Going Green!

I really wish I could take credit for this drawing but I can't. I can only take credit for birthing the child (9 year ago!) who made the drawing. Who made the drawing while sitting in the back seat of the car while driving to a meeting. Who kept drawing during the meeting while her mom and dad talked boring stuff like packaging and shipping and business. But what a beautiful drawing it turned out to be. And a wonderful introduction to this blog post, which is all about GOING GREEN! 

I am so thrilled to announce that we (meaning artistcellar - it still sounds a little weird to the ears!) have found some packaging solutions that are a bit more earth-friendly than what we started out with. The main thing that bothered me was all that plastic bubble wrap I was wrapping around the jars of paint. Well, I don't have a lot of cushioning choices, if I want to protect the glass jars, bubbles are the best way to go. BUT... I discovered Globe Guard products and locally, Salazar Packaging, who sell eco-friendly packaging products. They came out with a great new product, biodegradable bubble wrap. WOOOT! It's even tinted green to remind you that it's "green".  It degrades in a landfill in 12-24 months and cushions my little jars of paint beautifully. 

 I also purchased boxes made from 100% post consumer waste. This means they were made from 100% recycled materials and they are 100% recyclable. (But I fully expect them be passed on a few times first!) The jars fit in the box perfectly, wrapped in bubbles, nice and secure. I REFUSE to send you a box within a bigger box like some companies do. What a waste!


We were a bit torn about the mailers. We had a choice between recyclable plastic mailers and heavy paper mailers. We went with the plastic mailers because they were so much lighter than the paper ones. We're also looking for ways to reduce shipping costs for you, so the plastic ones were the way to go. Just throw them in the recycling bin or bring them with your plastic grocery sacks to the recycling bins in the stores.


I'm happy I can do my little bit in being "green" and it WAS easy! If everybody did a little bit, it would make a BIG difference.

Now, who wants a beautiful, smart, creative, but GOOFY nine year old for a week? She's booored.

My new saying "Give a child a toy and she'll play with it for a week. Give a child a box and her imagination will soar for months to come!" Have a great rest of the week!

BIG NEWS!!

I am so sorry for neglecting my blog the past few weeks.  I feel terrible about it, but I do have an excuse. I've been very busy setting up my new business venture! My husband and I are the new owners of Artistcellar.com !!!! The past month was filled with emails, talks, contracts, anxiety, number crunching, ordering, stocking, anxiety, organizing, and playing with the inventory. My husband, I don't know how he did it, redesigned the entire website in about two weeks. I've got shelves and shelves of gorgeous Stewart Gill paints, imported from Scotland. Including that yummy line called Byzantia, used by Suzi Blu in her Goddess and the Poet class. (That's when I first heard about it!) The jewel toned metallics are amazing! and I am highly impressed with the Meta-mica and Pearlise lines too. Such gorgeous shimmer and shine and color. The Alchemy line is iridescent like dragonfly wings, Colourise is like a transparent glaze, and the True Colour is opaque and solid. All the paint lines are super high quality. I wanted to order every single color in every single line, but alas, my bank account wouldn't allow it. Over time I will add more colors. I'm also stocking some very cool stencils and a few neat rubber stamps, some additives like extenders and glue/adhesive but you have to check out the Special effects page. Some cool things I've never seen before in the USA...  Fresco Flakes, are actual paint peelings that simulate distressed walls and surfaces, shiny glitzy Gilding Chips will add super shine to anything,  Bijoux Blends are crushed glass and stone glitter (when these are gone, they're gone! They are not being manufactured anymore!) and some pretty fusible fibers and film that will add iridescent sparkle to your projects. 


And check out the gallery page. I've got some beautiful work up there by some awesome artists. I want to add more; I want people to send their creations to me when they've made something using Stewart Gill paints - or anything from the store. My pocket scroll at the top of the page was made with my new paints. The Fleur de Lis were stamped with Pearlise paint and the inside pages were painted with the Pearlise and Metamica paints, some with a shimmer of Alchemy glaze over the top. Below are the inside pages and the front page flattened out. 

The Scroll project is based on the article in the most recent Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine by Leilani Pierson of Studio Gypsy. Over at the CPS forums she posed a challenge for us to make our own pocket scrolls. It was so much fun and it was a great excuse to use some of the samples of paints I got. And in case you're wondering, no, I'm not using all the paints in my store. I wish, hehe. I have a few colors in each paint line for my own stash, to play with, experiment with, be tempted by... like a kid in a candy store! 


Well, enough ramblings... I hope you'll stop by my new website and say hi, tell me what you think. If you're on Facebook, I set up an artistcellar "page" where I hope to get people chatting about art. The website has links to everything too, including a newletter that goes out every once in awhile. I have big plans for it in the near future! 

Welcome to my new adventure!!