JenMeister: April 2010

April 28, 2010

50 Morsbags = a giveaway!

Morsbags has a fun tool you can use to visualise where pods are around the world, and how many bags they've made. Can you see Canberra up the top there, on the right? 51 bags! Since my friend made one, that means that I have made & distributed 50 bags in the last 8 months or so.

Here are some of the bags I made in my last batch (you guessed it - a rise in Uni work means a rise in crafty procrastination).

One of the things I love about using found or re-purposed fabrics is that you end up using materials that you might not have otherwise.

For instance, I found myself working with an interesting pink fabric, which I teamed with an '80s print, both salvaged from my local op-shop.

I also managed to use some leftover material from another Morsbag I made (from an old floral pillowcase) for some handles. So satisfying!

For this blue/brown number, I recycled some old brown sheets into handles to go with the cute print I found at - you guessed it - my local op-shop!

For your chance to win the blue/brown Morsbag (#50!), simply leave a comment below answering the following question:

What is the single biggest obstacle to your living without plastic bags?

Comments will close at noon on Sunday the 2nd of May (GMT+10) and a winner will be drawn at random the next day.

April 1, 2010

Send some sparks of fun through the postal system!

Next time you send a letter, pause and consider the envelope.

If you haven't made the envelope yourself out of recycled pages, consider jazzing it up with a few scribbles or cut-outs... it makes receiving mail that much more fun! No doubt for the people delivering the mail as well...

These two envelopes were made for a penpal swap I hosted on swap-bot. The first was made with scrapbooking paper, and the second one is a drawn patchwork of vintage fabric.

I was inspired to start doing it more often after receiving a lovely map envelope from Communikate and many a hand-decorated envelope from bobberdilly (along with mail art & other drawings). If you have a moment, check out his blog - it is chocabloc full of amazing drawings.

In fact, this envelope was not just based on, it is pretty much a reproduction of one of the lovely pictures he sent me.

And this is an envelope I sent him... You can't tell from this scan, but the front of the envelope had just the face & the sea snail. And when you flip it over, you see that the face is attached to the body of a fish!

It's been fun, and I'm glad he's encouraged me to draw again (and not just copy other drawings & make collages). In turn, I encourage you all to decorate that next letter, or slip in a quick drawing you've done! Go forth and sending some sparks of fun through the postal system!

(Psst...If you're stuck on who to send to, or want to send out a drawing anonymously, don't forget about sendsomething.net)