junque journal swap

 I joined SwapBot recently and discovered that post cards are more fun to swap than one might imagine. I also joined a Junk Journal swap. You start a junque journal in a cheapo composition book, then send it off to someone, and receive one from someone else. You're supposed to do at least 10 pages, plus add about 25 prompts to blank pages. I'm all done with the decorating part, so thought I'd share them.

This was oddly freeing, knowing that I wouldn't be the one working in it. Not that I mean I didn't do good work, just that there wasn't any sort of pressure to do it "right," since I have no way of knowing who my victim will be or what they like. I tried out some different techniques, I added pages from old books, all sorts of fun stuff. Can't wait to see what I get back.

This also cured me of thinking that people who journaled in composition books were nuts. Who wants thin, lined paper? I used to think. Certainly not me. Well, turns out it works just fine. I even painted a little, altho not real wetly. So, while at Wally World today, I bought another blank comp book, just to have on hand, if, in case, you know, the mood strikes me to start another one. Gotta do something with those hundreds of magazine images I tore out back in my frenzy days of cleaning out old mags.

Anyway, here are my pages.

1st pic is the cover. I used some cool looking scrapboook papers. I love the colors in these and they already looked all distressed. 


2nd pic is the inside cover. Old books, torn up and patched, plus the eyes from a magazine, the word ART, and a writing hand.

3rd pic is torn brown paper bags, a mag image, and tucked into a fold of the bag bottom is a bit of bright crepe paper from a Mexican store in San Diego, bought when I visited Julie in January. (finally used some of it!)

4th pic - woven strips of old book pages and blue squares made with Derwent inktense watercolor pencils.

5th pic - background is paper from a music writing notebook. I like the spacing of the lines. Part of a map showing where I live, some painted paper, and part of a gift bag sewn to make two pockets. I decorated a tag for the small flap pocket and stuck two ATC bases in the other. In the word search puzzle, I circled the letters to spell out 'blue sea.'

6th pic - painted acrylic square bordered by the untwisted paper handles of a gift bag. I love the texture of the paper after it's untwisted.

pics 7 and 8 - background is a bunch of receipts from the last few days - grocery store, Walmart, Starbucks - torn and glued down, painted yellow, then brayered with some blue. The tip-in is a page from one of my journals stuck to the back of an ad card torn from a magazine.

pic 9 is two large book pages with an image of a crumbling old mansion and a tag hanging from a grommet. The tag says "but it's magical". This is my favorite spread, I think.

last pic is several diff colors of tissue paper put down with gel medium - sort of an impressionistic garden scene, I suppose...

peeling paint technique swap and returns

For this one you had to smear Vaseline here and then on a card, then paint over it and wipe away the paint where the Vaseline was. You could embellish the card before and/or after the paint. I made a whole bunch of backgrounds for later use and ended up with three cards I was happy with. I love the image of all the kids reading. I've used it a few times and I'm not done with it.
The ones I got back were all very neat. The first card in the series of three returns at the bottom of the post is very cool in person. It's done on canvas and the colors are lovely. Good swap.

ransom notes swap and returns

This was a cool swap. Your ATCs had to have every single letter cut out one by one. My poor fingers. I had glue everywhere by the time I was done. I like my own cards a lot and the returns are all neat too. I especially love the Starbucks card. Mine are all on hand painted and stamped backgrounds and have some more drawing on them. I'm getting more adventurous...

queen for a day swap and returns

No rules other than your person/place/thing needed to be wearing a crown. First mine, then the returns. Whoops, I see I forgot to turn one of the return cards the right way. I made a queenly Russian chocolate Lab, a lady with a weird hairdo and a hand drawn flower, and the same lady image on a painted stamped background with some scrap paper cutouts.  

abstract torn paperswap and returns

Just like it sounds - randomly torn paper on an ATC. First my three, then the ones I got back. I used some handmade Japanese papers my friend Pam gave me, wild colors that I normally don't work with, and they were fun. I couldn't resist sort of making them into a something, so the first one is Clouds over Ocean, the 2nd is Envy, and the 3rd is Mardi Gras Moment.

Tea Bag swap ATCs

Huh, it appears that I never blogged about the cards I made for this swap. I scanned them but just never got around to doing a post. Oh, well, now I don't have to link back to it, you'll get it all in one sitting.

So... this person had a swap where you had to use tea bags - the contents, the tag, the wrapper, the bag, the grounds - on your ATCs somehow. I made a first batch that didn't really fit the theme so I went back and made a second batch that actually adhered to the rules a bit better.    

