Are You Over 21?

I've been wanting to create items from repurposed beer labels for so long, but I just haven't had the time. Well this week, I made the time :)

The first two pics are luggage tags made from repurposed beer labels from Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland (very good beer by the way!!) :) These tags were designed just a little bit different than how I ususally make my luggage tags. I usually leave the back of the tag blank, however, the beer labels from Flying Dog Brewery, had so many interesting graphics on the labels, I decided to add some of it to the back of the label. Something only the owner of the tag will know that's there (since the name card will normally be covering it up.)

I'm hoping to obtain some more Flying Dog Brewery labels very soon as I'm really looking forward to creating some mini wallets with them. The artistry on these labels themselves are just fabulous!!

(This might be my most favorite matching set, LOVE the blues!!) This luggage tag & mini wallet were made from Widmer's Drifter Pale Ale beer labels & of course, hand dyed bamboo for the interior.

This tag & wallet was made using repurposed Hoegaarden beer labels & you can find them here in my shop.

LOVE the colors in this luggage tag made from a repurposed Ninkasi Spring Ale label! I almost didn't add this one to my shop, but I decided, I have enough tags & maybe someone else would love this one as much as I do & would like to give it a new home :)

Should you wonder where I get my stock of all of these fabulous labels? I'm very fortunate that where we live in the Pacific NW, there are a vast amount of micro breweries not only in Washington, but also Oregon & California, all creating wonderful beers to be enjoyed!!

You'll have to check back often as I have plans for other items to be made from these labels :)

Wonderful Website for Etsy Sellers

I wanted to share a wonderful website/marketing tool with you, if you have your own Etsy shop!! It's cr8tivity.com.


There are no membership fees, no log ons with passwords, just enter the name of your Etsy shop in the box & hit enter!! From there, you can see who hearts your shop & where they're from (if they've entered that info into Etsy when registering.) Under the "item hearts" tab, are pictures of each of the items in your shop & how many hearts they have.

(Here's the wonderful thing about this tab)....under each item you have for sale, there is a Twitter & Facebook icon (I haven't tried out the Etsy icon yet to know what it does) but with the Twitter & Facebook icons, you can click on them, put in your passwords that you use to access both applications, type a little something about the item you have for sale & it posts your comment & a link back to your Etsy shop of that item on Twitter & Facebook's site for all of your friends & followers to see. (How awesome is that?!)

There is a shop statistics tab, for you number crunchers out there, a helpers tab, that actually can create product flyers of items in your shop & a widgets tab (LOVE this)!!! If you look up in the right corner of my blog, you'll see a flashing widget of the items in my shop & if you click on it, you'll be taken right to the item in my Etsy shop where you'll have the opportunity to purchase that item that you originally clicked on in my blog. (Nice, huh!!)

Oh & if you didn't notice already, in the photo above (mine's the third shop announcement down) you also have the opportunity to purchase advertising spots for your shop at a very reasonable rate!!

I just think it's a wonderful little site to use along with my Etsy shop & would love to give kudo's to whomever created the site!! Thanks!!

Twizzlers.... As Always a Low Fat Candy

As a custom order, someone requested that I create a mini wallet from Twizzler bags. I thought about this for a moment & realized all of the clear see-thru packaging & asked if they were sure (since a dyed background fabric was going to show through where all of the clear packaging was), which, if you happen to look at a bag of Twizzlers, you'll notice that it's MOSTLY clear packaging.

She said she was totally fine with it, as I was dragging my heels, fearing that this just wasn't going to turn out ok. So, what do you think? (I think it turned out better than I had planned!)

I have quite a few gatorade labels but have been dragging my feet since I was unsure how to deal with the transparent labels. I think this might have helped me get over that hump.

Free Range Domino's

Aren't these wonderful? I received these "free range domino pins" from Rebecca in a private swap. Rebecca writes the Going Green Column in TryHandmade.com & I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting her when she asked if she I would be interested in being in her column based upon my upcycled art from chip/soda/candy wrappers.

