At the beginning of lockdown in the spring (when we thought this would all be over by Christmas) I started a Letterbox Art Collaboration with my mother as a way of keeping in touch while we weren’t allowed to meet up. I’d been inspired by Anna’s post and thought it would provide a little ray of sunshine while we were socially distanced. Then, buoyed by the success of the first collaboration, I also joined an online chum for another Letterbox Collaboration as part of the Slamseys Creative Summer Challenge.
The premise of the collaboration is that you send a set of prompt or starter cards to the other person who completes them and returns them with a set of their own prompts. There’s no telling how the other person will interpret your prompt, so it’s always a bit of a surprise when they’re sent back. As you can see above, the original prompt produced three very different reactions. You can read all about the Slamseys Creative Summer Challenge Letterbox Collaboration here.
I must admit that I wasn’t prepared for it to be such a joyous thing to do. This year, when celebrations have been few, it’s been a delight to find a little bundle of artwork in the post. It’s so much better than looking at a screen for there’s nothing like holding something in your hands to appreciate it. Perhaps we post a little bit of ourselves, revealing a hint of our character with our handwriting and choice of stationery that you don’t get with emails. It’s also been great fun to do. Sometimes I know exactly what I shall do as soon as I see the prompt but other times I guiltily push the cards to one side hoping that inspiration will suddenly strike. Not surprisingly, the answer often comes while I’m out for a walk and I hurry home to commit the brainwave to paper before I forget.
By the end of the summer, I’d accumulated quite a stack of cards. Some were pinned up and others stored in a box but I wanted to do something better with them, especially as I think they’ll be a wonderful record of this odd year.
The summer collaboration was very much a springboard for being creative and so we’d varied the collaboration a bit by sending out four prompts but returning only three. This provided the leeway to be experimental so that when it ended disastrously, (as it so often did) I could keep that card back and work on it a bit more or quietly consign it to the bin. In this creative spirit, I wanted to make a book from existing supplies and allow space to add the retained cards or work inspired by them and notes. I remembered seeing a Paper Bag Book in the book Making Handmade Books, so I liberated some bags from The Christmas Shop, found an old cardboard folder to use for the cover and sewed the whole lot together to make a very simple pocket book.
The art cards are slotted into the half page pockets, where they form part of the page and can be easily pulled out to look at more carefully.
I extended the cover to wrap it round to stop everything falling out. One day I might even manage a fastening for it. Read the full instructions for making a Paper Bag Book if you’d like a go. They’re easy for young children to make if you make the holes for them to push the needle through and would be great for treasure hunts if you changed the orientation of the pockets to make them drop-in ones.
For the other collaboration, I wanted to retain the theme of sending and receiving in the post and so made a book that looks like a collection of envelopes held together by a ribbon. I now realise that, had I thought about this at the start, I could have used the original envelopes they were posted in. Alas, forward planning has never been my strong point. The envelopes are made from a sheet of A4 paper, which is folded and glued to make an envelope.
The envelopes are then stuck to a concertina cardboard spine, which holds them all together. Each envelope holds three cards, so if I’d kept them in their original groups, I could have put them into chronological order. But that would have needed some forward planning. No matter. From now on, I can keep them in order.
If you’d like to have a go at making an Envelope Book, the template for the envelopes and instructions for assembling the book with a concertina spine can be found in the craft section under How to Make an Envelope Book.
Both these books would also be a great way to keep a collection of postcards or photographs. They’d make good travel journals, especially if you used bags or envelopes picked up in your travels. If I’d thought about it earlier, I could have made an Advent pocket book, with something appropriate slipped in each day. Honestly, how did we get to December so quickly?
Why not give the Letterbox Art Challenge a try? You might be surprised how much you enjoy it.
LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS 
It was a brilliant idea of yours and I have enjoyed it so much, where will it end?!
These are fabulous Anne! Having a trigger to inspire you does make for work that you would never have expected to create I find. I love your ideas for putting the results into books. My main letterbox collaboration is continuing, although it has changed a bit over the months. Now we are just doing portraits, and as my friend Pat’s sight is deteriorating (due to macular degeneration) we are now adding another step, in that when she has worked on my starters, I can see where she is going with them, so I add just a little more, whether a few more lines or a bit of colour. We have a very large collection now, so I am trying to think of ways of maybe exhibiting them. We will see what emerges! I’m delighted to have inspired you on this path! (Sorry for the late response, we have been away, and with limited internet.)