Portland Zine Symposium this Weekend! 3 New Zines!

The Portland Zine Symposium is this weekend and I will be there at the Ambridge Event Center on Saturday. This year the Sunday event will be only workshops and will take place at the IPRC.  So, if you want to buy zines you have to go on Saturday. Doors open at 11 a.m. and it's free.

I have three small zines that are new and have some more copies of last years I Love Lucy fanzine that I sold out of last year. I will also have a small collection of vintage postcards with vintage stamps you can use to mail them.  Hope to see you there!

Vintage Color Palette - Gems U.S.Postage 1974

I really don't need more things to collect. Believe me. However, I have recently gotten into stamps much more than I have been. Last weekend I went to a vintage paper show and mostly brought home a lot of vintage postage. I absolutely fell in love with these unique gem postage stamps from 1974. I adore the color choices they made and that they are designed to be used on the point like shown below:

Dreamy, right? So, back to the colors. Such a great choice here. The purpley grey, the seafoam blue/green and the unique pink and purple used all create a really interesting palette. If you like the combo, too, here are the hex color codes so you can use them in a project. Hex color codes are from left to right: a09294, bfe1db, f36a78, a16fad

Read more here if you're not sure how you can use the Vintage Color Palettes? Follow Vintage Color Palettes on Pinterest.

Vintage Color Palette - 50 Jahre Postauto in Österreich

This pretty vintage color palette comes from a 1957 postcard celebrating 50 years of the automobile in Austria. I love this illustration and the choice of colors used. I did some research and found other postcards and stamps commemorating the same thing. These illustrations are so great.  See below for images I found on the internet. I believe that artist for the postcards is Atelier Harnisch.

The hex color codes for this VCP are from left to right: 9bd6d7, e47ec3, 678a9f, 89873f. Not sure what you can do with these? Use your VCP of choice to design web colors, logos, patterns, room colors, any design or color work. Want to get more ideas. See this post on Using Vintage Color Palettes.  Find more by clicking on the tag or on see our Vintage Color Palettes on Pinterest.

Found here

Found here

Found here

Found here

Vintage Color Palette - Pride of Madeira

It's the first day of spring today and it's pretty grey and rainy here in Portland. This Vintage Color Palette, however, is spring-like enough for me. I love the muted pastel colors.  The title of this postcard is Pride of Madeira and Peach Blossom. It was printed in London and it's over 100 years old.

Madeira is a town in Portugal and the periwinkle-colored flowers on the cliffside here are called Pride of Madeira. What a lovely scene. I'd love to be there,

The hex color codes for these colors are from top to bottom: d85a77, f5b6bb, 7d9abd, adab8a

You can use these vintage color palettes to help design rooms, fabric, patterns, websites, backgrounds...all kinds of things. Follow us on Pinterest or Facebook to see all new Palettes posted.

Vintage Color Palette - Il Tinello Ristorante

Here is a springtime Vintage Color Palette inspired from a postcard for a restaurant in Rome, Italy. This postcard looks to be from around the late 1950's. It looks like a lovely place. I'll take a Sgroppino.

The hex color codes are from left to right: fa4994, 1aa7d9, fffcb9, fca794.

Not sure what to do with Vintage Color Palettes? You can use them to design the colors for your website, your living room or your next project. You can also use them to color patterns for online website design. Read more on this post about using Vintage Color Palettes from Ponyboy Press.

See all Vintage Color Palettes here or follow Vintage Color Palettes on Pinterest.

Vintage Color Palette - House of Tomorrow

This vintage color palette is super interesting. The postcard was made for the Century of Progress Expo which was held at the 1933 Worlds Fair in Chicago. This was The House of Tomorrow.

This house was what they envisioned for the future. The inside looks pretty mid-century and not that surprising from what I saw online. The garage has a pace for a small airplane.

The color palette must have been what they also envisioned for the future. It evokes luxury, ease and modern technology. I really like this combo. I think it would be great in a wallpaper pattern.

