Scrap Book

So I made this little book for a swap:

The swap requirements were pretty specific:

• the book must be made of paper lunch bags
• Each page must be dedicated to one color of the rainbow
• The pages must use collage techniques
• The pages must be mostly monochromatic
• the ends of the lunch bags form little pockets and I have to include at least one surprise inside a pocket.

This was the perfect opportunity to use all those little scraps of painted papers and leftover bits of other collages.  The deadline to mail it is Monday and I was kind of regretting signing up (it was one more plate spinning in the air), but once I started I totally got into it.

Here's the front and back cover:

Here are the pages:

I do a fair amount of trading on Swap-bot.  I don't much care about what I get in return - most of it isn't my taste.  I do it because it gives me structure and deadlines.  It pushes me to work with specific parameters (be it theme or technique or material or size).  If I'd seen a tutorial on how to make paper bag books I would have thought it was cool and book marked it and never ever completed it.

And even though I like the way it came out, I don't need to keep it. The joy was in the creating.  I don't really even care if my partner likes it.  I mean, I hope she does and all, but it's beside the point.  At this point, swaps are all about practice and discipline.  Plus it's always a thrill to find real honest-to-god MAIL in your mailbox.  Mail that someone lovingly created by hand.  Even if I think it's crap, it's pretty cool.

I haven't signed up for anything new lately, and have only one more commitment after this journal.  I'm on the fence about signing up for more.  I think I might need a break until after the Holidays.  The reason I hesitate to stop?  My mailbox will be so empty!  I have a few mail art friends, but I'm not very prolific in that arena. (maybe because I'm wasting so much time on swaps???)  But, as the lovely Pamela in San Francisco reminds us, in order to get good mail you need to SEND good mail. (and something is going out to dear Pamela on Monday!)

So, dear readers - want to get some mail from me?  Send me something.  A post card, a note, a sketch on the back of a napkin, the rumpled receipt from the bottom of your purse.  I don't care.  If you send it, I'll send you something back!

Karen Isaacson
PO Box 532
Shrewsbury, MA 01545