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.

A Win, A Swap and a Purchase and a Freebie

I have been keeping up with a few swaps and trades lately and always mean to share and publicly thank the senders but then time seems to slip on by with our busy life. I'd like to post a few of the things that came in the mail this month.

These were from Sue from Divajools.

She was offering them up in her Madeit shop to raise money for the flood relief in Queensland Australia.

They've become my favorite earrings lately.

I had picked them out and in the time it took to communicate that they were the ones I wanted these "Gelato Orbs" had sold. She quickly made up another pair for me.

This was just a week after I had been yearning for a hard to get disk cutter for myself.

She generously sent me some precut disks of different sizes that she had produced.

I'm still on a waiting list for mine.

Then came the package from Lorna at Artymess.

We just seem to swap back and forth for any reason at all these days and most times one of forgets to put the item we had been saving out for the package.

No matter, it will go into the next package!

She really knows what I like.

Then I noticed that the fellow from the image site Artefacts was giving away prints on his other site

http://thecreativepath-redssr.blogspot.com/

I don't know as I have permission to put up the image here so you'll have to see for yourself the bright yellow chrysanthemum print that he sent to me in record time.

Then today my One World One Heart package arrived from Cindy.

Its a darling little decorated box which was full of die cuts

thanks Cindy!

She's from Australia as well.

Swaps With My Favorite Coloraholics

Collage by Corrine of Dosfishes 

She always hangs her collages with clothespins on her blog so I thought it would be a good way to display them in my studio.

Stitching and color

She included some papers and other materials for me to use in collage too.

I did a fabric swap with Lorna of Artymess and she sent me a treasure trove of her textile art and materials. I was swooning!

One of Lorna's artist trading cards

Swatches of Indian fabric. Perfect for catching the drool!

Some more of Lorna's pieces.

I did a couple of swaps recently with my two favorite "coloraholics"  Corrine and Lorna.

I can't tell you how much fun it is to open up the packages. What a delight! Lot's of inspiration and gifties all packaged up and decorated. Mail art is so much fun. As soon as I see the package I get so excited.