Birthday Tin

A dear friend just had a birthday (well, more about that later).  She is always so kind and generous to me I wanted to try to do something special for her....

So, I made her an altered tin -- hers is the bottom one -- I put the altered Altoid tin in for scale.
And, it's summer and I like flowers so that's the theme.

The process...
I found the larger tin was actually easier to work with than the Altoid tin. I used a Cavallini tin that once held stickers....
And, again I will say wallpaper works great, 

Here is the bottom of the tin......

And the inside (bottom) has a vintage postage from the wonderful Vintage Paper Fair...

Inside of the top half with a teeny little envelope..

I cut tags with a Sizzix die cut machine using vintage postcards and added sari ribbon..

I brought a bag of rosebud tea back from Morocco and decided to add a few tiny rosebuds...they still smell good..

I thought she could put jewelry inside....or tiny treasures...or just leave it as it is.

In keeping with the whole flower theme....I buy edible flowers ($2!) at the farmers market every week.....you'd be surprised how many things you can put them on....I put them on top of chilled ginger carrot soup yesterday and.....

....I put them on top of the lemon squares I made for my friend.......pretty...

My sentiments exactly!
Repurpose, reuse -- make things and have fun. 

The funny thing is (I hope she thinks it's funny) the birthday celebration was exactly one month late! I had the wrong date in my mind. That will teach me -- I have now written the correct date down for next year. I hope she had fun and liked her belated presents....
I loved that tin so I need to find another Cavallini tin and make one for myself now.

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

SFO TO PDX

(I get to deliver these little surprises in person.....and I can't post this until they are given out so when you read this post, I will be happily ensconced in PDX already.)

Don't you love planning a trip?
That is all part of the fun.....and I have been looking forward to this trip to Portland for months...

I am prepared -- I collected lots of .25 cent vintage Portland postcards at the Vintage Paper Fair last time I went -- so let the postcard writing begin!

I have a nice little map of the metro and it goes right to the airport....

OK, I do have a PDX map but I am horrible at reading maps, I admit it....
Luckily there is a whole mail art posse and they are meeting me and showing me around...
lucky me!
And, there's Lyft.

I paid SPECIAL ATTENTION to packing my mail art kit. I usually travel pretty light as far as supplies go...and I figure I can borrow from my PDX pals as needed...and I had to save room for a little "show & tell". And my SFCC artistamp passport is coming along too. Who knows? I may get a PDX artistamp stamped in it. There are rumors. 

Always pack a coffee kit......I am dangerous without coffee as soon as I wake up....

If I paid as much attention to packing clothes in suitcase as I did in bringing things for show & tell and little surprises for my pals, I might look better...
the clothes are always a bit of an afterthought. After art supplies.

I certainly do have lots of wonderful zippered pouches to store things in, thanks to a certain, wonderful pal who knows who she is.......

A Bon Voyage card from my pal, Monica......
Hopefully no fog delays at SFO because I've got a whole lot to do up there in PDX. Like, go to a PDXCC mail art meeting and eat Russian food at Kachka and write postcards and........well.......you'll hear all about it next time, folks.
And below are a few more shots of the tins I made my friends.....
I hope they like them.

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Altered Altoid Tins

Postal Themed Altered Altoid Tins
Finally!!! I have been making these tins for a while now and couldn't show them since the majority of them went for Christmas presents....
They are such fun to make and even more fun to fill up. One arty blurred shot and one sharper..

What tiny treasures can you put inside?
Mini stapler and tiny scissors, postage stamps, small rolls of washi tape, address labels, small rubber stamps, buttons for crafting, sewing kit.....
What can you think of?

All packed up and ready to go!

Of course I had to make a few for myself too...I have all kinds of things stored inside mine.

Besides the postal theme I go on a bird theme as well....

You have to decorate the bottoms of the tins too....no surface left untouched.

Some stamp bundles packed into this one. I'd like to get this so I hope my pal Polly liked  receiving it......I mean, really? Who wouldn't love a postal themed tin with bundles of stamps inside?

All you need are empty tins, like Altoid tins, and some cool paper and washi tape and glue....I used matte gel medium.....

I'm not the first to alter Altoid tins. In fact, my pal Dori is the one who started me thinking about doing it. She has sent me several that I absolutely love. I have one that she made me filled with earrings.
I won't put a tutorial on here because tutorials are out there all over the place. Check Pinterest.
I found doing a few at a time with the same theme worked best for me. It is much slower just doing one at a time. I found old Altoid tins at ScrapSF without that embossed top that the new ones have have. And Trader Joe's mints have good tins too. If you really want a tutorial I will do it but I think you can figure it out....

So, there you go, now it's your turn.
What will you put inside?

And you are wondering who won the 2017 planner?
(drum roll, please)
MISS IOWA
Congrats to Miss Iowa. Please send me your mailing address via the Blogger Contact Form or in a comment) I won't publish it.

I may be making some more notebooks to give away so stay tuned. Thanks for all the comments and good wishes and for the suggestions on what you might like to see on the blog.I've been blogging less and posting on IG more because it seems there is more response to IG but I enjoy blogging and would like to continue if there is the interest.
Happy Holidays to all of you out there and thank you for all your lovely comments and good wishes and good mail throughout 2016.

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL