Tonipoet (8)

Pictures (mail art, stamps, anything) showing Echidna or Platypus make me extremely happy.

This way Tonipoet succeeded to bring a broad smile on my face and a ton full of energy to my body on a tiring day, by adding this original Echidna stamp to her collage.
The art work is #533 and named "Prehistoric Australia". Although Echidna and other monotremes seem - and are! - prehistoric, fortunately they also live in present Australia.

The Echidna arrived, accompanied by two Easter Bunnies and a Cat, who so to see got lost in Paris but soon will find her way again thanks to the map.



Both cards came in a beautiful Wolf envelope,



Of which the back side is a piece of abstract art in itself:



Thank you very much, Toni!

Jimmy Connors

As a child I was afraid of monkeys and clowns. So the front side of this envelope, created and sent by F. 'Jimmy Connors' Schneider, is not the one I would choose immediately. Fortunately the monkeys are mathematic heroes (they wrote the name of their favourite mathematician behind them), and the other side of the re-used envelope shows awesome stamps.



In the same week an other envelope from F. 'Jimmy Connors' Schneider arrived. Showing a friendly woman, a man who I don't trust, and look what the lady is holding in her hand: a fine-toothed (lice) comb, or a letter?



Thank you very much, Jimmy, vielen Dank, F.!

Sonia Egorova (2)

Oh, how I love this drawing by young artist Sonia Egorova!
Eduard Egorov, who provided the mail art with beautiful animal postage stamps and a wonderful Tree stamp, told that Sonia's mail art had been sent in October 2016 already.
However, after four months Sonia and Eduard received it in return.
First I was wondering why. But now I realize that it has to do with the season.
Russian and Dutch Post wanted to prevent these little creatures from freezing. головастики, also known as kikkervisjes, also known as tadpoles, don't florish in autumn or winter, they grow best in Spring!



So this time they used an envelope, and it arrived well (some weeks ago already).



Eduard enclosed this call for mail art: Irises. An interesting theme I'd like to join (is it the flower? the colourful part of the eye? the arco-iris, rainbow in Spanish?)
See for more information the Irises Art website.



Большое спасибо, Соня и Эдуард!

Fiona Bearclaw

An envelope plenty full of Animal rubberstamps!



And a tree,



And mushrooms,



And some unidentified animal,



Created and sent by Fiona Bearclaw from the USA.



Thank you very much, Fiona!

Vizma Bruns (5)

This tiny booklet arrived in this envelope - see the great Platypus and Crab stamps!



The mail art, created and sent by Vizma Bruns from Australia, reminded me of a Matruschka: I opened the envelope, and in it was a smaller Fish envelope, and in it was a smaller Panda envelope, and in that there was this bookie!

See here a graphic visual to see the sizes:



Thank you very much, Vizma!

Richard Baudet (4,5,6,7,8,9)

Richard Baudet added a lot of great findings to my 'add and return' project named "What or whom is she staring at?".
In some of the returned mail art Animals play an important role. Those of course belong here, although I'll post them on the IUOMA site, too.

I've showed one here before. Meanwhile Richard has caused more than once more smiles on my face,by, among them, the added-to-and-returns you can see here.











Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Richard!

Eva (23)

Usually I don't post regular postcards here, but this time the received card shows a little history, and the postage stamp on the back is interesting enough to be posted here, too.

Sent from Spain by Eva, this postcard came from the Belgian museum Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. This card shows the permanent exhibition 'Gallery of Humankind'.

The stamp shows the Myotis capaccinii, in English known as long-fingered bat, in Spanish the long-legged (patudo) bat (murciélago), in German the long-foot (Langfuß) bat (Fledermaus) and in Dutch just Capaccini's bat (Capaccinni's vleermuis).



It is the first shaped Spanish stamp I've ever seen.
Thank you very much, Eva!

Tonipoet (2)

This great big-Bear envelope created and sent by Tonipoet!



Inside Toni added some more animals to my add-and-pass: a smaller and a bigger Cat.



Thank you very much, Toni!

Zhu Enyan

Thanks to postcrossing this awesome painting arrived in my mailbox. This beautiful Bird has been created by Zhu Enyan from China.

On the back side she added a cute Panda and bamboo, and beautiful stamps as well.



Thank you very much, 谢谢你。Zhu Enyan!

Eva (20)

Eva sent me great mail: not a letter on an A4 piece of paper, but a letter bound as a booklet. A real pageturner, thank you, Eva!!
Inside the book she drew me this Polar Bear, so I had a good excuse to post at least this part of her wonderful mail here.
And on the outside of the envelope there was this amazing Umbrella Man. And Fish stamps!



Moltes gràcies, Eva!

Borderline Grafix (2), Samantha Althoff (1), Jan Hodgman (2)

Some months ago I sent out a Soccer Field Aad-And-Pass to Samantha Althoff in the USA. To my surprise not only she, but also Jan Hodgman and Borderline Grafix have added to it, before returning it to me (which was a surprise to me also, as returning to me wasn't 'obligatory').

Above you see the wonderful result. No soccer players, but amazing Animals and other beautiful additions.



The AAP came in an envelope, with the Mink (Minxus) stamp you see above, and with an interesting photo from Borderline Grafix.



Thank you very much, Samantha, Jan and Borderline G.!

Paloma Paprika

Great mail art envelope...



... containing a kind message, at the backside of this interesting human / ape hand collage:



... and goodies and three great mini zines, among them this one:



... of which this is the inside:



... and this one:



... created and sent from Australia by Paloma Paprika. Thank you very much!

Nico van Hoorn (5) & Jaap-Aap (3)

Some months ago I bought my very first Instax camera. I still didn't try it, and then suddenly Real Instax photos landed in my mailbox. The senders being no one less than Jaap-Aap and Nico van Hoorn!

The postage stamp was a special one, too: showing Bob Bear, one of Jaap's and Nico's friends.



Here are more great Instax pictures, showing some other friends:





And a print. I feel spoiled!



Thank you very much, hartstikke bedankt, Nico en Jaap-Aap!