemaven.com/2011/08/postcard-giveaway-in-honor-of-my.html

and won a set of her lovely cards, which she sells in her Etsy shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MissiveMaven.

The cards arrived in this envelope. - I love the stamps and the stickers!

Thank you so much Ilona!!!

Elle, Roses and Marjolein

2011-09-01T20:56:00.002+03:00

This wonderful rose letter arrived from Elle. I love the composition of the "rose is a rose..." text, the big pink rose, the rose stamps, the label around my name and the matching fabric in the left side of the envelope!

Part of the letter was written on Marjolein Bastin paper.

Elle had also by herself made me a Marjolein Bastin scrapbook....

...with Marjolein Bastin stickers. - So lovely!

She also had attached these gorgeous flower pictures.

Thank you so much Elle!! See you in the mail! :)

Fairy Package

2011-08-21T17:39:00.000+03:00

Peggy likes fairies, and when I saw this small package in our post office I just had to buy it for her.

I was happy they were still also selling these fairy stamps.

The package is made to be perfect size for a small chocolate bar, so I bought one though I was afraid it will totally melt on it's way to USA.

I attached this small letter which I decorated with water colors.

What an Inside Pattern!

2011-08-20T16:42:00.000+03:00

This is the lovely letter I got from lovely Ilona. :)

There was this beautiful address label at the back side of the envelope, so to not to destroy it, I opened the envelope from the top with paper knife...

and destroyed this gorgeous inside pattern of the envelope!

As you see, I then finally opened the letter from three sides to see the pattern better.

This beautifully the pattern would have continued if I wouldn't have opened the envelope as I did.

Really beautiful!!!

Birthday Card

2011-08-16T20:19:00.001+03:00

I had my birthday yesterday and got this beautiful card from Ivana.

Many people say that Finnish stamps are nice, and I agree, but I really like also Czech stamps a lot!

Sissi Letter

2011-08-01T17:55:00.002+03:00

This is my latest letter to Elle.

I made the note paper by using ink and water color to present our new kitten, Sissi.

Elle loves gardening so I took some actual pictures in our garden and made a small booklet of them for her.

Then I decorated the envelope in the same style as the booklet.

Elle has also posted about this letter at the end of the post

http://artofaletter.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-very-happy-mailbox-incoming-mail.html

in her lovely blog.

Mail Receiving Flower Shop

2011-07-23T20:24:00.005+03:00

My daughter is working this summer in a museum, where is at the moment an exhibition of old toys and also doll's houses with hand made furniture. I've always thought that it would be lovely to start to make a doll's house, and now I got an idea to make a small version of it just under a glass cupola. So I bought a cupola and some iron wire and made this!

There is a tiny plastic pot inside both of the vases, so I can fill in little water to be able to use real flowers in them.

- I started to feel that I have to buy a bigger cupola. Let's see what this becomes, at the moment I think it is a small flower shop which also receives mail. :)

A view without cupola.

About the scale: the height of the table is 6 centimeters.

Manuela's and Hard Rock Cafe's Birthday

2011-07-21T12:59:00.003+03:00

This is the birthday card I sent to my dear friend Manuela, who loves Hard Rock Cafe. Both she and Hard Rock Cafe are celebrating their 40th birthday this year. - To be exact, Manuela was born 6 days after Hard Rock Cafe was founded. :)

My husband and I happened to visit Amsterdam in the beginning of the summer and bought a t-shirt for my son from Hard Rock Cafe there. After coming home and looking at the paper bag I just HAD to make a card of it for Manuela, though it was a bit belated then.

I succeeded also to buy suitable stamps: they are showing Finnish rock and pop bands from 1980s. They were published already in the beginning of last year, but our post office was luckily still selling them.

I was happy then to hear from Manuela, that she had loved the card! :)

Letter Booklet to Ilona

2011-07-15T11:26:00.000+03:00

This is the letter for Ilona, which I made as a small booklet with a small painting of my garden flower pot.

I made the envelope of a paper bag got from Amsterdam.

This was the first time I used the stamps which I had ordered of my own pictures of our cat Killi.

Here is the the whole sheet of the stamps:

Mail Connects

2011-07-06T12:10:00.001+03:00

We got a new kitten, Sissi, two weeks ago. She and our older cat, Killi, have got along pretty well, but Killi has been a bit reserved. When I now received two packages in mail and gave the empty boxes to the cats, they finally found something to do together!

