Tuesday Tutorials: Decorating a notebook with gum wrappers...

That's right! Tuesday Tutorials are back in action! Late but nevertheless here. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a chewing gum addiction that I just can't seem to kick! Everytime I chewed a new piece of gum I wondered what I could do with the wrappers and started saving them to see what I could come up with...the gum wrapper decorated notebook was born!

I took the following materials and embellishments to create my recycled work of art:

All the materials...

• Composition Notebook
• Various sticker packs
• Paris Rubber Stamps
• Stamp pads
• Gum Wrappers (kept inside 5 Gum box)
• Contact Paper

Using a normal glue stick I began to glue the colorful gum wrappers down in a pattern, like so:

The notebook, front cover

The notebook, back cover...

See how pretty it looks already? After having covered both sides with the gum wrappers I embellished another type of gum wrapper with a Paris Eiffel Tower stamp I have using the black ink stamp pad. The paper is patterned from Orbit gum. The rest of the embellishments are stickers but you can use cut outs, print outs and any thing else you can get your hands on. Get creative and go your own way! The main thing about this project is that you are reusing wrappers so they don't go to the landfill!

Paris stamp on patterned gum wrapper paper...

Finished front cover....

Back cover shot...

Once you'ved finished emellishing the notebook as much as you want you can go ahead and cover it in contact paper so that the embellishments and gum wrappers remain neatly on and don't start to peel off. If you decide to make this project I would love to see what you come up with! Please link back to this post and let me know what you have made or place photos of your own creations on the wall on our Facebook page.

Pencil Holder Craft

I love recycling things that one uses daily and am constantly collecting papers, clippings, cardboard and the like! Yesterday I recycled a can of salmon and made it into a cute pencil holder. I used the following materials so you can do the same if you like:

• cleaned can of salmon (taller than a soup can and more slender at the bottom)
  
• 3 shades of fibrous tissue paper- teal, blue and purple
  
• circle and flower clippings from decorative papers
  
• Elmer's Craft Bond: Paper Craft Glue Gel
  
• PROART White Bristle Paint Brush #10
  
• small piece of brown felt, for bottom
  
• small piece of self-adhesive corkboard for inside bottom
  
  

Stage 1:

Make sure you start with a clean and completely dry can. Begin to glue down shredded pieces of tissue paper.

Choose the papers and pattern according to your taste. I used 3 tones of the tissue paper that would be dark on the background so that the dots and flowers would stand out and have a bit of a contrast. I like vivid colors, you might want to try earthy tones, primary colors or pastels. It just depends on your taste. Go wild!

The papers I used you can find at any crafting/scrapbooking store. For the flowers I used a scrap of wrapping paper. You can use magazine cut-outs, you can choose a theme. For the dots I cut around the circles on the designer scrapbooking page choosing a few of each size.

Stage 2:

After you have glued down all of the tissue paper pieces, brush over them a bit of decoupage such as Mod Podge or make your own using 2/3 parts craft glue and 1/3 part water. Apply a coat over top with the paint brush. Let dry completely.

Pictures: can as it dries, can with Craft Bond

Decoupage glue mixture

Stage 3:

Once the can is dry you can begin to apply the embellishments, in this case I chose to use the dots I cut-out and the flowers of various sizes. Apply the decoupage glue to the back and extend firmly over the surface of the decoupaged can. Repeat until you have reached the amount of embellishments you desire. Coat with another coating of decoupage glue mix and let dry.

Dots and flowers for embellishing

Can with decoupage and embellishments

Stage 4:

Lastly, once the can is again dry, trace a circle with the bottom of the can on the piece of felt and then cut-out. Glue the circle to the bottom with silicone glue. Trace the same bottom on the piece of self-adhesing corkboard and cut within the traced circle to fit inside. Take adhesive backing off and place carefully inside. Then step back and look at your wonderful finished product!

Felted bottom, Finished product on display