2021 Topic 12 : Sustainable Crafting with I&D {by Jennie Atkinson}

  2021 Topic 12: Sustainable Crafting

There used to be a mantra that if as piece of leftover was smaller than 2 inches, you should throw it away. Jennie definitely doesn't subscribe to that train of thought and has got some wonderful ideas for the teeniest of pieces. She's definitely an advocate for sustainable crafting and when it's tea stained and curated into something lovely, who could possibly think differently?!

~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) with you today, and I'm here to share with you some ideas for using up all your scraps!

I am known for hoarding paper...small, tiny bits, that most people would put in the bin! But when combined with a little set of stamps, these tiny bits of (especially) tea stained papers can be pulled together into little collages which can then be used to decorate a small notebook (also made from scraps!)

Sustainable crafting....using EVERY little bit! 

When my grandchildren were here a few weeks ago they sorted all my "bits" into piles of different colours and we made "scrap" books for their homework notes. They love little flaps and secret places where they can write little bits and pieces and so normally go home with at least two or three. So my supplies were a bit depleted!

For the collages I have kept mainly to the tea stained papers and you will see from the little video walkthrough later that I have used the other pieces for the actual notebook. Ink and the Dog stamps are my absolute favourite stamps for these little pieces and each set has some interesting stamps that can be used as background or sentiments.

                                                                            Letters 4

                                    Letters 2                                                 Letters 6

Letters 6 has to be my most used I&D - who doesn't love the fragile dreams negative strip but the text and little sentiments of Letters 4 come a close second!

This close up shot shows how the text stamp looks on tea stained paper with all those different fonts making it a great background layer. A little bit of stitching on the layers also pulls it all together.

It's worth investing in some tiny tag dies as they make the best use of tiny pieces. I love when labels on clothes come with thee little pins - they make a novel way of attaching the tags.

The little text stamp from Clocks 1 and the Paris frank from ID10 are again two of my most used stamps. They are just the perfect size for little tags.

Clocks 1

VID10

Larger labels such as this one from Letters 6 can be made into little pockets when sewn onto a backing piece of paper and again investing in a mini tag punch means every little piece is used.

Here I have layered tea stained papers with some coloured cardstock, the colour broken up by using a background text stamp. At this stage I have no idea how I am going to use these little collages and that freedom means I group things together which I might not have done.

The same stamps, but used in a different way on the coloured cardstock.

So what to do with these little collages? As I had some larger bits of the coloured cardstock I made a small notebook cover. I made a mat for the large collage by painting a piece of ribbed paper packaging with Fresco Chalk Acrylic (French Roast) and some lovely gold embossing around the edges.

The inside of the notebook was made using some of the larger pieces from my little stock pile of papers, including some of the PaperArtsy Tissue Packing Paper - I am becoming a huge fan of this lovely feel tissue! Some of the larger pieces were  made into flaps and run throughout the book.

As it is difficult to show this I have made a short walkthrough video so you can see what I mean!

I find making these little collages fun and without an end project in mind totally free and creative. They can sit in a box until I have time to use them and sometimes they find themselves as a topper for a quick make greetings card. 

I hope I have given you some ideas of how to use some of the smaller PaperArtsy vintage stamps and also how to then pull them together into a little notebook. 

As always thank you for joining me and happy crafting!

Jennie x

Blog: Live The Dream
Instagram: atkinsonjennie