Vintage It's in the Mail Folio

Welcome! It's time for the Funkie side of Frilly and Funkie's Design Team to present their take on the current challenge, 'By Airmail' chosen by teammate Zoe and hosted by Jenny. 

Here's what Zoe has to say about the theme: "I just love sending and receiving letters in the mail. And especially love the stamps, airmail stickers and postmarks that these letters pick up along the way. For this challenge, create a vintage or shabby chic postal themed project. Think old fashioned aircraft, airmail stamps, post marks, postage stamps."

When I read Zoe's description, my mind went instantly to my box of old letters, cards, and foreign stamps I've collected over the years. Yeah, right, another collection! Every once in a while, I get the box down and read a couple of the vintage letters. What a wonderful experience to go back in time and learn of others daily lives! I felt some of my favorites needed a special place to spend out their years, so I decorated one of Tim Holtz' Ideaology Small Collection Folios in a junk journal style.  Yes, folks, Linda still has a few of  these folios in stock at The Funkie Junkie Boutique! 

Let's get started! It's gonna be a LONG post, so get comfy, and bring some refreshments!

The kraft Folio measures 7.5 inches by 9 inches and includes cascading tabs to add your memorabilia. You can decorate it in any style you want and it holds a ton of stuff! I chose to cover mine mostly using Tim's Correspondence paper stash adhered with Distress collage medium in matte and vintage.

The elastic that holds the folio together comes attached with two eyelets at the back. I removed the elastic and used it to make a simple belly band closure. I made my embellishment from the smallest of the Stacked Postage dies and one of the small square designs from the paper stack. I applied Crazing medium and when dry, colored with Distress crayons and sealed it with collage medium. To attached the elastic, I simply set two eyelets in the stamp and threaded the elastic through. I topped it with some old Ideaology ephemera.

More die cuts using the Stacked Postage set and more ephemera make a simple collage. I used the denim Textile surface for one of the layers. I inked the circles from the Mail Art set for my focal image and on the background. I don't have any postmark stamps, but a Remnant Rub works just as well. The distressed Quote Chip lets you know how I acquired what's inside.

Each of the four gusseted edges were first stenciled with the Stars stencil and Distress oxide ink. It was too bright for my liking, so I applied Impasto Snow White paint with my finger and gave it a coat of Vintage Collage medium, followed by Distress crayon. I like how there's a hint of the stars peeking through.

Let's open 'er up and see what's inside! 

I made a pocket using Anne Redfern's easy to follow tutorial. In fact, her wonderful step by step shows you how to create an entire journal front to back! I used stamps from the following sets to decorate the pocket front: Purveyor, The Journey, Little Things, and Ledger Script and some purposefully messy sewing.

My pocket holds a some of my favorite vintage postcards. My simple closure is velcro.

I used lots of Correspondence Design Tape on the gussets, and bits of Postale Tissue Wrap. I had to include this appropriate notice from one of the Correspondence papers on the opposite flap.

Two altered Hinge Clips tied with postal string dyed with Frayed Burlap hold the top and bottom flaps together and keeps my collection under wraps. There's some old Ideaology ephemera to decorate the outside of the flaps...

...and inside, I've used the clips to hold in place removable homemade coin envelopes made with kraft card and watery inks and oxides. One at the top, and one on the bottom flap. I made them removable so I could easily pour out the goodies.

I've used the clips to hold down the pages for the photo, and here's what you see as the top and bottom folio flaps are opened. I've added some ephemera and used my sewing machine to add some stitching to a folded vintage airmail envelope. I adhered that onto the first tab, forming two top load pockets that house even more thin papery airmail envelopes. I love to think what these might have held.

That red 6 cent stamp with the horizontal plane is Tim's ephemera, while the 7 cent vertical place stamp in the background is the real thing...hard to tell what's real and what's not!

I've simply, yet stratigically,  adhered another envelope to the second flap, so that it allows just what I want seen beneath it to peek out. The opened letter to the left is what's kept inside. I love pulling out this old  letter and feeling the paper--it's a vellum paper embossed with a lovely botanical design. 

I had to adhere this envelope vertically, because the back was ugly from where it was taped into a scrapbook.  I have the old Bigz postage stamp die and this was the perfect size to adhere to the back side of this tab to cover the yuckies. I stamped a postage related image from Tim's older Little Labels set along the top edge for interest from the 'closed book' point of view. This airmail has special significance for me, because I used to live in San Antonio and have some military buddies who were stationed there at the time. Check out the post script from the sender!

