Happy Birthday and Thanks for all the Bills..

NOT. But speaking of junk mail, there are a few things you can do with it.

After you're done being mad about your bills, look at the inside of the security envelopes. They're all different. I got some super interesting ones this week. Not bills, envelopes.

I thought I'd use them for a birthday card for my friend Lisa.
Stamps: On Your Birthday, Musical Score Paper: Graphic 45 Communique, Whisper White, Kraft
Accessories: Big Shot, Embossing Folder, Butterfly die, Butterfly punch Ink: Basic Black
To purchase Stampin' up! supplies, click here.

She's the one who sent me the GORGEOUS Graphic 45 paper the butterflies are made of.

I punched circles from the envelopes to serve as the backdrop for the butterflies. The larger two were cut with the Stampin' Up! Bold Butterflies die for the Big Shot. The smaller one was punched with my Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

To read more about Lisa, click here. Happy birthday, chickie!!

Petersburg, 2011

Wouldn't that be cool?

I may get to do just that. We will see. St. Petersburg is a place of my dreams that is for sure.

So today I reanimated one of my old Russian dictionaries. I probably have 20 of them. It was okay to dedicate one to the fires of art, yes?

I started by making some "water" out of a reanimated security envelope. The insides of these are crazy cool.

If you want to use a lot of the real estate of these, use a heat gun to neatly undo the seals where it is stuck together. Just heat them up and the glue will let go. Then cut it up as needed. I just needed a little stripe.

I punched squares from my Russian dictionary and rounded their corners. I sponged them with brown ink to age them.

Then I stamped little fishies from the Stampin' Up! Just Beachy set and colored them with gel pens.

I outlined them in white to pop them off the page a bit.

I added some of the new dotty Stampin' Up! ribbon and voila - quick and easy double Reanimation.

Lots of paper in the world. Use it, don't buy it! :)

Sometimes, you gotta make lemonade...

Bills.I hate em.

I hate all the trash they generate even more than I hate sending my money away.

So I fixed it. with the help of Lisa Vollrath.

See what you think.

First.... Steaming letters open is for housewives of the 50's. Take one of the envelopes from your bills and use your heat gun to release the glue. Be sure and remove the plastic window first though. Don't ask me how I know things. I just do. :)


All opened up, nice. Use the open version to trace onto cardstock and use as a permanent bookmark template. After tracing, reseal.

Next, measure 3" from the corner on each side for your cut marks.
Use a ruler to draw a line and cut.

Now you have your bookmark, and you just need to decorate it!

For the first one, I took the Amex envy and painted it with Golden's Micaceous Iron Oxide which is a gorgeous grey with sparkles. I'm sure there's a technical term for it. I don't know it.
Paint it over the envelope. I liked the stripe on this one because it showed through and became part of the design.
On top of this, I painted Tempting Turquoise Craft Ink.
Then I attached an old postage stamp - orange for a pop of color. I used Golden Gel medium to attach it, and to paint over the whole thing to make it a little more durable. It's just clean and clear and glossy like Mod Podge.

Here's the book I'm readingAnd here it is with the new sassy bookmark.I love having the template.
I made this one out of Basic Grey's Marrakech paper. I love this.I covered this with more gel mediumNothing better than turning a credit card bill into something that holds my place in a book called play!!