Recycled Chipboard Packaging

Ok so today I'm going to show you another project that I made to recycle something. Yesterday, I went to a nearby town for some coffee & shopping with a friend. We went to an arts & crafts store, where I bought a chipboard album (I'll get around to posting a project for that down the line :). Well, as I've said before, I like to try and find new uses for old things - or things you'd normally just throw in the trash or recycling bin. The way I see it, not only is it a personal challenge to my creativity, but it also means that it's one less thing going to waste.

What I particularly loved with this project is that I discovered, after opening the packaging, that it actually said PLEASE RECYCLE under the chipboard album - how fabulous is that??

So you know, I can't resist experimenting with things, and it was like the challenge was staring me right in the face: so, HOW are you going to recycle me??

I started out with more or less the same process I used when I did the Recycled Art Tag in my last post by sanding down the advertising I didn't want, distressing the edges and center that I would cover up anyway, and sanding the clear plastic window where it had been glued down so that it would be easier to glue back down later.

This is what I started with:

And this is what I ended up with! How totally awesome is that? Not only did I save something from being thrown out and turned it into a piece of artwork I can now display - but on top of that, the plastic window works as a kind of shadow box. I would've loved to have had some piece of three-dimensional memorabilia to put into the "shadow box", but I still think this is pretty cool. :)

Friendship Cards

I had a bit of an AHA! lightbulb moment a few days ago. I kept trying to figure out how to add pictures to my post and feeling a bit dense. I kept thinking, wait a minute - there's like a million bloggers out there, ranging from tweens to octagenerians, you'd think I could figure out how to add some pics! But because I was adding some YouTube videos, I kept writing my posts under the "Edit HTML" tab - hence complete missing the picture button right in the middle of the screen under the "Compose" tab. D'OH!

So, without further ado, my blog is now actually going to have some pictures - YAY! This being my first picture, I wanted to post the very first thing I made with my Stampin' Up! starter kit. Now, I don't really have a lot of experience with card-making, and I was trying to make sure I used only Stampin' Up! products so that I could, if I wanted to, put them on my demo website. I love the way the leaves came out, that color is definitely one of my favorites from the still-current range. I love mostly colors that have a bit of a vintage or retro feel, and this card definitely has a bit of a retro feel to me. I got the Vintage Vogue set in my starter kit because I loved how different elements had a pattern within them - so that the stamped image is a little more interesting than just a plain letter or floral design. The flower in the card is actually double-layered with dimensionals between the second and third petals. I love love LOVE using dimensionals - it makes everything more fun! :)

I also made another, simpler card using the Vintage Vogue set more prominently and stamping one of the bigger blooms from the Petal Pizzazz set as a background image. I got the VV set in a clear-mount to fit with the price range in my kit. Initially I was definitely apprehensive about the clear-mount stamps. I've found that acrylic stamps, to me, don't get quite the same image resolution at times as rubber stamps do - especially with craft/pigment inks, which you really just have to get the exact right amount on there. But I was very pleasantly surprised - the clear-mount stamps are easy to use, and since they're still made of rubber instead of acrylic, they give you the same resolution - but take up much less space because they're housed in a DVD case.

All She Wants To Do Is STAMP, STAMP, STAMP!!

Ok so you know how I was talking about the inspiration artists get from music, and I got on here thinking of what I could name today's post - and it just came to me as this Don Henley song immediately played in my mind:



It's so funny because my fingers were poised over the keys and I thought, All she wants to do is STAMP STAMP STAMP! as the chorus.

Today was a pretty hot day & I had a really awesome time running errands, having coffee with two fellow spouses that I'm hoping to get to now better in the weeks to come - and planning some projects to work on and share. The mailbox was generous once more and revealed another package of retired Stampin'Up sets - all about putting your own stamp on projects. I love being able to add a little element somewhere that I can date, sign or otherwise "authenticate" my artwork. Hey, you never know where your art might end up one day! :)

I've got lots to do this weekend with tidying and organizing the house so that I can get that out of the way and focus on my artwork next week. I'm itching to get all my inks and paints out, especially because I also want to try some projects from the many magazines that are threatening to take over my office.

