2021 Topic 12 : Sustainable Crafting with FP {by France Papillon}

   2021 Topic 12: Sustainable Crafting

The ethos of France Papillon is to be mindful. She has built her business around this beautiful principle. Not only does she create her art in a mindful way, and she encourages others too, how wonderful it is to have France and her wisdom within our team here at PaperArtsy.  What I wanted to tell you about was her actual craft space it's super efficient too! She likes everything to be in reach from her chair. This really forces you to think about what you really need, and what you can do with what you have within easy reach.

 

Early in the year, I remember France having a month where she went through her house to reduce unnecessary stuff from her kitchen cupboards, wardrobes etc..... oh you know like all that awful junk we have under the bathroom sink!! Some of this was easy for her, but every day the number of things she had to eliminate increased, so it really did make her think hard.

 

As crafters we tend to be pretty good at hoarding, but I think we are also getting really good at using up our stash. I feel like the first decade of 2000's was all about acquiring, and now 20 years later we are all getting our heads around the concept of actually using our stuff up. Yay!

 

Tell us in the comments below what you are doing to be more sustainable in your crafting habits!
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's France with you today, and I'm here to share with you the spread I made for my latest A Layer A Day art journaling challenge. 

This week's challenge is about starting to work on a new habit and as we are here to talk about sustainability, how about a little challenge to implement small sustainable habits in your creative process? Let me show you how I tackle it!

The very first and most important change I made to make my studio more sustainable, was to ban all baby wipes and kitchen rolls from it! No matter how daunting it might sound, it is actually pretty easy to do. I have a big rag to protect what needs to be protected and a small cloth for wiping and cleaning. I hand wash these every so often or... tear up and use in my creating process!

For the first layer of this spread, I sprinkled on some infusions and blended those with water. To protect my journal, I folded the rag underneath the pages I was working on. My entire journal is protected in one go.

The cloth came in very handy when I wanted to dab away some of the excess water before drying it.

For the second layer, I wanted to create a gradient through my PS258 stencil. Another way to keep my studio more sustainable is to be aware of my supply stash. That means that sometimes, like in this case, I don't have the exact paint color I would like. That is where mixed media comes in very handy! 

I used Black Knight infusions to tint some Snowflake Fresco Finish. The further down on the page, the more Infusions I added to create the gradient. I dabbed on the mixture with a sponge through the stencil.

I always pick my supplies in terms of versatility. That is one of the reasons that I like all my PaperArtsy stamp sets and stencils to work together: combining them offers so many more possibilities!

In the same way, I want the media I pick to do more than just one thing, which is the case of distress (oxide) ink. I used it to stamp and to add splatters on the spread by mixing it with a bit of water. And even water splatters work thanks to the reactivity of Infusions!

 

Working with Infusions gives you surprises sometimes, like the appearance of a pink spot on a blueish grey spread. To emphasize that, I sponged on some Pixie Dust Fresco Finish through my PS259 stencil as well as some watered down splatters. This would give me a nice nesting place for the focal point.

For the focal point, I traced the circle of the PS260 stencil with a black pen. I used the same pen to doodle around the spread. I stamped the wording from FP019 in the circle and added 2 stickers from my A Layer A Day sticker sheets. Remember this spread was for the challenge about working on new habits? You need to be zen about that change yet grounded enough to focus on it: life is change, change is stability ;)

The best part when cleaning up my studio after making such a spread is not having to throw anything away. "No waste was produced in the process! " One way of being sustainable while crafting :) Will you give it a try? Let me know how it goes!

Butterfly kisses,

Blog: www.france-papillon.com

A Layer A Day challenge: bit.ly/ALayerADaychallenge
Patreon: www.patreon.com/francepapillon

Facebook: www.facebook.com/StudioFrancePapillon
Instagram: www.instagram.com/france_papillon/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/francepapillon