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

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

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 :-)

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

..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

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

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 :-)

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