paper: Five Ways to Recycle Items from Daily Life on your Projects by Jessica Lohof | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Hello everyone, I’m delighted to be here today and share five layouts with you that include recycled items. I love to pimp my projects with small custom made things and always look for new ways to do so. Not only it is affordable to use items from your daily life, it is always exciting too look for inspiration everywhere and fun never quite knowing what you will receive in the end. I hope to encourage you to try it on your own!

Use Material out of your Old Medical Kit
The gauze and the fabric tape that comes with medical kits is so great to use for scrapbooking, both is easy to color with spray paint or watercolors! I used a larger piece of the gauze in the middle part on this page, it‘s colored with Glimmer Mist and I creased it up a bit and tore the edges with a scissor. I fixed gauze and paper with a stapler and a small amount of glue in the edges to stick it where I wanted it. Also I painted the fabric tape with watercolors and used a strip on the top of the page as well as a small banner (above the bird). You could also use both uncolored or try stamping on it!

Use Coffee on your Pages
Right, coffee! I used leftovers from my daily coffee in three ways on this page: To create the „coffee heart“ I cut out a heart from card stock, daubed glue on it and spread coffee grounds over. After it dried I knocked off remains and applied adhesive for gold foil following the instructions, then added the gold foil, burnished it with a soft brush and brushed off excess when it was dry. This adds a nice structure! Next I dipped a small brush into cold coffee and made some splashes. Last I took a piece of scrap paper and dipped it into (cold) coffee, I also crumpled the paper a bit. When it‘s totally dry, size it down and place it behind your picture for example. As a child I loved this technique to create treasure maps!

Use leftovers from your sewing projects
After I had finished to sew an apron I had some pieces of fabric left on my table and I thought it would be great to use these on a page about my just finished project. I took a larger piece of fabric as one layer behind my picture and patterned paper. Then I cut out some small hearts and sewed them down like a little garland. I have also used some of the very small pieces on the top corner of my page. Putting fabric on your pages is a great way to add more structure, but it‘s also nice to use fabric to cover your mini-albums!

Use Wrapping Material
Small parts like sequins often come to you in little bags, they just look so nice, I sometimes don’t even want to take out the content! I love putting these onto my pages like a little grab bag. On this page I left some sequins and cut parts in the bag. I cut out two circles and attached a brad to cover the original sticker which was used to close the bag, then stitched my grab bag down. On the top of the page I’ve used a cardboard from the wrapping that I anyway would have thrown away to put on color. First I’ve ripped the cardboard horizontally into two pieces, laid one piece at the top of my page and used an ink pad and a blending tool to wipe on color. Next took the other piece of cardboard, placed it a bit under the first color and wiped on color again, I’ve repeated this step three times and used green and yellow. You could also use this technique for your whole background.

Use Tissue Paper in Different Ways
I had some tissue paper left from wrapping a gift and this material is just to pretty and versatile to throw it away. I’ve tried out three ways of using it on my page: I cut a wide piece of the tissue paper and folded it lengthwise and crosswise, then took a paper strip (perhaps an unprinted stripe left from an patterned paper), attached adhesive and glued down the tissue paper, I’ve made little folds while doing this. If needed trim the lower part to make it look a bit uneven. Next I made a little flower, I cut out 4 scalloped circles, attached a brad in the middle, used spray paint to color it and crumpled it a bit. Last I used the tissue paper to create the word “life”, I took a scrap paper and covered it with gel medium, than attached pieces of the tissue paper, I made small horizontally folds to make it look a bit uneven again. Repeat this step several times (also put gel medium in the creases) and use the result to cut out letters or use it like you would use patterned paper!

Jessica Lohof loves all things creative and started to document daily life stories with scrapbooking in 2011. She is a German girl living in a small town in the middle of the country. If she is not making a huge mess on her crafting table, she enjoys improving her skills in taking pictures and spending quality time with friends and family. Jessica is currently proud to design for Gossamer Blue, Color Hills and Color Conspiracy. She shares her love for scrapbooking on her blog Talk About Priceless and through Instagram , Facebook and Pinterest .

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02 August 2013

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