Lessology

It's great to connect with so many like-minded environmentalists via the blogosphere!  A newly-created group that has caught my eye recently is Lessology, a challenge community dedicated to altered art, with a requirement to use at least one repurposed item in each project.  They currently have a DT call going on, so I thought I'd create a project.  This is what I came up with (photos below)...

Supplies: orange paper (BasicGrey), dark brown paper (My Mind's Eye), striped airmail paper (October Afternoon), twine (vintage--from my husband's grandmother), alphabet stickers (BasicGrey), dry adhesive (3M), foam adhesive (3M), brown ink (Versa Color), standard office hole punch, doll-shaped bead, canceled postage stamps, toy label.

Additional supplies for lid: red paper (BasicGrey), chipboard star (DCWV, covered with brown paper from My Mind's Eye), button (October Afternoon).

I knew that I wanted to create a project that would be useful to me.  As a Russian tutor, I've recently noticed a need for a container to hold all the Russian/Cyrillic memorabilia that I use.  See, instead of just focusing on grammar drills and scripted dialogues in textbooks, I like my students to be able to touch and discuss actual Russian items like coins, banknotes, tickets, food wrappers, etc.  This makes Russian lessons a lot of fun, but it can also lead to little bits and pieces of paper all over my desk.  So, I decided to decorate a jar to hold all these pieces.

As you see, I decorated my jar with an oversized tag that I crafted from scrapbooking paper, stickers, and a handful of odds and ends.  The repurposed items on the tag are postage stamps (carefully removed from letters that I've received from Russian friends) and a label from a Russian teddy bear (the words "с любовью" mean "with love").

The bead shaped like a Russian doll is not actually Russian, to the best of my knowledge.  It came from a local shop, Mosaic on a Stick, a haven for us creative types.

It's also quite interesting to look at the jar from the back (above), in order to see all the items that are inside it.  (By the way, that's just a standard canning jar from my kitchen.  I keep such jars on hand to hold maple syrup, honey, and other bulk liquids from the health food store.)  You'll also find a photo below of the jar's contents--spread out, so that you can see the items better.

Thanks for looking!