I joined the Etsy Texas Crafters Team awhile back. I had never signed up for any projects until last week. Call me crazy-I signed up for four, yes four projects! The first project was a one on one gift swap. The way the swap works is they offered the swap to all members and told those interested in particpating to reply to the post. Once they had the total of participants, each member participating would be paired up with another member. Each participating member also had to complete a questionnaire of our favorite colors, favorite things to craft with, favorite hobbies, etc. Once that questionnaire had been completed, we had to forward that back to the person in charge of the swap. Once all questionnaires had been submitted, our swap partner's questionnaire was forwarded to each us.
My parter likes the colors purple, red, pink and turquoise. She likes to craft with fabric, tulle and ribbon. She collects thimbles, stamps and spoons and she likes to camp with her family. In order to incorporate all of those elements, the word "shadow box" kept coming to my mind. So, that's what I made her. Here's a pic:
I went to the craft store and purchased a wood colored shadow box. I painted it red and went over the red with purple acrylic to give it a weathered look (I think I'm into using multiple colors right now).
The background was covered with vintage fabric that had a few of her favorite colors in it. I purchased some light pink tulle at the craft store and put a layer of tulle over the fabric. I also purchaed some purple ribbon and trimmed all edges in ribbon. These three elements covered all of her favorite crafting items.
I had some vintage red rick rack trim and used that to create little boxes inside the shadowbox. I also had some vintage demitasse spoons here at home that I picked up at an estate sale a long time ago. I glued one on the background and four additional spoons on the inside sides of the box.
I had a few old stamps laying around which were used in the box (because she likes stamps). I also included a thimble in the lower middle of the box because she likes those as well.
I drew a tent with a tree and glued that in the center of the box because she likes to go camping.
Lastly, I took a bunch of vintage buttons in the colors that she chose as her favorites and glued those on in clusters.
I covered the back of the board with fabric as well.
I mailed her gift off yesterday. I hope she likes it. I tried to make a gift for someone I do not know by a questionnaire. I think I did a pretty good job. The gifts are not due to our partners until September 30th, but I wanted to get mine out of the way. I'm going to list this gift idea in my Etsy shop, http://mattiereidchicago.etsy.com and state in the listing that if any potential person wants this gift, they will have to fill out a similar questionnaire and the gift will be a total suprise. Surprises are fun, right?
Oh and I am also contributing to a new blog called, "Athena Magazine" http://athenamagazine.wordpress.com/. My good friend Louise of Catwalk Creative, http://www.catwalkcreative.co.uk (she's got great vintage btw) told Amber of Athena about me (Yea!). I told her I can contribute pieces on vintage or crafts or whatever. I think I'm going to do a weekly craft project for her magazine. I made a project yesterday and it was posted today with step by step instructions on how to make the project. (this project has been listed for sale at my Etsy store, http://mattiereidchicago.etsy.com and my other site, http://www.mattiereidchicago.com.
I'll post more about that project tomorrow.
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