most elevated (part 3 of 3)

The penultimate installment of our most elevated envelopes begins… NOW!  Remember that each of you wins an as-of-yet-non-existent stationery prize pack – it will arrive by the end of the year.

The Prettiest Painting award goes to my calligraphy teacher / mentor / friend, Brigitte Hefferan.  I love everything about this – the tone-on-tone look of the pale yellow (almost ecru) writing on the greenish envelope, the hand splattered splatters, and of course, the glittering painted daisy and butterfly.

The Yay, You Didn’t Get Arrested! award goes to Alexa Johnson of Fiore Blossoms.  I love Alexa – she is an acquaintance I’ve gotten to know a lot better this year, so now I’m happy to count her as a friend.  There’s more to this envelope than meets the eye… In July, I was at Alexa’s (beautiful) house, and she had these absolutely gorgeous purple poppies growing in her side yard.  They were so beautiful.  Anyway, her idea was to do a poppy-themed envelope, and enclose some of the seeds from her own plants.  If you remember my landscaping issues, you’ll understand why I thought this was brilliant.  However, Alexa was a little worried about sending opium seeds in the mail.  Something about intent to distribute… I’m not sure – I tuned her out because I HAD TO HAVE THE SEEDS.  They did finally arrive, and no one got thrown in the slammer.  Score!

The Basket Weaving 101 Finally Pays Off award goes to Michelle Loretta of Sage Wedding Pros and mmm…paper.  This one is insane.  It looks simple, right?  Wrong.  Look closer.  Check out the second detail shot.  It’s been woven together out of 2 different papers.  As you can tell by her business name (mmm…paper), Michelle loves and hoards decorative papers – I have seen her stash – it’s a lot!  So she decided to go with what she knows and make envelopes out of all the extra paper she has. I wish you could see this in person, because it is really well-constructed. I can think of (messy) shortcuts she could have taken, but she really engineered this thing to be as few parts as possible, and very cleanly designed. I think she said it was taking her over 2 hours per envelope – but luckily, she loves paper, so hopefully it was therapeutic!  Thanks so much, Michelle for reeeally bringin’ it.

The Most Poetic award goes to Emily Doan.  I love this one because it’s so simple – a white envelope and a black marker.  That’s it!  Of course, the ferris wheel immediately calls to mind summers at the amusement park.  I love the way she fit my address in.  Inside was a card with this quote by Josh Pearce:

“It’s amazing when something (like up and down roller coasters,
tachycardia heart beats,carousel vertigo, shortness of breath
and the clench of adrenaline) shakes our guts
(like whenever you touch me)
and makes us scream and scream and scream.”

The Can We Hang Out? award goes to Alison Lang of Adventures In Making and (so,there.).  She MADE PAPER.  And then MADE ENVELOPES OUT OF THE PAPER SHE MADE.  And then she put seeded paper inside the envelope so we can use it for a (fancy) grocery list, plant it, grow flowers, and who knows? maybe harvest some leaves from them and… make more paper?  Totally awesome.

Oh by the way, Alison and I did hang out and she taught me how to make paper.  It is surprisingly easy.  We made several lumpy, bumpy, chunky, oatmeal-textured sheets that letterpress print really nicely.  See?

Gives me a lot of ideas… If you’re curious, check out Alison’s blog where she has detailed the process of her envelopes.  Then click here and get pulpin’!

The How Did You Know I Love Rainbows? award goes to Sarah Spano of Hip! Ink.  Sarah totally cheated with an envelope inside the box.  She could have used a real envelope, but then she might not have enclosed all those Skittles!  Thanks for the sweet treat, Sarah!  I do love rainbows and bold color combinations.  And candy. (Hint.)

Do you have a favorite out of this group?  It’s so hard to choose… But hey, I had to choose, didn’t I?  Tomorrow I’ll reveal our Grand Prize Winner (as well as the grand prize itself).

-Tara