She's Crafty

I managed to escape office gift giving before the holidays with a well timed vacation, but coming back I knew I’d have to gift my colleagues with some sort of token of my esteem and well wishes. What do you give when you are opposed to giving clutter? Baked goods. But baking for an office of 15 people with 15 different aversions, “ I don’t like fruit and chocolate combined” and assorted allergies took the fun out of my plan.

I decided to focus my office gift giving on acknowledging the exciting new year – 2010 (which I refer to as THE FUTURE because I feel like I’m a Jetson each time I write it). Normally I would head to the craft store for inspiration, and spend a small fortune on some cool new art project I could slave over for a few days. But this time I decide to consult my closet first. This is where I admit something: I AM AN ART AND CRAFT SUPPLY ADDICT. In my closet are five plastic tubs of art supplies ranging from a 120 count box of Crayolas to to metal etching tools. These tubs can’t even contain the silk screens under my bed, or my bag of fabric and sewing supplies and thousands of glass beads boxed under my bed. Walking into art supply stores makes me flutter with excitement. So many aisles of creative potential! Shortly before Christmas I discovered the amazing art supply store at the University of Oregon, and fell in love with these Enkaustikos Hot Cakes: http://www.encausticpaints.com/ which look like the coolest things ever and would really improve my current encausitic technique of melting crayons in a pie tin on a hot burner in the kitchen. Alas, I will have to wait a year. And by that time I’ll probably have forgotten they even exist. Hmm. All of this wax thought makes me wonder, “Where is my candle mould?”

Back to my gift giving plan. A quick survey of my art supplies (see photo) made me realize that I should make something for my coworkers. I decided to make everyone little 4x6 inch colored paper Goal Reminders for 2010. On each paper I used colored marker to write 2010 and then bedazzled it with glitter (I love sparkly things). I bought this particular set of awesome glitter a few years ago at The Accidental Bookmaker, the store of Green Heron Book Arts in Forest Grove http://www.greenheronbookkits.com/

On the back of each card, I wrote a personal message to my colleagues and then provided the following instructions:

Step 1: On the bottom of this paper, write something that you would like to leave behind in 2009. (an example would be, “worrying about things I can’t control, eating too much fat, being addicted to televistion, etc.”)

Step 2: Cut off what you have written and burn it (I gave each person a match – who doesn’t like to burn things?)

Step 3: On the bottom front of the page, write something you would like to embrace or welcome into your life in 2010 (example: Good vibes, positive thoughts, eating healthy, spending more time with family, etc).

Step 4: Keep as a reminder of your goal.

I rolled each Goal Reminder up and tied it in place with a strike anywhere match and some old embroidery thread (because I’m probably not going to finish those friendship bracelets I started in the 7^th grade.)

My colleagues received their Goal Reminders in their mail boxes today. I thought they might think I'm a weirdo for giving them an unorthodox gift and providing them with a match at work. What if one was a secret pyromaniac? But so far I've received nothing but good response and those who have mentioned the gift seem excited to take time to think about potential changes they'd like in their lives...and the fact that they have an excuse to play with fire.

In other news, I need a day planner. And normally I would go to DollarTree and pick it up. But those days are gone. What to do? Time to get thinking....