A Very Happy Mailbox.....

....is a mailbox full of mail art. In case you don't know, mail art is a decorated envelope, package or postcard, the point being that the container is the art, and there may or may not be anything inside. For the past few years, one of my groups, Blissfully Art Journaling (this links to the yahoo group, and we also have a Facebook page) has had a mail art swap going on during the summer months. Everyone who signed up had about two months to send mail art to everyone else on the list. I recently received my last piece, and decided it was time to do something with it all. Not to mention the nearly 30 pieces I received last year and still had languishing in a folder. Not to mention also, all the random mail art I've gotten from various friends over the years.

My inspiration for creating my mail art journal came from two sources. One, a workshop by one of the Documented Life Project administrators, Roben-Marie Smith. Click HERE to learn more about it. It spurred me on to get all this yummy mail into a book, and was well worth the cost. I used one of Roben-Marie's techniques for getting all my mail onto pages, but my binding method came out of classes I've taken with the wonderful DJ Pettitt

The outside of my book:

.

Just about everything I used to decorate the covers came from my art pals....bits of ephemera, text papers, random scraps, stamped images....all included inside the envelopes.

Inside, you can see how I was able to attach multiple envelopes and postcards on each page by stacking them and using my sewing machine to stitch them in place. I love that each piece can be turned, as often the backs are just as beautiful as the fronts.

The pages are hinged together with strips of fabric that I printed with my Gelli Plate.

Here are just a few of the pages:

The buttons on the spine are not merely decorative. They are what hold the signatures in place. Thank you for this awesome technique, DJ!!

For my fellow mail art lovers, I hope this inspires you to get your mail art out of the closet and into a book.

The Further Adventures of My Documented Life

As I suspected, this has been pretty easy to keep up with.  Every Sunday we get a journaling prompt.  Last week it was to include a selfie.    As I'm determined to simplify my life (have already thrown out countless bags of junk), I did this:

Me, sitting on a mountain of supplies.  To be more accurate I should have shown me buried under that mountain.  I'm trying to keep only what I actually use.  I'm making progress, but although my work space is neater and more organized, I know I still have TOO MUCH STUFF.  I guess there will be a round two of purging in my future.  

This week the prompt is to include an envelope we received in the mail.  I've been in a few mail art exchanges, so that was easy.  In the process of purging, I uncovered a gratitude journal I started in 2000.  I only did it for a couple of months, but I enjoyed reading what I wrote.  

The green pocket was made from part of an envelope I received a couple of years ago from my friend Inge in Belgium.  In it, one of the pages from my gratitude journal that spoke to me in a big way.

Every single thing on this page, except for the paint and the ink, was received in the mail from a friend. 

Under the paint and the stamping are postage stamps, scraps from other envelopes, photos, funny advertisements.....all the things that we artsy folk like to send to one another.  I think you can see some of those layers peeking through here:

Speaking of prompts.....in one of my groups (Blissfully Art Journaling), Teri has started to give a template as a prompt.  Here is the current one:

As you can see, by using it I have killed two prompts with one page.  So to speak.