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Welcome! This is the place where I share my artsy and crafty projects. I am an evolving artist these days ... finding myself enjoying less of the cards and mini albums that I have made for years, and turning to art journaling and more artistic endeavors. I have always enjoyed some craft or other, and some of my earliest memories of my mother helping me make paper dolls and other crafts. I am now in my 60's and finding myself more passionately enjoying creating beautiful things and learning new skills and techniques and products.

While you are here I hope you will find inspiration and ideas for making your own projects, however any images or projects you find here are my personal property and should not be used for your own monetary gain, or for contests or challenges. Thank You!

4/20/2011

Two Challenges . . . Papercraft Star and Sunday Postcard Art

Back again with a double challenge project.  I love it when I can work that out!  First I found this week's challenge for Sunday Postcard Art, and this is my first time participating in this challenge ~ I have been stalking them for a while, and finally am taking part.  Their challenge this week is Song Title, and as always their requirement is that your project be the size of a postcard, or 4"x6".  And then I found this week's challenge for Papercraft Star, and their challenge (#42) is to use an Earth Day theme, using recycled elements on your project.

I started looking for an image that would work for both challenges, and I have to say I love this image and had been wanting to use it again, so I knew my theme would be something to do with gardening.  So then I got to thinking that the picture has such a vintage look to it, and during WWII having gardens, or 'victory gardens' was a huge deal, so I started looking for songs about gardening from that era.  Here is the song that I found, called 'Dig, Dig, Dig' . . .


Get out and dig dig dig in the sunshine 
You can make one garden grow 
Every seed you buy will gladly multiply 
Til we've overcome our foe. 
Get out and work work work for the nation 
We can keep our country free 
Help the rain above feed the ones we love 
Dig our way to victory. 
Planting corn – every day. 
Planting beans – come what may 
Turn the sod – trust in God 
And the earth will show the way. 


Get out and dig dig in the sunshine 
Every heart will feel a glow – 
As we turn the tide we'll be glad we tried 
To make ten million gardens grow.

Apparently this was a jingle from a gardening radio show in the early 1940's.  Here is my project based on both challenges . . . 



I must say that as I worked on this project, it really took on a life of it's own!  And as a crafter that makes me very happy, because it makes me feel like a real artist when I allow the project to tell me what it wants to be as this one did.  Here are all the details . . . 

The Blueprints:
  • Papercraft Star ~ make a project with an Earth Day theme, using recycled elements
  • Sunday Postcard Art ~ make a project based on a song title

The Materials:
  • Base cardstock is 'kraft' from The Paper Studio
  • Patterned paper is 'Blue Gingham' from The Paper Studio
  • Image was found online, saved to my computer as a jpeg file, text was added using Picasa and printed on my ink jet printer
  • Ribbons, beads, bell, lace, twine and wire are all from my stash
  • Glue Arts 'U-Cut-It' Foam Adhesive Blanks (cut yourself foam squares)
  • Beacon '3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue'

Recycled Elements:
  • all cardstock and patterned papers were scraps, no new sheet of paper was harmed!
  • corrugated cardboardfor matting of image
  • green frame is packaging from Prima clear stamps
  • red twine came from a large bag of dog food
  • blue beads and bell were re-used from a previous project
  • button is very old, and I chose not to clean it because I loved the dirty, used look



The Tools:
  • computer
  • ink jet printer
  • rotary cutter
  • scissors
  • jump ring pliers
  • wire cutting pliers



Step by Step:
  • Edit image using Picasa, then print to size
  • Make base by cutting three pieces of paper ~ two cardstock, one patterned paper ~ and 'laminating' them into one piece, then trimming to size of 4" x 6"
  • Adhere Prima card to bottom right corner of postcard
  • Adhere image to blue cardstock
  • Adhere image to corrugated cardboard
  • Wrap red twine around bottom of corrugated cardboard, leaving 3 inches or so of tails on each end
  • Adhere foam squares or dots to the back of the corrugated cardboard, and adhere to postcard
  • Tie button and bell onto the red twine and trim twine to desired length
  • Twist and turn wire to shape desired using jump ring pliers and glue to postcard
  • Glue beads on top of wire
  • Cut length of vintage lace and ravel edges.  Tie in center using red twine, then tie or glue on the button. Glue to the postcard



And there you have my project.  And I love it ~ truly!  I think you can get a sense of the recycled, earthy or organic elements, and it actually tells a good story.  Planting gardens, whether they be flowers, vegetables, shrubs or trees, helps our earth and helps us!  If all you can do is have a couple of house plants, those house plants help to purify the air in your home.  Save our earth . . . Plant a garden!

Blessings friends, Becky

Side Note:  Remember I said this project took on a life of it's own?  Well, I did not plan on having a red, white and blue project at all!  It just worked out that way.  A testament to letting go and let a project tell you what it wants to be!  B.


4 comments:

Tracy said...

LOL Man when I think of all the dog food bag string I've thrown away I could cry. :-) Awesome recycling project. So many great repurposed elements. Thanks so much for sharing this with us this week at Papercraft Star!

Twyla and Lindsey said...

Happy Birthday! from Two Crazy Crafters

Kim Duran said...

You are so clever to think of using the string from the dog food bag. I'm going to make sure I check for that from now on before throwing the bag out. I also love that you used so many recycled items in your project. The results are lovely. Thanks so much for playing along this week at Papercraft Star!

Leda said...

I love the saying...it makes me want to PLANT soon!...now if mother nature would only cooperate! Darling card!