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Recycling
Dandelion Acres wrote:
I just wanted to share a little idea that I'm sure most of you already know, but it's relatively new to me. We have a small business and end up with partial boxes of unused business cards (employee turnover, address/phone number change etc.) which make perfect gift tags! They're heavy cardstock (ours are a white linen base). Either stick two together and decorate both sides or stick a slightly larger piece of colored paper to the back. I used them for Christmas tags last year using a small stamp on the left and the little letters (wal-mart - $10 for the whole alphabet!) to fill in the 'to' name(s) It was so easy to pass out gifts, because the 'to' names were very easy to read. I'm sure all you experienced stampers have some great money-saving ideas. Please share! Oh, one of my favorite subjects (right up there with "finding art supplies for half the price in hardware, office and kitchen stores"). I'm cheap, I try to be environmentally aware, and I love Free Stuff. Some of the things I do, or have done: * Check the junk mail for sources of nice cardstock - lots of advertising mailers come on heavy stock, often colored or textured, and even if it's printed on both sides there's usually enough of a margin that you can use it as a background paper. * Other junk mail gets clipped for interesting images to use in collages, or sorted into piles, by approximately color, to be turned into handmade paper using the blender method. * Tear stamps off incoming mail for use in collages. Save postcards and greeting cards for the same purpose. * I save every bit of giftwrap and ribbon that comes my way, for use as layering and embellisment. * Grocery packaging can be re-used in a number of ways. Those net bags that hold potatoes, oranges, etc. can be cut up and laid down over paper; brayer ink on top of it for an interesting background texture, and when you're done, invert the inked net onto bits of scrap paper to "stamp" the reverse pattern for other uses. White foam meat trays can be used very much like those expensive foam stamping blocks - cut them into shapes, heat slightly with your heat tool and press them down onto something textured to create an instant reversed texture stamp. I've been told that certain kinds of plastic food containers also work just like shrink plastic, but I haven't played with them - someone else might know about that. * Colorful calendars (especially floral and scenic ones) and magazine covers are great for collage, backgrounds, home-made envelopes or even origami - a standard calendar page is the right size for a cute little origami gift box, for instance. * Old stamp catalogs - when a new one arrives, cut the old one up into collage scrap. (Don't do this for items you plan to sell, as it amounts to copyright violation, but for personal use and gift-giving it's legal). * I save all the rejected pages and first drafts from my inkjet printer and spread them out under stamping and other craft projects to protect my table from stray ink, paint, glue, etc. * Old phone books go down to the studio and get used for all sorts of things, from surface protection for spray adhesive projects (open a page, lay out your project, spray, remove project and turn to the next page) to presses for flattening cards and drying flowers. One key to this kind of recycling is to have a good system for filing your scrap, and to file it the minute it comes into the house - otherwise you wind up with piles of recyclables all over the place and no room to work. I use those brown expanding file folders to sort collage elements and small scrap, and various stackable plastic drawers to sort larger pieces. I also keep a basket on the work table where I toss random scraps and images - when I'm in the mood to play but don't have any brilliant ideas, I just dip into the basket and start pulling out images till something strikes my fancy. -- Pat Kight |
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#2
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Hi Sandi
Another good thing and one of my favorites are the paint samples at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. The Ralph Lauren line of paint samples was heavenly with pearlized colors - had a great time stamping on them, cutting with fancy scissors, and adding onto cards. Can make great 'tag' looking cards - just slip a plain scrap card stock with message into the pocket. Also, another great paper source is old wall paper books - ask at paint stores for them - pick ones you like the designs of I'm not too struck on kids or kitchen themes but love the living room themes - lots of plain textured pages. Great backgrounds or tags or pockets or message signs. Even cut out designs of flowers, bells, balloons, etc. and glue on - endless ways to use. Another Sandy |
#3
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Such wonderful ideas -- it seems like Christmas! This week, when I
finished using all the little tubs in a small sized Crystal Light package, I noticed that I could peel the outer paper right off leaving a nice little plastic container without advertising. Now . . . if I don't forget about it, one of these days I'll have the perfect little container for something . . . wonder if I could stamp it and maybe use it to box a small Christmas present . . . hmmmm :-) |
#4
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Lorene wrote:
..what great ideas here...thanks to all for sharing! ~~Lorene Hey, Lorene - would you mind turning your WebTV signature off for newsgroup posting purposes? It's generally considered bad form to post images to Usenet groups, and it can cause problems for people who use news readers that don't support graphics. Thanks, -- Pat Kight |
#5
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..remembered that the minute I hit Send! Odd tho cause I post to
several NG's and we leave our sigs on. Have no idea what a "news reader" is? ~~Lorene |
#6
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Lorene wrote:
.remembered that the minute I hit Send! Odd tho cause I post to several NG's and we leave our sigs on. Have no idea what a "news reader" is? It's the software people with computers use to read newsgroups. (geek teacher mode on Usenet - the newsgroup you're reading here is part of it - is an old (in Internet terms) and venerable medium that has always been text-only, except for a handful of groups with the word "binaries" in the title that explictly allow pictures. Although a lot of people today access Usenet groups on the Web - either with a browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer or, as you do, via a TV set, you don't need a Web browser to get Usenet messages. If you have a computer and newsreading software, you can connect directly to newsgroups. And a us old farts still use software that delivers the messages in nothing but text. For those people, graphics show up as looooooong strings of code, if they show up at all. And even a small picture file can be a lot longer than you might think, code-wise, and can cause some software to crash. So the tradition for Usenet has always been "no graphics, please." It's a tradition that's fading as more and more people discover newsgroups through their Web browsers, but it still makes sense, 'cause it makes your messages accessible to the largest possible global audience. There are lots of Web-based forums that are sometimes referred to as newsgroups, and graphics are allowed in some of them. That may be what you're thinking of. (geek teacher mode off.) That may be more than you wanted to know. (-: But thanks for turning off the sig. -- Pat Kight |
#7
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Does anyone have these compiled?
I musta missed the posts with the recycle info in them... If you have it, please repost, or send to me : ) Thanks!-- Christi Stampin' Up! Representative Art Without Anxiety www.ArtWithoutAnxiety.com ^,,^ ^,,^ ^,,^ ^,,^ "Patricia" wrote in message ... Such wonderful ideas -- it seems like Christmas! This week, when I finished using all the little tubs in a small sized Crystal Light package, I noticed that I could peel the outer paper right off leaving a nice little plastic container without advertising. Now . . . if I don't forget about it, one of these days I'll have the perfect little container for something . . . wonder if I could stamp it and maybe use it to box a small Christmas present . . . hmmmm :-) |
#8
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Christi Conley wrote:
Does anyone have these compiled? I musta missed the posts with the recycle info in them... Better yet, go to http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search and enter "recycling" in the "find messages with..." box and "rec.crafts.rubberstamps" in the "Newsgroup" box. Google archives all newsgroups; only those who add "X-no-archive: yes" to their message headers go unarchived. -- Pat Kight |
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