At the beginning of the year, I signed up with one of my favourite bloggers — Lucy from Capture By Lucy— to take part in a lovely project she was organising.
Entitled ‘The Springtime Surprise Project’, it was a little venture to spread a little cheer and happiness. For generous, creative folk who’d come together online — bloggers, readers of blogs, tweeters and Instagrammers — to collaborate and do something lovely for a stranger.
The rules of the project
1. Sign up — fill in a little form (outlining your likes and dislikes) — then you’d be allocated a swap partner.
2. Buy, make or create a thoughtful gift — or gifts — to the value of £5 (although most people probably spent a little more).
3. Put together a thoughtful little package of loveliness, and send to your ‘swapee’; to open in time for the first day of Spring on March 20th.
So much fun! It was lovely, receiving the email with my swap partner’s details, then planning the gifts that I could make — or buy — to send to her.
Her name was Caroline and this was her list of likes and dislikes:
Allergies: citrus
Dislikes: animals dressed as humans (absolute no no!)
Loves: anything involved with manicures, stationery, odd socks, quirky items.
And this is what I sent her…
Springtime Surprise Project
In situations like this, my design skills definitely come into play and for that I’m so grateful! I created the postcards with her likes and dislikes in mind and purposefully chose bright citrussy shades, as she said she was allergic to citrus! Having an allergy to citrus fruits is one thing but it doesn’t mean you have to shy away from the colours! ;)
I produce the mint-tins for my business — usually with personalised labels, for wedding favours — so creating a one-off ‘Spring-Fresh’ label was a fairly simple and tied in with the Springtime theme nicely.
The other items fit the brief perfectly — stationery, manicures and quirky items — all bought from a little shop in the next village.
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed taking part in this!! I did something similar before, for the Craft Blog Club, where I was allocated a partner and made a gift to send. You can read about that here.
Needless to say, as well as sending gifts I also received some too! Watch this space — I’ll be writing all about them on the blog very soon.
Creating something lovely — for a total stranger — is a really happy experience; I’d highly recommend it!