When you turn the page, this is what the reverse side of the postage stamp die cut looks like, along with some ephemera to cover the remainder of the messy envelope back and to help hide a join line. Let's just say there was good planning, but poor execution on this page. I stamped 'received' and one of the circles from Mail Art, and the other two 'coffee stains' are made by partially inking my MicroGlaze lid and twisting it on the panel. The entire panel was blended with MicroGlaze and wiped off to intensify the colors of the Distress Oxide inks that color it.

I had this acetate envelope left from some scrapbooking goodies from a long time ago, and it's perfect to view both the front and back of this card dated October 1927 without being handled. I opened the envelope flap and adhered it under the left side panel, so the card could be removed.

Excuse my nasty fingernails. I am a gardener and they look like this pretty much all the time.

I made thistab into a pocket to hold some more of my favorite vintage correspondence. I used an oval punch to make the thumb hole, and another Ideaology ephemera piece tells us what's in there. I made a pocket from two pieces of cardstock from my stash. Each panel was sewn on my machine and then  glued along both long sides and bottom, leaving the top open for yet another pocket from some of my longer pieces of mail.

Another Stacked Postage die cut colored with oxides and labeled with a Remnant Rub serve as a tuck spot for some more vintage stamps from my collection. I glued to the blue panel along the right side and bottom only.

I left the back of the blue pocket open--I have plans to put a special photo and card here, but they are still in storage. 

Finally, here we are at the back of the folio, using that last tab as yet another pocket, but not before adding a pair of Stitched Slots die cuts to house some more interesting stamps and postmarks.

When the mail is removed from the pocket, this is what you see. I used Postale Tissue Wrap to decorate this surface. I colored it with oxides in red, blue and browns, but it was too bold for my liking. I gave it a spritz of Distress Spray Stain in Picket Fence to tone it down.

Finally, around back, simple paper stash inked and coated with Vintage collage medium to protect it.

Since there were so many pages to flip through,I've kept the 'talking' to a minimum. If you have any questions on how I made anything, please leave them in the comments, and I will get back to you with an answer. 

In the meantime, I hope you'll visit Frilly and Funkie to see what the rest of the team has created to tempt you to play along with our 'By Airmail' challenge. If that's not enough to get you in the mood to play along, there's always that $25 shopping spree to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for a randomly chosen entry. In addition, four favorites will be chosen by the Design Team with the top choice given the opportunity to be our Guest Designer. Please visit the blog for details.

Challenge shares:
Mini Album Makers -- June Mini Album Challenge

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #49 – "Wrap it Up!" I've wrapped my folio with elastic wrapped  string around the circles for closures, and wrapped the kraft folio in papers, tapes and tissue.

Country View Challenges June 2018 - The Written Word
Scrapy Land Challenge #92 Anything Goes  3 Sizzix dies used.
Creative Artiste Challenge #39 Anything Mixed Media Goes

Thank you for stopping by and for hanging in there for my loooong post!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

The following products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

(LATE MARCH PRE-ORDER) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mail Art	(APRIL pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Etcetera	$17.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Purveyor	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Ledger Script	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Stars
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs Special Delivery	(APRIL PRE-ORDER) Sizzix Thinlits Set - Stacked Postage by Tim Holtz	(FEBRUARY PRE-ORDER) Sizzix Thinlits Set Stitched Slots by Tim Holtz	Tim Holtz idea-ology Tissue Wrap - Postale	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash, Correspondence
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape, Correspondence	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #3 TDBK47926 (February Pre-order)	Tim Holtz Postage Stamp Frame Sizzix Alterations Movers and Shapers Die	(JULY PRE-ORDER) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Antique Linen	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Iced Spruce
(JULY PRE-ORDER) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Frayed Burlap	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Ranger Tim Holtz Ground Espresso Distress Ink Pad	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Reinker Frayed Burlap
Ranger Distress Micro Glaze	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Vintage TDAK47940 (February Pre-Order)	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDAK47933 (February Pre-Order)	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Crazing TDAK47957 (February Pre-Order)	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Marker - Black Soot
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Marker - Fired Brick	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Fired Brick	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Faded Jeans	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picket Fence
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Picket Fence	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Ranger Archival Ink - Cobalt	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Mushroom	(Late May Pre-order) Prima Art Alchemy Impasto Paint - Snow White
Tim Holtz Ideaology Collection Folio	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Textile Surfaces TH93294 (February Pre-Order)	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Hinge Clips	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quote Chips