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!