HELP! PFF #46

I need help with this one, since I think I saw this image somewhere, although I didn't copy it. Anyone remember seeing something like this in the late 60's? I had no web access and very little reading material, so if I saw it somewhere - possibly an album cover? Regardless. I made it mine, somehow. In South Vietnam. While staying awake. Enjoy. And let me know if you recognize the basics in this image. I'd surely give credit where credit is due.

Make certain you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Beth Niquette for more EYE CANDY that's been sent through the mail!

More FREE Mail PFF #43

Free Frog!

This is old paper as well. Since I've been posting images of my envelopes sent to my wife (then my fiancée) while I was in South Vietnam over forty years ago, I think it's old enough.


This is another envelope that does not really meet the criteria for being sent free through the mail system, but I broke the rules back then instead of just gently bending them like I do today. I was asked by the military liaison at the Holter Museum here in Helena, Liann Meyer, to participate in an exhibition for current military and veterans during Military Appreciation Month. It officially ends on the 30th of May, but there is going to be a reception for all the artists (seventeen of us) and our families this Saturday afternoon, which is Armed Forces Day here in the United States. After getting a sneak peek earlier this week so that I could take photographs, I can't wait until tomorrow to meet the other artists.

This is one that I didn't include in the exhibit. I have put fifteen of them in a single frame, and included the First Day Cover that I did for Lee Nordahl in another smaller frame. I haven't counted the ones that are still in the album, but I've more than a few left to share.

Make certain that you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more eye candy on Postcard Friendly Friday, hosted by Beth Niquette.

More FREE Mail PFF #42

A ZIPPY Butterfly

We're doing an Antique show this weekend, so I thought it would be okay to post another of the envelopes I did for my wife over forty years ago. For more on the whys and wherefores of these love letter covers, visit my First post about them HERE. Also, if you follow the label links for Vietnam, there about another 10 of them that I've posted over the last couple of years. This one got a little wet around the edges somewhere along the mail stream, but not enough to make it unreadable. Make sure that you visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more Postcard Friendly Friday cards that are always worth looking at!

Butterflies Are FREE Mail Art PFF #41

Badly faded Butterfly - still FREE

We recently received an invitation from the Holter Museum here in Helena, Montana, to display OUR envelope art. The reason I say OUR is because I created these envelopes over forty years ago for the woman who would become my wife upon my return from Vietnam. They belong to her. This is one that didn't go to the Holter.
The last four months I was in Vietnam I was stationed at the 1st Medical Battalion field hospital north and a bit west of Danang. I chose to take what was called 'Graveyard', which was the night shift from eleven until seven. It was fairly easy duty, as the ward I was assigned was a surgical ward.  Marines who had come in after three in the afternoon for minor surgery (something requiring sutures) would have to remain overnight, as some could not be returned to their units after five PM - the gates were closed.

My wife, then my fiancé, had been sending me Flair tip pens and a Rapidiograph to feed my creative habit, and I had occasionally been drawing on the envelopes for the love letters I sent to her. As I did last year, I will occasionally post one of these envelopes. They helped me maintain some level of sanity in what was a pretty ugly environment.

Be sure to visit Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy  as she hosts another Postacrd Friendly Friday.

Butterflies are Free

Here's a BLOCK of butterflies (sort of) which is the theme for Marie's Postcard Friendly Friday theme this week. Well, her theme is WRITER'S block, but I've just picked up my pc after having a tune-up done, and I'm not really prepared for putting up a story to go with this one.

I do remember deciding to try using something other than peace symbols as part of the envelope design and lettering.

And where was I? About fifteen miles North of Danang, in what was then South Vietnam. It was raining today (when I wrote the letter that was inside the envelope), and I wasn't getting a lot of sleep. The only thing that was free for me was the butterflies.

THANKS for being my friend PFF #14

My wife just recently went through my 'box', and pulled another twenty or so covers out that hadn't seen the light of day for a number of years. This one has no date written on the back, which is usually a sign that I didn't include a letter with this one. She didn't care. The envelope was enough, although I often felt badly that I didn't write at least something. She's still my best friend.

Join Marie on her French Fractrice blog for some more Friendly Mail!

Fish on! PFF #10

This is another of those covers I sent to my wife while I was in South Vietnam in 1969-70. It shouldn't have made it, since there's no return address on it, and it doesn't follow the rules for the use of the Free Franking privilege.

It's faded - badly.

Marie is doing a hat thing and stinky cheese, and all I could find was some old fish.

