The Altoids tin swap

Today we swapped Altoids tins; this was a really fun swap for me.  It took me FOREVER to figure out how I wanted to decorate the tin, but once I did the rest came easily.  I made mine for Tamatha, another friend I know pretty well so I worked hard to make it her "style"!

I used paint, paper, and lots of new and vintage embellishments to decorate the tin.

This is the back.

And inside.

I filled it with some bird themed baubles, and other things I hoped she'd love!

It's never easy to find things small enough to fit into an Altoids tin!

 I included some things to celebrate her trip to Europe last year, when she visited Italy and France.

 Some little birds -- including one that was a gift from a friend all the way from England (the stitched one.)

 Buttons of course -- including this tiny charm string that was hard to part with!

Part of the fun of swapping is giving away the good stuff!

I decorated a second tin, too, to use as the "base" of my creation.

 Here's how the inside of that one looked.

A tip for filling tins: it's easier for the recipient to get things out of the tin if you put in a piece of paper that they can use to lift the stuff; in my tins, I used waxed paper.

 This is what I put into the bottom tin: a little stand up paper art piece.

 Bird themed, of course; it says, SOAR.

And here's the back.

Here's how I put it all together: in a bird cage that started out green.  I painted it creamy white and decorated it with a tiny banner...

and filled it with a raffia "nest".

And, because I can never stand the thought of birds in cages, I added the bird on top of the open cage.

Naturally, the little bird had to have a crown!

I tied the cage on to the second tin; I knew it would help to keep the cage upright because it was pretty off balance with the cage open.

I wound some NEST embroidered ribbon around it and clipped this decorated clothes pin to the side.

Here's a view from the back.

And I wrapped it simply, in this transparent bag with some pink paper and the "dream" cloth ribbon ended up on the outside of the bag instead of wrapped around the cage.

Can you tell it was a very time consuming project?

But I loved every minute of it!

It wasn't a one-to-one swap, so my own tin will be coming from Lynn, not Tamatha.

I can't wait to show you the one I received!