Creative Squad

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with Michelle Rydell

  

Happy Tuesday everyone and welcome to a project from Creative Squad member Michelle Rydell! Michelle brought together a bunch of different items from her stash to create a beautiful little book with a message that is just perfect. She used my Mini Batik Pattern 2 stamp and my Batik, Lily Wallpaper, and What’s the Point stencils to help her with this month’s theme: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Let’s do Mother Earth a favor this month and use what we already have.  Maybe we’ll dip into our stash of leftovers from other creative projects or maybe we’ll repurpose something unexpected.  This month we’re thinking about how artmaking can impact the environment and we’re trying to make our footprint just a little bit smaller.

About five years ago, I found a bunch of old S&H Green Stamp books at an antique store, and I thought they were so cute I just had to buy them.  Remember green stamps?  Well, they have been just waiting for the right project, and this month’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle fit the bill perfectly!

I decided to make one into a mini-journal.  Here’s how I did it…

I combed thru my stash of vintage ephemera and picked out a pile of things that I thought had possibilities – mostly because they matched the color scheme of the green stamps…

I decided on a theme for the book, and then combed thru my stamps and stencils designed by Nat, and picked out some that I thought would work great for the project.  The ones I ended up using were: Mini Batik Pattern 2 Foam Stamp, and three stencils: Batik, Lily Wallpaper and What’s the Point?

The toad I wanted to put on the first page needed a background to rest on, so I pulled out the foam stamp and added a couple of swirls to start things off.

Then a little paint and a bit of patterned paper…

To create some consistency, I flipped to the back page and did something similar with the background.

From there I was off and running, adding stamps and stencils, paint and bits of paper to each page.  I also took out the rusty old staples and changed the binding to bakers twine. The dots here are made with the What’s The Point stencil. At the end I added a favorite quote to pull it all together.  Here’s how it turned out…

Thank you Michelle for this inspiring little book! In addition to various vintage papers, Michelle used the following:



Play along with us too: I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

Comments (6)

  • datatar

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    Amazing album! I just love everything about it. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  • Deb

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    What a FUN idea!!!
    I too remember the green stamps and going with my Mom to the redemption store!

    Reply

    • Michelle Rydell

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      Thanks so much Deb! I’m glad it brought back memories for you!

      Reply

  • Julie Tucker

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    I do remember those green stamp books!!! I loveeeeeeeeeeeee this!! FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

    • Michelle Rydell

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      Thank you so much Julie! I appreciate your kind words!!!

      Reply

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with Tina Walker

  

Hello my friends! It’s Tuesday and time for a project from my Creative Squad. Today we have a beautiful and clever book created by Tina Walker who reused two old projects and gave them a new life :)  Tina used my Batik Pattern 3 foam stamp, my Amsterdam 6×6 and Lily Wallpaper stencils, and my Marks stamp set to help her with this month’s theme: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Let’s do Mother Earth a favor this month and use what we already have.  Maybe we’ll dip into our stash of leftovers from other creative projects or maybe we’ll repurpose something unexpected.  This month we’re thinking about how artmaking can impact the environment and we’re trying to make our footprint just a little bit smaller.

Hi! Tina Walker here today with a new month and a new theme and…… my last Creative Squad post. :(  I have SO enjoyed my time as part of Nat’s Creative Squad family and will truly miss this part of MY monthly creative process. But don’t despair, I will still be around and will see y’all in cyber-land. Thank you again Nat! And thank you to this wonderfully creative community.

September’s theme is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. These three (little) words have such a strong, powerful meaning in today’s world and have a very special meaning for me. I am hosting a year long project called, The Sustainable Souls Project, where a group of like-minded artists are creating awareness about sustainability topics and how we impact the world and the environment. Our very own Nat was a Guest Artist for two months and we thoroughly enjoyed her vision. For today’s project, I expanded the idea of repurposing, to include my art. I will show how I recycled two past, uninspiring projects into one new project that I am happy to share.

Several months ago, I created these two projects, ironically as part of a Creative Squad post. I never shared them and created something else, so how perfect to repurpose them into something new for this month’s theme?

Here’s a peek at my two (previously) created projects.

  

Using part of both projects, I created a larger mini journal, that can be functionally used or displayed. Let’s take a look.

I deconstructed the book and home décor hanging, removing the embellishments, ribbons, and papers. Using the papers as the base for my new book, I repeated the same Batik Pattern 3 foam stamp for a cohesive look.

Next, I repeated the same Lily Wallpaper stencil for more cohesiveness and added stamps from Nat’s Marks stamp set.

Using one of the paper pages, I created a binding for the entire journal and added it to the inside of the previous mini book covers.

