Saturday, April 23, 2011

Jingle Belles Rock - Week 17 - Recycle!

Here we are again with another Jingle Belles Rock challenge. This week we were asked to re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle or up-cycle something for our card in honor of Earth Day.

Okay, I must tell you I am not good at this. I see all these people who take scraps of a brown paper bag and make something AMAZING out of it, but me? Meh. I'll recycle the bags, or return with them for my next shopping trip and re-use them, but I have very rarely ever used packaging or anything not specifically made for a card to make mine. I KNOW it's efficient and not wasteful and ... ... what can I say? I don't do it.

So last night I was chatting with some of my tweeps to get a clue, and finally came up with a really crazy (CAH-RAZY) idea that you'll see here in a second. First, My card:

I think it still needs something else, so I reserve the right for a re-do. That said, let's examine the parts-is-parts, shall we?

Check out these scallops:

See that white scallop layer? It's cut from a discarded SOCK! A SOCK, PEOPLE! I had just tossed it yesterday since it had a gaping hole in the heel, and I have a bazillion pairs of white socks, so it became trash. I pulled it out, cut across the sock from the hole in the heel, and cut out the straight section, leaving this:

Yes, it's clean. No, it's not white any more. It's 15 years old. Gimme a break. ANYway, that cross-section was sliced up the side and placed on my Big Shot with a border die:

Ta-da:

I went back and cut a scallop instead of that pointy one so more of the sock would show. Let's look at the center section of the card now:


The two other scallop layers are Wild Wasabi and Brushed Gold that I ran through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder. And those green letters? From my stash, and at least 2 years old. I colored them with one of these that I picked up today:

Acrylic paint markers. I'd heard of their existence, but never owned any, until today. I used the green one to color the wood letters.

Now, for my next trick, I also used a "left-over" item on the card base. See the textured background here:


I painted some white card stock with tan, then green Claudine Hellmuth Studio paint. Then while it was still wet, I pressed a paper towel into it to create the texture. How does this count as re-use/re-cycle? Back in January, when I was packing up stuff from my Dad's house, I had brought a roll of paper towels to wrap and protect some of the smaller stuff. When I un-packed the box at home, I ended up with a pile of used paper towels. I have them stacked up in my kitchen, and I use them for cleaning or whatever. So I used one on the card to create texture. It totally counts. :) Think of it as packing material and you'll do fine.

So that's it - my card for this week's Jingle Belles challenge:

Wanna play? Find something to re-use/re-cycle, use it on a card, and join us! This is week 17, so I now have over 20 Christmas cards made already for this year. (Some weeks I made more than 1.) How many have YOU made? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

13 comments:

  1. The sock is brilliant! But... why Christmas cards when it's Easter? ;)

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  2. HAHHAHA!! You DID it!! You totally used the sock!! You totally win!! That looks awesome!!I never thought a used sock could look so fab on a card, but it looks great! Soft texture and wonderful. :) Who knew?

    Totaling digging all the greens, too. With the patterned paper you chose and pretty ribbon this card is a WINNER!! Absolutely beautiful. ♥

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  3. fantastic way to recycle (especially the sock--I'll totally have to use that idea the next time I find a mismatched sock (much more fun than using it to dust furniture LOL)

    love the whole card!

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  4. Wow! what a COOL recycle card!!! A Sock! I'd never even considered a sock!!! how great is that!!! Love the paint texture too from the papertowel!! You ROCKED this challenge!!! Great Job!!!

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  5. as in all things, i agree with miss lisa: YOU TOTALLY WIN, missus!!! you diecut A SOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! kinda makes my soda can reindeer look like small potatoes in comparison and i am FINE with that b/c i would never EVER have thought of SOCKS! (of course, my socks aren't that cute either, so the opportunity has never arisen!) this is BRILLIANT and fab just aesthetically as a card, btw, but the sock shall go down in history i feel sure!!! :) :) :)

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  6. That sock rocks ... I'm going out to my Goodwill bag I have in the car to donate tomorrow & look at everything with a whole new eye ... such fabulous texture & I bet you could color it with those cool new markers too ... thanks for jumping-in and joining our Earth Day celebration at jingle belles this week (oh yeah, the paper towel texture rocks too).

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  7. the sock idea is hilarious and perfect! I'd never have thought of it - so cool!
    Great card - I will have to get my thinking cap on now!

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  8. ok, you are totally my hero, and if i haven't told you that before, i was simply remiss. a SOCK! you are no longer qualified to say that you're not good at re-using/re-purposing, you're brilliant! and all the other parts are great, too, it just altogether rocks - thanks so much for playing this week!

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  9. Pure brilliance! A sock...I NEVER would have thought to use one. This card is just awesome!

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  10. Just piping in to say, "Told ya so!" HAHHAHHAHAHHA!!! I love this card so much!! :D

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  11. YOU WIN! A sock? I thought it would unravel. Great paper towel texture too...I was wondering if you cut up a green sock at first...

    FABULOUS, Leslie!

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  12. girl no wonder you dont' recycle.........you keep socks for 15 years so you don't need to!! lol
    AWESOME card :)

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  13. Okay - so you really socked it to us with this one! Sorry, couldn't resist, but I'm showing my age. But seriously, best use of an old sock I've seen in a dog's age or more! And your card rocks!

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I'd love to hear what you really think! :-)

PS: I've had to disable Anonymous comments, because the spammers were killing me. If you are unable to comment, please email me your comment and I'll get it posted for you. Sorry. (stoopid spammers)