Monday, October 19, 2009

Paper Swap.

Badge designed by Egmont van Dyck.

Lawendula of Woven Letters organised a paper swap on her blog. Thanks Lawendula!

Here's 2 of the 4 envelope pages I did in a book for my swap partner Deb of Dryadart's Weblog.

I made the pages from old book pages. The thread is entirely decorative and I left the 'bad' side of the stitching exposed because I liked the rawness of the mark making. Each pocket of the book has something papery inside and I also tucked in a few things between each page. You can see pics of the contents below! The idea was to send 7-10 things in a regular sized letter envelope so that we didn't have to spend a small fortune on the swap. As it turned out I made mine too fat (by 3mm I kid you not!) and it became a small parcel instead of an envelope and that made it $5.30 more expensive to post and required a customs declaration form. Needless to say I came home and repacked it with the same stuff, just flatter!

The contents....French to English dictionary pages, colour plates from old encyclopedias, embossed leaf on handmade paper, bird image, nest print, gold serviette, NZ ephemera.

The ephemera includes some postal things, a Tiki playing card and a found shopping list.

Below: The book closed as my partner will first see it. The string reminds me of the parcels wrapped in brown paper and string that my Nana used to send. It took me a while to realise where the string binding 'thing' was coming from (you may remember my Disco postcards) and then one day it occurred to me! It was a connection with my Nana and my childhood. I am sure I won't be the only one to remember those parcels though!

10 comments:

Debrina said...

Lucky Deb...I haven't heard from my swap partner yet...hmmm....

Leslie Avon Miller said...

What a beautiful gift to make and send and also to receive.

Lawendula said...

Wonderful Lisa, the package itself is art!
Deb will be exited, I bet.
Mr. Linky will be up on Nov, 1st, when I am gathering the new participants for TAG SWAP.
Then we all can post what we have got. Surprise, surprise!
Have a great day!

ArtPropelled said...

OOOo yummy paper parcel! Love the embossed leaf.

Unknown said...

Great collection of things to hold in your hand and wonder about. I love little story about how a fat letter becomes a small parcel! It has happened to me so many times!

John M. Mora said...

Beautiful photos of it all, mum.

Entertaining and heartfelt narrative.

The badge also is amzing work. I miss northern California.

My best.

Paperless John

Mick said...

You're a very busy lady these days, Lisa. It's always a joy to see what that entails. :)

Anonymous said...

oooh, how fantastically fun! i will have to check this out, though i'm quite sure i'm too late. i often find out about things a bit past-schedule. ;)

all your paper bits are so very gorgeous!!

Caterina Giglio said...

gorgeous papers!

Seth said...

What a great idea how you put this all together and such a wonderful selection of paper.