Mail Art Junque Journal

I am delighted to be able to finally show off this treasure.  At one point I thought this lovely little book was lost forever, but it resurfaced and I am so grateful.  This journal started out as a Mail Art journal,  round robin style swap through Swap-bot.  When it was returned to me there were still several pages unfinished, so I just added more of my own mail art and lots of other paper junque.  It is so fun and packed with goodies. 

I am showing off a few pictures to entice you, but I am also posting a You Tube video, as I think this will better capture all of the yummy mail art goodness inside. 



Lots of people contributed to the cover and I love this aspect of the journal.  It is hard to imagine what it looked like before I sent it out into the world.  I wish I had a "before" shot to share with you.  I picked up a few of these handmade books at an art student's garage sale.  In hindsight, I should have grabbed more than the three I did. 





Here you can see how thick this book really is.  There are a ton of flaps and fold outs I made simply by creatively attaching envelopes with  decorative tape.  You would not believe how much decorative tape there is in this book. It makes for really good collage fodder.





These are two pieces of mail art that I had received and added to the book before sending it out.  I just adore the mermaid envelope!



Here is another great spread that is true to the original theme.  These pages were completed by Mandy, aka Farstarr.  She has a lovely etsy shop worth checking out!



Here is another one of my favorite spreads.  I made this one from wonderful mail art items I recieved from Su, aka, TangleCrafts.  She also has a wonderful etsy, filled with zines and all sorts of mail art fun.  The brown insert is actually a self mailing zine that is all mail art themed and just filled with lots of useful information and inspiration.  I thought this was a clever way to add this to my book.  I made a simple hinge with gaffer tape from 7 gypsies.

Hopefully I have teased you enough to want to take a gander at the full tour of my fun journal!  Enjoy!



Farstarr's Mail Art Journal

Quite some time ago I started a round robin journal with a small private group on Swapbot.  It did not go as planned, but at least I finally got my book back.  For that I am grateful.  I have not sent it back out to have the other seven people work in it, because I am afraid it will not return.  I am, however, keeping up on my end of the deal and working in others books.  Since my journal is mail art themed, I have offered participants to send me a bit of mail art for me to add to my book tip in style. 

This book comes from Mandy, aka, Farstarr.  She and I have been swapping mail art in some form for a while now.  She has a love for fish and science as well as all things postal and vintage.  I think the book she altered is actually a moleskine.  It is getting really fat and full of character already.  I hope she does not mind...I added a bunch as you will see!

The cover and inside few pages were created by the owner of the journal.  I love Mandy's use of vintage ephemera and stamps.  I could not resist adding this German scrap fish to the front.  I am hopeful she does not mind that I added this here. 



I got a little carried away on the inside cover too.  I had some stickers that I thought would go really well with her journal, so they found their way on the page too.  Each page I worked on has an imprint of a vintage Via Air Mail stamp.  I thought this was a clever way to "sign" the page, without being obnoxious. 

This is the first spread I did.  It was quick and easy to do since Mandy sent along an envie of dreamy ephemera with her book.  I did find though that the pages I did with her stuff look very similar to the other entries, so I later ventured into my own stash to switch it up.

I just had to use the vintage picture that was in the ephemera envelope.  I love the look of an old photo.  A simple label was added to the top of the page, I titled it "day 365."  Hopefully the owner appreciates this nod to her Mail Art 365 project. 

This page is filled with simple collage and scraps from my work table.  The guppy was in Mandy's stash, and I added a cute title after taking the picture.  It will just have to be a surprise for the owner.

This page also had a few additions post photos due to composition issues.  It was too dark to retake them when I realized this.  Bring on the longer days for better blogging!  Anyhow, I also decided to cover up the surfer, as the owner of this book really does not like people in her art.  Don't worry Mandy, the surfer is gone!



This background was left over from one of my first swaps on the bot.  I thought it was a nice addition to the book, something different.  I also added a few scraps, some used stamps as well as some artistamps I had in my stash. 

And here is my final spread.  This layout is much different than my usual style.  I embraced the straight lines for once.  Here I used an old letter, some vintage ephemera from my own stash as well as a few of Tim's salvage stickers to finish the page.  I love the small envelope glued on the page.  I enjoy having interaction in my work if I can add it.

Since this week's challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show is to show off "anything besides a card," I am going to link it up.

I hope you enjoyed seeing inside of this wonderful compilation of mail art!

Cheers, 

Rhea 

Sparkly Swap Bracelet

Here is a quick post showcasing a bracelet I created with winter in mind.  It is a collaborative project as many of the charms were made by individuals in my Art Charm group on Yahoo.  I added many of my own little dangles, providing some unity with a few beads being repeated throughout the design.  I just love the sparkle and the noise this cutie makes. 



Putting this together also makes me yearn for more bead work. I may have to revisit that genre a bit more.

My Premier Post

Well, here I go.  I have often thought of starting a blog, and day one of my winter break has offered me the opportunity to finally put my thought in motion. 

Today I am going to highlight a little shrine I have made for one of my swap pals.  Little does she know, but the recipient of this shrine is a true inspiration of mine.  She really likes fairy tales, so this was my chosen theme.  I can only hope she likes it. 

I have never made a shrine on this scale prior to this project, it is made from a 250 count matchbox as the base. 

 



The images used for the "door" of this shrine were found in a calendar.  I loved the image of the window and I thought this added some shape, by extending beyond the boundaries of the matchbox.  The keyhole was found in my stash, as was the vintage key I attached to the outside for movement.  Amazingly, the little transfer was also discovered while rummaging through some stuff.  I was so pleased that the perfect little decal presented itself at the perfect time!