So I have a good friend who is an aspiring filmmaker and she took a class on making a documentary.  The topic that her and two of her fellow students chose was a woman who collects PEZ candy dispensers.  The movie turned out great and was shown at a local theater with the other student films to a sold out crowd.  I was super proud of my friend for challenging herself to do something new and for putting her all into the project.  I also really enjoyed the film as I'm a bit of a pop culture enthusiast. 

To congratulate my friend on her film I made this PEZ shrine as a gift for her.  It took longer to finish than I would have preferred but that was fun because by the time I gave it to her the drama around her film had died down a bit so I think I totally surprised her.

The entire shrine was made from 100% salvaged materials (I live in Portland which has the best Goodwill outlet store ever where you buy things by the pound right before they send it to the landfill) including the paint, the glue, the PEZ dispensers, the frame, the little tiny camera, etc.  I started with a small 4" wooden shadow box frame that someone had done something with and then abandoned.  I took out the glass and painted the frame yellow on the outside and off white inside.  I used an order form from a PEZ package that had a picture of a bunch of dispensers to cover the back of the inside with little images of Garfield, The Simpson's, etc. and I used a little plastic Barbie size movie camera as the focus point.  I used magnetic words to write out "A Pez Film" under the camera.  My refrigerator is full of word magnets that I have salvaged from Goodwill so that was easy enough to do.  The "pez" word was from a Spanish set and apparently means fish.  The name of her movie is "Sweetly Dispensed:  Inside the Heart of a Pez Collector" so I used these old cloth tabs from a discarded office supply set to write out Sweetly Dispensed on the frame.  I put the little edges from negatives inside on the edges to look like film and added some glitter on the inside edges as decoration.  On the outside (which you can't see on the photo) I collaged a bunch of different colors and pieces of the candy wrappers on three edges as decoration from a side view.  The name of their film production is "Triple Chicks Productions" because three women worked on the film so I glued three pedestals from PEZ dispensers on the base to represent each of them and added a clown head from the top of a dispenser because he fit so well with the colors and is wearing a hat that says PEZ.

This project was a blast to make and to give away!  My friend inspired me by making the film and hopefully someone will be inspired by seeing the shrine I made to pass on a good deed to someone else.  Sorry the photos are crappy, my camera is a cheapie.

Okay...so let me just say that I enjoyed the swap much more than I have enjoyed trying to get these darn photos listed.  Thank you Chemama for being so patient for your praise!

Let me say that I had the best swap partner!  I got a great knitted "soft tofu buddy" pillow.  He is so cute with a crooked mouth and two big blue button eyes!  My animals really want this guy but they aren't getting him.  He is sitting on some shelves out of their reach! 



I also got two lovely dog themed items to share with my corgi, Twinky.  One is a bag of very professionally presented handmade vegan dog biscuits.  They are shaped like paws, bones and little dogs and Twinky just loves them.  I bet my cats would eat them too but Twinky isn't interested in that test.



One of the best type of crafty gifts is one that keeps on giving and Erin did that too!  She made me glycerine soaps in the shape of little corgis and bagged them all in these sweet little drawstring bags and included the mold and some unused soap so Twinky and I can make some ourselves.  This was a major surprise and so appreciated.  Nothing better than a personalized gift from someone who has never even met you!



To top it off Chemama sent me two zines with easy vegan recipes because she knew that I don't like to cook...these recipes were interesting enough that I just might have to try them.  And lastly she sent me a group of locally found little paper items such as pic and brochures I can use for the collage stuff I love to do.

Thanks Erin for a great swap!!  This was my first and I have already signed up for another!