Elevated Envelope Project

I'M FINISHED!!!

You don't know how good it feels to be able to say that. A few months ago a friend of mine directed me to an art project opportunity. Through another blog site called "The Elevated Envelope" I signed up to create a group of artistic envelopes that I would mail to another group of artists. They in turn would mail me their own artistic envelopes. Basically, one big group art project.

I loved the idea. In fact, I'd actually been exposed to this kind of thing back when I was in college. My printmaking professor had an artist friend who mailed artistic envelopes all over the place. So I was intrigued enough to try my own hand at it.

However, I'm one of those kind of artists who knows just how high a quality of art that I can produce, but unfortunately fail to take in account that the ideas in my head usually require A LOT OF WORK!! This is why I try to surround myself with people who have no problem telling me that there's probably a simpler solution to my projects. Unfortunately this time around the project was mine alone, done in my spare time, and I didn't really let anybody dissuade me from the grandiose idea I had in my head.

There weren't any restrictions on what the envelope looked like, no theme. It had to be more handmade than not, it had to have a surprise enclosed, and it had to be mailed by May 1st.

So. . . here was my idea. An envelope that looked like an interweaving of palm fronds, with a little lizard crawling across it. Not an extremely complicated undertaking, right? Except I decided that the best way to combine my love of nature and God would be to enclose a miniature stained glass window. . .lol.

You're probably thinking to yourself right now that I must have been on some pretty strong pain killers or something. Who in their right mind would undertake making ELEVEN miniature stained glass windows. . .OUT OF PAPER. . .????

Well, let's just put it this way. . .I'm not doing that EVER AGAIN. . .

I'm just now beginning to feel my fingertips again.

So here's some pics of the project. Unfortunately I only had my cell phone with me, so excuse the blurriness.

Window sheet

This is what the panels of the stained glass looked like when I started cutting them out. I had to make two per window because the pieces of cellophane sheeting that I cut out were glued in between the black sheets. I made a template first, and then traced it onto the black sheet. This made it somewhat easier, but that didn't save me from having to cut all the little holes out with an exacto knife (if you'll notice the blade in the corner has a pencil grip on it. . .ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!)

Green Anole

The envelopes themselves were easier to produce. I made an original drawing and then copied that onto white card-stock. Then, I cut out each envelope shape. The little Green Anole is another piece of card-stock. I hand painted eleven tiny little lizards, coated them with PVA glue, cut them out and glued them onto the envelopes. Each envelope was also hand painted. The important part of that is that there are only three colors used on the envelopes. So assembly line stye, I painted first the blue, then green, then yellow.

Finished Stained Glass Window

 The panels are what took the longest, but I think they came out really well. I spent four days tracing out three different colors of cellophane sheets and then cutting out the tiny shapes. Then applying all the miniscule flimsy things to the black paper with rubber cement. Then going back and rubbing the dried rubber cement off. Then gluing the other piece of black paper with PVA. Ugh. . .NEVER AGAIN.

Let there be LIGHT!

This is what it looked like finished, though. Pretty cool with the light shining through.

The Surprise Inside

This is what will be found inside each envelope. I enclosed a stained glass panel and a card with the following "May you always know the warmth of the sun!"

Back of envelope

Envelope with postage

I made these out of card-stock because I thought that the weight of the paper would hold up better with paint and glue. I didn't think about how hard it would be to get it all closed up and mailable. Thank goodness for PVA paper glue.  That little butterfly sticker is only for show. There's no way it would hold the envelope closed. In fact just to keep it stuck down I had to add a piece of double-stick tape to the back of it.

The envelopes

 Here's the finished lot of them. I had two envelopes going to Canada, which I knew I had to pay more for. Upon going to the post office I also found out that the size of the envelopes was actually smaller than standard postage covers. So, for an envelope that was SMALL I had to pay EXTRA postage. . .for all of them!! BLAH!

All in all, I'm really glad I participated in this. I'm thinking about starting to make more artistic mail and send it to family and friends. Probably not this elaborate, but still artsy and unique. Drop me a line if you'd like to be on the receiving end of my artistic whimsies!! :)