The Truth About Cats, Dogs, and Gum Wrappers

Ever happened upon a McGuffey's Eclectic Primer at an antique or thrift store? These come in sets, with each book geared to a particular age/grade. Reproductions are available now pretty cheaply. The copyright on mine says original copyright dates were 1881, 1896, and 1909. Curiously, the reproduction has no copyright date. These books have lots of Godly lessons, but I'm not really interested in those. However, I am interested in nods to rural and natural settings. Likewise, these book have some of the best cat and dog images I've seen. 

Not long ago, I joined a cat swap and dog swap. I neglected to take photos of the dog project I sent out, but I did want to share what I sent out for the cat swap.

 This is an 8 1/2" x 11" collage. The cat comes from McGuffey's Eclectic Primer. Among other things, the collage features a Gelli print, clock imagery from magazines, tissue paper from a dress pattern, and lots of signifiers of time. I'm also currently obsessed with embossing and cutouts made by machines that are way too expensive for me to ever have. Instead, I trade "happy mail" with my swap groups and always request the die cuts. Here you see the diamond /fence-type shape, the days of the week, and the leaves.

I always like to send bits of related ephemera along with the art I send, so this is the cat package I sent along with the collage. As you can see, I'm a fan of vintage images, and most of these come from McGuffey's.

 I also sent off another package today, but the art I sent out is sort of a secret right now. Instead, I thought I'd share the cute little packaging I made for the tiny art. This is started life as a gum package. I took it apart and covered it with washi tape and black vinyl adhesive.

 Here's the inside.

Here's the final little package. I couldn't figure out how to secure the flap, so I took the easy way out and simply tied some black and white floss around it. Now that I've mailed it, I can see that I could have done a button closure or even a velcro closure. Oh well! Next time!