it's so easy being green - (upcycle)

Take a bowl, buttons, toothpicks, steel wool and a piece of moldable foam. 

Add some ironed-to-remove-the-wrinkles packing paper and an empty tissue box.  Add some vintage book page and recycled raffia and what do you get?

My entry for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge to create a tag (OK, eight).  And my contribution to Cath's challenges at Moxie Fab to:

Use Household Items

Don't Throw it Away and

5 for $5

Can you guess which household items I pressed into my moldable foam to use for stamping my packing paper backgrounds?

leaf shaped beads

 the bottom of a retro bowl

toothpicks

buttons

steel wool

I also made some with metal washers, coins and rice.  Think of all the possibilities!  I absolutely LOVE techniques like this.  The image does not come out crystal clear, but for artistic backgrounds it is too cool.  BTW, I stamped these with Distress Inks

Once I had stamped my packing paper I die cut the paper as well as a piece of tissue box and sewed them together.  Stamped a wildflower with brown acrylic paint.  Attached some branches and blossoms die cut from a vintage childrens book page.  Finished with a torn strip of book paper stamped with a sentiment, inked around the edges and blinged.  Punched a hole.  Set an eyelet.  Added the raffia loop hangers.

These tags are now a set to be given as a gift using one more thing that I couldn't bear to throw away.

DH's old jeans!  Of course I could have goodwilled them, but they were cargo pants so I got four pockets out of 'em!  Oh yeah, the "tag card" is what I stamped off on after stamping my little tags.  Just attached it to a second one (scored at the top to open nicely) and added a button (from an old suitcoat).

Can't really do a cost breakdown on this set of tags.  Didn't actually buy anything.  The only "non-recycled" items involved were 8 pieces of bling and 8 eyelets.

"Don't Throw it Away" shoulda been my middle name.

Assuming you're still here,  vielen vielen dank for looking!

Supplies set of tags:

Paper: tissue box, packing paper and vintage book

Stamps: moldable foam (Ellen Hutson), wildflower CHF, sentiment PTI

Ink: Distress Ink, acrylic paint

Tools: paintbrush, die Spellbinders and Sizzix, sewing machine
Other: eyelets, bling, button, thread + various household items