The hex color codes are left to right: f78b6a, f5a490, f9e3b3, 8a9ebe

Here is an photo of the house from The Worlds Fair.

Built for Chicago’s 1933-34 Century of Progress International Exposition, the House of Tomorrow showcased modern home convenience and creative practical new building materials and techniques to nearly 50 million visitors. 

This three-story, 12-sided house of the future held was made of steel and walls of glass with modern technologies like air-conditioning, a dishwasher, electric “eyes” to open the kitchen and garage doors and a built-in airplane hangar.

Vintage Color Palette - La Cascade du Chateau

I love how the color choices of this postcard from the early 1900's make this waterfall at the castle look like it's on another world. Such an interesting combination of colors that you wouldn't think go together, but they work so well to convey the magical feeling a person must experience there.

The hex color codes are from left to right: 4281c5, fdb6d6, b05741, d0a7ac

Not sure what to do with Vintage Color Palettes? You can use them to design the colors for your website, your living room or your next project. You can also use them to color patterns for online website design. Read more on this post about using Vintage Color Palettes from Ponyboy Press.

See all Vintage Color Palettes here or follow Vintage Color Palettes on Pinterest.

Vintage Color Palette - The Scaup Duck

Here is a lovely pastel Vintage Color Palette from a Wildlife Series vintage postcard from 1939. I love these muted and unique versions of these colors. The hex color numbers from left to right are:  f7f0ad, 9dd1c6, d9e4b6, d2b59d

Not sure what to do with Vintage Color Palettes? You can use them to design the colors for your website, your living room or your next project. You can also use them to color patterns for online website design. Read more on this post about using Vintage Color Palettes from Ponyboy Press.

See all Vintage Color Palettes here or follow Vintage Color Palettes on Pinterest.

Mail Art with the Portland Correspondence Club

Last March I joined the first year of the Portland Correspondence Club (PDXCC). It was started in January of 2015 by two mail artists and it's held at the IPRC in Portland.

I met Niko, one of the founders, at the Portland Zine Symposium the summer before and he somehow knew I would love mail art, even though I had never done it before and I didn't think I was that into it. Niko invited me to join and finally after missing the first three months I went to a meeting and found my people and a fun new hobby.

Mail Art people are into mail, envelopes, office supplies, stationary, stamps, stamp pads, typewriters, history, snail mail, writing letters. They're the kind of people who squeal with excitement over a box filled with vintage penny stamps and who hoot and applaud a mailman when he's introduced to the group.

Mail Art people understand when I swoon over a certain washi tape or a get a little obsessed with fountain pens. They get me.

A banner I made and sent to each member for a Meet Make Mail themed project

The club meets once a month and each meeting usually includes a few to several vintage typewriters you can use, often there is a skill share or project, but mainly we visit and exchange our faux postage made for that month. Each member gets a passport book and people who make stamps each month put them in your book and often cancel them. It's damn official and fun to see what everyone makes.

Every month members can choose to be a part of the monthly mail art exchange based on a theme.
Here are a few I did in 2015

This was my first project. The theme was food and this was a study on the different menus on The Titanic. It folds and I sealed the sides before sending.

Postcards of a Tea House with images from old photos. The other side has a fake stamp and Tea themed address. This theme was collage 

October's Mail Art Project

Here are a few of the mail art projects that I received from other members.

Everyone likes getting fun things in the mail. If this interests you, there might be a correspondence club near you. I know there is one in San Francisco and Olympia, Wa. 

Vintage Color Palette - New Years Day

Here is a pretty New Years Postcard from the early 1900's. It is written on, but never sent, so no postmark.
The hex color codes are from top to bottom: a21722, db8a54, f8ed7c, 97b67e

It was sent from Bessie to Mr and Mrs H.A. Hunt. The wishes sent I would like to also send to you. It reads:

Please accept this little token as a New Year Greeting. I hope the new year has riches in store for you.