- Good mail makes everyone happy! :-)

Purple Coneflower Artistamp

2011-07-05T12:56:00.001+03:00

This wonderful card from Elle was waiting for me in our mailbox today! Elle had posted of her Artistamp in her blog earlier http://artofaletter.blogspot.com/2011/06/first-day-of-issue-for-june.html, but luckily I hadn't noticed her posting before receiving the card, so it was such a lovely surprise!

Artistamp is a new kind of mail art for me and I got so happy of receiving the card and additionally learning something new and exciting.

I also have to try something like this one day!

Mailbox Surprise

2011-07-04T11:53:00.002+03:00

This picture was in our weekend's newspaper: someone had found a bird nest in his mailbox.

- I love to find mail in my mailbox, but I certainly would love to find baby birds there also!

Marjolein Bastin Letter

2011-06-30T12:24:00.001+03:00

Letter together with two beautiful cards by Marjolein Bastin arrived from Elle also a long time ago already.

She apologizes that she hasn't decorated the envelope, but in my eyes she HAS decorated it very beautifully with the lovely stamps and the address label which she had made by using a photo of her favorite rose!

I'm happy she had attached a bunch of these labels so that also I can use them. :-)

Karel Valter

2011-06-27T10:46:00.002+03:00

This card of a painting "Death of a pride" by Karel Valter (Czech 1909-2006) arrived from Ivana.

I'm not happy by myself because of not publishing anything during the whole month, but now I'm happy to be back again. :-)

Nice Mailbox Row

2011-05-15T18:23:00.002+03:00

This row of mailboxes situates about 5 kilometers from our place.

The nice thing in it is the three-dimensional framed picture, which is said to be changed according to the current season.

Fairies and Butterflies

2011-05-03T20:43:00.002+03:00

This beautiful card together with a letter arrived today from Peggy.

I love the postages she used, especially the cat postages.

The cat on the postage on the right side looks pretty much like our cat Killi. :)

I recognized this lovely envelope with a big amount of beautiful butterflies and new I have seen it earlier. I checked my old received mail, and it was Ilona who had used similar kind of envelope, just in a bit smaller size http://sfimail.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-beautiful-letter-including.html.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T09:19:00.008+03:00

Happy Easter to all of you, who celebrate it,

and Happy Spring to the other ones!

This is the Easter card I sent to Ivana.

I decorated the back side with a big light colored egg over which I could write.

Edvard Munch in Snow

2011-04-23T11:02:00.002+03:00

I made this card to Miwa from a picture which I took in Oslo, Norway, in February, when there was the opening of the Nordic World Ski Championships. The center of Oslo was then full of fantastic snow sculptures made based on the paintings of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. The sculpture on this picture is based on his painting "The Sick Child".

I made a foldable card, and used on the backside a picture of a snow sculpture made based on Edvard Munch's painting "Scream".

I felt this simple envelope decoration made by silver and gold metallic stamping inks was suitable for the snowy delivery.

WAR IS OVER!

2011-04-22T12:06:00.001+03:00

This very interesting looking "WAR IS OVER!" letter arrived from Bruno in Brazil.

He also sent me a bunch of this beautiful Le Petit Prince paper.

He had used a cute tiny paper clip to connect the note papers. I love the paper clip, I've never seen this small! The red one in this picture is the one he used, the one on the right side is a normal size paper clip to clarify the scale.

Letter to Bruno

2011-04-17T11:48:00.002+03:00

This is my latest letter to Bruno.

I decorated the note paper with black and metallic ink pens.

To the envelope I used black ink pen and metallic stamping ink directly from the stamp pad.

Xu Wei

2011-04-16T11:11:00.006+03:00

Hsin-Yi sent me this beautiful postcard of a painting by a Taiwanese Ming Dynasty era artist Xu Wei.

I love traditional Chinese way of painting and like this card very much.

The Taiwan Museum stampings are marvellous and the whole card backside layout really lovely.

Thank you very much Hsin-Yi!!

Easter Card from Ivana

2011-04-09T19:56:00.003+03:00

This beautiful Easter card arrived from Ivana.

The Easter postage is just lovely!!

This again was the card which I sent to her earlier, so we are still strongly following the bird theme. :)

Postal Regards from Gdansk, Poland!

2011-04-03T11:13:00.001+03:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Letter to Patty

2011-03-29T21:07:00.001+03:00

This is my latest letter to Patty.

As a notepaper I used this everyday romantic styled duplex card.

Marjolein again

2011-03-23T21:27:00.003+02:00

When starting to write to Elle I wanted to find a new kind of a way to use my old Marjolein Bastin wall calendars. Finally I took the March page of two calendars and used them as note papers. - There was actually quite much empty space to be used when writing by using small letters. :)

The reverse side is automatically beautiful when including the picture of April.

The envelope I made made of the paper which was around the flower I bought on same day.

I attached an extra note which I made by printing a picture of my cat Killi who was very interested in my work to plant flowers (Rhodochiton atrosanguineus) of the old seedcases on the same day also. I didn't know the English name of the plant so I painted a small picture of the flowers to clarify.

Waiting for Spring

2011-03-19T10:39:00.005+02:00

This is the card I made to PostMuse.

I wanted to do something different, and used a piece of thin cloth and acrylic colors.

The clear green color represents my longing for spring after the long winter.

I like postages a lot, and I sometimes like to draw an extension to the postage picture, like I did here.

Birds

2011-03-18T20:26:00.001+02:00

This is the bird card I received from Ivana in Czech.

This again is the bird card I had sent to her. Below each bird there is the name of it in Finnnish and Swedish and after those there is the scientific name.

Letter to Bianca

2011-03-15T20:53:00.002+02:00

This is my latest letter to Bianca. I decorated the envelope with some doodlings and used the funny new Finnish postages.

This is the whole sheet of these postages.

The letter became a real cat letter, when I used all my different cat note papers and attached some other cat material. :)

Beautiful Letter

2011-03-14T20:45:00.002+02:00

This beautiful letter arrived from Ilona. The envelope together with these postages, sticker and stamping is just lovely!

The backside of the envelope has the same kind of beautiful raised pattern as the note paper.

Funny Bunny

2011-03-13T13:09:00.001+02:00

This funny and colorful bunny letter arrived from Bruno in Brazil.

The letter in itself is written on South Park note paper.

Mokuren

2011-03-12T09:33:00.002+02:00

This beautiful Japanese art card arrived from Miwa in Tokyo.

She tells that these flowers are called Mokuren, and they are similar to cherry blossoms.

I really wish I one day will see these flowers in Japan!

Right now Japan is in the middle of an awful natural disaster, and people there are in our thoughts and prayers.

- When you see this Miwa, please leave a comment to tell how you are.

Marjolein Bastin

2011-03-05T20:17:00.006+02:00

I made again a card of one of my old calendars by Marjolein Bastin. I made this to Elle after noticing that also she likes Marjolein Bastin, like I do.

This is the cover of the card

and this is how it looks when it is opened

(the crease goes in the middle of the undermost sunflower).

I decorated also the envelope by using pieces of the calendar.

This again is the letter which I then got back from Elle.

- She used a notepaper by Marjolein. :-)

I love her envelope with the Snow Drops postage and decoration!

She also sent a card which she had made of a picture of an artwork by Edith Holden (1871-1920).

The backside of the card is decorated by a Marjolein Bastin sticker.

And this beautiful card she had made of snowy pictures at her Heart's Ease Cottage.

- I really got happy of this delivery! -

Stockholm

2011-02-19T10:45:00.001+02:00

When I last month was in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, I bought this card to be sent to Hsin-Yi.

The card presents Stockholm attractions and says that Stockholm is the most beautiful capital in the world.

I used a stamp which is one of five in a "luck jump" stamp sheet published last year.

To decorate the card I continued the stamp decoration style.

Entire "luck jump" stamp sheet

Colors to Bruno

2011-02-12T07:41:00.002+02:00

I love colors, and used water colors to decorate the notepaper with colorful squares when writing to Bruno in Brazil.

For the envelope I used a picture from the newspaper and the confidencial sticker and the red sphere sticker, which I received from Bruno in his latest letter. The newspaper picture is of one of the Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture advertisements. The picture presents the silhouette of Turku including e.g. Turku Castle, full rigged ship Suomen Joutsen in River Aura in Turku and Turku Cathedral.

