Smiles Sent Saturday~4/30/16

I haven't had much time lately to decorate envelopes, but I have had some fun with stamps matching them to themes.

This was a spring one, the paper and envelope were the same and had spring bulbs and rhododendrons on it.  I put spring stamps on it-stawberries, baseball, flowers, and nesting birds. 

This one was for a typewritten letter-printing press, letters, and paper boys.  It was a letter to my grandfather to thank him for giving me my late grandmother's typewriter. (see below)  It's so exciting to have it! 

It's a Smith-Corona Silent-Super. He actually brought three, his grandfather's-a 1927 Remington, this one (that they got early in their marriage), and an electric one she got later.  My sister will probably use the 1927 Remington (which seems to work, but we're trying to get the musty smell out of), and I haven't got a chance to check out the electric one.  This one was jammed up, the , most everything would work, but the keys wouldn't type.  But with some work, and info, especially from My Old Typewriter blog, I got it working.  Seems it just needed some cleaning.  After a few hours of cleaning off where the type bars pivot with a toothbrush and denatured alcohol it's working pretty good now.  I still need to clean the outside of the typewriter, but at least it works for now!

...and here's a sneak peak of the other two typewriters:

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~4/2/16 ~ Easter and other

I did simpler envelopes for my Easter cards, a mix of flower rubber stamps, and various postage stamps:

To get the muted colors on the rubber stamp I inked it once with bright colors, used it (like on the top one) and then inked it with a very light pink marker, it made the colors really coordinate well with the  colors on the card.

I really liked the petrified wood stamps, not only did it match color wise, but the wood evoked the cross, the shape the stone in front of the empty tomb, and that's what I celebrate at Easter

We sent more than one kind of card, so I used two different flower rubber stamps and color schemes

...and finally, a card I sent "to" a family member's dog who either ran away, or someone picked him up and was missing for almost a week, before coming safely home-so it was a celebration/congratulations card for being safely back.  I thought the stamp was just perfect for  his "adventure".

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.