Travelling light

This summer will see me and my three grown up children inter-railing for 2 and half weeks in Central Europe. I want to sketch as I go and have as small an art kit as I can manage.
My sketching kit is in a tiny pencil case with room for a fine liner, a mechanical pencil, a scrap of a rubber and a water-brush.
(Water brush pens have been a revelation to me - with water inside the pen and nylon bristles, there is no need for carrying extra painting water around to rinse brushes and mix paint -so easy and convenient!)
Along side the pencil case I either carry inktense pencils or my watercolour palette - but even though it's travel size, it's still too big! I started looking around for alternatives and, unsurprisingly, I found myself on pinterest. I toyed with the idea of recreating what I'd seen for months, procrastinating with excuses of not having the right materials and skills - but I bit the bullet today and here's what I have made.

A tiny paint palette with room for 16 colours
 (I have 10 at the moment, I needed to leave space for new 'must haves')

How I did it...

Materials

• Altoid tin - approx 2.5 x 3.5cm
• Hot glue gun
• Acetate sheet (I used a laminate pouch)
• Scissors
• Ruler  - ok, so I didn't use this, but you might want to - it would be much better if I'd measured accurately and cut straight lines!)

Buy, or acquire, a tiny tin - my husband is working his way through some Altoids which are now in a little plastic tub.

From the acetate, cur a piece the size of the base of the tin and a long length a little lower than the height of the tin (you need to be able to close the lid)

Now you need to make a grid with the acetate strips. It's really fiddly because the pieces will be small and almost invisible.

Cut strips the length and width of the tin - you can decide how many partitions you want. 

You need to get them to slot together: divide a longer strip into equal parts (or guess like I did), cut half way down at these points and with the shorter strips, find half way and cut slits in these too.

I used the glue gun to fix them together and prevent leaks from one section to another, then I glued it to the base (I actually did it in two separate sections with 8 partitions in each)

Now you can place it into the tin and admire your handiwork.

Because I didn't measure properly and didn't use a ruler, when I put it in the tin it was a tad tall, so I trimmed it and there were big gaps between the acetate and the tin, so I built the acetate up with the glue - hence all the mess!

I drew around the tin once more, this time on paper and made a little colour swatch map of the paints - once I'd done that I laminated it and slipped it into the lid.

I've squeezed my lovely Daniel Smith paints into the partitions and they are currently drying out on my window sill.

I like to use my tube paints like this, it's so much more economical and less wasteful. 

 I can't wait to use them - but I need to make myself a little sketchbook first. I can't use my Daniel Smiths on cartridge paper!

(Suggestions for what I can fill in the gaps with, gratefully received)