Scientific-It's All Just Junk!

 

Hello friends and visitors! Today I want to share an accordion folder with you, made from lots of things others might think to be trash. But us frugal crafters know that although it's all just a bunch of junk, something really great could come out of it. This all started with some waste packaging I've been saving up. The theme of the folder ended up being dictated by some pretty Nature's Wonders leaves from my stash, already inked and fussy cut. I actually had planned to use my Funky Insects and cut them from some silver foil cannister and peanut butter jar liners, but I got distracted by the leaves when I was looking at my saved scraps. 

Please don't tell me I'm the only one who saves these! I found five identical sized ones to use to make the base of my folder. Below are photos of other "trash" I used in the making of this folder;

  

I rarely pay full price for watercolor paper. It seems there are a lot of people out there who use one or two sheets out of a pad or block and give up on their artistic endeavors. I swoop in to save the pads from going into the landfill at various yard sales. This particular artist was into pen and ink line drawing. I just used the back side of one of the used sheets; it is exactly the size I needed to cover my waste packaging.

Paula (see below) used Tim's Fabric Tape shown in the top of the photo to adhere her tags, but in keeping with the 'trash/upclycle' theme, I chose to use a badly soiled adhesive medical tape. I picked up a bag of this at an estate sale just for crafting, and I'm pretty sure the people there must have thought I was out of my mind.

Here's a shot of me choosing from my buffet of crafty trash to make my collages after my backgrounds were partially complete.

Let me show you how it all turned out. But first, I need to give credit where credit is due. I was inspired by Paula Cheney at One Lucky Day with her In My Heart of Hearts Tag Book.  Although I did read through her post at one time and studied every beautiful photo, my internet went down throughout the entire time I was making this, and I had to wing it. And of course, the creative process takes me in different directions when I finally sat down to make. I strongly recommend you visit her blog to see her gorgeous folder as well as all of her inspiring work and to see how the folder is constructed. 

Remember to click on any photo to enlarge!

I sprayed my watercolor panel with Old Paper Oxide spray and water, stamped the cut and dried panels with Archival ink and a series of Tim Holtz Background stamps.  I used grit and texture paste with my stencils and after it dried, swiped the raised areas with a Versamark pad. I lightly let embossing glaze powder (Peeled Paint and Weathered Wood) fall over the panel and heated to melt. I used ink and crayon to add more depth and finally splattered with Ground Espresso paint. The panels were adhered to the waste packaging and plain paper applied to the backs.

The little 'frame' on the front cover is waste from a ticket I die cut years ago. The butterfly is fussy cut from a little piece of Tim Holtz' old Fragments. They were a gift from my friend Autumn of Sew Paper Paint, and every once in a while they will show up on one of my makes. I colored this guy and all the butterflies with Chipped Sapphire crayon. There's also a couple of scraps that are leftover parts from pieces used on past projects.

There's another one of those Fragments The honeycomb die cut is a bit from long ago cut from flimsy white paper. To stiffen it and contrast with the blue background, I added layers of embossing glaze (Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain) and gold embossing powder.

This butterfly is from the Field Notes ephemera pack and the circle ephemera from another older pack. There's a portion of a label holder die cut, and you'll see later, I was able to use the other portion, too. It was bright green, but I was able to age it a little for that vintage look I love.

On the fourth panel, I used a blue ticking Fragment and stamped a butterfly from an old acrylic set (7 Gypsies) that was just the right size for the piece, and layered it over another ephemera piece from another pack. The blue ticking stripe was actually what helped me choose my contrasting color for my project.

On the last panel, I used a ticket from the Fragments pieces and the other piece of the die cut label holder. I needed another butterfly, and I found this piece of book page lying on my work top. I stamped it with another butterfly from the 7 Gypsies set. All of my ephemera pieces are swiped with Vintage Photo Matte Medium (which is about ready for the trash). It's really old and goopy, and I was able to spread it really thick in some areas and when dry, scribbled and smudged with Distress crayon (in the color of whatever happened to be left on my finger from highlighting the raised stencil work). I looked around from some punched holes that might work for the label holders, but it looks like they might have actually made it to the trash. Instead, I darkened a pair of orange adhesive rhinestones with Mushroom alcohol ink; I was tickled pink that they closely resembles brass (or is it just my eyes?). The word 'moths' was left from the cover panel's fussy cut Fragment. 

I couldn't leave the back plain, so I attempted to use some small scraps of old Tim Holtz paper stash, but being too heavy a paper, the accordion wouldn't fold properly. Luckily, (I don't throw out trash) I found some bits of handmade papers in my stash (trash) that worked. It wasn't until I was adhering it to the backs of the cards that I noticed it has real leaves pressed into it. I heat embossed some phrases from Nature's Wonders and some of the leaves onto the panels and edged the back with metallic Distress Crayon.

And one final bit of 'trash' is the ribbon, rescued from the neck of a garment and originally pink! I sprayed it down with Chipped Sapphire Oxide Spray and when almost dry, rolled it over a Walnut Stain ink pad to 'age' it. And that's all for me today! Happy making!

I would like to share my folder with the following challenges:

The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog Reuse & Upcycle Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Not a Card

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes