Eco Love Cards

Eco Love Cards!

We can all used love cards not just during Valentines Day but for all year-- birthday's, hellos and just because... we want to send some love to someone in the mail.  Here are a some cards I made for samples for some of my workshops. I used junk mail, file folders, discarded books, maps, card board, wall paper scraps and the list goes on. The tools I used were scissors, punches and my trusty Sizzix Big Shot (www.sizzix.com) and rubber stamps hand made and store bought.

I made this frame display board from an old frame from SCRAP-SF.org. I put wire across the back and used clothes pin to hang the cards. I put a paper backing on it but you could leave it open. I see a Rooster card on the board I made for Chinese New Years this year too. So many of these cards ideas can be used year round.

These cards were made from an old atlas, an airmail envelope and scraps from some old mono prints.

These love cards are made using paint chips (the blue mailbox), wall paper and books The security envelope is turned inside out and I folded old music sheet and maps into envelopes.

Using my heart punches I made a variety of cards. The ice cream cones and the mini paper banner are just cut free hand.
The wool felt heart in the mason jar was cut freehand from an old wool sweater. 

This big heart was a book page that I painted with acrylic paint. I then took my die cutter and cut out the heart.
I also painted grocery bags randomly with pink and red paint and later cut out hearts.

These two hearts were cut from old card board and wall paper. I then wrapped twine and thick thread randomly around the heart and glued down to the card stock.

These last two cards are the front and back of my husband Valentine card I make for him this year. He is a physician so I used an old medical book and cut out the heart for the front of the card and then used the rest of the book page for the background on the page with the big heart. 

Eco Envelope tutorial

Find some magazines, catalogs, junk mail and you can make some handmade envelopes.

My son was applying to college this spring and we had a lot of college catalogs in the

    mail. They had thick pages and a lot of good color too. So this sample is  from one of the  catalogs where I tore out some nice pages for making envelopes. 

Step 1. Tear your sheet of paper out of the publication. Place it horizontally in front of you
and fold a little flap down at least a half an inch. You can make the flap as thick as you want.

       
           

Make a nice crease with your fingers or a use a bone folder.

Step 2. Flip the sheet of paper over and fold the right hand side of the paper to a
little less then the middle of the paper. You are folding at a slight angle.

Step 3. Take the left side of the paper and fold at an angle and meet the paper
on the other side as shown in photo.

Step 4  Flip the paper over to the other side
 and then turn your envelope so the folded flap is next to your right hand.
 Now tuck the left
hand side of the envelope into the right hand side of the envelope. 

Step 5 and final step. Push down and crease both edges of envelopes and flatten it.

These two samples show the "band" on the envelope slanted when you angle the paper as shown in the tutorial. The left envelope shows what happens when you just fold the paper with no angle. 

Here are samples of the envelopes made with old calendars, atlas pages, book pages, catalogs and a magazine. You can put
your message inside or write on the blank side if there is one.  This make a nice little package  for a gift card or
small gift for someone. Thanks to photographer/mail artist friend Pamela Gerard for the photographs for this blog post.
Please check out Pamela's blog post where she has her tutorial for an origami wallet we both love to make. www.cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com

The World of Hedi Kyle book show

Last Friday I attended the opening of the book artist Hedi Kyle called The World of Hedi Kyle
Codex Curios and Bibli'objets at the www.sfcb.org. The show is up until July 17th in San Francisco.
I would highly recommend it. I have to go back again to see the show again.  There was so much to see and become inspired from by her work.

Hedi speaking to the crowd at the opening. 

         Below a small sample of work from the show at the San Francisco Center for the Book.

These pieces were some of the works that were hung on the wall.

I love that there was a section of books that were touchable to the crowd. Some of these books were
my favorite in the exhibit.

Spring Library Book Sale!

My friend Pamela from www.cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com  invited me to come along with her extra ticket to the members preview at the semi-annual San Francisco library book sale. We look forward to it every year. We armed ourselves with fruit, cookies and water and we waited in line for and hour at the Fort Mason Center. It is not a bad place to stand in line on a beautiful day waiting for the doors to open to a fun sale. It can be crowded and hectic but it is worth it for all the great books
and not to mention a good cause too.

We hit our favorite table first where we find old atlas's and dictionaries and an occasional typewriter manuel. I got
some huge topographic map books perfect for folding into envelopes and folders. All one dollar since it is reference.

I love the foreign language sections too. I use some of these book to print gelli prints on and do
collage work with them as well.

Here is a panoramic photo shot with my phone to give you an idea of the enormity of the building with 250,000
donated books for sale in the warehouse.

One of my books from the medical table. This is a nurses reference guide
from the 1950's. 

Pamela's great finds at the reference table. The dictionary was at least 5 inches thick with
marbled edges.

                                                                       
\

Our haul for the day. The cart is full of bird books, maps, atlas's, Japanese and Chinese books and so much more. It will
likely be turned into Mail Art, collage material, hand made card material and handmade envelopes. A few of the books
will land on our book shelves in the collectible pile.

Happy bargain shoppers. (it is even cheaper on
Sunday when EVERYTHING is a dollar! You just
might spot us there on Sunday)

You still have time to get to the sale. Here are the particulars:  

San Francisco Public Library Spring Sale

March 30-April 3rd.

10:00 am to 6:00 pm

All books and media $3.00 and under.

Sunday is $ Day.

If you miss this one the next sale is September 21 to 25th.

It is a great sale and hundred of people go each year. All proceeds benefit the 

San Francisco Public libraries.

Penny Ranch visit again..

I took a stop at the Penny Ranch in Chico,CA on my way to my parents house. I wanted to pick up some stamps and old letters from the owner John. The collectible store filled with stamps, baseball cards, and comic and coins has been there for as long as I can remember when I was growing up in Chico. The funny thing is I never shopped there until recently after I got more involved in mail art and teaching creative re-use workshops.  Here is a quick look at some of this weekend finds.. I don't buy anything collectible in the traditional stamp collecting sense since I will be repurposing them.

Here is one of my creations with the stamps. A stamp birthday cake to my friend Pamela who

is the mail artist who blogs on the great site: www.cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com.

She will be happy to know that some of her birthday presents are coming from the Penny

Ranch this year found in shoe boxes and cigar boxes... treasures for mail artist and paper lovers.

My bird collage with cancelled stamps, magazine images and discarded book pages.

Finally I have been able to post! A series of iphone, computer and blog problems 

have plagued me for months but hopefully they have been resolved with help from

Tammy and Pamela and Delaney. 

More Stamps Recreated

I came across these other stamp cards I made awhile back so I thought I would show these as well to add more images to yesterdays post.  It was hard and is still hard to cut up stamps. I felt the same way about cutting discarded books. The stamps I get are just stored in boxes and not in a nice fancy stamp book album. I am giving these old cancelled stamps a new life in some way. I still have plenty of untouched stamps that are preserved.

Tiny stamp houses

My "Stamp People". I made the guys pants out of a discarded atlas and his arms from old book pages.

This is a super easy birthday card. I used a Martha Stewart balloon punch
 and then drew the string on with a fine tip marker.

You should check out my friend Pamela's blog post from cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com
on May 28th titled It's All about the Stamps!  Two of my cards are featured as well as a lot of other great images!