Of all of the projects I've worked on for challenges and contests this month, so far my favorite has to be Marion's Eco Challenge for her Artsy Addict's group: create a project from entirely recycled materials. It was so much fun thinking of ways to use essentially what amounts to trash and hand make ALLLLLL of my embellishments! I got more use out of my Cuttlebug die cut machine than I have in a very long time!
I dug through the recycle bin in the garage and pulled out some fun items to use on this layout:
- Cardboard box
- Newspaper
- Coors Light beer can (who knew they were this pretty pale teal color inside?!?!?)
- Tissue paper
- Packing peanuts
- Bubble wrap
- Denim from an old skirt I was planning to donate
- Plastic from a package of Prima flowers
- Paper backing from a Prima package
- Cork from a wine bottle
- Beer bottle cap (yes we have a lot of beer container remnants in our recycle bin)
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| With the exception of the photos and coloring elements, everything on this project is hand made from recycled materials. |
- I cut a 12x12 piece of cardboard from a box.
- I peeled back some of the top paper layers of the bottom right hand corner to reveal the corrugated part underneath.
- I tore out 2 pages from a local newspaper that had text on it that I liked.
- I glimmer misted the pages in Patina to give them some shimmer.
- Once dry, I adhered the painted newspaper to the cardboard.
- I then painted the edges of the paper and cardboard with Tattered Rose crackle paint and rubbed around the edges with brown StazOn ink to give it a nice distressed look and to bring out the crackles in the paint.
- I selected the placement of my photos and created a border to anchor them. I used a strip of the cardboard and peeled off the paper to expose the corrugation.
- I rubbed the cardboard border with brown StazOn ink.
- I then cut a strip from a piece of tissue paper and glimmer misted it in Rose Tea.'
- Once dry, I created a ruffle from the tissue and adhered it to the cardboard strip.
- After gluing down the strip, I felt that it needed an anchor point of it's own so I took a bottle cap and asked my hubby to give it a few good smacks with a hammer to flatten it out a bit.
- I painted the inside of the bottle cap with alcohol inks and added some brown StazOn ink in the ridges with a paint brush.
- Then the fun began - making the flowers!! I die cut flower layers from the newspaper, plastic packaging, and denim from an old skirt.
- I glimmer misted the paper layers with Rose Tea glimmer mist.
- I colored the plastic layers with alcohol ink and heated the edges with my heat gun to make them curl.
- I then cut individual bubbles out of bubble wrap (keeping the air inside intact so they would stay puffy) and covered them with glue and crystal course glitter. These were my favorite parts I think! Once dry, I layered the flower and grouped the bubbles into the centers.
- For the larger flower I also added a layer of scallops cut from packing peanuts. I cut the peanuts into very thin slivers and then cut them in half so they looked liked scallops. I then took four of these scallops and glued them onto a round piece of Prima packaging so they looked like a rounded square.
- I used this scalloped square as the base layer for the bigger flower.
- Flowers need their leaves so I hand cut leaves from the tin can and then painted them with alcohol inks and brown StazOn ink.
- The brown flourishes are die cut from the newspaper and then colored with the brown StazOn ink.
- The while flourishes are die cut from the tissue paper and then pained with white liquid pearls using a paint brush.
- Hubby carved the wine cork and then sliced it into flower like shapes. I added brown StazOn ink and they were the perfect little additions to my accent clusters!
- The background for the title is a piece of Prima packaging and I die cut the letters from the tin can.
- I ran the letters through my cuttlebug to emboss them and then rubbed brown StazOn ink to give them some depth.
- I wrote the date onto a piece of the Prima packaging and voila, done!
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I have to say, once I got going it was hard to stop! The ideas just kept coming and it was so fun to hand make everything not to mention turn what was in the trash into little treasures on this page. This is one of my favorite layouts yet!
I now pass the torch and challenge you to see how many ways you can use things in your recycle bins. I'd love to see what you come up with! Happy crafting!
