steampunk mailart

I just finished a doodled postcard swap for swapbot. Once you were assigned a partner, you looked at their profile, then doodled something they'd like on their card. No need to be a great artist, it's just supposed to be fun. My victim partner was into steampunk and as I thought about it, I knew I didn't want to just doodle something on a piece of cardstock.

It needed atmosphere.

I poked thru my old books and tore the back cover off an old edition of Treasure Island. I glued an aged blank page from another book onto the cover, then lettered the word(s?) 'steampunk' onto it. I sort of tangled the letters a bit, stamped a couple images and some sequin waste, then glued on a few old metal bits from my little collection of junk, including an old key. Put grommets in the top corners in case she likes it enough to hang it on the wall, plus an extra at the bottom just for the hell of it. Maybe she can add her own chains and charms or whatever steam punkers are into.

The other side is the inside back cover illustration of a ship on the high seas. Some previous owner made a check mark that I just ignored.

I gave it a good coating of gloss gel and varnish to protect it a bit, and I'm mailing it off tomorrow. God know if it'll get there in one piece - it's old and somewhat brittle. We'll see.