recycling... in action!

you may recall the digital collage pages i made for my hawaii travel book. if so, this hawaiian-themed gift bag will look eerily familiar! (i apologize for the awful photos, this is what happens if you take pics at night in my apartment... even with a lightbox!!!)

yepper, that's the very same collage--i'm not only ok with using it again, i'm actually quite proud! this time i've printed it out slightly smaller and embellished it with some "real life" supplies, like thickers to spell out "MELE KALIKIMAKA", (which, as jimmy buffet and bing crosby fans will know, means "merry christmas" in hawaiian) a white scalloped border, and a bit of a flowery ornament.

the base of that big blossom is made from vintage silk flower petals i've had for long enough to have absolutely NO IDEA where they came from! i think they were meant to be roses, but in this case they are doubling for the hawaii state flower--a yellow hibiscus--whilst also having hybrid poinsettia, plumeria and pink snowflake aspects. what can i say, i never claimed to be a *BOTANIST* darlings!!!

for that matter, the pink flamingo is a total non-sequitur, too, being native to florida rather than hawaii; but my friend cheryl gave me these glitter epoxy flamingo stickers, and they were just too cool NOT to use. although, as it happens, there were flamingos in the lobby of our hotel!  also penguins. and turtles. and all manner of other exotic flora and fauna.  we never found out *why* any of them were there... but they were fun to visit!

to finish off my "digi-to-real" collage conversion, i rounded the corners of everything, used layers of foam tape for extra dimension, and added genuine machine stitching to replace the digital version. the flower decoration is hot glued to the clip which was originally attached to a hair decoration, since i thought it might be fun to be able to remove and put it on the tree or... well, SOMEWHERE. i actually made two of these and i hope my lovely friends janet and liz will enjoy receiving them, along with the vacationy treats i have put inside! ♥