Rebecca has created some wonderful things in her shop, if you get the chance, you should really check it out (I really like her pendants!)

Thanks Rebecca for the wonderful swap!

Same materials, something new............

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but with the holidays upon us & the fact that I've been very busy creating the same kind of items for my shop that you've seen in previous posts but from different recycled soda labels/chip bags/coffee bags, I didn't think you wanted to see another luggage tag or mini wallet :)

However, I've come up with a couple of new ideas I wanted to share & have plans for more to come when things slow down a little bit.

(LOVE that color!!) I used Mt Dew & Diet Mt Dew soda bottle labels for this journal cover.

The interior is hand dyed poplin & has a sleeve that holds removable 4" by 6" notepads. (You can find this in my shop, where I've posted more pics of this journal.)

Below (I'm excited about these) are sunglass/eyeglass cases. The interiors have hand dyed bamboo fleece......YUM!!!!

The green & black McCoy's case is from Crisp bags from the UK. Lynda generously sent me a wonderful package full of Crisp bags & I've finally been able to start cutting into & using them. (You know how it is, when you get a new material, you can't use it right away, it needs to sit around for a little while so you can admire it.) I had originally planned on putting all four of these into my shop, but when I brought them in to show to some co-workers, I sold the McCoy's & Dr Pepper cases immediately, so back to the studio to create more!!

Ok, so I had to share a tag & a mini wallet with you that I made from Lynda's bags. The colors are wonderful & it's nice to work with graphics you're not used to seeing. The Walker's Luggage tag has also been featured on the Shop Etsy Blog here.

Thanks for the wonderful bags, Lynda!!

I'm on TryHandmade.Com

Here's the link I promised you in the last post & for those that didn't see the last post.........

Rebecca Hadfield writes the "Going Green Column" for tryhandmade.com & she contacted me last week about featuring my "upcycled" pieces in her column.

(I'm VERY honored to have my work chosen for her Going Green Column!!)

If you'd like to check it out, you can click here!!

Sorry, couldn't do a blog post without a photo :)

On another note, I had an elementary teacher from Massachusetts contact me to see if I was interested in participating in their Teracycle program & taking a few chip bags that the students had been collecting off their hands. (Of course, I jumped at the chance!!)

Both Rebecca & this school teacher found me through my Etsy shop, which is fabulous!! Ever since I've opened my shop, I've had this underlying fear of, "is my work getting seen" "am I placing my work in the right places for people to see me?" So when opportunities like these two happened, it was SO nice to know that someone out there other than my closest artist friends & family weren't the only ones visiting my shop!!

Lay's Potato Chips from Thailand??

Sorry that I haven't posted in awhile, but my home has been battling with some type of bug & we can't seem to shake it. The only thing I do know is that it's not the regular flu or the H1N1 flu, thank goodness!!

The opportunites that I have felt good, I've been creating art, like a mad woman, from my upcycled chip/soda/candy wrappers materials!! The custom orders have really been helping since I received word from my "day job" that each of the staff have to take a day off every two weeks until February without pay :( I try to put a good spin on it & look at it as another day for me to create art & maybe clean my house just a little more often. :)

I wanted to share with you these WONDERFUL chip bags I found on Ebay from a seller in Thailand. At the time, the seller offered these with the chips inside, sealed. I was concerned with customs & didn't really need 4 bags of Lay's Sweet Basil chips, so I contacted the seller to see if he would sell them to me empty & sure enough, he did (I wonder if he thought it was odd that I only asked for the bags?)

Aren't the colors just YUMMY?!!! Not sure what to do with these just yet & I'm thinking that they might have to sit in my studio for a little while before getting cut up. I do know that one of the things I make from these will be MINE :)

The Thai language is just beautiful on these bags, even the Nutrition Facts are in Thai. Funny how you can find such beauty in everyday things.

On another note, I'm excited to announce that Rebecca from TryHandmade.com is going to feature me & my art made from recycled chip/soda/candy wrappers in her Going Green column this week. I think it's to be posted this Thursday. I'll post the link here as soon as Rebecca releases it. (I can hardly wait!!)