CR: Use Your Trash - Scraps

Yay!

Thank you! It has Crafty Recyclers all over it, doesn't it?!?

please could someone describe exactly what a mail art envelope / postcard is? Or link me to the info? I've never made one before! (And the friend I was counting on asking has gone on an internet holiday)

I am thinking it is just making a postcard/envelope or decorating them. I found some samples by googleing "Mail Art" in the images section.
With this swap, you need to use pieces of paper or items left over from your recent projects.

Hope that helps, hope that is accurate, hope no one minds that I answered.

Thanks onyx95. Thinking I will do a postcard. Is the idea to also write a message or is it all to be covered in art? If it were an envelope, what if anything is expected to be inside?

I just did a post card and wrote a short note to my partner. Your choice I would say.

Great questions, thank you for answering them, @onyx95 - your responses are right on!

The idea with mail art is to make the outside of the mail as special as the inside, to send a little piece of art out into the postal stream to brighten up everyone whose hands it passes through. We're talking about more than a few stickers stuck on an envelope, it should be a piece of art in its own right. Think of a postcard as an oversized ATC, and an envelope as a lightweight canvas for your art!

I tend to use cut up cereal boxes and so on as the base for my mail art postcards, and layer on other paper, paint, etc. When I do a postcard, I don't always decorate both sides (although sometimes I do) and I do like to write at least a little note. But it's up to you how much you write.

With a mail art envelope, you can send them empty or you can enclose a little something inside. If you are sending empty, I believe people will often write "empty" somewhere on it. I've heard people say that empty envelopes are more likely to have trouble in the postal machines, but I haven't experienced that myself. Sending something as simple as a note inside would solve that problem though. Other things you can include inside (totally optional, of course, and should be based on what your partner's profile says about extras) are things like book pages, especially if foreign or interesting subjects, nice cut out images from books, few pieces of interesting paper, a sheet of stickers, etc. But there's no requirement to include anything like that.

The important thing with mail art using a collage-y style is doing your best to ensure your "scraps" adhere to your PC or envie. Everyone has their favourite glues to suggest - I use both a glue stick and strategic dabs of Aleene's tacky glue - and then burnish those scraps down well! I use a brayer, others rub them hard with the bottom of a spoon, or put something heavy on top while they dry. But hopefully everyone participating understands that mail art is subjected to some rough handling en route, and that dings, scratches, and the occasional bit of paper coming off are to be expected.

I hope that helps, and if you have any more questions, please let me know . . .

I feel a lot more confident tackling this now! thank you @onyx95 and @PJ