Here's to warm sunny days, great coffee & even better company. It's in those little mundane, everyday events that you can find beauty and excitement to pour, in my case, into creative endeavors...

Mail Call!

Much to my surprise, I'm happy to report (no, not happy - ECSTATIC is more like it!!) that my Stampin' Up! Starter Kit arrived in the mail today. Woohoo - I am now officially in business! I feel a little bit like the squirrel in that hilarious animated movie Hoodwinked; right after they give him coffee. Stamps! Ink Pads! CARD STOCK! It's all just too much excitement. :)

This is the part where I'm going to tell you how I came about becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. My husband is in the military, so we move where Uncle Sam sends us. This is sometimes annoying (such as having to sell your gorgeous 1950s house with the immaculate refinished floors and imported Mexican tile...sigh!), but also has its advantages. Aside from the fact that you get to live in places you might otherwise not even have traveled to, you also get to meet lots and lots of different people. At times, this comes with its own challenges. You get along with some people, not too much with others. You miss your friends from your last duty station. You wonder how old your best friend's children will be the next time you see them - and whether they'll even remember you. But it's all part and parcel with being married to a soldier!

I've always been a very creative person - I love to write and I have a collection of amazing collaged shoe boxes that stem from the time before I left home for college. But I was never really into papercrafts at all - admittedly in part because I wasn't really aware of that whole "world" until after I got married. I was too busy living life!
After I got married and moved in with my wonderful husband, I met lots of great, interesting women - one of whom told me she was a scrapbooker. At the time, that really didn't mean anything to me. Scrapbooking? EH? Might as well have been Tagalog to me! So when she and I went over to someone else's house one evening and I worked on an embroidery project, she set up shop on a large dining room table - and within minutes you couldn't see the surface anymore. And then there was this strange-looking piece of luggage that, apparently, served as a storage device for all her "tools of the trade". I laughed to myself (although not nearly as much as I do now at the recollection) because I thought, quite honestly, that the whole thing was completely ridiculous. Of course it's not nearly as ridiculous now that I have entire storage containers devoted to stamps - not to mention the prerequisite wheeling tote that is a total must-have for any "respectable" scrapbooker!! ;)

But I'm getting ahead of myself (you'll see this is a recurring theme). Three years ago I met this woman called Carol. I don't really remember how I met her - I think it was through an online group and because she offered me a ride when my car was in the shop. The how, where and why is really not that pertinent. Carol was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I had no idea what that was - but when we started hanging out, I saw some of the fun & creative projects she did...and I liked what I saw! Here was a hobby I had totally underestimated. Scrapbooking had seemed like a rather dull hobby - you know, crop some pictures, glue them on a piece of paper, slap some stickers on, file away never to be looked at again. But stamping suddenly gave what had seemed like a mundane pastime a totally new dimension - now the possibilities seemed endless! And before you could say "unmounted stamp set" I was totally hooked.

Now I love papercrafts. I don't consider myself a scrapbooker, or a card maker, because I love experimenting with all different aspects of crafting. I've done some mixed media projects, altered journals, artist trading cards (ATCs) - and I continue to do scrapbooking and make cards when the mood strikes. Sometimes, the desk in my "studio" (or rather "box room", the appropriate term in the local vernacular) ends up looking like a bomb exploded - and I look like the "before" picture in a Lysol commercial. I've had an ink cartridge explode in my face (really rather hilarious, although not quite so funny when I tried to explain the splotches that I couldn't scrub away for days), glitter all over my clothes, paint and glue on my hands...and I love it! I admire people who are organized, tidy crafters, but I sure am not one of them. When I get into a project, I go all out - I use my hands, my tools, my desk, everything around me. I love trying to find new uses for old things - whether it be vintage notions, pieces of packing or scrap paper that most people would throw away, or everyday items that seem destined for the recycling bin until I have an AHA! moment.

So today I'm particularly excited, because I'm looking forward to experimenting with my new craft supplies! :)