What do you need in a Mail Art Tutorial?

I will update this Mail Art Tutorial soon with more tips and tricks. Please comment or write to tara at eiremail.com if you have specific questions – I would love to help you out! 

Mailing Tips:

• Always double-check your envelope’s weight and determine how much postage is needed before dropping it in the mail. 
• Use a digital scale to weigh your envelopes and easily determine postage at home. (I use mine all the time for cooking and baking!)
• Certain envelope sizes, orientations, thicknesses, weights and destinations can significantly increase postage cost and hassle. This is especially true when mailing internationally. If your envelope starts to get too thick, you may wanted into “parcel” or “package” territory, which often necessitates a customs form. This might mean a big sticker slapped across your hard work! Every country is different. Avoid drama by keeping it simple, lightweight, and a standard size – and/or visit your post office early in the process.
• Always use a return address. I once tried to surprise a friend at her vacation home by sending a chocolate bar. Unfortunately for her, she cannot receive mail at that address! Fortunately for me, it returned months later. And you know what? I ate that chocolate bar.

Mail Art Ideas for Inside the Envelope

Get my list of creative enclosure ideas!

Won’t my art get creased / crumpled / crammed in the post?!

Yes. A little. Probably not as much as you’d expect. The process the mail goes through is out of your control, adds to the beauty, and is a huge part of the point. It’s what makes it mail art. Here’s how to get past this worry:

• Don’t be too precious about it. Que sera sera. Accept upfront that it will be handled, stamped, jostled, and smooshed! Look at it as an interesting experiment.
• Avoid any medium that’s likely to smear (such as pastels). If you are still concerned, an art fixative spray could help.
• Before mailing, ensure any collaged / layered elements are very securely attached. Stack a few heavy books on top.
• You could make a quick and dirty, B-minus version of your envelope as a test. Send it to yourself or a far-away friend and see what happens.
• If your design ends up being quite fragile, you could always “cheat” by putting it into another clear bag or envelope (the kind that greeting cards are packaged in). Or maybe you incorporate the bag itself into the creation. What is an envelope, anyway? The limit is the sky.

Mail Art Ideas for Beginners:

If you’re feeling stuck on what medium to try, here are a few mail art ideas for you. These suggestions are beginner-friendly, craft-focused, and economical. They all lend themselves very well to mail art. Enjoy the rabbit hole!

Collage / Collage Mail Art / Sewing Paper / Paper Stitching / Sunprint Paper Kits / Photo Transfers / Fused Plastic Bag / Linocut / Hand-Carved Rubber Stamps

Irish Heraldry Mail Art Tutorial

Charity is one of my best friends – she’s generous, warm, and has a really open mind. She completely lives up to her name. Around the time I was making these new mail art pieces, we had a conversation about “core values” – have you ever thought about what your core values are? It’s kind of a lofty question, but well worth answering.

I decided to make an envelope for her depicting what I’m all about. The medieval drawings on these Ancient Postal Routes stamps immediately made me think of heraldry, so I ended up with this deconstructed coat of arms:

A star for HONESTY.

A dagger for BRAVERY.

Hearts for KINDNESS.

A smile for FUN.

How I Made This:

• Splatter away with paint. I used gouache and metallic watercolor. Fill any paintbrush with the paint, hold it over the area to be splattered, and tap-tap-tap the stick of the brush with another brush or pencil. Practice first! Mask any areas you don’t want splattered. I use chopped up post it notes for masking – they stick down securely, come off easily when finished, and can be reused many times.
• Do you have “waste envelopes” with errors? You can reuse those too: I painted large areas of solid metallic watercolor over mine and then used that as paper for the collaged elements (star, hearts, dagger, smile).
• Then I carefully cut out the collaged elements (star, dagger, hearts, smile) with scissors and x-acto knife.
• Usually I write out the address first. In this case I added it last, on another layer.
• I used white school glue to paste everything where I wanted it to be.
• Add the postage stamps, and DONE.

FYI, I have not actually mailed this collaged envelope yet. It’ll be interesting to see how well it travels between Ireland and Seattle. I will update this page with an “after” photo once Charity receives it.

Want more mail art ideas?

Get my list of creative enclosure ideas!

I will update this page with more tips and tricks. Please comment or write to tara at eiremail.com if you have specific questions – I would love to help you out!