A fairy tale continues…

I just decided that my fairy tale obsession needs its own home.  It will, of course, still feature here when relevant; but if you share my fascination, hop over here, to the online edition of The Enchanted Times.  Content is a little thin currently, but it will be growing, so please check back .

 

Life is but a fairy tale

If you are a follower of my blog, you will probably have noticed that the theme of fairy tales recurs every now and then.  It’s been a lifelong fascination, & I expect it will continue .

A couple of months ago, I pre-warned of a forthcoming idea involving the Russian folk tale of Baba Yaga.  Well, that idea grew (as they are wont to do), and when I realised the ideas were escalating beyond the scope of a single zine, I decided to stop thinking, and accept that more than one issue would be necessary.  Thus, the first (but not the last) issue of the Enchanted Times was born.

The Enchanted Times #1 includes:

• 3 revised fairy tales (Baba Yaga, The Frog Prince, and The Princess & the Pea)
• an Intuition Doll sewing kit (learn to listen to your own inner wisdom!)
• 2 cross stitch charts (The Princess & the Pea plus Little Red Riding Hood)
• essentials such as pre-enchanted tags to cut out & keep, for protection from (in this case) Baba Yaga
• lots of other cool stuff!

Please check out the Etsy listing for more pics & additional information.

 

Mail Art Kits, part 1

It’s another few weeks before the mail art kits from the swap are due, but yesterday, I received a fun ‘taster’ from one of my swap partners:

This is a handmade postcard made up from photos Mandy Fariello took herself.  It’s very cool, and has made me look forward to the forthcoming kits arriving even more!

My own kits are maybe 2/3 complete at the moment: the contents are decided, and the zine is in the final stretch of writing… but one way or another, the results will be there for all to see, in December .

 

Good mail starts here!

Catching up on a month’s worth of blogging in one day, I really need to plug the (not-so-new-any-more) book Good Mail Day by Jenny Hinchcliff & Carolee Gilligan Wheeler.  I’m taking my time working my way through it, because it’s packed with ideas and resources for just about every aspect of mail art you could possibly be interested in.

Chapter 3, ‘The Traveling Mail Art Kit’, really captured my imagination & I started to think straight away what would comprise my own essential mail art kit.   I’d love to share, but I’ve set up a mail art kit swap over at Swap-Bot, and I don’t want to ruin any surprises for my partners, should they happen to stop by here.  But I’d love to hear what anyone else thinks of as their mail art essentials (it’s such a personal thing) – I’ll probably be inspired by your ideas, & then still ruin a surprise, anyway .  And you’ll probably hear more about my own kit as time goes by…

Find out more from the authors through their blog – where you can see all the cool mail art they have been receiving – and also at the Pod Pod Post website (which looks great, but I was disappointed by how few of the shop items are actually available).

 

Zines, mail art, postal stuff – All This is Mine!

Over the last 6 months or so, I have acquired a few zines about mail art, & my opinion (so far) is that by far the most interesting is All This is Mine.  ATIM is a zine & a website.  The zine covers different subjects, but Issue 12 is all about letter-writing & while it’s not entirely about mail art, it’s still one of the most interesting I have read on the subject.  And it comes with a packet of random postal labels as well, which is very cool.

If the random labels are more interesting to you than a zine about letter-writing, you’re in luck, because the ATIM website also sells absolutely awesome hand-collated themed packs of random stationery.  Whether you see ephemera for artwork or original accessories for your correspondence in these packs, they are absolute essentials for mail lovers and creative letter-writers everywhere.  I want one!

 

Guerilla matchbox art!

“Each week, a decorated matchbox with a tiny present hidden inside is left by a girl (and sometimes willing friends) somewhere in her travels. It’s a random act of semi-artistic kindness aimed at disrupting someone’s day in a tiny but positive way. That’s if they dare to pick it up…”

I came across the site for The Matchbox Project yesterday, & it has set me thinking about what cool things might be left in a matchbox, to be randomly left behind & randomly found by total strangers.     Of course, it might be the perfect ’shell’ for a zinebomb - just reduce templates to just under 1/4 original size & they will fit into a 32ct matchbox!

 

Zines, mail art, fairy tales – and more to come!

