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!

30 Projects in 30 Days

I started a new challenge because you know, I just can't resist a good challenge! Yet another from my Sketchbook Project Group, boy those ladies keep me on my toes! So the challenge is to create and complete a project every day for 30 days. Since we break rules all the time, we decided if we run into snags (also called Life) and miss a day, we can make up for it with 2 the next day... so long as we complete 30 projects in 30 days. Since I know I won't post every day, I'm going to try and group them every 3-4 days. Before the project started I made a watercolor journal to work in, which is pictured above. My focus for this challenge is to paint and fill up my little journal. I don't want to call it Art Journaling, I would say it's more just mixed media painting in a journal. Of course our regular work in our Marie Antoinette RR and our Sketchbook RR also count. And if I feel like doing something else one day, so be it. Rule breakers we are.

Day 1: I created the 30/30 digital logo you see on the left of my post. Of course I shared it with all the peeps playing :-)

Day 2: I wanted to create a nice send-off page for my journal.  Paint, paper and rubber stamps/ink pad.

Day 3: This was inspired by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine cover for this month. It's an article on painted paper collage by Serena Wilson Stubson. I used various scrapbook papers, paints, stencils/stamps, cheesecloth, and marker. I love that it's so colorful. And yes, some people would be happy to know I used the color Orange!

Day 4: Was just serendipity. I started the day out tired and in a gah type mood so I slathered a very dark blue/black all over the paper and let it dry. Then decided I wanted to do a house theme. At night of course. But I had to lighten the page with blue gray storm clouds. I used torn scrapbook paper, text, music sheets, and words. The text says "It was a dark and stormy night" and the name of the picture is called "Every home has a story to tell." Even the doghouse. If you click on the picture it should give a closeup of the words inside the houses... the story of the house.

I tell ya, I'm having too much fun here. I really enjoyed the past two days' projects. I think what I'm going to do is to grab a random magazine (I only have about 98723765 magazines laying around here!) and open it to a page I have earmarked as a project or technique I want to try. Oh so much to do and try and so little time...  

Oh, on another note and related to my previous post... I WON a hand painted fat quarter from Leilani Pierson! She was giving away this gorgeous fat quarter as a thanks for playing in her challenge to make the little fabric book. This piece of fabric is really beautiful. It will pain me to cut into it, but it's alright. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to use it, so I can enjoy it now as is. And the envelope she sent it in, is really pretty too! I just can't throw it away...