Vintage Swimmer Dude - Altered Envelope

As I told you in this post, I bought a handful of vintage business envelopes at an antique shop recently.  I thought they had a lot of potential for mail art, and I didn't waste any time putting my theory to the test.

After cutting a piece of chipboard to fit inside the envelope, I swiped the outside with a thin layer of white gesso.  Not only does this prepare the envelope for all the wet layers I like to use, but in this case it also helped obscure the original address.  I didn't want to confuse the postal service and jeopardize the envelope's delivery.

After brushing on the deep violet acrylic paint, I adhered my vintage swimmer (a free clipart image from one of the Stampington magazines that I subscribe to).  I colored his suit with pencils and added some shadowing with a tinted charcoal pencil.  Distress ink was sponged around the edges of the envelope.  Then I applied the black line rub-ons in a loose plaid pattern and added some random splatter stamping.  The large circles were applied using an empty cardboard crochet thread spool dipped in acrylic paint.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Supplies:
Vintage #10 business envelope; Golden white gesso; clipart dude from Stampington and Company; Derwent lavender tinted charcoal pencil; Prismacolor Premier pencils; Liquitex deep violet and raw umber acrylic paint; Dee's Designs distressed effects rub-ons by My Mind's Eye; spiced marmalade, wild honey and seedless preserves distress inks; Atlantic City seal and grunge pattern stamp from Artistic Outpost; splatter pattern background stamp by All Night Media; Ranger archival watering can ink; large cardboard spool.