Its quite some time since I participated in a swap through blogland. I made this promise to myself late last year, things were incredibly hectic (still are) and I have a habit of being distracted from the up keep of bagladee by joining swaps. This however was a totally different kettle of fish as Rachel and I from our
TLBG blog decided to host our very own "green" swap. Guide lines were, recycled, re-purposed, Eco friendly, up-cycled....green things basically.
I was very lucky to be partnered with the lovely Jane over at
Hooked Yarn and she was extremely organised (which put me to shame) as always I was lagging behind and was late to post!! Tut tut!!
I was bursting to see what was inside and it was wrapped in giant sized poppy paper (bubble wrap to normal people).....had great fun popping a couple of circles, not too many as I like to reuse any wrapping.
Two lovely handmade boxes, a sewn packet, some gorgeous braided, mirrored ribbon, a scrummy bar of fair trade chocolate (and I can def vouch for it being yummy as I scoffed it last night all by myself!) and a lovely handmade card.
I really loved the way Jane had packaged her goodies, we had to be green and Eco friendly. What better way than making your own colourful boxes and using some fabric strips as pretty ribbon.
Wrapped up in one of the boxes was a little trinket box and some very gorgeous buttons **sigh** Oh how I love buttons.
In her card Jane explained that the trinket box was crocheted from a cassette tape (an old Prodigy tape if you're interested what cassette it was), yes that's right crocheted from Cassette tape!!! Genius or what! It is standing proud on my desk in the studio with some pretty crystal beads kept safe in side.
And lastly in the other box was this totally fantastic scarf made from a fair trade t-shirt, so not only is it fair trade its been up-cycled. And I love the colour, I cant wait to wear it.
A huge thank you to Jane for being such a fab swap partner I was truly spoiled and I cant thank her enough. It was so much fun hosting our first swap, if you're not a follower you should pop over and check
TLBG out. We don't preach or claim to be Eco warriors.....just a bunch of crafty people trying to be that little bit greener :D
If you were wondering what all the little felt leaves were for, well now you know. Each little leaf was sewn on one by one and is hopefully in the shape of the recycle symbol. I find hand sewing very therapeutic so even though it looks like a lot of sewing, I really enjoyed it. I used felt scraps out of my scrap box....I always keep all my scraps, although I never make anything out of them because they are a little small. Since my tub was over flowing I thought I'd better get my thinking cap on as to how I could use them.
This tiny little pin cushion is what I came up with, obviously using some more of the leaves. Oh and a cute little button on the top for the centre of the flower.
Keeping with the Eco/green theme, I made these 3 veg sacks.....Potatoes, onions and carrots. Made from hessian sack I had left over and had no idea what I could make with it and some more felt scraps.
And for some little extras I included: re-usable cloths by Sally Smith (I use them and they're great, you can wash them over and over), Eco-friendly deodorant, organic face scrub, fair trade cotton wool, fair trade chocolate and some fabric squares that I had from an old Sanderson swatch book.
I really enjoyed this swap, it was definitely a brain teaser. It really made me think about what I could send and was quite difficult at first but lots of fun. If you want to see what everyone else made pop over to TLBG where we will be posting all the links.
