Homemade Glue for Artist Stamps or Envelopes

Someone emailed and asked if I knew of any good recipes for glue that can be put down and moistened to seal an envelope. Glue like the kind found on the backs of envelopes.

Well...I have never attempted to make any, BUT..here are a few I came across online. (I will be making some when I buy the extract. Something tells me that vinegar only would make them taste extremely bitter)

This website has four recipes for the glue. This one was the easiest:

ENVELOPE GLUE RECIPE #1 - Licky Sticky Glue from Karen Craig:
Ingredients:

1 tsp Elmer's Glue
1/2 tsp. vinegar
2 drops mint flavoring

Have any of you attempted to make your own adhesive for envelopes? I must admit I usually just use a glue stick or double sided tape. But with a recipe that simple..I might try to make my own!

**The Giveable Greetings giveaway ends tonight. If you haven't taken the time to enter please do so. The cards are really nice and will not disappoint.**

Pearl Harbor

I do not remember ever learning that December 7th, 1941 was the day it happened..I have always just known. I am sure someone sat me down at some point and told me, but that memory is long since gone.

Too many people my age and younger cannot tell you the date the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I find that not only odd, but frankly...sad. Sometimes younger generations take the view that if it didn't happen in their lifetime...it isn't worth learning about. How wrong can they be?

So I ask you to take today and remember that freedom is not free, and never has been. As long as there have been societies..there have also been wars.

Tea Stained Paper

Limner sent me the box of hand towels above. The box got a little dinged up, but was still very much usable. Her note to me was that I should attempt to redecorate it. She had redone one herself which you can find here.

Well...I thought and thought...and thought some more before I decided what to do with mine. My original thought was to cover it in stamps. Doing so is one of my favorite things, however, I had already covered a cigar box in them..and wasn't sure I would have a good enough variety of stamps to cover the Kleenex box.

The idea came to me when I was cleaning out one of my craft drawers. I remember putting the tea containers in there..but it has been a while. Regardless, I saved some expired tea to do this very thing with. So I decided to try tea staining paper.

What you need to do (unfortunately no pics) is place hot water (close to boiling) in a basin or dish. I used a pyrex glass dish to prevent any staining on the dish itself. Then you place your paper and tea selections in and let them sit for a while. When you check on them you can see if they need to sit longer..it all depends on how strong of a color you want. Now for mine..I actually tore open the teabags to allow the leaves to sit directly on the papers. This gives a stronger color.

With black or green teas you will get a brownish color depending on the strength of the tea and how long you leave the paper sit. I used fruity teas, which is how I was able to come by that nice blue/green and a pinkish/purple shade.

I always let my paper dry flat overnight before messing with them. You might need to brush off the remaining tea leaves after the paper dries. And you want to be extra careful not to rip your paper (unless you want to do so).

I covered the whole box in the paper (bottom included) and then placed three coats of glue overtop to protect it. I used Elmer's (thinned out) for this project, but you really could use any of your favorite decoupage glues.

I am not sure what I will do once the towels are gone..perhaps make it into a hanging box to store outgoing mail. We shall see.

What items can you think to repurpose?

Closing of Mail Sorting Facilities

Remember that post I did a few days ago? The one about how the USPS is no longer going to guarantee that First Class Mail will reach its destination overnight?

Well, I have just read about the changes that will be taking place here in Ohio. The postal service is considering closing 10 Ohio Processing Centers leaving only 2 in the whole state. Which means my mail might take longer to reach many of you.

I knew the cuts were going to be bad, but I didn't realize it would be this drastic. Have any of you heard of cuts in your neck of the woods?

Holiday Postmarks!

I am slipping!! I had planned to post this a week or two ago..(right after Thanksgiving to be exact) because I know many of you like to post holiday cards around that time. However, there has to be at least one of you that waits til the last minute (like me).

So, if you missed the post by Becky (The Snailmailer) then this might be new...news for you! The USPS released a list of Post Offices that have holiday names. You can find that list by clicking here (same list that Becky posted).

And there is another list that I use which can be found here. This list includes all holidays (though it may be outdated) and also has some images of postmarks gotten from different places. Which makes it nice when trying to figure out which place offers special pictorial cancellations.

