Old paper and recycled cans…

That’s what I’m using to make all of the fabulous goody bags for our big fundraiser crop! Of course I know the words old paper and recycled cans don’t create visions of fabulous in your head but trust me …they are fabulous (if I do say so myself LOL)! Want proof…here ya go….

 

 

I pulled out some really old My Minds Eye paper to do this project and I love it!! I got this huge stack of MME at Costco like 5 years ago and it was a total steal…maybe cost me 19.99 for 200-300 sheets and I’ve only used a very small portion of it…it’s great paper but unfortunately …or fortunately depending on how you look at it 😉 .. I have lots of great paper …but alas only 2 hands and so very little time to play with it all…sigh! Anyways…back to the MME paper…so because it was a bulk paper pack it’s thinner so it was perfect for this project because I could score, fold and punch it easily. Thank goodness to because I gave my apron lace punch a serious work out last night …not to mention my aching wrists…who knew punching was such hard work! The other great thing about this paper pack is it’s got lots of great coordinating papers so I could use one for the base and one for the flower…only tricky part was trying to decide which of the beautiful patterns to use for which! Oh and speaking of the base…that is where the recycled cans come in ! As luck would have it I just happened to have about 100 cans laying around that worked out perfectly for this project. And before you all going thinking I’m some kind of crazy hoarder holding on to 100 cans and wondering what other piles of stuff I keep lying around let me set ya all straight…I am no hoarder or junk collector…just so happens these are some fabulous cans and I’ve been collecting them because I just knew someday they would be destined for greatness! The cans are actually from blue diamond almonds…and yes I ate the contents of each and every one of those cans…I eat plain almonds every day…best snack evah! Anyways the cans don’t have any sharp edges and they only had almonds in them so they were easy to clean out and as an added bonus the labels come off super easy. So to make these awesome cans look more awesome I just inked the edge of a strip of the old fab MME paper and wrapped it around and voila …a pretty can for our goody “bag”. Of course since we are getting some super amazing goodies to put in our goody “bags” I wanted to ramp up the ooomph factor of these bad boys and decided to add a coordinating flower. Took me a bit to get some moojo flowing and figure out exactly what the flower was going to look like and how to make them but by midnight I finally had a prototype done and I lovvvvvve it! It’s just a simple accordian flower…easy to make…punch a strip of paper on one edge…trim strip to 2 inches…score and fold…and again voila! The center of the flower is more recycled goodness…I used old chipboard I saved from backs of notepads we use at work…and the “stems” are actually wooden skewers I had leftover from a dinner party …unused of course! I found a roll of green tulle laying in my craft stash in the cellar from like 6 years ago and used pieces to create the “leaves”.  Dressed the whole thing up with a little ribbon scrap on the stem, a punched butterfly from scrap paper and added a touch of sparkle with some stickles…and presto…one amazingly awesome goody “bag”…….

 

Just imagine just how much more awesome they will be when I fill that can with all sorts of scrapping goodies! Can’t wait until everything arrives so I can get to filling em! Guess while I wait for the UPS man I’ll have to bide my time making more of these little beauties…1 down…99 more to go! LOL. Good thing it’s a long weekend!