more candy box mailart

When my husband thinks that I need cheering up, he gets me a box of these chocolates. They're cheap,  readily available at super markets and convenience stores, and they are delicious! One of the fun things about this brand is that they change their box designs frequently to celebrate the changing season or new flavors-- some of them limited-time-only flavors.

Another reason I like this brand is because of the way the box is constructed. You open it by pulling back the right edge of the box, and it can be re-closed. The bite-sized pieces of chocolate sit on a small, stiff-paper tray that can be pulled out and pushed back in. Even empty, the box is stiff enough to survive being sent through the postal system in an envelope. It is perfect material for mail art.

I filled this one with bees printed from an original etegami. I inscribed one of my favorite bee-related quotes on the inside of the flap (not visible in the photos), and glued a playful warning onto the front of the box. I gave the tray of bees a three-dimensional effect by mixing flat images and images glued onto corrugated cardboard.

The box, the printer paper, and the corrugated cardboard are all previously used materials that are reused for this purpose. I make them in English and in Japanese with lots of different themes, and may even get brave enough to make them in other languages someday for my international mail art friends.