Wanna trade?

Did you know that Ali Edwards now has a happiness blog? Fun stuff. A simple blog dedicated to people celebrating their own happiness and that of others. It is Friday today and boy am I happy to get through this week in one piece. The accident really reaffirmed for me how fragile and precious this life is. I have never come so close to tragedy before and hope to never come face to face with it again. I am thankful everything turned out alright.

Happiness today was receiving my ephemera swap package from Melissa. The swap was five packets of goodies for packets from five other swapees in return. Check out my haul! I got quite a variety and can't wait to use them in my creations.

Since the Book of Dreams project is winding down and hopefully you're all ready to continue to work on more altered books, don't you think we could all use some "fresh" supplies? I would love to host an Ephemera Swap of my own. Anyone interested?

If there's enough interest, I'd like to do a 5 for 5 like Melissa did. Then you get a nice big package full of goodies in return:) That means send 5 "packs" to me, and get 5 back.

What are we exchanging? Carefully chosen pieces to be used in collage, altered books, scrapbooking or other mixed media art. Each packet should have 10 or so assorted pieces of ephemera, preferably vintage, but definitely in good condition. Don't get too stressed about the number of items, just a piece of funky vintage fabric could be considered one item. I'm thinking along the lines of vintage treasures that you'd find at an estate sale or up in grandma's attic, maybe even some "new" vintage-looking stuff. These can be printed papers, old book pages, book illusrations, ads, wallpaper, etc. Maybe some pretty, old buttons, ribbons, lace trim, etc. Just make sure the contents are good quality stuff.

Want to know more about ephemera? Technically it is any goods (primarily paper goods) that were not intended to be kept, such as advertisements, newspapers, etc -- but "vintage ephemera" has come to mean any type of older paper goods from book or ledger pages, antique or vintage magazine pages and advertisements, sheet music, old letters and postcards, old phtographs, trade cards, victorian "scraps", wallpaper, etc. I would also include for this swap, antique/vintage sewing notions buttons, buckles, ribbons, lace, sewing trims, fabric, old beads, milinary flowers, etc. So.. this all may not be the dictionary definition of ephemera, but I think it's what most of us have come to think of it as.

Send me all 5 packets by the end of June, along with $5 for postage, contact me about international postage and a return address label and I'll send 5 different packets of loveliness back to you in early July. Then we'll all have some great new inspiration to work with in our art.
Email me at artsy_mama@hotmail.com for my snail mail and/or PayPal address (if you want to PayPal your postage cost).

Edit: There's been some concern about not having "vintage" stuff and how old things have to be to be considered vintage. Let's just have fun with this. I'm opening up the swap to any fun and funky items that can be used in altered books/mixed media art. Make sure it's good quality. I can't wait to see what wonderful goodies you all come up with:)