New Obsession-UpCycling Paper

I have been really busy getting ready for more shows this winter because once Christmas is gone, my sales will drop like a rock.  So I have to get as much expose and back for my buck while I can.  I have been in the studio day and night.  Well, that might be because I have a new craft obsession.  I have always loved paper, but now I really LOVE paper.  This new concentration of my attention is from watching way too many YouTube videos.  

Funny enough, one of the most colorful resources for my latest paper adventure is this catalog.  I had three years of them and decided to toss them.  I thumbed through them to get our personal information off of the cover and the inside to shred.  While looking through them, I found a ton of colors I thought would make great paper tubes.

Look at that purple!  I didn't care there was writing on it.  It would look great anyway.  I found reds, oranges, yellows, deep browns, greens, golds, and the purples.  Perfect!

Look at those beautiful colors.  That all came from a few years of Penzey's catalogs.  Who doesn't think those look like the old Pixie sticks with that sugarly powdered stuff inside??  

So this is what I did with some of the tubes.  It takes a ton of tubes to make these.  I rolled my tubes with a shrimp skewer.  I wanted something small and I got it.  It took forever to roll them and then to mash them flat and then rolling them into a shape.  This is my first oval.  That will be a lovely oval shaped box by the time it's over.

After I roll the tubes, I sort them into dominate colors.  I try to group all the purples together and all the blues together, and so on and so on.  It makes it easier when I am looking for a color to not have to sort through hundreds of tubes.  I have a misc. container but for the most part everything is broken down into color group.  I do have a container (in the back of this photo) that has tubes that were rolled with a dowel.  I kept the fatter tubes together for larger projects.  I did not break those down into color groups, because most of them are from newspaper.  

This is a better picture with some of the colors group together.  So now you see why I now look at "junk" mail differently these days.  Catalogs seem to be my best source.  There is always newspaper but I love the color from the catalogs.  

I will post more pictures of finished boxes as soon as I get the knobs on them.  There are different sizes and shapes and even some that are fun subjects.  So there you have it.  I have been busy!  I take a ton of pictures and have them all downloaded; just need to attach them to words and get them up here for you to see.  I realize that so many of you who read my blog are knitter and crocheters.  I haven't done any of that in a long time.  When Mr. Hunter/Gatherer has his two week shut down from work and craft season is over for a bit, I will pick up the needles and knit something, hopefully!  Until next time.  Keep an eye for me for pretty paper!!