Blogland is probably giving up on me given my very sparse posting in recent months, but I am still here, and I am still creating & working on stuff.  I’ve recently added a couple of new things to my Etsy store:

Lost & Found is the first of my new fairy tale explorations to see the light of day (not Baba Yaga, but that is still on the way, I promise!).  It’s an A6/quarter-size zine, which includes a revised version of the fairy tale ‘The Princess & the Pea’ (not aimed at kids), random notes about my thought processes behind & ideas for the story, a (very short!) poem, and a cross stitch pattern, so you can embroider your own illustration!  (see the etsy listing for more details & pics)

PostScript is a zine I wrote a few months ago, but got put aside while I was working on other things.  It is also A6 size, & includes a complete postcard recycling kit (labels to transform any piece of scrap card or photo etc into a mail-able postcard), details of various international postcard projects you can take part in, craft projects (carve a postcard, a secret postcard, a postcard notebook, and a handwoven postcard), and lots of other random postcard-related musings, info & reviews.  One of the coolest things about this zine is that it is not only about postcard, but it actually is a postcard, too!  (The zine transforms into a self-mailer, addressed to you on the back cover.)

And finally (for today – there will be more to follow!), if you love getting mail that isn’t bills, bank statements & junkmail, it’s time to join the P.P.P. Club.  P.P.P. stands for Post Post Post, and is a celebration of all things postal!  Whether you’re a fan of postcards, mail art, faux postage, or everyday postal paraphernalia, this club is designed for you.  Your membership bundle includes:

• A membership card that doubles as a postal record book (& includes a P.P.P. manifesto for you to sign!)
• Free personalised address labels & faux postage in the P.P.P. Postal Book (this is where you find out what the P.P.P. is really all about!)
• A copy of PostScript (see above for description)
• Discount on everything in the P.P.P. category of my Etsy Store (items to be added soon)

Life is hectic, but I will be trying very hard to update here more regularly, so you can see what’s going on .

 

Are you a zine writer as well as reader? You need a zinalogue!

What’s a zinalogue?  Well, it’s a catalogue of zines.  Obviously.  ;-)

It works sort of like a friendship book, except you use it to promote the zines you have available to trade and buy.  All you need to do is make a small booklet(/mini-zine), add in the details of your zine/s along with a handful of blank pages; then every time you trade a zine with someone include a copy of your zinalogue.  The theory is, it gets passed around every time a zine is traded, and each person who handles the booklet adds their own zine/contact details.  You include your own home address on the back of your zinalogue, so that once the blank pages are full it will eventually return home to you, full of info about the zines that are ‘out there’ in the world.

Why?  Well, it’s just a way of promoting your own zines – because who knows who the person you traded with last will trade with next?  Your zinalogue could realistically reach zinesters all over the world, whose zines you might otherwise never have heard of, and who might otherwise never have heard of yours.  It’s mutually beneficial to everyone who contributes a label, business card or promo to a page, because their zine info will be seen by a random bunch of zinesters, too.  Then when your zine returns home, you can while away the hours checking out the links of everyone who has contributed to your zinalogue.  A nice idea would be to include an extra zinalogue (with unfilled return address) when you send one asking for the recipient to contribute, then they can play, too.  Don’t forget to add your details to one of the blank pages, first!

Ultimately, if enough people start filling and passing zinalogues, you could even trade full zinalogues (once you’ve either made a note of the details you’re interested or traded with everyone therein!).  There are always going to be new zinesters, and old zinesters with new zines to find out about, so why not try it?

I’ve added a couple of templates (A4 & letter-size) that you can print & fold directly, add your details & get started!

 

Puzzle me

Inspired by Harriet Russell’s adventures in puzzlingthe post office with her puzzled envelopes, I have just created the Puzzled Postcard Project (P.P.P., for short!).

If you’re up for a challenge, it’s time to get creative!  Create a puzzle for my postal address, mail it to me, and in return, I will send you a free mini-zine featuring your Puzzled Postcard alongside others I have received.

This is going to be an ongoing project (feel free to contribute more than once!), and I will make a more detailed record (yes, probably in zine-form) of all postcards sent and received, as well as other interesting bits and pieces, once the project has been running for a while.  Please check out the full details, and ask if I can clarify any details not covered there.  :-)

 

The Tangled Press – update

I decided that I was making life unnecessarily complicated for myself by having 2 separate Etsy stores, so from this day forth, you will find all Tangled Press zines (etc) incorporated in the TangleCrafts Etsy Store.  There are new things coming soon, so – as always! – watch this space!  (But bear with me – it might take a while to extract all the redundant links…)