Friday, April 20, 2012

Plastic Bag Flower Card

Hello Everybody!

While there are a few minutes of Friday left I am going to show you a card that is all upcycled except for the card base.  I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Frilly and Funkie: RePurpose to Upcycle-At least 2 upcycled items on a project

Do More With Less: Recycling with Dr. Sonia Suprabha Venugopal-a project showing something recycled

Simon Says Stamp and Show: Anything Goes!

Here is my card...


There is a cardbase that I bought at Michaels.  Then I adhered painted newspaper to the cardbase using my Xron machine.  I made the flower using a loom and plastic bags.  The center is a bottle cap from a Woodpecker Cider.  Wait--what a plastic bag?  Scroll down and let me show ya!

Here's the loom I used for the flower.  I bought it at Joann's.  I can't knit or crochet--but if I could oh the flowers I would make!  So I thought I would try this.  I had some trouble figuring out the directions so I went to YouTube and here you can see the video where the lady teaches you how to use this little loom.

She also shows how she used plastic bags to make a flower which I thought was the best thing ever!  However, I could not get the bag pieces on my loom as easily as she made it look.  So I tried a different way which I will show you.


Here my painted newspaper without the flower.


Using Word I made this little sentiment and put it inside the card.


Here I printed this and cut it out for the back of the card.  Sometimes people don't know what all goes into a card, and I wanted my recipient to appreciate the upcycle :)

,

So to plastic bag flowers!  Here are a couple of plastic bags.  I'll take the yellow one!  (Remember I forget my Earth bags and sometimes forget to ask for paper...)


I cut off the handles and cut the back of the bag out for this sort of square shape.  You want it to be flat.


Then I cut into strips.  On the thinner even side is better, but I'm not perfect so there are some wobbly strips and some that are a little thicker toward one in.  But not too thin.


Not too thin because I tape the strips together using regular ol' Scotch tape.  I tear a little piece.

I tape together 2 ends.  I try to make the as close to size as possible.


Then I start to loom.  Like I said I watched the video and used the directions so I'm not going to teach the actual how process.  I am going to show you how I progressed.


Here are the taped strips gather on the floor.  It's like yarn sorta...


Here is my finshed flower.  I loomed it 3 times (or 3 layers).


After I "sewed" the center of the flower.  Make sure all the petals have been looped.  It's not fun to start taking the flower off of the loom and one is loose.


Ta da! Here is my flower.  Yellow plastic bag ya'll!


I glued the flower onto the card with Glossy Accents.  Then I used 2 of these 3-D dots to adhere the bottle cap to the center.


Here is a close up of the card.  Since plastic bag is squishy it mails a little better than you think-but there is probably extra postage.

Until next time my friends...paper or plastic-either is fine for upcycling!































http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrgt8ZuMiU&feature=g-like&context=G2bac2d2ALTYuZngAAAA

10 comments:

Desire Fourie said...

Gorgeous little upcycled project. Thank you also for the great plastic flower technique.
Hugs
Desire

Annette Allen said...

Dang that is just too cool...always so clever...thanks for sharing..

Dan said...

What a great idea to make a flower from plastic bags! The Design Team are really pleased that you joined us for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge this week - Thank you!

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Fabulous idea recycling bags to make your flower and I love your background to your creation too. Thanks so much for joining in the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge. Tracy x

Kim x said...

Fabulous flower.
Thanks for stopping by.
hugs Kimx

Candy C said...

What a great card and so appropriate for Earth Day and Frilly and Funkie's recycling theme! It's also perfect for our challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show. Love the background and the FLOWER!!! That is such a cool idea! Thanks for much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp and Show. <3 Candy

Anonymous said...

Fabulous card what a brilliant flower! Thanks for joining us at Frilly and Funkie. Sue C x

yyam said...

Goodness! This is amazing! I love love love that bloom!

Thanks for playing along with my guest Sonia's challenge! :)

Dr Sonia S V said...

Oh I love this-- recycling plastic is one of the best ways to recycle.. I have often wanted to make a flower just like this but couldn't figure it out! Thank You for the detailed instructions
And Thank You for linking up at the recycling challenge at Do More With Less

Cheers
Sonia
cardsandschoolprojects.blogspot.com

Linda Coughlin, the funkie junkie said...

Wow, wow, wow!!! How absolutely cool is that flower from plastic bags? So cute and I love the yellow! Your earth day card is fabulous. I really like how you made a little menu of all the recycled items in your piece of art. You did a sensational job on the repurposing/upcycling challenge at Frilly and Funkie. So happy you joined in the fun with us this time around!

Hugs,
Linda