Paper stash mail art swap for A Vintage Journey (part 1)

Hello friends and welcome! It's been a very long time since I posted here last, the reason being that I have only just returned from a month long visit to my family in Australia. But now I am back and plan to post more often and also be more active again on social media. So thank you for your patience!

Today a new challenge is starting at A Vintage Journey, and our host is the lovely Sandy. Her chosen theme is Paper Stash, and this is what she had to say about it:
I am sure we all have them, those endless bits of beautiful scrapbook papers we have hoarded over the years. Create a project of any kind using them in creative ways in our preferred vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk styles.

Well, I certainly am a paper hoarder, and for my project this month I decided to cut into my favourite

"Time is an Illusion" stash by Stamperia. 

I am currently involved in a mail art group swap with 4 different American ladies and we decided to trade 3 Artist Trading Coins plus a decorated envelope to mail them in. We agreed on a particular size of envelope (A6) so that the envelopes can be made into a little book.

So I have to make 4 envelopes, one each for the other participants. I decided to make them all from the same paper collection, here you can see them before I altered them:

Today I will just share the details of the first one, but before I do, just a little more of how I made them:

I am lucky enough to own a WRMK envelope punchboard, which makes the process very quick and simple, but if you are interested, - there are numerous videos on YouTube that show you how you can make envelopes yourself. When making envelopes, I always round the corner of the top flap, just because I think it looks neater. I also score and fold down the corner of the bottom flap, just at the point where it will meet the two side flaps. The  finished envelope then looks like this:

Alright, now to some of the detail of how I altered my envelopes:

Here is the front of the first one. I decided to use some elements I received from a pen pal to collage the front. I added some strips of music paper, a  paper leave, a beautiful vintage botanical image that I coloured with water soluble pencils and a stamped image of a little hedgehog. I wanted it to have an Autumnal feel 

The hedgehog is from a free stamp set that came with a magazine. I fussy cut and again coloured with water colour pencils.

I inked and stencilled around the edges using one of my Tim Holtz layering stencils. I have loads of these stencils, but always seem to go for this one, - it is my all time favourite....

I also added some old postage stamps, also received from previous art swaps.

Here is the back of the finished envelope. Some strips of washi tape, some inking around the edges,

and a die cut adhered towards the top. I also added some gold foiling, just using a glue stick and some gold foil here and there.

The heart was punched out from another scrap of the paper, I then glued only the bottom half onto the envelope, so that the top flap of the envelope can be slotted underneath and so close the envelope shut.

Now you may wonder how the envelope will be sent in the mail, and more importantly, how it will not be spoiled by weather or other damage?? Well one of my penfriends had the brilliant idea to simply put her fabulous envelopes inside one of these cellophane card sleeves that people use to sell their cards. You adhere both the address and the postage stamps to the outside of the cellophane sleeve, put your decorated envelope inside and voila, postie can still enjoy a bit of colourful artwork and your envie will stay clean and undamaged on the way to its recipient.

Well, that was it for today. I will be back with more details on the other envelopes and some of the coins that will go inside. Meanwhile, do check out what my talented teamies have made for the challenge, by clicking here, and why not dig out your own paper stash, make something fabulous and share it with us on the Vintage Journey blog.

Thank you for your visit like always and happy creating!

xxxxx