My Favorite Challenge Week 6 - Recycle!

Well here we are in week 6 of the My Favorite Challenges and we are trying to recycle something. For me this was not an issue! The issue was trying to finish it because life just kept getting in the way. I love fireworks, but not the illegal kind, and we had too many of those going off on the 4th of July, so I had no sleep trying to keep terrified animals from running off, even the ones we had given sedatives to with a prescription from the vet. Then the wonderful individuals decided to set them off again Sunday night. So no sleep again. Otherwise I would have been done 2 days ago. Ok, enough venting, back to the project.

I decided to recycle a binder my 12 year old daughter used for 7th grade and wanted to get rid of since it's "not cool to use a binder 2 years in a row mom." Like where have I been? Hello! I am not throwing away a perfectly good binder especially when I can use it for stamping!!! So I proceeded to confiscate it, grab some Stampin Up! 12x12 paper I had in my stash that hasn't seen the light of day in years and happily head on out to the living room to my little corner of the world.

I started by stippling the "ocean" layers first: Stampin Up's brilliant blue, pacific point, bashful blue, and close to cocoa then creamy caramel for the sand. Then I pulled out my MFT beach sets. I wanted a beachy feel since I love the ocean so much. I started off by stamping the smaller WTG and her dog from By the Seashore and then the larger WTG and a dog from Gone to the Dogs. This gave me some depth to the overall "picture" I wanted to achieve.

On some My Perfect Panels I stamped separately WTG from Can You Dig It, Catch Some Rays, the accessories from Hit the Beach, and seashells from By the Seashore and then began my coloring. I colored everything with prismacolor markers and cut out what I needed to. I cut a slit between the hands of Who's That Girl from Can You Dig It to put a seashell in them to make it look like she was digging up seashells instead of the carrots from the set she's in. Cool huh?

I added my accessories where needed, popping up one of the seagulls, and then added some chipboard letters in the word INSPIRE along the side with some felt flowers as seen below.


Here is a close up of the beach scene itself. You can see the popped up seagull just right in front of the WTG from Can Ya Dig It with the seashell in her hand.


My cut out accessories with my suntanning Catch Some Rays Who's That Girl?




The main reason I had wanted to make a binder like this is because I have so many pictures my grandfather has taken over the years that are so inspiring and I wanted to keep them safe. I have had multiple ideas for making something to put them in, but this challenge just kicked my mojo in gear, not to mention my rear in gear to get it done. Now the pictures will be safe, and I have an inspiration binder of all of his photos, with plenty of room to add my own over the years.

Too bad none of the beach sets have a lighthouse in them. Oh Kim........!!!!

Stamps: MFT Hit The Beach, By The Seashore, Can Ya Dig It, Catch Some Rays, Gone To The Dogs

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Brilliant Blue, Pacific Pointe, Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel, Soft Sky

Cardstock: Stampin Up White 12x12, Green Tea Designer Paper

Accessories: Making Memories Chipboard Letters, Stipple Brush, Prismacolor Markers, Prima Flower, Glue Dots, Stampin Up! Felt Flowers, Brads, Recycled Binder, Sticky Tape (Walmart)