This first one has a green inked background with all the various brewing instructions glued to it, a definition of 'tea,' plus a tag and some TEA stamps.

The second one is on a background of dictionary page showing the definition of 'tea,' plus the ingredients from a tea package in various languages.

A folded over round tea bag is hand-stitched to the bottom edge with the string from a tag. 

It's hiding the tag from a Stash tea bag that you can open to read the words 'cup of joy.'

Card is also stamped with some postage cancellation stamps and the word TEA.

 The 3rd one started out with a pictures of Alice's tea party, then a strip of tea boxes all in a row from a magazine ad.






Then a Twinings tag with a mini tea bag on the end. I had tea grounds all over the kitchen table by the time I had that little thing made.






Then three tags glued down on one side, stamped with TEA, and openable so that you can read the inside (which were originally the outsides...).










These are the 3 cards I got back. Each of them is very well done and quite creative.

Lyn in Australia made the first one. It's fabric, tea dyed and stitched on, with hand-stitched and drawn embellishments, and a bit of tea label stuck on. It's very cool and actually sort of looks like Australia to me.




The next one was made by Jamie and has tea grounds stuck to the background to give it a neat texture. Alice's tea party, a cut out, textured tea pot and bits of label finish it off. This one is fun to rub your fingertips over.




The last one was made by Nicole and happens to be in my favorite shade of green and has torn tea packaging glued down only on one edge so that the whole thing is ruffley and very 3-D when out of its plastic sleeve.

The quote says 'Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.' Henry Fielding. I'm going to matt this one and hang it in my kitchen with my other green collectibles.

What a great swap!!!

I got MAIL!!!

Wow, did I get mail...   My Mail Art Swap envelope showed up today. Lenna only mailed them on Tuesday and she's way down in Florida, so I didn't have much hope it was here, but I took my keys when I walked the dog. I made sure our route took us past the community mailbox, and sure enough, there was a great big decorated envelope in there. I almost tore it open standing there on the sidewalk, but managed to make it home to my kitchen table.



Lenna used all mail art related stuff to do this envelope and I really like it. All the little stamps and quotes are cool. I need to get that round Mail Art stamp cause I'm gonna keep doing envelopes for friends and relatives.











This is the front of Thelma's envelope. She made zentangle-like drawings in colors. I'd never even heard of zentangles until a few weeks ago and they quickly became a favorite thing to just go look at. Mostly they're done in black, which is neat, but the few I've seen done in colors are great. This one is no exception. There's so much going on... I haven't had time to just sit and look at it yet, but tonite on the couch I'll discover it. it went from Arkansas to FL to CA.

This is the front of Cynthia's envelope. The scan just doesn't do it justice. The silver paper is textured with sparkles and two little snowflakes in the bottom left and upper left corners. There's a doily at bottom right, something that hadn't yet occurred to me to use in collage. The stamps are wintery and the image of the woman has been wonderfully enhanced with silver and gold markers.

The back has her address and artful splotches of gold paint over what seems to be tissue paper. It's just altogether lovely, like a fairy tale envelope. It's a well-traveled envelope also. It went from Connecticut to Florida to California.

The front and back of Sharon's envelope are ocean themed and the colors are soft turquoisey blues and browns and golds. Very peaceful, like a day at the beach.

It's all stitched together on a sewing machine from at least 5 different papers, and has given me all sorts of ideas.

That's the really cool side benefit of a good swap. Not only do you end up with cool stuff made by talented people; you get all sorts of ideas of things to try.

Here's the back. Every bit as wonderful as the front. I just love this combination of colors and think maybe I'll do a bathroom in them. Then I could frame the envelope and hang it in the bathroom.

Don't laugh - I hang some of my favorite art in the potty cause I'm in there a fair amount each day.





I could tell Sharon's envelope has stuff inside, so I very carefully opened the flap and oh my... what goodies. I was very fortunate to receive one of her envelopes because she included all sorts of neat collage things - old, paper, book pages, music, a cigar band, tickets in my fave shade of green, aged hang tags, play money, a snippet of poem, some gorgeous patterned paper, and more.





Hopefully I paid back some of this largess with the images of my grandmother's old postcards that I included in my envelopes.

She wrapped all of it in a large sheet of handmade paper and the crowning touch was a postcard from the beach.

What a fabulous swap this was. Thank you so much, Thelma, Cynthia and Sharon. And thanks to Lenna for making it all possible. Can't wait to see what her next swap will be.