Recycle, Re-use!

Hello!

I hope you're well and have had a good week. 

At last the wind and all those storms we seemed to be having one after the other have gone and everything has calmed down.  It's now light enough in the early evening for OH to commute to work on his bike via the countryside tracks and bridleways a couple of times a week rather than sit in traffic jams in the car.  Our little magnolia tree is flowering and looking lovely right now.  I love it when those 'feature' plants come into their own - even if they don't flower for long they are worth having just to look amazing for a week or two!

That's enough of the waffle, time to get down to the craft!

This week on The Daring Cardmakers blog.....

 R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

It's Svenja here and I'm trying to keep you busy - and in a sustainable way. My challenge for you this week is to recycle something that was likely to go in the bin. 

What did you make from it instead?

It doesn't have to be a card but could also be a book or box or anything else that came to your mind.

Let us see what a difference your work makes - and we'd also like to hear the story of your object so please do tell us what you've used and did to it to make things as good as new.

 I confess to being a hoarder.

Just for starters I hate to throw a box away, you never know when you might need a box in just that size, right? 

Then there's the little trimmings on gift boxes, cards, Christmas Crackers, tags from new clothing - even the little bits of ribbon and twine that attach them to the garment - I can't help it, it all finds its way into my "might come in useful" box.  And occasionally something actually does get used!  

And then there's 

the extra inked backgrounds I make when I'm on a roll

the extra flowers and other embellishments made but not used

and the cards and other projects I make but decide don't quite look 'right'  

So Svenja's challenge made me get them out and see whether I could actually use some of this hoarded 'stuff'

I started by ripping the top layer of paper from a small 'letterbox' type of cardboard box.  These are especially fab because between the smooth cardboard layers there is a corrugated layer, which has much smaller ripples in it that those of big cardboard boxes - therefore much better for using on cards and suchlike!

I find that damping the upper layer of brown paper with water is the key to removing it, I use my piercing tool or a bamboo skewer between the ripples to help lift it then its just a case of tearing it off - some might say its tedious, some may find it therapeutic 

Now it can be torn to a pleasing wobbly shape that fits across a card.

I added a few strands of hairy twine, tucking the ends under the corrugated card and gluing them there

The flowers are some that I didn't need for a card I made a few weeks back and they've been sitting in a pot on my desk since then.

By chance, in my 'Not sure about this card' pile was this scrapling, with a little hard that matched the flowers perfectly, so I pulled it off (along with the Baker's Twine, which went back in the Bakers Twine box!)

I duie cut some new leafy sprigs and popped them under the flowers and used some more hairy twine to make a bow for the heart.

The sentiment is one of my home-made decal stickers and I added 3 tiny gems for a little bit of bling.

I like this card so much better than the original scrapling one, and its good to have found a use for those two paper roses. 

 I must admit that this LO with a piece of corrugated card is one of my favourites - I wonder, does that count as recycling too?

So that's it.

Now if only I could get round to using some of the other stuff I've hoarded....

I would love it if you'd join in this week, it would be so good to see your recycling and re-using ideas.

That's all for this time, have a great weekend

Happy Crafting!