Friday, April 12, 2013

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

Hello there my stamping friends and happy Friday!

I'm excited that the weekend is almost here and I'm looking forward to some relaxing and creative stamping time with Holly and friends and their daughters!  It should be fun!   I'm hoping you have some plans for relaxing and recharging over the weekend too.

In just a few days, we'll be observing Earth Day 2013 (Monday April 22nd).  Were any of you around for the very first Earth Day in 1970?  As I recall, the first Earth Day was a pretty big deal and even though we're recycling more than ever and we're more energy conscious and we're more environmentally aware than we were in 1970, poor old Mother Earth seems to be in worse shape.  We definitely need to do more to protect her!

In honor of Earth Day 2013, I've got a card that features a recycled element.  I encourage you to look around you and see what you might be able to recycle and add to a card.  Of course it goes without saying that you should save your scraps of card stock and designer paper.  I like to keep all of my scraps of colored card stock in a plastic page protector and then I place it in my file cabinet along with the full sheets of card stock.  Then when I need a piece of paper, I always check the scraps first to see if there's a smaller piece of paper that I can use instead of cutting into a full sheet.  I know I'm saving lots of paper since I started filing my scraps away for future use.

So let's get right to the card and then I'll give you a few details...



By the way, the little white label with my name on it is there to comply with Stampin'Up! rules that say all cards posted on the internet should have the "copyright by Stampin'Up!" statement on them.  You'll be seeing this little label from now on, but it is not part of the card.  I guess the first thing you might notice about this card, other than the strange little white label,  is the rather unorthodox color combination.  I checked my Stampin'Up! color coach and no, this color combination is not one that the color coach suggests.  I took my inspiration from a pillow I saw in a catalog.  I'm a big fan of Summer Starfruit and I love the way it looks with the corrugated kraft paper and Early Espresso.  If you're someone who says they hate Summer Starfruit, I think you might be won over when you see how beautifully it combines with some of the other Stampin'Up! colors, such as Midnight Muse and Early Espresso.

The Top Note shape was cut from a piece of corrugated cardboard that was used as packing material in a set of appetizer plates that I purchased at Crate & Barrel.  I loved the texture and color of the paper and I brought it right up to my stamp room, where it's been stashed away for over a year.  As I was looking around for an idea for an Earth Day card, this cardboard caught my eye.  Now I wish I had more of it so I could use this idea for a class.

Here's a quick list of the supplies I used:
    Stamp Sets:  Mixed Bunch, p. 94 of the big catalog, 21.95
                       One in a Million, p. 135 of the big catalog, 18.95
    Paper:  Early Espresso Card Stock, Summer Starfruit Card Stock
    Ink:  Early Espresso
    Accessories:  Top Note Die for the Big Shot, p. 193, 21.95
                         Decorative Label Punch, p. 182, 16.95
                         Blossom Punch. p. 185, 16.95
                         Neutral Brads, p. 174, 6.95
                         3/4 inch circle punch, p. 184, 12.95
                         Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon, p. 172, 8.95

I love the way this spur-of-the-moment card turned out and I hope you do too.  Please leave me a comment and tell me if you're going to try out this color combination.  I hope you'll have time to be creative this weekend, if not in your stamp room, then in the kitchen or the garden, or perhaps at your sewing machine!  There are so many ways to live a creative life and the more creative we are, the happier we are!
Enjoy the weekend and please come back on Monday for more stamping inspiration.
Hugs,
Susan






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