Upcycling!

Hello, Crafters.

We had a really busy day yesterday. We were up and out pretty early to visit our dear friend in Aylesbury (about a 1.25 hour drive).

She has been moved into a care home while she rebuilds her strength. While we were there, hubby was able to fix her Ipad (well, the router actually!) which wasn't picking up any signal in her room.

We drove back south to meet up with seven members of our family to celebrate three birthdays - daughter Vicki whose birthday is today, grandson Jack whose birthday was on the 9th and friend Leigh whose birthday was on the 6th!

Vicki had booked a table in an Italian restaurant and the only good thing about the celebration was the company we were in!

The service was so slow, if it went any slower it would have stopped; three of our group are Coeliacs and out of two offerings for starters, only one was available and that contained chillis which my granddaughter wouldn't eat.

The food that was ordered was not always the same as the food that was served!

I could go on but you get the picture!  

Today I have something a bit different to share with you.

On Friday, I'd bought a few bits and pieces that I thought would be nice for our friend in the nursing home.

First of all, let me explain something! Sometime ago, one of my class attendees had to buy some plain brown "takeaway" carrier bags for a project she was working on but had to buy them in a quantity that was far more than she needed - so I bought a small quantity from her.

My idea was  to decorate them and use them as gift bags, which is what my plan for the goodies was. 

Unfortunately, the six goodies I'd bought needed two bags, and I didn't like that idea, so I moved onto PlanB! I always keep my carrier bags if I think they'll come in useful some time.

I found this pretty pink bag - see second photograph - but wanted to put my own touch on it!

The back of the bag is the same as the front and I decorated both sides the same.

Using  our thicker Whisper White Cardstock and Pink Pirouette Ink, I stamped fourteen flowers from the Flower Shop Stamp Set and punched them out using the Pansy Punch.

Then I stamped fourteen smaller flowers from the Petite Petals Stamp Set and punched them out using the Petite Petals Punch.

I adhered one small flower onto one larger flower using Tombow.

Still using Tombow, I glued them onto flowers already printed on the bag so there were  petals showing from under my flowers.

The flower that's north-west of the large butterfly almost covers the printed petals but the tips can be seen....just about!

I die cut the large butterfly using one of the dies from the Butterflies Thinlits Dies and the smaller butterfly from the Bold Butterfly Framelits dies.

Instead of using Rhinestones or Pearls to decorate the flowers and butterflies, I used the delightful White Perfect Accents

I hope you like this idea and, if you've never thought about doing this before, will take another look at upcycling bags and boxes you already have!

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.