Magazine Beads & Charms

It's not ATCs, but it's still a sweet idea.  Part recycled, part upcycled stuff and all cool.  Make some beads and charms out of magazines!

Pretty cool looking bracelet that they teach you to make...

ATCs on the Cheap

ATCs are a really great choice for creating some art pieces.  You don't get overwhelmed by looking at a huge white canvas when the canvas is about the same size as your hand.  :)  However, purchasing the little cards already cut to the right size is *expensive!*  With that in mind, I'm always after new ways to find materials to cut my own ATCs out.

Yesterday, I was at Fred Meyers (a store sort of like super WalMart that aims to answer all your shopping needs in one stop).  They were taking down the previous week's sale posters and I asked if they were going to toss them.  When the answer came back yes, I requested a couple.

I didn't do my math correctly, so I ended up with a lot of material to recycle in the bin.  Here's what I got from the first poster:

I did better on my math with the second poster and only had about an inch (length-wise) of bin recycle material.  But the great part is I've got a pile of ATCs about an inch and a half thick now!  And it's great material for cards because it's heavy!

I'll have to either gesso the shiny side or stick a label on it in order to put my information about the card on it, but I think I can handle that; especially since I've got a whole BOX of mailing labels I purchased at a second hand store thinking I'd use them somehow for ATCs.  Hahaha!

ATC Creation Process

I've been working on a 3D sort of ATC today:

It was a fun process, too!  I used recycled material throughout the whole thing.  The top piece is made from the top center of a #6 plastic clam shell that our Russian cakes came in.

I used Sharpie markers to make my design.

Then I cooked it in the toaster oven!  Yup, ~275 degrees (F) for about 6 minutes on the parchment paper seen in the picture above.  It shriveled all up and curled around itself.  I had to flatten it back out a little and put something heavy on it to sort of get it to lay down again.

Then I covered a recycled cardboard ATC card (I just cut it out from the bottom of small package) with this flashing leftovers:

Then I put a neat little design in the flashing and lined up the plastic:

I used E-6000 glue to fix them to each other and added a few final swirls to the metal bits...  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!

I call it Emotions.  The depth and movement, darkness and light...  It's even got a well in the middle of the plastic - a well of emotions.  :)

Paint Chip Art

I was looking for an alternative to the expensive ATC cards I've been purchasing.  I tried cutting up larger sheets of paper, which works out well, but does nothing for the environment.  What I found was paintchips!  They're free (as long as you don't take too many at a time) and they're a great weight for making ATC cards.  Most of them are a little bit bigger than the 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" allowed, but it works out that you can cut them down!

So, I got the Martha Stewart paintchip from Home Depot (I grabbed about 10 of them in different colors).  I painted Gesso on the paint chip first, so the other paints and markers I wanted to use would stick to the card.  

It works brilliantly!

On the back, I used mailing labels to cover up the paint chip details so I could write in my own ATC details.  Works wonderful.  Great save for the environment, great save for the pocket book, and cool creative use of what's available for free out there!  :)