After years of renting an apartment, my husband and I purchased a house in Boulder, Colorado, last year. While I love being a homeowner and being able to decorate my office like I want to, I do miss one thing: paying the rent. Every month from mid-2015 to mid-2017, I made mail art envelopes to send to the rental company who managed our apartment. Each mail art envelope contained a check, but that was the only thing they had in common! Today, I’d like to share a collection of 2016’s rent check envelopes, which is the only complete year of photos that I have. They’re fun to look at for inspiration and ideas!
January 2016 – Roses and Swirls Mail Art Envelope
I used Dr. Ph. Martin’s Iridescent Inks (Black Sparkle and Iridescent Gold) to create this envelope! The disadvantage to those inks is they don’t photograph very well, but in “real life” the piece was stunning. It absolutely danced in the light!
February 2016 – Ribbon Envelope
I loved the deep burgundy color of this square envelope, so I decided to contrast it with an orange colored pencil ribbon. White ink is a must for dark paper colors like this one!
March 2016 – Floral Burst Mail Art Envelope
This envelope was inspired by the springtime blooms that start to think about coming up in March. The yellow and red color scheme of the postage stamp helped to influence the predominant colors in the florals!
April 2016 – Flourished Mail Art Envelope
April is normally quite chilly in Colorado, so I have to imagine that this envelope was made at a leisurely pace on a snowy day in!
May 2016 – Shooting Star Mail Art Envelope
Did you know that colored pencils will show up mostly opaque on dark papers? This envelope features block letters and stars filled in with colored pencils.
June 2016 – Mask Mail Art Envelope
This mail art pulls its color scheme from the unique vintage postage stamps on the top! I cut out the geometric strip on the left side from an old magazine and securely glued it onto the envelope.
July 2016 – Climbing Letters Mail Art Envelope
These funky block letters “climb” from the bottom left corner of the envelope to the right. The postage stamps on the right serve to fill up space and complement the blue/white color scheme!
August 2016 – Traveler’s Mail Art Envelope
DIY envelopes are great for when you don’t have a lot of time, but you want to make artistic stationery! This envelope art utilized a map that I picked up in Brazil during my July 2016 travels.
September 2016 – Mountain Mail Art Envelope
This envelope’s inspiration comes from the Rocky Mountains, which you can see from most of Boulder. Instead of watercolors, I used McCaffery’s iron gall ink, which gives the piece a more muted, antique look!
October 2016 – Witch + Vampire Mail Art Envelope
Because … Halloween! Halloween envelopes are some of my favorites because you can explore ghastly yet playful themes. I love the vampire in this piece; his observant silhouette is so creepy!
November 2016 – Harvest Colors Mail Art Envelope
To me, November calls to mind colorful leaves, orange pumpkins, and yellow wheat. I ran with that color scheme to make November’s envelope!
December 2016 – Pine Bough Mail Art Envelope
This envelope relies on watercolor calligraphy to tie its colors together! You can spot two different shades of green within the letters and the pine branches.
You may wonder what the landlord thought of these envelopes. For a long time, I had no idea! I just sent the mail art every month, and I considered it to be a fun creative challenge. Then, one day, I received an email from him with a photo attached. Here’s what that photo was:
As it turns out, the landlord looked forward to receiving the mail art every month, and he enjoyed sharing it with his colleagues as well. When I notified him that we had purchased a home and would be moving, he was devastated! I don’t think he minded so much that the apartment would be vacant — it’s easy to find tenants in Boulder — but he realized that meant an end to the mail art. It just goes to show: you never know who will appreciate your time and talent!
I hope that you enjoyed this little collection, and that one of the pieces serve to inspire you next time you decide to decorate some snail mail. Thanks so much for reading TPK, and enjoy the rest of your week!
Warmly,
I love the October 2016 Witch envelope for more holiday inspiration (along with the skull from the previous year).
I really liked all of the envelopes and I know the manager you rented from is missing getting these – you may have to send a hello card to him in a new envelope as a random act of kindness! My favourites were the Halloween vampire and castle, and I really loved the abstract, soft design of the harvest colours envelope.
My absolute favourite is the Flourished Mail Art Envelope, it is so elegant, I love it! ❤️
These are AMAZING … I’ve read this post several times. Curious, does the artwork slow up the delivery? Do you have to add more stamps to make up for it? Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kim! I’m not sure whether it slows delivery or not … the checks always got cashed toward the beginning of the month, so I’d say not? I never added more stamps to make up for artwork. Whether you need more stamps or not is determined by the size and orientation of the envelope! 🙂
I love ge mask mail and the mountains but honestly, I’d be thrilled to be on the receiving end of any of these. Getting anything other than junk or bills is happy, but getting one of these would put me over the moon.
