Tuesday, April 22, 2014

SOS148: happy earth day

good morning and happy earth day 2014 to you! at shopping our stash we're celebrating by making projects which contain re-cycled or up-cycled elements, and we'd love for you to join in! here's what i made:

recycled: sheet music; prima and kay-and-co packaging; red marbled paper; soda can used to make metal wings, heart swirl and crown; pearl swirls: recollections; red fabric paper: kate's paperie; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i'm proud to say that almost all of my card is made from re-purposed elements! the red heart is marbled paper from a brochure; the cream colored papers (ranging from biggest to smallest) are: sheet music; the packet from some prima flowers; and the backer from k and co rub-ons; and the metal parts of my die cut heart and wings are made from a flattened out soda can*-- the wings are the natural inside color of the can, the swirly heart has been stamped with black permanent ink, and the crown has been scribbled on with a gold paint pen.

the above came together so easily that i decided to work on a second idea that i've been thinking about... and saving containers... for a while. a little backstory here: one of my favorite guilty pleasures is to stir a spoonful of "suisse mocha" international coffee into my freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning. and probaby the only container that routinely gets saved more than international coffee is the dreaded altoids tin, am i right? but there's a reason for that, they're the perfect size for small embellishments, which i coincidentally notice are increasingly coming in NON-re-sealable packets. (what's up with that?) i'm usually pretty lazy about things like this, but the other day i got some new deco tapes and had a brainwave:


ok, so yeah, it's not exactly earth-shatteringly original, but this was definitely one of the smoothest and quickest altering projects i've ever done; no paint, no mess, no hassle; just tape + containers. if you really want to get fancy, you can cut the tape with scissors and smooth the ends down really neatly so they don't show. easy peasy! within about an hour i had a whole stack of neat little homes for my goodies:


and now head on over to SOS for more awesome earthday goodness! ♥

*if you read this blog regularly, you've already seen this trick; but believe it or not, i don't think i've ever used it for anything but xmas card reindeer, so it was fun to branch out! if you don't know what i'm talking about, there's a step-by-step explanation of how to diecut soda cans on this post! :)

8 comments:

  1. WASHI TAPE IN DA HOUSE! I love what you've done with the coffee tins. L O V E. They are perfect.

    And I cannot play with the soda cans because I don't drink soda! Waaaah! But I just had another idea I may try later today. Hmmmm ...

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  2. Love this! The heart with wings and a crown look fab. Those containers look wonderful decorated!

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  3. Not until now have I bemoaned the lack of pop cans at our house....that is so cool! I love how easy you make it look to upcycle :) And those containers are so CUTE! What a great idea!

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  4. Love those containers fab. idea and your card is awesome, love all the recycled elements on it. Fabulous Earth Day items.

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  5. Ohhhhhh that's a super fab idea on the containers!! I have a baby wipe container that I keep my distress stains in...I am totally covering it in washi tape or duct tape!!
    You cut a pop can with a die???? Geeez oh pete my hubby drinks about 6 cans a day - all this time I could have been using them for crafts?????

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  6. Absolutely GORGEOUS!!! WOW! Lauren, this is so beautiful. I love all the different elements. Outstanding!
    The containers are just perfect too. VERY cute and they'll brighten up any room - and be useful too!
    Lynn

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  7. Those are so cute!!! I love that idea. Great use of the tape too. :)

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  8. Wonderful card and what clever way to upcycle those coffee cans.

    Hugs Diane

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