Saturday, August 13, 2011

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. :)

13 comments:

  1. Awesome...love the idea...thanks for sharing♥
    Monika

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  2. Interesting how you held onto those pages for so long and then finally put them to use. I visited your shop -- very nice -- I love your watercolors!

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  3. I love it! love the cards! love using the dictionary pages! this is awesome!

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  4. I'm a bid fan of upcycling - love it!

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  5. Pretty, what a neat idea for the wallpaper! Niki x

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  6. So pretty! These would work nicely as the cover of a sketchbook or notebook, too!

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  7. I love the idea of printing on the pages...very cool and your illustrations are just lovely! I'll have to keep the dictionary wall paper idea in the back of my head, thank you for the idea. :)

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  8. The creative process is the best part!

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  9. What a wonderful and creative idea.

    ♥♥♥
    Sue

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  10. See, this is why I keep everything???!!! You have reinforced the creative pack rat in me....lol.

    Gorgeous! I love the blend of the two pieces.

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  11. Don't we have an awesome CREATIVE god who has made us to be CREATIVE as well??!! Great idea.

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