This is the back of a large envelope (the card inside is an 8.5 x 11 inches, folded in half). Though the oldest physical object is the map scrap, copyrighted 1952, which is starting to brown,^[1] the imagery in some of the other items is considerably older—I wasn't able to find any documentation on the tomato label, but it very much has an early 1900s feel to it and I'd say this tarot is a nice (and somewhat loose) interpretation of the classic Rider White design (which, again, dates to the early 1900s.)

scraps, ephemera—paper, glue, ink. 22apr23. SonyLX100, transform & crop tools.

But though the iconography is old, my acquisition of both these images is relatively recent—f2tE brought back the tarot card, which is actually packaging for a pendant, from New Orleans earlier this year, and the wizard carefully removed the label from a big costco can of tomatoes that I used to make marinara recently.

The KoC logo, of course, dates back to sometime after (I assume) the founding of the org, in 1882, so, again, its imagery blends well; but this piece of paper—the top of a bookmark—is dated 1988, and it almost certainly ended up in our household because of the wizard's habit of shopping for used books during art fairs, which I started doing that year...half a lifetime ago. So this object is 35 years old, and I'm frankly amazed it survived over three decades of purges—helped, of course, by virtue of its being a bookmark, tucked away for years or decades until I rediscovered it and decided its now vintage age made it suitable for collaging.

Other components include some polka dot tissue which the younger of the f2’s wrapped a gift from Japan; a 34 cent stamp, a doodled scrap from Fran's final project, some discarded craft paper from a how-to book on making ...stuffed animals? And a chinese zodiac temporary tattoo.

These back-of-the-envelope mixed media are intended to be a gift, a decoration to make receiving the letter more interesting. But I like that the components are often gifts as well, from friends and family. That makes the piece even more special.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.