Stripygoose (14)

From the Sofa series, this tiny Bird and a sofa resting on.. books!
Created and sent from the UK by StripyGoose.

On the back side a pretty Bat stamp, a Bird artistamp and Stripygoose's famous Bird rubberstamp:



Thank you very much, Stripygoose!

Elliot

Elliot from China created this beautiful envelope. Besides the Woman, she added wonderful Horse stamps to her mail for me, plus a Year of the Dragon stamp.

And inside the envelope a kind letter, plus a wonderful stamp: Horses pictured and printed on silk!



Thank you very much, Elliot!

Ruud Janssen (6), Cavellini

I was pleasantly surprised and felt very much honoured when I opened Ruud Janssen's wonderful painted envelope.
Among nice sheets and ephemera he also sent me this sticker, showing a Cow. A special one: this one had been created by Cavellini, who gave this sticker to Ruud in 1991.

On the envelope Ruud added a matching postage stamp:



I can't remember having seen Cavellini's Cow before, but I must have been unconsciously inspired by the shape of this cow when I created my own Cow recently. Later I learned of Rocola's Bull stamp, but that is a different one.

Thank you very much, Ruud, hartelijk dank voor deze bijzondere verrassing!

Tonipoet (4)

Parts of this mail art from Tonipoet I already posted on Leap Day (yes, 2016 is not only the Year of the Monkey but also a Leap Year!). Then I realized I never had posted the main image in this blog: the Chicken. Here she is!



Who knows what animals (Owls, Crows, Bats, Sparrows) are living in this old church tower (included in the great envelope):



We had hoped that USPS would cancel the stamp and provde it with the rare date '29 Feb 2016',



But instead they postmarked the 'do not open til leap day' message!



Detail:



Thank you very much, Toni!

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!

Keith S. Chambers (4)

A Bee, a Butterfly and a Boodschap (= message in Dutch).



'Renounce acedia' (had to look up the word in the dictionary)... So true. However I think mail artists don't need to do so, they suffer from acedia :-)

Thank you very much, Keith!

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!

Sonia Egorova

I love children's drawings so I became very happy when this great drawing from a young Mail Artist arrived at my place.
The Tortoise and the Cat, created by Sonia Egorova from Russia.

She chose a suitable stamp, too, showing an other well-known animal.

Thank you very much, Sonia, большое спасибо Соня!

Eva (17)

These three beautiful envelopes came together, to show one great fish and apt sea animal stamps.
Created and sent by Eva from Spain.



Inside the envelopes not really mail art, but regular cards, however, belonging to the theme - weird real (sea) animals - so I like to share them here with you, too.
Sea animals on the book cover you see above, and on the note card below.



And of course Wallie (where is he??) is surrounded by several sea creatures.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Ehagaki Hana

This beautiful colour pencil drawing of a Warbler has been created by Hana Ehagaki from Japan.
The drawing arrived in this beautiful envelope:





With the animals came these interesting postmarks, among them a stamp print of the Kingdom of Amaooi.
And more Birds! A Shoe-billed stork, and a Gannet, so to see (?).





And beautiful train designs (besides animals, I love trains).



Thank you very much, Hana!

Barbara Fanta

This poetic Bird - who tells about one of my favourite subjects: letters - has been created by Barbara Fanta from the USA.
It is part of an awesome envelope.



And inside a lovely surprise: a soft tissue heart.



Thank you very much, Barbara!

Eva (13)

Who would ever have thought that a giant animal such as the Whale would fit in a letterbox and would be able to travel by snail mail?
Eva (and the Spanish and Dutch Post) proofed it by sending (and delivering) this nice friendly Whale in front of an envelope.

And she added a funny fish. Maybe I could use it as a template to create more Fish!?!



With the Whale and Fish, Eva also sent two regular postcards, of which one is a great DIY 'build a whale' card, and the other shows how people can meet Whales in real.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!!

Micu (4)

This amazing Toucan was created by Micu from Hungary. She is a master of recycling art.
I had send her some colour test prints (cut out of cardboard packages, most of them were four to six in a row) and she cut them precisely into monocoloured squares, out of which finally this Toucan was born.

Also the envelope is from recycled material. And behind the bottom of the beautiful 'water' postage stamp sheet (the main part you can below) you can see a glimpse of Fred.



By the way, Micu has a great mail art project 'Mail a Smile', via which you can send a mail art 'smile' each month to someone who can use a smile.



Thank you very much, Micu, nagyon szépen köszönöm!

Postmuse

While the postcard is a regular one (see below, a beautiful picture of a Sea Lion and Fish - Striped salemas), the back side of this card which Postmuse sent to me is postally interesting!

It shows the new international postage stamp, and by the First Day of Issue postmark I learned that the theme is 'Sea surface temperatures'.

And, most mailarty: Postmuse added a great rubber stamp print of a tiny visual poet Snail Mail Snail!



Thank you very much, Postmuse!

Katerina Nikoltsou (11)

The Whale is an imposant animal. The clock (time!) and sea blue sea make clear who the sender is: Katerina Nikoltsou from Greece!



On the back a Greek mail pigeon as artistamp, as well as the artist herself.



And on the envelope Katerina's characteristic rubber stamp prints. Plus an official postage stamp showing Mount Olympus (where the ancient Greek gods used to live - they still do, but I am told that the Olympus has been moved and nowadays is situated in a location above New York City).



Great work of mail art, thank you very much, Katerina!

Amy Irwen

This beautiful Platypus swam to me thanks to Amy Irwen from the U.S.A.
And he/she is not alone, also a Pink Eared Duck - who has a funny bill, too - and Duckling accompanied this brave mammal.

Look at the fine pen lines! In real, the silver lines of the bill of this platypus are shining as if he/she is swimming in a silvery water. Beautiful! Thank you very much, Amy!

Nicole Eippers (12)

All mammals on this mail art!
Among them... The mole! One of my favourite weird animals. I am always wondering how a mammal can breath underground. This funny creature succeeds!
Of course the Flying Piggy cannot be missing on the beautiful collages Nicole Eippers creates. The postal service also added a nice cancellation stamp print which completes the composition.

Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Nicole!

K.S. Chambers

Beautiful work of art - a story - created by Keith S. Chambers from the USA.
I published it here, to show you the cool Eurasian Wren postage stamp in front, and on the backside the famous Rabbit, now saying that Cosmo rocks (who's Cosmo?) and the Wasp in the North, connected by a beautiful orange yellow line to the South.



Great mail art, thank you very much, Keith!