Since the previous mini book was narrow, I wanted my new cover to extend the width of the folded-out pages. I machine-stitched the home décor hanging piece to the new cover. I used the Amsterdam stencil here for the background. I also added a piece of string, a button, and the metal hanging embellishment from the previous projects to my new cover. It went from drab to fab in a quick minute.

Just a few last details and my new book is ready for assembling. Here’s a peek at several of the inside pages.

I am so happy with the ‘new’ result and I am glad for the challenge.

Do you re-purpose old, unwanted projects? Yes? We would love to see them.

I hope you enjoyed my project today. Have a great day!

Thank you Tina for your (re)creation!  :)  In addition to vintage papers, jewelry findings, buttons, and twine, Tina used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):




Play along with us too: I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Karen Bearse

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    Love how you combined 2 projects to make this hip, funky original arr journal. Very inspiring!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Clever, pretty, green and gorgeous Tina!

    Reply

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Letter to my Future Self – Michelle Rydell

CS July Letter

It’s Tuesday and time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “Letter to my Future Self”. Throughout the month of July, the team has been using any of my n*Studio Stamps and Stencils they would like to use to interpret the theme. This month’s theme is in honor of my recent 10 year (!) blog anniversary- which we are celebrating until the end of the month! I asked the team to create something that they’d like to tell themselves in 10 years. Like a mixed media time capsule. This theme flips the “If only I knew then what I know now” sentiment up-side-down.

This week we bring you Michelle Rydell’s happy and uplifting postcard!

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Michelle July Headshot

The theme for this month was a challenging one: Letter to my Future Self. Hmmm… I have thought many times about what I would say to my younger self if I could; what wisdom I could share that would help her on life’s journey. But what could I tell my future self? She knows everything I know, plus she has ten years more life experience!

I pictured myself in ten years – going to the mailbox and finding a postcard there, and smiling when I see it’s from me. That’s when I knew just what I wanted it to say. It’s a lyric from a Jackson Browne song called “For A Dancer.” It goes like this…

“Keep a fire burning in your eye,

and pay attention to the open sky,

You never know what will be coming down.”

I’ve loved that lyric for many years. I can’t say for sure what Jackson meant when he wrote it; but for me it means – keep your passion alive, and stay open to whatever comes your way.

First, to create the postcard I cut some heavyweight watercolor paper to approximately 4” x 6”. Then I swirled some pink and yellow watercolor onto the background…

Rydell Letter 1

I decided that wasn’t bright enough, so I added some fluorescent pink acrylic.

Rydell Letter 2

I used a blending tool to apply some teal acrylic paint thru Nat’s Lily Wallpaper stencil to add some contrast. I kept the stenciling on the left side of the page to leave room for the words on the right.

Rydell Letter 3

I did a draft of the lyric on scratch paper first, to see approximately how much room it would take up. Then I added some light pencil lines to the postcard and went to town with a black permanent ink pen.

Rydell Letter 4

I want to put this postcard on the inside front cover of my current journal. I have a pocket to put it in that will be just right. Once in the pocket, I stenciled the other half of the Lily Wallpaper motif to make it look like the pattern continues…

Rydell Letter 5

Rydell Letter 6

I took some pre-dyed ribbon and used the same Lily stencil to create a pattern with yellow paint.

Rydell Letter 7

Rydell Letter 8

And here’s the final page. I added some white outlining to the stenciling to show off the detail of the design, and added the stenciled ribbon to the grommeted hole.

Rydell Letter 9

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Michelle’s postcard is so gorgeous with those colors and such a nice message. I love that it’s going right in the front of her art journal so she can remind her present self too!

Michelle used the supplies listed below (some are affiliate links):

SuppliesCJS

Maybe you will even play along with us -I would love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Don’t forget that I have a Blogiversary SALE right now going on with 20% off of online workshops (like Creative Jumpstart 2016), DVDs, and select items (including all the stamps andstencils) from the n*Store online.  The sale prices are reflected in the store now.

Happy Blogiversary sale

See you next Tuesday for the another project from the Creative Squad, with a brand new theme for the month of August.

Nat

Comments (6)

  • Michelle Rydell

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    Thank you so much for your kind words everyone! It really means a lot to me!

    Reply

  • Marit

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    I really love the lyrics and the colors you used Michelle (gotta have fluorescent pink myself now!!!) Great idea, to let the pattern run on the page and the ribbon adds something ‘extra’ to the total image. Fabulous card!!!

    Reply

  • Joi @RR

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    Wow – so modern and so poignant Michelle. Brilliant colors. SUPER idea. Creativity at it’s best for your theme. Very special. j.

    Reply

  • Julie Tucker

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    Love love love this! Those lyrics are PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

  • Janet

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    I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I love the colors that you chose Michelle!
    Especially the initial swirl and added pink to make it brighter.

    Reply

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