For the playing card swap, one of my recipient’s themes was rainbows. So I made a rainbow-playing card journal.
The cover is made from cardboard with playing cards glued on to it. I used rainbow-patterned duct tape to reinforce the cover.
The spine is another piece of cardboard covered in patterned duct tape. I joined the two covers to the spine by using ribbon for the binding, in a sort of X pattern. I am still learning binding, so I made a few mistakes. I think it still turned out pretty good! Here’s an in-progress shot.
For the inside, I used watercolour paper, and stitched the paper together in signatures. As the sewing was thus exposed, I added some rainbow duct tape both to “beautify” the inside of the journal and also to hide my somewhat messy sewing.
I added a removable envelope made from playing cards that can be used to store anything, but I put my “small” item for the swap inside. I attached the envelope with velcro dots. I used the duct tape to join the cards and also to reinforce the envelope in some spots.
I placed my “small item” (an ATC trio of modified playing cards) inside a handmade envelope. I made the envelope from a calendar page from a customized calendar a friend had made for us a few years back.
And here is the other side with the envelope with the modified ATCs.
I made the ATCs by cutting out the middle of the cards with a craft knife. I then added a piece of salvaged plastic where the cut out portion was, and adhered the pictures I made with acrylic (card on the left) and acrylic and markers (second and third cards from left).
Finally, I sent it in a pretty box (I covered a cardboard box in scrapbook paper).
Thanks for looking!