Neighborly Swaps

I love to do swaps from time to time and have been admiring the work of Kim Henkel. There do seem to be a plethora of bloggers and artists named Kim, I have noticed!
 You may be surprised to lean that she is one of my nearest neighbor blogging buddies aside from  Fairbanks Artist in The Arctic's Amy Komar. Near is a relative word here in the North country, Kim is a mere 545 miles or 877 km from me and lives practically on the same road as me although in a different country. The road is called The Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway. In fact I have to drive through her town of Haines Junction to get "Outside" (the other states)

I proposed a journal swap

This is what I received from Kim in the mail last week although it would have been faster by car than the post since it apparently had to go through a circuitous postal route through a couple of other major cities in our respective countries to reach me.

 The interior was the backside of repurposed posters sewn together.

 I like to do a little mail art from time to time.

 This is the journal I sent her made from a cereal box and muslin.

( I borrowed the pic from her post since I must not have scanned this one)

 A bit of glimmer mist through vintage lace.

The other pages have various stampings and vintage images glued in.

Then I got involved in the Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap and got this lovely postcard from Lauren at Lozalicious in Adelaide, Australia. ( definitely not on the same highway!)

My postcard went of to someone else in England. I forgot to record that as well and was also lame enough to forget the theme of the swap which was B L O O M although I think there was one flower on it but an even more prominent watermelon. Have you ever done that? Oh well it happens.

Comb-over

I was playing with some faux glaze that was left over from a kitchen painting project.

I mixed it with some acrylic paint from my studio and used a painters comb to brush through the paint.

I added bits of oil pastel and some stampings

I'll be able to use this paper later for other projects

I experimented with some other color combinations on the brown paper

 I was so inspired by the materials that I got in my fabric swap with  Lorna from Artymess that I made some postcards with some bits

The sari fabric bits were fabulous along with a deteriorating old silk scarf that belonged to my mother

I had been waiting to used this distressed abandoned quilting squares that I picked up at a yard sale.

I used iron-on Pellon to stick it to the cardboard for this postcard.

I was  also inspired  by Corrine at Dosfishes to make up some large mail art envelopes for later use.

Side A

Side B

This Russian newspaper arrived crumpled in a box from a gallery that was returning my season's jewelry. 

Side A

Side B