Thrifty Tin Swap Package

Finally I can show you the package I gave to my partner for the Thrifty Tin Swap. My partner for this swap was a friend who goes to/runs the craft groups I go to. It was fun putting a swap package together for someone I know, but also very challenging because we make similar things and have very similar tastes, so I really didn’t want to make her something she could have made herself or seen me make before a million times. I went a bit over the minimum requirements for this swap, but it was so much fun making these things, I couldn’t help myself.

Here is the package, all wrapped up and ready to give.

The first Item I made was this heart. My friend has a “heart wall” in her studio, covered with different handmade hearts she has collected and been given. I had bought this heart frame ages ago at a thrift store, and it had been sitting on a shelf just a plain empty heart for all this time, so when I found out who my swap partner was, I knew it was time for this frame to get a makeover. I modpodged vintage book pages over it, then stuck on some feathers and purple flowers I made, then tied on some black organza ribbon to hang it.

 

 

The sweet component of the package was this altered tin, filled with, as it says, mints. I also covered this with vintage book pages, then added some lace and a label.

 

 

 

I made this little altered bottle, which is filled with an assortment of beads which came from a huge bag I got from a thrift shop. On the top of the bottle is a flower off a vintage clip-on earring. The label is a picture from the graphics fairy and the tag is just out of a packet of diecut tags, I stamped it and used ink to distress the edges.

 

Altered peat pots are something that are all over blogland at the moment, if you follow the kind of vintage, shabby chic awesome blogs that I love. I have had a stack of these peat pots in my stash for years, with no idea what to do with them (I am NOT a gardener), but knowing they would be useful one day. So when I first saw someone doing this, I thought wow, why didn’t I think of that. I knew I wanted to include some vintage lace in the package, but wasn’t sure how to present them. A few wooden pegs and an empty thread spool just happened to fit perfectly into a peat pot. To decorate the pot I wrapped around some lace, tied a bow with some tea dyed seam binding, hung a tag that I added the word Make to and used ink to distress the edges a bit, tied on with a bit of twine.

This was the “thrifted gift” part of the package. I bought this from the thrift store because I loved it, but then when I found out who my partner was, I thought she would love it even more, and I could imagine it fitting in perfectly in her gorgeous studio. It is a very small cake stand type thing, with little feet on the bottom. I can imagine this having so many uses, including holding small cakes, but also as a candle stand, a jewellery holder, an anything pretty holder…

It was all packaged in a vintage tin, with a tag I made a while ago. I think this will be the last swap I join, at least for a while.