When sending your mail for re-mailing, you need to put the stamped and addressed mail inside a larger envelope. Stamp that envelope and address it to Postmaster C/O Remailing or Holiday Postmark and then include the address to the post office of course. I like to include a small note thanking them for taking the time to cancel my mail. =)

Now, you might want to pop over to this post and leave a comment to join the fun of the Giveable Greetings giveaway! There are only a few days left to win one of her lovely cards. The giveaway ends on Wednesday at 7pm Eastern Standard time.

Cha-cha-cha changes....

with the USPS delivery guarantees. They are scheduled to announce on Monday that they will be limiting the next day delivery guarantees for first class mail. This of course will depend on where you are sending your mail from, and where the destination is.

My guess is if you live closer to one of the sorting facilities, and your destination is nearby ( like me sending mail to Ms. Ashley...40 mins away)..the mail may still arrive next day.

You can read the whole article I read here.

So my question to all of you is...will this affect you?

Giveable Greetings! + A Giveaway!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a listing of people wanting reviews from bloggers. Most of them weren't even remotely anything I would be interested in...OR that I would want to share with all of you. That is..until I came across Giveable Greetings. I started looking around the online store and instantly fell in love with some of the designs. They are so cute! Some of the designs are loosely based on puns, which totally appeals to my sense of humor. I emailed Steph and the rest is...well...this post!

She sent out a nice package with a couple different things, including these wonderful postcards of some of her designs. (You can see these and others on her store which you can find here or here.) The backside of the cards are blank, and take ink (including gel pen) very well. Plus I mean...they are totally cute right?

 The colors on these postcards are actually a heck of a lot more vibrant in person. Also, the lines are much clearer than they appear in my photos. (I got a new cell phone..and am sad to say I do not like the camera as much.)

 Then being the Christmas season, she sent out some nice holiday cards! I love them!! I am telling you, you seriously need to go look through the Giveable Greetings store. Each card comes with a white envelope and they are wrapped in a plastic pouch. I took the stocking card out so you could see they to come with envelopes.

The cards are good quality printing and a good quality card stock as well. They certainly are sturdy enough to travel through the mail. Oh, and the envelopes are nice as well. There is nothing worse than buying a card..and realizing the envelopes are too thin. You don't even need to worry about that with these ones. The cards also take the ink very well, though seemed to need a minute or two to dry completely when using a more gel based ink. (This is common though, which means I do not consider it a flaw by any means)!

Finally, Steph threw in these cute gift tags. The design is so comical. They really make you wonder...why didn't I think of that!


She even wrote up a nice blurb about how she started the Giveable Greetings line:

"Giveable Greetings was started by Steph ~ a stationery-obsessed graphic designer who has an insatiable need to illustrate puns and put them to paper. Though originally studying to be a forensic psychologist, Steph did a sporadic 180 and instead went to school for 2d animation (you know, the hand-drawn kind), an industry in which she was employed for several years before realizing that she preferred to work with images that didn't move. Currently working as a freelance illustrator / web & graphic designer / children's book artist, and hobbyist photographer, Steph began Giveable Greetings as a side project for her more quirky, vintage- and retro-inspired art. Currently offering cards and gift tags, she plans to branch out and incorporate her designs into other media. Her cards can be found for sale at the Outer Layer in Toronto, Ontario, as well as online. She is taking part in the Sketchbook Project 2012, and can be found in various places around the cybersphere including:


Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr (not as frequently updated as it should be)
Pinterest
Online Store
Etsy

So how about the giveaway?? Well to enter, all I need you to do is leave a comment here with which design from the Christmas cards listed above is your favorite (exclude the stocking card...I used that one as the card to test the ink on). For an extra entry into the drawing, like her Facebook page by clicking the link above. Once you have done that, leave a comment letting me know so. (You can just leave one comment if you like her page before commenting.)

The first prize winner will get the Christmas card of choice as well as the gift tags. I will pull three other names and each will win one of the other cards. That way we can spread the love. =)  The contest runs until Wednesday, December 7th at 7pm Eastern Standard time. I know sometimes the comments system gets buggy so if you have any issues, send me an email with the information listed above and I will enter you in the drawing.

I wish everyone luck, and I hope that you enjoy her designs as much as I do!