Trash Can Challenge

Ok - so here was the deal - take whatever you have in your craft room trash - and make something out of it! Thanks Marie for suggesting this fun and creative way to get us working with found objects, aka scraps, rather than my carefully sorted and filed supplies! We were tasked to create something with what we found literally in the garbage - allowing us to use one thing from our studios. I started by dumping the bag (i just recycle plastic bags - hooked onto the drawer of my worksurface) out onto the desk in our office. That way - i would not allow myself to "steal" all the real art supply goodies from my studio. Well let's just say there were slim pickings! Mostly packaging - not a lot of interesting stuff.
But two things did emerge: orange and black. How apropos for halloween week! The orange was the labels from some dick blick canvases and the back of a big lots receipt. The black came from the backing for a package of bird stencils i purchases recently. Interestingly the black backing was covered with skull and cross bones - interesting logo for a stencil company, but it was really faint and doesn't show in the finished product - but would have been cool it is did! I did scratch up the shiny surfaces with a sanding square that was also in the garbage!

I started by sorting all the bits into piles to see what i had to work with. The dick blick labels became two overlapping pupkins. A catalog page sofa became the eyes and a scrap of black paper the mouth. I used a page from the phone book to make a pointy border for the piece. Old phone books are great to use as a surface to glue on on your craft table. When it gets too sticky - just turn the page.
Some bits were serendipidous - like the label for a package of mini eggs was printed with a green leafy vine and two doves. The sticker backing for a a border of stars became partnered with a clock moon, cut from a catalog page scrap. Some strips of floral paper were used to create stripes on the pumpkin.

The final touch, and allowed by the "rules" was to take some portfolio oil pastels and smear some colour all around the edges to blend it all together.