Craftivities!

Well, this blog has yet to reflect it, but the creative fluids have been regularly oozing from my body - in all the good kind of oozing ways possible. Recent re-use craftings have involved postcard making with children's picture books and activity books, cardboard food packaging, and some misc photographs. If you want me to send you a postcard, just send me an email with your mailing address and I'd be happy to!

Here's a glimpse of the "Valentines" I made this past February for some friends. I used black and white photographs from a 60's "Yearbook" that I bought at a Goodwill Outlet store awhile back and some Chinese cookie fortunes that I had been saving (for whatever reason - I guess to someday use them!). All modpodged onto some small watercolor paintings I had done when experiementing with the medium a few years ago. So, these are pretty simple 5X7 collages on watercolor paper. They seemed to make great and sturdy postcards. A little dilluted modpodge seemed to make a satisfactory topcoat seal. I let the dry and finished cards sit under some heavy books to try and straighten out any curling (that inevitably seems to occur when paper encounters massive amounts of watery glue).

Valentines

Young Artists

Moon walkers

BFFs

Power-seekers

Hipsters

Truth in cookies

& Loveliness.

Since making these Valentine postcards, I have been hooked on the idea. So I made a profile on a postcarding website, sendsomething.net, and started making more postcards! These are just some photographs I had lying around and I attempted to spruce them up on the interest/humor level with some ink images (just a plain old sharpie). It was an afternoon of fun for me plus about $0.27 each postcard, but I hope the outcome was a smile or some sort of enjoyment from the random receiver.

playtime

sidewalk chalk

grape juice

unexpected visitor

This past Sunday (the official, but too often ignored, "Craft Night") was spent making a few different projects: namely several postcards; a drawstring bag for a pair of over-sized sunglasses - made with the "Whoppers" graphic emblem of an old T-shirt (And that's Whoppers as in the malt candies, not the meaty burgers); and a plushy bunny (also made from a shirt that I found in my aparment building's basement - I certainly do love free piles!).

I've also still been experimenting with jewelry making (and etc.) using electronic components such as steel nuts, colorful wires, tiny aluminum heat sinks, and keyboard keys.

More photos at a later date! (promise.)

Also, for your crafting reuse resource, I recommend to you SCRAP. The School and Community Reuse Action Project is a local Portland non-profit that is involved in a lot of various reuse-inspiring outreach activities and, OMG YES OMG, a thrift store. The thrift store is wicked cheap and includes fine art and basic craft supplies, fabric, ceramic tiles, papers and papers and more papers, and the such. SCRAP also has some company-type donors that bring them miscellaneous industrial/businessy stuff: odd plastic containers (coughcough - i.e. birthcontrol packages), printed notepads and folders, fabric/carpet/wallpaper samples, and a lot of other potentially awesome junk that would have otherwise just ended up in a landfill. The SCRAP store also has huge buckets and barrels of winecorks, rubberbands, ribbon, bottle caps, zippers, elastic strips, and, strangely enough, shoulder pads! It's a reuse fiend's heaven. That's why I've been volunteering there the last couple months. Every hour volunteered is a dollar store credit - and that goes a long way! If you're in the Portland-area and for some reason have yet to check out the new location, it's on NE Stanton and MLK. I'll see you there!

Ok, that's enough from me. I'm gonna be cool and go craft some more.