Make Art, Not Trash! {and my 5 year blogaversary!)

Holy moly, can you believe that I have been blogging for 5 years! Well, maybe it feels longer for you LOL but for me it seems like just yesterday I sat down at the computer and opened a wordpress account! Writing this blog has helped me develop as an artist and opened the door to so many wonderful opportunities from freelance art and design work to writing my own column for Scrap & Stamp Arts. The lovely comments from readers make my day and the support I feel from you is overwhelming. I have received sponsorships from many art & crafts companies which I am thankful for but also I have tried to stick to my frugal crafting roots by offering up low-cost and recycling projects (like the one I have for you today.) This is my 1300th post, how am I doing? Here is a card I made for the occasion using some prints from Styrofoam trays that were headed to the trash:

Some people had a hard time obtaining the ingredients to make a gelatin plate or finding the rubber gasket (I posted a tutorial on printmaking on plumbers gasket last week on YouTube, that video will be at the end of this post) I used for another printmaking project. Then I remembered how much fun it is to make prints from Styrofoam trays. All you need is a Styrofoam take out tray (cut out a flat panel with a craft knife), acrylic  paint, a brayer or paintbrush and some mark making tools. Let’s go!

I used the prints I made on this easel card. The stamps I used are by Pink Persimmon. Tip! Flip your clear stamps around on your block and stamp with the backside for custom shadow stamps like I did for the 3 circles on this card!

As promised here is my rubber plumbers gasket printmaking video. I scored a bunch of 12″x12″ sheets of rubber for 99 cents each at a hardware store, I have die cut it into custom stamps, cut it down to fit my Big Shot for an embossing pad and used it for various household projects. Plumbers buy this to cut custom leak-proof washers. I guess I was lucky to find such large sheets cheaply because others have had trouble obtaining it. You are not limited to what you can make prints on, some ideas are: Plexiglas (or plastic packaging, scuffing it with sandpaper is helpful), silicone mats, glass (be careful!), EZ cut sheets, and if you look around with a creative eye I bet you can find more ways too! anyway, here is the video, it is very much the same as my other printmaking videos, just with a different materiel as a base. I don’t blame you if you don’t watch the entire video 😀

Thanks again for sticking with me over the past 5 years of blogging, I hope I am still at it in 5 more! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!