PFF #8 - LARGE Letter Dirty Sox & a FREEbie

Okay. So I hope this works... My brother-in-law rode a scooter to see me. He's been blogging and scooting his way across Canada and into Montana. Several days ago, I asked a question: Where are your dirty socks? Sixteen hundred miles and eight days into this trip, and he tells me today he washed his socks yesterday. I told him he was lucky, cuz he'd not be setting a single wee little piggie inside my house with dirty socks. We documented his presence with a Teich LARGE letter postcard perched atop his dirty socks. I'm such a good friend...

And - I'm throwing in a Freebie that should have never reached its destination - but did. I now interrupt this program to show Chuck how to use the washing machine. Check out Vintage Verve for more good Friendly Postcards!

PFF #5 – The BIG TOP & FREE Mail #3

Tomorrow is a very LARGE day for me, so I'm posting early.

The top one is in response to Marty Weil’s interview of Domique Jando on his Ephemera blog. Dominique is the mastermind behind a web site which documents the European Circus, and there is a lot to be said for some of the Circus advertising art wouldn’t you say? This is a cover I did in 1993. The First Day event was in Rochester, New York, and I made arrangements to have the stamps flown to me in Helena, Montana. We then drove to the little town of Ringling, named by and for one of the Ringling brothers, and I canceled them at the Postmaster’s home – on her kitchen table. Have I done any Old Paper Art lately? This time, the answer is YES. My previous post I completed just this past Wednesday, and it came in on a Wing and a Prayer – so to speak.

The bottom image is another envelope from my year long ‘vacation’ in Sunny Southeast Asia, although this one was done strictly with a Rapidiograph pen. AND – it met all the criteria for being legitimately mailed without a postage stamp.

PFF #4 – LARGE Letter & FREE Mail!

As I noted in my last Postcard Friendship Friday post, I did the lower example usually one an evening at least the last two months I was in Vietnam. This is one that did not meet requirements for the Free Mail privilege because my return address is not in the upper left hand corner. But – who cares? I know I didn’t! This is one that for whatever reason has not lost all of its color although it hasn’t been treated any differently.

The first one is in response to Marie Reed's post of a LARGE LETTER postcard from her home town last Friday. I thought I’d toss this one in as a bonus. Have I done any Old Paper Art lately? The answer is a resounding NO. I’m busy doing Federal Duck Covers to support my old paper buying habit, and just wait until you see my most recent purchase!

I've received several comments already this morning regarding the 'postcards'. I have to admit that they are really NOT postcards. They are really 'mail art' masquerading as cards. They are envelopes. The LARGE Letter did not go through the mail. It is called a First Day Cover. I have subscribers who purchase one of every issue that I do when the USPS issues new stamps.

Postcard Friendly Friday #3 – FREE Mail!

I started putting art work on envelopes when I was a kid. My folks took us to the opening of the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, in 1953, and I saw what Charlie was doing with his letters and envelopes. I was a really great letter-writer, I tell ya! I mean, what young kid really likes to write letters, right? Charlie put art work both on the letters and oftentimes the envelopes, and my folks encouraged me to do the same. Sooooo – when Grandpa and Grandma were supposed to get a thank you for birthday or Christmas gifts, what they got from me was a very short-winded note with an appropriate illustration. I never stopped.

I spent a year in Southeast Asia, Vietnam specifically. Six months in the bushes with a Marine unit, and finally, three months at the Company Aid Station, and finally the last three months at a Battalion Aid Station. I took night duty by choice. Sleeping at night was next to impossible, so I spent my eight hours of duty ‘minding’ a surgical ward. Although I sent occasional letters in decorated envelopes to my fiancé while I was in the field, it became almost a necessity while I was at the Battalion Aid Station.

Oftentimes, I’d send only a short note, and the last 52 days I sent her a card from a miniature deck of playing cards. I tried to send her something, however – every day. Most of these envelopes I could finish in eight hours. I used a Rapidiograph pen and some of the ‘new’ (back then) felt-tipped pens that came in a variety of colors. I look at them now on their album pages, and the colors have faded. The ink was not lightfast, and they weren't always hidden away.

I received several interesting letters in return, one of them from the Military Mail Distribution Center in San Francisco, and to paraphrase: I didn’t really need to put much more than the Zip Code on my envelopes – they knew where they were going.

For the next few weeks, I'll post one of these envelopes with the word free in the upper right hand corner where the stamp belongs. Abe Lincoln, over at his Brookville Daily Photo blog and Pick a Peck of Pixels blog has been posting images of envelopes from a Canadian artist by the name of Howard Davis of late. Seeing them sort of nudged my brain a little.

I look back at them now (she’s my wife, and she’s kept them all), I’m thankful I did them, not so much for her, but for me. I’m selfish. I enjoyed doing them. I’m still a bit crazy, but HEY! That’s what friends are for.