Envelope Art for Pen Friends

Skip to the bottom of this page to view hand made artsy envelopes I've received from pen pals!

Please consider uploading an envelope you've received from a pal OR your own artsy envelope -- be sure to credit the artsy pal with the creativity in your description (and cover the addresses so only the names are visible). I will place your Mail Art on it's own web page on this website so that visitors can view it -- and your description on how it was made, what products you used, etc.

You can also send me an artsy creative envelope via postal mail. I can publish the envelope in Inky Trail News and also here on the website for others to view!
Mail your Creativity to: Inky Trail News, 60416 Schoenherr Road #111, Shelby Twp., MI 48315

Upload Your Creativity below -- or view envelopes submitted (scroll down the page beyond the form to upload your envelopes).

Click here to submit your mail art envelope!

Connie Lohse created this great mail art. She started with a pastel colored envelope and added a border that I beleive are stickers from scrapbooking. The stickers of four leaf clovers and flowers are all graphics on clear stickers with no background color (which makes the flowers look pretty cool). She also added the capital letters "I T N" for Inky Trail News... now That's a Great Pen Pal... ha!

This is the back of Connie's envelope... more scrapbooking stickers but very unsual since she used the long borders again. Very creative and very visual! Love the frogs, as frogs they have nothing in common with the border, but the colors make it all work so nicely!

I can't miss the fact, of course, that she also spells out Inky Trail News too -- so I simply MUST put this envelope on top of this website page.

Thank You Connie!

Thelma Holloway created the following envelope art -- two rubber stamped bonnet gals that are hand colored with markers. Simple and interesting in the mail box!

JoAnn Diggs sent this envelope and she has created an envelope with fuzzy stickers... brightly colored flowers, butterflies, and lady bugs! Wish you could feel the fuzzy texture!

Wow -- May Morgan is an obvious cat lover! Her envelope was hand made from a calendar page (I peeked inside). What a beautiful envelope -- this huge furry cat face looking at you, plus her kitten return address label, cat postal stamp, and a couple of smaller kitten stickers at the bottom! Great Envelope, May!

Note: Watch for calendars, on sale, after the calendar season ends. I've seen them at dollar stores (think about it.. 12 wonderful huge calendar page photos, for only $1, equals 12 wonderfully creative envelopes to surprise your pals with). You can also watch at any drug store, book store, etc... and they will be on sale after folks aren't buying the old calendars!

This is another envelope from Thelma Holloway -- it looks like a name tag sized sticker creates the address, but it really is a rubber stamp and she simply colored in the flowers and the border. Did you notice her stamp selection matches the address colors? Good job, Thelma!

Another envelope from Thelma Holloway - I love the rubber stamps she uses that shows off the pals address! Simple to stamp, color in, and toss into the mail box.. and what a treat to receive!

What a winning "Happy Birthday" envelope from Carol Lawyer! First she starts with a bright yellow envelope, and adds stickers for the wildly colorful effect -- juggling clown, stars, ice cream cone, balloons and the Happy Birthday sticker, of course! Please note she also used a colorful 37-cent Happy Birthday stamp to top off her Mail Art! Kudos to Carol!

This envelope by JoAnn Diggs is full of mixed effects. To start, the purple image running along the left side of the envelope was already there when she purchased the envelope. JoAnn added the "Thinking of You" rubber stamped in purple, s sticker of a mailbox/birdhouse, and some fuzzy flower stickers at the bottom. On the right side, she added another purple stamped image. Finally there are three butterflies on the envelope that are sparkley.. totally different from the fuzzy flowers or stamped images. The purple color brings it all together.

The two hearts are fabric hearts cut with pinking shears! I bet THAT surprises you.. they are! My guess is that she used a simple glue stick on the back, and stuck them on! So simple but so old-fashioned quilters quaint! I love those hearts (which match the mother-holding-baby postal stamp too!)

Ruth Palmer also sent me this envelope! First, as a mail art amateur, I cannot tell whether the green envelope is store bought or hand made. I picked it apart a bit, and there is a layer of crinkled (then smoothed out) tissue paper on a while envelope. Quite unique!

Ruth likes hearts (evidenced in the envelope above) and here again is a heart cut with fancy scissors. This time the heart wss cut from a magazine (Ruth found a flowery page, and just cut right into the middle selecting which flowers and leaves she wanted in the heart). Then, instead of a border around the entire envelope, she placed black dots aorund the heart itself. Again, so simple and yet it makes the heart just POP on the envelope! Thanks Ruth!

Ruth Palmer does Mail Art again! I opened this envelope to see what was inside.. and it appears to be an ad for a sports figure.. I see a male, probably a golfer, and the text says "On a Mission... for two years". Now this is a mystery to me... where on earth did she find this unique magazine that has a nice blue pattern on one side and a golfer on the other? I wouldn't mention this -- other than I can't say this is from a woman's magazine. Always curious.. I am!

Just shows what a hand made envelope made from a magazine page can do. Ruth added an address label, cut from white paper, with intersting scissors and a small dot and moon pattern around the edges AND she placed it on an angle! Quite unique!