This year is the last one when we can use old Finnish Mark valued postages to send mail. I like these old postages, and because the prices increase all the time, the price of each old postage is so low that you have to use several of them for one letter, which makes the letter more decorative, I think. - It's a pity that these can't be used after this year any more, but of course we also have very nice new postages to be used.

Hanko

2011-02-10T20:01:00.001+02:00

This fog card I sent to Ivana after receiving the Prague card http://sfimail.blogspot.com/2011/01/small-version-of-pariss-eiffel-tower.html from her. This card is of Hanko, the southest town of Finland, and I felt the card had the same atmosphere as the Prague card from Ivana.

Bedřich Havránek

2011-02-05T11:44:00.001+02:00

This wonderful card of a painting by the Czech Romanticism painter Bedřich Havránek arrived from Ivana in Czech.

I admire the Czech postages.

Letter from Patty

2011-02-03T20:36:00.001+02:00

This lovely letter arrived from Patty

together with this lovely card :-)

Mailbox Guard

2011-01-31T19:21:00.000+02:00

This beautiful and massive cat made me smile when I yesterday in sunshine saw her on the fence looking like she would be guarding her owner's mailbox. - Look also how beautifully she has set her tail. :)

Letter to Patty

2011-01-30T10:45:00.002+02:00

This is my first letter to Patty in http://justletterrip.blogspot.com/.

I used brush pointed marker pen and some watercolor to decorate the notepaper.

The receiver information is written with the brush pointed pen also. I tried to use the same way of writing which was used in the book I got as a Christmas present.

This is the Christmas present book and the name of it is "Cat tricks and big thoughts"

Butterfly Letter to Peggy

2011-01-27T20:42:00.006+02:00

I used water color to make a butterfly decoration to my first letter for Peggy. I made this inspired by the beautiful butterfly card from her http://sfimail.blogspot.com/2010/11/butterflies-and-fairies.html.

Glorious Delivery from Tasmania

2011-01-24T18:56:00.001+02:00

Letters from Bianca are always wonderful, and this newest again is REALLY wonderful!!

The letter was beautifully thick and contained this card with the letter

and a lot of what ever lovely things!! :-)

Finnish Bouquet

2011-01-23T20:27:00.001+02:00

This card came from PostMuse. She had bought it from the artist at an art festival, and it should represent the most used herbs in Finnish cuisine. - So nice that you PostMuse thought me and bought the card for me when you saw it!

PostMuse is wondering where cardamom is used, but at least in Finland it is always used in plain coffeebread. Isn't it elsewhere?

Slow Mail

2011-01-16T10:51:00.001+02:00

I've once cut this comics out from a newspaper, and I recalled it when reading Ilona's post http://www.missivemaven.com/2011/01/slowest-snail-mail-award.html about her letter to travel three months to Bermuda.
This comics is in Finnish and the meaning of the texts is:
POSTI KULKEE JOSKUS HITAASTI = MAIL TRAVELS SOMETIMES SLOWLY
TÄSSÄ KORTISSA SANOTAAN, ETTÄ ENSIMMÄINEN MAAILMANSOTA ON SYTTYNYT = IT STANDS IN THIS POSTCARD THAT THE WORLD WAR I HAS STARTED

Cards from Taiwan

2011-01-15T11:10:00.000+02:00

I received these lovely cards from Hsin-Yi in Taiwan.

I really like these, thank's a lot Hsin-Yi!

Vintage Postcrossing Card to Ukrainian

2011-01-10T21:45:00.002+02:00

I haven't done postcrossing for a very long time, but activated today and made this card by using a vintage styled piece of crafts paper, ink and gold color marker pen.

Killi to Ella

2011-01-07T10:50:00.000+02:00

I made this watercolor sketch of our dear cat Killi and sent it as a postcard to Ella.

If it gets in touch with water on it's way to Russia, it may get some extra features, which would then really make it as a piece of mail art in the broadest sense of the word! :-)

A small version of Paris's Eiffel Tower

2011-01-05T10:57:00.002+02:00

This card is from my friend Ivana in Czech.

The beautiful tower in the card reminded me of Eiffel Tower and I started to google what this tower then really is. And it is a small version of Eiffel Tower in Prague: http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=604

Very interesting, I have to visit Prague and this tower one day!

