Swap meet

The weekend before The Creative Connection Event was spent finishing up this "little" project to swap with my new friend, Vicki. We met through the message board set up for the event and connected initially because she lived in an area of the country where I had lived for many years. As we emailed one another prior to the event we decided to set up our own little swap and create traveling art kits from old cigar boxes. We each answered a few questions to guide our choices as we were creating for each other.

Vicki shared some of her interests - personal and creativity-wise. As I was putting her kit together, I tried to incorporate her favorite colors and personal interests into the exterior design of the kit. She and her husband like to go cruising on their motorcycle on weekends so I chose to cover the exterior in black and mustard colored leather all stitched together with thick mustard thread. Punching the little holes to thread the pieces together is not for the faint of heart (or those prone to carpal tunnel!). All the work was definitely worth it and I loved it when I was finished and Vicki did, too!!! You can see the original cigar tin in the pic below.

I filled the inside with lots of little trinkets, beads and baubles - perfect for creating lots of mixed media art journals. Little fabric yo-yos, hand-lettered ribbons, tiny cardboard flowers, wooden spools of bakers twine, and mini journals fill vintage baking molds. Covered matchbooks are filled with tiny pinked denim patches, handmade paper beads, cork circles, vintage stamps, and paint chip buttons.

We got to meet in person after the end of the first full day of the conference following the incredible keynote address and opening dinner. We got to talk for about an hour before fatigue completely took over and the excitement of going to look through our gigantic goodie bags from the dinner was too much to bear!!!

Creating these gifts for each other was so much fun and is something I love to do in my everyday life. When birthdays and holidays come up, I always try to create personalized, meaningful gifts for others. In the next few days I'll share the fun kit that Vicki put together for me - I just have to stop myself from using all the stuff in my art before I get to take pictures of it all!!! You should also check out Vicki's blog, Killer Queen Boutique sometime!