Saturday Package Fun

Early this afternoon, my door bell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone.

Turns out, it was my friendly US Postal Service carrier and she needed my signature for this package.

A package for me from Hong Kong.

A few weeks back, I ordered some washi tape from a seller on Etsy located in Hong Kong. I love washi tape and I use it to embellish my Anything Books. I wanted to expand my selection, and I needed to replish my stock.

For those of you who don't already love washi tape, let me tell you a little bit about it. You can think of it as patterned masking tape. It comes from Japan where it's made from washi paper. The adhesive is more like our post-it notes, so it can be removable. I love the wide range of patterns available. But it's often hard to find in local stores.

I hadn't expected this package to arrive for another 2 weeks!  So I grabbed my camera and a pair of scissors and slowly openned my package.

I love postage forms, so this one really excited me.

I spent time looking over the package before openning it. It got a little smushed in transit, but the package was beautiful. I loved the row of stamps across the top and the customs declaration form is beautiful.

I love this about my life. Little things like this excite me. I see beauty everywhere around me.

I opened the package in reverse of how they wrapped it.

I quickly figured out that the package contained a box inside that was wrapped with this manilla paper held together with tape (of course). So I started to disassemble the package working in the reverse direction that it has been wrapped for shipping. First I openned the ends. I love that I found this end first.

After openning the ends, I sliced the tape open along one side. From there, I could remove the paper wrapping and reveal the box inside.

I carefully removed the paper wrapping to reveal the box inside.

I was surprised to see so much English on this box, especially after seeing the bottom. It made me wonder if I might find this exact product on the shelves of my local asian grocery stores. Then, I wondered if this box had been used to make brownies for the person who wrapped my package!

The use of recycled and upcycled materials to send me supplies that I will use to make my own recycled and upcycled journals thrilled me! I'm definitely saving this box in my stash to reuse in a future Anything Book project.

My new tapes were tucked inside a cellophane envelope and placed into the brownie box.

I opened the end of the brownie box and carefully slid out a cellophane bag that contained my rolls of washi tape. They were gorgeous! I loved seeing the care and thought that went into preparing my package for shipment around the world to me.

My new rolls of washi tape on top of the beautiful packaging.

At last, I could spread out the rolls before me and look at each one carefully. Next up, they will go into the glass jar where I store my tapes. The paper wrapper will go into my stash, and so will the brownie box. In fact, you can look for pieces of them to show up in future Anything Books!