Happy New Year from Ottenstein!

2010-12-31T22:12:00.002+02:00

We are celebrating New Year with our friends in Ottenstein in Germany and I saw this nice mailbox when we were walking around in the village.
"Briefe" means letters and "zeitungen" means newspapers, so in this kind of a mailbox there is a special place for newspapers under the real mailbox part!

Regards from Bremen!

2010-12-29T21:44:00.002+02:00

We are just visiting Bremen in Germany and I found this beautiful mailbox in the Old Town of Bremen.

Hannover Nanas

2010-12-28T21:18:00.004+02:00

This is absolutely one of the most charming Christmas cards I have received!

In the card one of the Hannover Nanas http://nikidesaintphalle.org/public/germany/hannover/nanas, sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, is appearing as Santa Claus!

Heartfelt thanks to you Lieselotte, and warm regards to Hannover (by the way, on Thursday we'll spend ten minutes in Hannover, when we'll change the train there when travelling from Bremen to Hameln to spend the New Year in Ottenstein)!

I love the angel stamp!

Letter to a Fountain Pen Lover

2010-12-27T11:06:00.001+02:00

This is my latest letter to Ilona in http://www.missivemaven.com/. I used water color and glimmer mist on it to decorate the letter paper.

To decorate the envelope I used vintage style scrapbooking paper, which I had bought because of some pictures of fountain pens in it, which I thought Ilona as a fountain pen lover would like. :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T20:34:00.000+02:00

These kind of Christmas cards I sent out this year.

In the picture is our dear cat Killi, some glimmer mist is sprayed on the picture and glitter glue is used to border it.

These are Finnish Christmas stamps for this year.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

2010-12-18T10:19:00.003+02:00

For many years already I have bought a Metropolitan Museum of Art Page-A-Day Gallery Calendar, which I keep on my desk at work. I have this year started to save those calendar pages which I think could be used on cards and envelopes. This card to PostMuse is a combination of two pages, and I'm happy with the result.

And this page again looks beautiful on the envelope.

I already have a new calendar bought for next year, so I should have material enough to be used like this. :)

From Bruno

2010-12-15T21:32:00.001+02:00

This letter arrived today from Bruno after travelling exactly one month from Brazil to Finland!
Thank you for a very nice letter, Bruno!

First Christmas Card This Year

2010-12-12T11:57:00.000+02:00

This is the first Christmas card I have got this year. It's from Ivana in Czech and I think she has made it by her self: there is a Christmas tree folded of colorful paper.

Very beautiful, thank you very much Ivana!

Old Christmas Cards

2010-12-11T19:02:00.001+02:00

I belong to the culture association of our small town. We got an exhibition room for our use for a couple of days, and we collected our old Christmas cards and made some quick collages of them on the walls.

These two are made by me.

Milo

2010-12-09T17:20:00.001+02:00

This wonderful card arrived from PostMuse.

I like cat's, so already because of that I was happy to receive this card, but also the story of the cat was so fascinating to get to know!

Milo is the guardian of O'Hurley's General Store in West Virginia. I googled the store and found their facebook wall http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shepherdstown-WV/OHurleys-General-Store/55899122199?v=wall where also are pictures of Milo.

I would love to meet Milo!

Japanese Proverb to Japan

2010-12-06T10:35:00.000+02:00

This card is of a drawing by the very well known Finnish children book illustrator Rudolf Koivu (1880-1946).

I felt the card was very suitable to be sent to Miwa in Japan, because the text on the card says: "No road is long with a friend - Japanese proverb".

English Hare to Hsin Yi

2010-12-05T11:42:00.006+02:00

We were in Edinburgh, Scotland in summer, and there I found a nice paper shop Paper Tiger. I liked a lot this hare card, and because I know Hsin Yi likes hares, I bought the card for her. I hope she likes it, too!

As a postage I used one of these vegetable postages, which can be customized with stickers as funny ones. I posted about these earlier http://sfimail.blogspot.com/2010/03/vegetable-stamps.html, and then I didn't like the additional stickers at all, but I started to see them in different way, because of positive comments! :)

When I had my fifty years birthday this August, my daughter had got an idea to get a stamp made for me of one of my painting/drawing which I had made to a Swap-bot envelope http://sfimail.blogspot.com/2010/02/mail-me-decorated-envie-2.html. I like the stamp and I like to use it by adding some color to the stamping afterwards.

