Resurrecting the Old

Several years ago I saw in a DIY magazine how someone wallpapered a room with pages from an old dictionary. What a great idea for an office I thought. I went right over to Half Price Books and found two perfect old dictionaries.


Working at the time in a facility that had a press, I brought my books into the bindery area and one of the guys used a huge cutter and cut off the spines for me. I was ready to wallpaper. Then I bought my first house on my own as a single lady. Then I met my now husband. Then we got married. Then I moved. :) I held onto those dictionary pages, because I knew it was still a great idea. Then a couple years later I had a baby. I wasn't planning on going with a dictionary page wall for his room (although it would surely make him the smartest baby around ;). So the dictionary pages went back on a shelf.

Then I came across some old illustrations of mine. A project back in high school that I started was illustrating perfume bottles. The light bulb came on! Why not marry the two? So I put those pages in my printer, and I'm now selling dictionary page prints of my perfume bottles and a couple other watercolors. I'm having so much fun! I love the idea of "upcycling." I didn't have to go buy new paper. And I've got enough to equal about 2 reams. You can see those listings on my etsy shop.

And I still have these perfume bottle illustrations. So now I have a new set of greeting cards too!

What a great gift for that girly friend who is so good at sending handwritten notes.

Don't you love the creative process? I'm grateful to the Creator God who gives us these little tastes of fun. :)