Mail Art Monday!!

Hello Again....
and welcome back for another fabulous
Mail Art Monday!!!

Today I want to share a fun envelope that I made using my new distress oxide inks, distress layering stencils and some of my favorite Stamps from VLVS! 

(you know I love these art journal style stamps... 

so when trying any medium they are usually what I grab for 1st!  Especially the numbers!) 

Stamps Used:

Numbers Set

Double Coffee Rings

Squiggle Heart

Six Staples

Distress oxide inks:

Broken China

Wilted Violet

Cracked Pistachio

To start I used stencils to add some detail to my blank A2 envelope. when I felt I had enough pattern, I added some ink to me craft mat so that I could "smoosh" my envelope in to get a more distressed blotchy effect.  to finish the background I used my ink blending tools to edge around the envelope. 

(below you can see my envelope before I added any stamps or detail)

Next I stamped the Squiggle heart off of the left of the envelope. 

(remember to leave room for an address)

To add even more visual interest to the background I decided to stamp my numbers set randomly... 

(It tends to be one of my go to stamps for backgrounds.)

The next steps I forgot to photograph ... (Sorry, but I'll explain what I did)

I used a black pen and scribbled around the area that I wanted to be my address box. It still looked a tad plain, so I then stamped my staples around that. (which was exactly what it needed)

I also decided to stamp the coffee ring stains... 

(Love these... yes I know I used these a ton too!) 

The final steps to make everything pop, I used Pan pastels in Ultra soft course glitter black to edge my card (the glitter doesn't show in the scan, its very subtle)... I also used it to shadow my address space and heart.  To help the staples to pop I used a white gel pen to add highlights. 

Well, there you have it! Nice and easy and super fun to mail anyone!

(Also some of you may notice I went WAY outside my comfort zone here... I used PURPLE!!!! I know, i'm shocked too!!! 

I couldn't believe I was buying purple ink... let alone reaching for it for an envelope... )