Mail Art Exchange

The delightful Ginger organised another Mail Art Exchange recently and I was happy to get involved again. It's something a bit different to the usual scrapping that I do and pushes me to try something a bit different.

This time around, the theme was words so I used a whole load of tissue paper, from Starbucks of all places, to cover the envelope I would be sending and then dotted it with words cut from a couple of second hand books as well as some rub ons. I included a butterfly banner made from book pages too which I was particularly delighted with and now need to make myself one too! Of course I forgot to take photos of it but the recipient, Alexa, wrote about it {here}. Alexa has such a wonderful minimal, clean and simple style that I was nervous to be sending her something in my busy, distressed, layered style but to be honest, that is part of what this Mail Art Exchange is all about - giving and receiving art in many different styles.

And then in the first week of May (yes, WAY behind on my posting here) I received my happy mail from Sandie over in the UK.

Now I'm not sure if Sandie knew that I am a Brit living over here with a penchant for a taste of home but her happy mail certainly hit the mark with me! Look what I got.

The set had the most lovely tape measure stamping on it, a really pretty card with such a lovely quote and a gorgeous book mark with a reminder to create. But on the other side, it had paper covered with stamps, the largest of which was a British stamp complete with the Queen. Love it!

With this year being the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, I'm all about the symbolism of home right now and this was just the most lovely gift that now has pride of place in the Queen's biography I'm in the middle of reading. Talk about the perfect combination :-)

Thanks Sandie for a wonderful Mail Art Exchange and once again, thanks too to Ginger for organising it. Looking forward to the next one.

Mail Art Exchange

I wrote a few weeks ago about the Mail Art Exchange I had joined for the first time and which had been organised by Ginger. I nervously sent off my post with the theme of "Earth" all the way across the ocean to Austin, TX and received a lovely email from Amanda to say that it had arrived safe and sound.

And then, a few days ago I also received my mail from St Paul, Minnesota (had to look that up on the map!).

How wonderful it was to open up my mail box and find something so pretty and bright and happy in there rather than the usual grey/white bill-filled envelopes. It was just what I needed to brighten up my day and make me smile.

Carol Anne had covered the envelope with little marching ladybirds and stamped foliage and inside was such a lovely card full of wishes for a happy day and an earth coloured tag inside ready to use on a scrap page someday.

I'm not sure when the next Mail Art Exchange will be, but make sure you are on board for next time because it's such a lot of fun. Wouldn't you prefer to receive something pretty in the post rather than a boring white envelope?

Mail Art Exchange

Remember the gorgeous prize I won from Ginger's blog, The Spice of Life? With the wonderful stamps and mail art goodies?

Well, after receiving such delightful happy mail, I had to sign up for the Mail Art Exchange that she's organisied, didn't I?!?

This was definitely out of the box for me and I was really nervous to "do it right". But Ginger reassured me that everything would be ok and that I just need to create something that would be fun to receive through the letterbox.

Ginger set the theme of "Earth" for the exchange which could be interpreted in so many ways - colours, geography, green recycling etc - and I think I included a bit of each!

I am just posting a couple of sneak peeks here and fingers crossed that my mail reaches Texas in one piece!

I used each of the items in my prize - the stamps, the pen, the smiley face stamp and the envelopes. It was fun to work it all in and to work out when to stop!

Now I just have to get to the post office and send it on its way. The process was a lot of fun and I will definitely join in again.

What's the last new thing you tried out?

And finally, just a reminder to head over to this post (here) and leave me a comment to be entered into my celebratory draw. I'll pull a name at the end of the month! Good luck!

Happy Mail

Look what arrived in the post for me on Saturday...

I won this wonderful prize over at Ginger's Life of Spice to celebrate her 300th blog post.

Ginger also organises a Mail Art Exchange over there on her blog and her generous prize has convinced me to give it a go! Now that I have the basics - envelopes, a great pen, a funky little stamp and some gorgeous Martha Stewart stamps - it seemed an opportunity not to pass up. I haven't done anything like this before, so I'm a bit nervous but I have a while to think about what someone would like to get in the post in order to create something fun and happy! Why not join in on the fun?

Thanks Ginger for a great giveaway! I'm thrilled.