owl package

It's really fun to put together packages tailored to someone's likes and dislikes. Okay, it's fun when the person is interesting and articulate and shares at least a few similar interests to yours.

For the swap I joined recently, my partner (whom I don't know at all) listed a whole boatload of good things to choose from, including owls, jewelry, books, and mail art, so I sent her the following mix:

* a papercut owl mounted to painted wood frame
* a fuzzy pompom owl turned ornament
* 1 pair of enamel cloisonné owl earrings
* 5 golden rings
* 1 sheet of personalized address labels
* 1 packet of rubber-stamped mail art images
* 1 packet of rubber-stamped French and British mail art images
* the Little Prince postcards and tags.

Except for the jewelry, which is part of stock I had left over, I handmade everything for her. I quite like the way the wall hanging turned out, and I made it by printing a random owl drawing I found online onto a sheet of cardstock. I printed onto the backside of the sheet and cut from that side with my X-acto knife, then cleaned it up on the front side and glued it onto a woodblock that I'd painted grey and white. I then sprayed it with a few coats of acrylic sealant and attached a hook for hanging.

To take a photo, I put up the wall hanging onto our wall, where he looks rather at home in the middle of all of our assorted objects, which include a water colored print we purchased from an artist at The Torpedo Factory many years ago, the top of a vintage door knob from a flea market, the clay Cobra Command plaque my husband made in the fourth grade, hooped embroidery projects, pressed flower hangings, framed poems (that's "Where the Sidewalk Ends" above the owl) and so on and so forth. But in the end I had to send him off to his new home, where I hope he'll be very happy.