Riga View to Ivana

2010-12-04T11:27:00.004+02:00

In September we visited Riga, the capital of Latvia, and I bought this card for Ivana from there.

In old town Riga, there is a Cat House with two black cats on the roof, and I sketched a part of that roof to the back side of the card.
Then I was happy when I found such a suitable postage with a picture of a cover of a book by Finnish author Mika Waltari. Also there is a black cat on the roof!

Letter from Patty

2010-11-24T22:03:00.004+02:00

This beautiful letter arrived today from Patty.
Thank you very much Patty, this made me happy!

I have been too busy this autumn, and haven't had time for my dear hobby mail art.
I hope I'll get in speed again very soon! :)

Butterflies and Fairies

2010-11-03T21:27:00.002+02:00

This beautiful butterfly card is part of my first letter from Peggy in USA.
I really love the card and the fairy and pet theme in the envelope!

Cormorants

2010-10-31T09:41:00.001+02:00

Hsin-Yi sent me this card with a very harmonious picture of playing cormorants.

The bird theme continues beautifully also in the stamp.

"Come out, I'm waiting for you"

2010-10-30T11:19:00.002+03:00

Ella sent me this beautiful card. The title of the card is "Come out, I'm waiting for you".

I also like the huge stamp!

Fairy Post from Ilona

2010-10-24T21:34:00.003+03:00

This beautiful letter together with the card arrived from Ilona.

I love the stamps with the pictures of her own cats.
And the butterfly and fairy theme is so adorable!

Owl from Miwa

2010-10-13T21:09:00.004+03:00

This beautiful card arrived from Miwa. I really like the owl artwork!

The bird stamps are also very lovely; especially the owl stamp.

From Parga to Bruno

2010-10-12T21:44:00.011+03:00

This is the letter I wrote to Bruno this summer from Parga in Greece. I sketched there the view from our hotel swimming pool.

The envelope I made of a black and white paper bag of Haglöfs Outdoor Equipment Shop.

Bruno had just had his birthday, so I also sent him this card painted by me. This is a totally different aquarelle realization of the same motive I used when painting a card to PostMuse earlier http://sfimail.blogspot.com/2010/09/from-and-to-postmuse.html

First Mail from Patty

2010-09-23T21:56:00.004+03:00

This in the first postcard from Patty.
Thank you very much for this picture of a funny water tower!
I'll wait for the letter from you! :)

From Ivana

2010-09-22T21:19:00.005+03:00

This beautiful card of an artwork by Josef Čapek came today from Ivana.

Josef Čapek was a Czech artist who was best known as a painter, but who was also noted as a writer and a poet.

Moomins to Ivana

2010-09-21T18:31:00.005+03:00

This is the Moomin card I sent to Ivana.

It says "Have a lovely Princess Day!"

To Bianca

2010-09-19T21:24:00.004+03:00

This is my latest letter to Bianca.

I made the envelope of a magazine article which had a beautiful picture of red peppers and the story conveniently starting with B.

The note paper has my red watercolor handprint.

To include something pink, I knitted a small heater for the one of her wrists which mostly feels cold in Tasmania! :)

Mirror Art to Miwa

2010-09-08T21:46:00.005+03:00

I made this card of a picture which I took in Spring when we visited Edinburgh in Scotland. The picture is from the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions museum, where they had this nice mirror arrangement, where the lights and colors changed all the time and you could see yourself in million couples! I loved to take pictures of that!

To Ilona and Soda

2010-09-05T11:42:00.006+03:00

This letter I sent to Ilona. I used the beautiful big stamp got from her to decorate the note papers.

The stamp was a part of the Very Special Giveaway in June from Ilona which I was happy to win http://www.missivemaven.com/2010/06/very-special-giveaway-rubber-stamps-and.html.

For the envelope I used some of my butterfly stamps and one of the leave stamps which also was a part of the giveaway, and then I dropped some water colour over the stampings.

Because the envelope had a bubble wrap inside it, the surface for stamping was very soft, and the borders of the leaf stamp became visible also. That's kind of a failure, but it made the leaf look like it was flattering!

This is the card I made for Soda by water colour. I hope she recognized herself in it when Ilona gave it to her! :-)