Queen for a Day

My friend recently celebrated her 50th birthday by hosting a large card party.  I re-purposed an empty rice container (a good way to avoid recycling plastic containers is to buy items in bulk and use refillable containers).  For this plastic shape, I had two over-sized playing cards that I had gotten through a swap many years ago.  The card fit with minimal trimming.  For the other two sides, I cut up box tops and added pieces of playing cards and book paper.  Around the lid, I applied ribbon using heavy duty glue dots.  The top of the lid was covered with a circular disc cut from paper and layered with a circular playing card. The container could be used to hold small items on a desk top or to store small items.  For the party, it served as the collection bin for thoughtful notes her guests had written in celebration of her big day. 

Love Never Ends

Steve and I visited my friend Betti who recently moved.  Her home had such a clean, uncluttered feel that I had to ask her what did she do with all of her stuff.  She said in the process of moving, she and her husband decided to get rid of a lot of things they didn't need or use.  Fortunately for me, Steve agreed that we could do some reducing of stuff.  We have one closet that we haven't used because our daughter has stored  items in it for the past six years.  We decided to begin our purging by cleaning out this closet.

We began by having Cassandra decide what she wanted to keep.  She told us everything, except for a pair a jeans and a shirt, could be given away.  Thus, the closet was empty and could be used for storing winter coats, blankets, and extra pillows.

Before filling the closet with different items, I wanted to cover up the marks on the wall.  I found green planet paint left over from painting Cassandra's and Michael's rooms.  I worked evenly up all sides of the closet from the baseboard with the blue paint until I emptied the can.  After it dried, I used blue masking tape to create a horizontal line around the closet.  Next, I painted green from the top of the blue tape to the bottom of the shelf at the top of the closet.  After the paint had dried, I used large foam rubber stamps and black acrylic paint to press letters spelling "Love Never Ends" along the blue/green border.  I used a hand carved Adinkra stamp Steve had bought in Ghana to add decorative symbols. With some remaining green paint, I added color to the open spaces of the letters and the symbols.

With the coats hanging in the closet, the words aren't seen, but I know they're there.

Jelly Belly Balm

During a conference, I visited an exhibitor's booth that was handing out Jelly Belly candies in small kidney shaped tins.  The candies were stale and very hard to chew so they had plenty to distribute to attendees.  I picked up three of the tins and wish I had gotten more.  The tins are so cute and they close very tightly so they're great for holding small items.

After watching an episode of "Simply Beautiful", a cable program than "explores the world of natural beauty and fashion", I decided to use one of my kidney bean shaped tins to hold an all natural, home made lip and cheek balm.  On the show, the hostess uses three simple ingredients to make a product that adds color and moisture without chemical additives (click here for her recipe Beet Red Kiss).

With insightful advice from a friend's daughter, I was able to make a vegan version of the lip balm by replacing the recommended beeswax with edible shea butter.  She also noted soy wax could be considered as an alternative to beeswax. 

Here are the ingredients

• Two capsules of beet root (look for this in the vitamin and supplement section)
• One tablespoon of shea butter
• One half teaspoon of cocoa butter

Begin by melting the shea butter and the cocoa butter in a double boiler or very carefully in the microwave (when it melts, the oils become very hot and can splatter).  Break open the beet root capsules and sprinkle over the oils.  Stir to combine then pour slowly into a vessel.

Meant to note the need to thoroughly clean whatever container you are reusing to hold your balm.  I washed my tin with soap and warm water then dried thoroughly.

Leave the container until the butters have cooled and become solid.  I added four capsules of beet root to get a deeper color.  This created a grainy effect because all of the powder did not dissolve.

To Jimmy with Love

Another padded envelope, decorated with a variety of materials then placed back into the postal system for delivery.  While at a meeting in Columbia, SC; box lunches from a local restaurant called Jimmy John's were provided in sturdy paper boxes.   I folded mine flat and collected several from others to save for making post cards and artist trading cards.  The next day, I had to send a birthday present to my brother, James who I call Jimmy so I thought the lunch box would be perfect for creating an address label on a previously used padded envelope.  The lunch box lid added a nice touch for him because the colors (red, black, and white) are the same colors my brother uses in his personal training business www.phiferfitness.com.

In addition to using a piece of the lunch box, I used items collected from my craft table: a poorly stamped image (Oxford Impressions), a heart punched from scrap paper, a printed floral paper from a poorly copied scrapbook page that was destined for the recycle bin, and a part of a playing card left over from items cut up for card-themed party.  I layered these on the envelope and arranged them to my liking then sparsely used glue dots to place them before covering with clear packing tape. The photo was taken before the mailing address and the packing tape were added.

Hope this inspires you to reuse any envelope that makes its way to your home.  Just remember to completely cover the incoming postal information and cover the paper items with packing tape to keep them in place.

Paper, Glue, Glitter

Still contemplating other ways to make use of my excess jewelry catalogs.  I combined a few bold images from the catalog with pages torn from an old dictionary and a foreign language book along with one rubber stamp to create a dozen postcards.

Technique:  From heavy card stock paper, cut out postcards that are 4"x6".  Use a large rubber stamp to place an inked image on the left corner of the postcard.  Tear the dictionary paper and the text book and glue to the front of the card.  Cut images from the magazine and layer on top of the torn paper.  Type text in a word processor and print on any paper you are trying to use up.  Cut out the text and glue across the postcard. 

I told my friend, Donna, that one of my goals is to deplete my craft supplies before I die.  So you could stop at this point and have a nice postcard suitable for mailing (remember to cover everything with clear packing tape to prevent being ripped off in the mail).  I went a little further by using glitter glue to outline the text from the word processor.  I also used some sparkling watercolor paint and copic markers to add color to a few of the images from the rubber stamp.  I cut them out and covered them with the glossy stuff - can't remember the name (there are several types to choose from)- it makes everything feel like an epoxy has been applied. Then I glued them on each card.

Catalog Clearance

After: Gift wrapped package

After hosting a jewelry party, I found a few of the catalogs after everyone left.  When I offered to mail them to the consultant, she told me to keep them because another catalog was being distributed soon.

Not one to throw away good glossy paper, I started using the catalog pages as wrapping paper. 

To get the largest piece of paper, I remove the pages from the center of the catalog.  The pages lift out from the center in one piece.  I use colored duct tape as an accent color and as an extra strong adhesive to keep the "wrapping" paper in place.

Before: jewelry catalog and gift that needs to be wrapped

The birthday tag was made from a poorly copied scrapbook page (destined for the recycle box), a few fabric flowers, and an extra large brad to create the flower's center.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Packaging tape keeps the pieces together.

When I receive padded envelopes, I reuse them to mail items to others.  To make sure the package is delivered properly, any bar codes or handwritten coding added by the post office (they do this when sorting mail for some post office boxes) has to be covered or removed. 

Remove original mailing labels when possible.

To give the package a celebratory feeling, I add scraps saved from previous projects. For this package, I had scraps of unused photos and really bad color copies of scrapbook pages. I trimmed the scrapbook page to fit the package, added a bloom from a florist's advertisement, and trees clipped from a photo. To make the address easy to see, I use a scrap of white paper and a large marker.  Everything is covered with clear packaging tape to keep it intact during transit.