peace on EARTH DAY!

if you've played along with us at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in the last three years (and i hope that you either have, or are planning to, because i LOVE to see my friends over there!!!) and if you've ever made cards with us in april, you'll probably be expecting this prompt, this week, because we always like to celebrate EARTH DAY by making holiday cards that do a bit of re-cycling, up-cycling, re-using, re-puposing, or generally rescuing something which might've otherwise ended up in the trash! it's one of my favorite challenges of the whole year, for both the making-- and then especially-- in seeing what others have made! but let's start with my card, ok:

(recycled cardinal greeting card; upcycled white panel from crafts packaging; reused red ribbon from a gift; patterned paper scrap and card base + off cut of chipboard banner sentiment: my mind's eye; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, sewing machine)

my very favorite thing to recycle on christmas cards is... CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! which sounds silly to write or read, but i think everyone crafty probably knows what i mean? even if we don't often *send* store-bought cards, we most likely receive some each year, and many of them are just much too lovely to toss out! in this case, the pretty, almost charlie harper-ish panel with the cardinal is most of a post-holiday thank you note that my friend cheryl received this year and saved just for me! you cannot really tell from the photo, but it's lightly pressure embossed, so that the bird, tree trunks and branches have a tiny bit of dimension. in the spirit of earth day i tried to be as frugal as possible, so the red panel is a leftover scrap, the white panel is the backer from some small making memories frame embellishments, the ribbon came on a parcel, and the chipboard sentiment was the trimmed-off bit of a long border sticker i used quite some time ago, but thought, "that one little piece could still be useful!" ...and i think i was right about that! :)

valiantly assisting me in my quest was this lovely retrosketch from a few weeks ago, on which i changed the proportions slightly:

currently i'm linking up with patrice's 52-card-pickup, as well!

and now i hope you'll follow me over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see the lovely creation stephanie has devised, and then start thinking up what you will make for our earth day special!!! ♥