My favourite is a Pine Bough Mail Art Envelope
Love them. Wish I could be this creative.
I love the Flourished Mail Art Envelope. So classy and timeless!
I thought for sure nothing could top March until I saw July. I love them equally for opposite reasons: March for it’s capture of wild abandon–the fervent bloom of spring, and July for it’s bold but orderly precision. Love this post! Maybe I’ll start mailing my tithe check–it’s the only physical check I write anymore.
I love Septembers envelope as it ties in my love of hiking through mountains and writing!
I think I commented but to pick an envy, impossible but 3 top are the city with moon witch, ahhhhhh my heart. (Vampire and witch) Love the Georgian style for June and then what I call bubble art, November.
The mountain mail art completely stole my heart! I’m going to attempt that too. Fingers crossed it’ll turn out half as nice as yours did. Truly a piece of art!
I like September the most. It’s my birth month and I love the mountain range image. I live in a mountain city. Cheers!
Such fun. I love the floral burst one. I am sure the landlord lived getting these.
I wish I had rent to pay to do rent mail art.
I enjoyed the January ’16 one mostly because the style of writing is legible and easier to read. Many other styles are so ornamented that I struggle reading them.
I loved floral burst mail art envelope!!! Because it is so colorful and brings me joy to give and receive!
I liked the December (pine bough) mail art envelope. It’s so serene to look at 🙂
I enjoyed the May one a lot because combines traditional calligraphy with fun lettering. I do faux calligraphy lettering and word art often and I like the look of it combined with real ink calligraphy.
❤
All of then ate beautiful and unique, that is why calligraphy is so beautiful.
The May 2016 envelope is my favorite – a black envelope is a wonderful way to make your correspondence stand out in a sea of white ones!
Who wouldn’t want to receive an envelope like that!
I love the floral burst mail art envelope! It’s beautiful, and has such lovely colours
I think I love the mountain art envelope the most—it really looks like the flatirons and makes me a little homesick for Colorado (I’m a California girl now)!
My favorite is September 2016! I love the mountains!
There are too many excellent envelope art pieces to choose just one favorite… I really love them all; however, high on the list would be the black envelope from May, 2016. It stands out because the white ink/black paper combination provides a contrast that cannot be beaten. Sometimes even the more normal black ink on white paper combination doesn’t stand out that well. You added just enough color in the name to make the design pop and then topped yourself by choosing some wonderful stamps to finish the piece.
My also ran list includes January, March and October though probably not in that exact order. From the landlord’s photo, I like that black envelope in the top right corner…
The envelope for Xmas it is really nice! Delicate and elegant!
Love the climbing letters one! It’s stands out from the rest as it delves more into typography and shifting from the standard horizontal writing to diagonal rising, and the overlapping letters look great together 🙂
Very cool!
OK it’s between the Rocky Mountain design or the Halloween envelope…. I think the Halloween one wins !!
The February ribbon envelope is my favorite
I like the Climbing Letters Mail Art Envelope from July 2016. I love the white ink on the blue paper =)
I love the Mountain Mail Art envelope! It reminds me of the times I go hiking when visiting my relatives in the US.
I love the simplicity and elegance of the flourished envelope.
I Love Love Love the Mountain Mail Art Envelope. I always love anything you do with banners, and the mountain icon in the center is just beautiful!
Can I choose all? Every one of them has this striking distinction from each other and has unique technique used.
I love the December one I think i’ll Try this once
I love the Climbing Letters and the floral letter. They’re both so whimsical!
My favorite is March 2016.
I, myself, like to also decorate my rent check envelopes but they’re not as beautiful as these.
Impossible to pick a favourite out of the 12, but I do love how colourful March is. So fab!! What a lucky landlord!!
Hi Lindsey! My favorite envelope is the March’s one! I love colorful art work and it matches perfectly with the begining of the Spring season 🙂
I really like the mountain design, so customizable!
January was my favorite because I loved the flourishing! Would like to try something like that myself!
My favorite envelope design is either the floral ring on her Landlords board or the Mask Mail design. Lindsey you are so creative, I love seeing how you incorporate calligraphy into your daily life!
My favourite envelope is the one for March, love the watercolours!
I love the variety of styles here, and I’m not sure I can pick a favorite. I am partial to the roses and swirls, the blue envelope with white letters, the mountains, oh … I just like all of them. 😉
My favorite is the one with the mountain illustration. I like the symmetry and the personalized location mountain feature. I am happy to see that the landlord valued and kept the envelopes that clearly were crafted with care. I would frame them. 🙂
The envelope on the bottom left corner of the landlord’s board looks really cool! The retro climbing letter one is my favorite among the demonstrated ones.
I love the flourish mail art! So classic and it ha a great vintage feel to it!