Nancy's Box

My box from Nancy was almost exclusively things from Angie....and I loved it all.  

Nancy also is the one who scooped up this yellow gumball machine from Angie's home....one of the things I requested.  She included all the marbles that were in the gumball machine in this box.....and we'll figure out how I'm going to get the gumball machine another time.

The rest of the box included some vintage spools and a lot of Angie's snippets and writing.  Angie wrote a lot of stuff down: quotes, stories, songs, recipes, game instructions....and on and on. She had little sketches and works of art that were started but never finish....and she saved everything. 

Her handwriting is amazing and sometimes so tiny and precise it's hard to believe it's handwritten. I know these papers will be interesting to read through....but they will also be fun to use for art projects.

This little scrap made me smile.  On one side was a shopping list: dust mop, plastic tac, board for map, pins for map, M&M's and film....but it was the other side that cracked me up.

"We were never meant to face our problems alone...that's why we have M&M's."  

I sent this back to Nancy wrapped around a bag of M&M's.  

But maybe my favorite thing in the box was Angie's collection of stamps.  There were a few vintage stamps....but mostly years and years of her tearing off the stamped corners of things she got in the mail.  I've actually been doing that this past year for the first time.....and I love that we have this common ground.  

It's hard to explain how much I love this collection.....and I"m going to come up with interesting ways to use them.

Some of Angie's handwritten pages had gotten damp....and the ink was a little blurry with runny ink.  But that just makes them more interesting....and all part of the story.  

I did a little experiment this afternoon....starting with punched squares glued onto a piece of cardstock.

And this is where I ended up.  I printed the leaf design using a stencil on my gelli plate. The background printing was all a lovely green gold color. 

It was a little bland.....so I added thin layers of paint to some of the squares to add interest and  then outlined the leaves. I tried watered down acrylic and watercolor and I wanted the words to continue to show through.  I'm not sure I got it right...but I think the concept is interesting.  

Next time I'm going to add color to some of Angie's pages on the gelli plate before I cut them up.  I think that will give better color and coverage. I may have to try a few this evening....or I won't be able to sleep.

And low and behold....there on one of the little squares was a little "joy"....I hadn't noticed that until I was gluing down the squares. You just never know where joy is going to turn up.  

Lots of fun things from Angie.....in Nancy's box.