Inky fun with a couple of colour printer cartridges

 We recently acquired a colour inkjet printer which required some intervention before it would print all the colours successfully so in the process of that repair there were two printer cartridges that were empty and ready to be put in the garbage.  Knowing that others have scavenged ink from markers I thought I would have a go with scavenging the ink leftover in the two cartridges - a yellow and a magenta.  You can see above that I have managed to bend back the top of the cartridge enough to access the inside (using a hack saw and a some pliers) and remove the sponges which were holding the remaining ink.   I simply added some water and the ink dissolved into it.  I filled two bottles with the ink I retrieved - a small one and a spray bottle.  I did the same with the magenta cartridge and got two bottles from that as well.  

Here are the papers I created in the process of removing the ink from the sponges.  I made several backgrounds on glossy photo paper (10) and the rest was applied to regular bond paper in a variety of patterns. So I have a LOT of backgrounds to use for my creative projects and 4 bottles of ink that I can use for making quite a few more.  It was a bit of a messy job and I should have wore gloves because my hand look like they have been "altered".  I expect it will wear off in a couple of days.   I am pretty happy with my little experiment and look forward to making up some cards with my glossy photo backgrounds.  

Therese

My Art - Oct cardmaking - sunflower & ladybug

Love this card! I struggled with the design of this card - the cardstock was ivory and making the whole thing look too warm to properly show off the little ladybug. I finally decided to try adding black to the edge of the card and that worked perfectly to tie in that lady bug accent. I used a black marker and drew a line around the edge of the card front. FRUGAL TIP: This is a great technique if you are wanting to have the look of a separate layer without the bulk and also when you do not have the right colour of cardstock but have a marker that you can use to simulate it!!
I embossed the background layer using my Cuttlebug with a silicone texture mat and a flooring sample!! The sample had a simple hexagon textured design and with a custom sandwich in my CB I was able to texturize my cardstock!! Always be on the look out for everyday items that can be used in your art!!
Because of the proportions of my watercoloured image to my green layer I needed it to be as wide as possible so I modified my border punch (SU) so that the scalloped edge would punch closer to the edge of the cardstock. Typically you lose about 1/4" of cardstock when you punch the edge with a border punch. SO.... I just added an 1/8" piece of matboard to the throat of my punch so that the cardstock would not go in as far when I punched it. Worked like a dream!!
I see in the scan that the ribbon looks the same colour as the background cardstock but in real life it is a nice deep ochre colour and velvety!!
The little ladybug is actually a postage stamp!! Bought what I needed at the post office - 1 cent postage - for less than a dollar!! So these little stickers cost ONE CENT!! It is the best deal going anywhere and they are very cute!! I layered the ladybug onto a rectangle of black cardstock and mounted it to the card using 3D foam tape.

Therese

Technique - resizing large envlelopes

I have some large commercial card envelopes that I have acquired over the years that are often too large for the cards I am making. I finally decided to work out a way to use them for my A2 invitation sized cards.
I start out with a 8.25" x 5.75" envelope and cut out the middle section to fit my A2 card, cut off both ends from the scraps and glue them back on each side. You end up with a nice slim envelope with a nice triangular flap. Adding the two side pieces covers up your card and keeps the card from being damaged in transit.
If you have a stash of large envelopes consider modifying them so you can use them for your smaller cards.

I hope the info on the right is useful.

If you have a card shop close to you inquire about getting the envelopes when they change up their card displays. The envelopes are not returned to the company and you can often get them for free. I use them for my personal cards and for the cards I refurbish. I think it would be inappropriate for them to be used for cards made for sale.

Therese