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Monday, September 07, 2009

Upcycled Packaging - Cottonwool Bud Container !!


Everyday we dispose of endless amounts of waste packaging. Everything from food cans, cereal boxes, plastic meat containers to clothing tags. Why not just look in the bin for inspiration. I challenged members of UK Stampers forum to alter a piece /or pieces of packaging of any type and turn it/them into a piece of art.

I chose a Johnson & Johnson cottonwool bud container which had a cardboard base and a polythene lid as my piece of art, and here it is.



The body of the container was first gessoed (I applied a couple of coats), and allowed to dry. I used Whispers dye inks in orange and red applied with cut'n'dry foam to the bottom half of the container. I masked this with a Tim Holtz mask of a fence and applied more red ink over this until it looked ok. I used green dye ink to colour the top half of the container by the same method. When happy I sprayed the base with cheap hair laquer to seal the dye inks onto the gesso.

A striped self adhesive ribbon (DCWV) was applied to cover the join between the two colourways. Next a very small dragonfly stamp was inked in black Stazon and stamped along the sides above and below the ribbon in a random fashion. When the ink was dry some pink Stickles glitter glue was applied over each dragonfly image and allowed to dry.




Next I made the flower embellishments. I used die-cut flowers from mulberry paper in green, blue, ecru & pink. I laid these down on a non-stick craft mat and sprayed liberally with mica spray with silver mica. Once dry the flowers were stamped with vintage sepia Versafine ink using a small flourish stamp from Elusive Images (Graphicus). Each flower was then assembled with a pastel brad and shiny sequin, the legs of the brad folded back to hold the flower together. The flowers were then adhered to the box as shown in groups of three with sticky dots to secure.



Finally I had the lid to decorate. I took various alcohol inks and dropped them onto the lid top and sides, quickly blowing the ink around with a drinking straw ( the ink can fly, so if you do this protect yourself and the area around you). Once happy with the effect the whole lid was coated on the outside with matt acrylic varnish and allowed to dry. The inside of the lid was given two coats of cream acrylic paint acting as a backdrop to the colours and allowing some of the uninked areas to be highlighted. I think the lid reminds me of Moocroft pottery actually !




Finally the lid lacked something, I thought of adding a metal knob of some type but ended up making another flower (as described before but with more layers) this time with some sequin leaves and a pastel flower brad.



The last pic shows a top down view of the embellishment on the lid. Very interesting to alter something that would have definately been binned.
Why not try it?

Hope the one receiving it is pleased !

Sid xxx

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14 comments:

  1. what a great up-cycling piece!

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  2. Looks like it could be tortoise shell... fab!

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  3. nice jar..love the word up cycling..thanks for your comments on my cigar box

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  4. That looks great Sid - really fabulous!

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  5. Don't know UK Stampers but agree with your sentiment. Recently recycled a soap box with the help of TSS metal and have a pile of body cream tubs to be worked on. Make great gifts.

    Love your cotton bud box and everything you have done with it.

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  6. Great idea! Can just imagine you with the flying ink - it's great.

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  7. Great transformation Sid xxxx

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  8. WOW Sid - what a great idea. I am just finishing one of those, so will keep it in my stash rather than throwing it away.
    I LOVE the lid!!

    Hugs

    Vron xx

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  9. Just brilliant Sid! x

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  10. This is great Sid. I just love the lid with all the different colours and the pretty stamping. What great ideas :)

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  11. All are the very wonderful and dynamic packaging with lots of different crafts has been utilized very creatively and professionally.

    Moreover, you may also consult American Packaging & Supply for the best packaging, wrapping and all kind of packing and shipping solutions to your packing and packaging problems and have a wide variety of storing, moving and shipping supplies.

    ReplyDelete

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