Trash Project - Part 2 (Completed)

In "Part 1", I collected several ordinary and thrown away items from around my home, without any preconceived ideas, and accepted the challenge of making a greeting card from them.

Read “Trash Project: Part 1” to see the items I collected for this project.


  TRASH CARD: Front View

TRASH CARD:  Inside View


LIST OF ITEMS:
* Ruler, 12 Crayons, Scissors, Bic Pen, Liquid Paper (white out), Elmer's School Glue

* Post-It Notes (pad of yellow, pad of green), scraps of printer paper (pink), computer paper (white)

* Junk Mail (“Molly Maid” advertisement), Old notes sent to me (from garbage), Cardboard Circle Ribbon Holder (Empty – no ribbon left), Kleenex Tissue Box.


 PICTURE OF ITEMS


Cut out various words from the “Molly Maid” advertisement Junk Mail


Drew outline of house and tree on pink Kleenex Box and cut it out (idea for house and tree from “Molly Maid” ad)

** Cut Out wiggly strips and from the Green and Yellow Post-It Note pads

** Cut Out little leaf shapes from Green Post-It Note pad

** Cut Out the the Red Outline Circle from the Cardboard Ribbon holder (touched up the messy cutting with white-out Liquid Paper around inside of circle)

** Cut Out little Pink Flowers from the paper old notes written on.


  Laid out all the words I Cut Out of “Molly Maid” advertisement “Coming Home; to; 100 % ; Love; Trust; Satisfaction; from; ll ; r "


Laid Out ALL pieces I cut out to put on card (Helped to give me final ideas of how to put card together by collecting all my ‘resources’ in one place)


  Used Crayons to color triangles of color to make a type of Quilt Pattern (didn’t make it bigger than the "ribbon" circle I cut out)

** Folded White Printer paper (81/2 X 11) into a Four fold Card


FRONT: Glued Cardboard red circle on top of coloured Quilt Pattern

ONCE I HAD CARD FOLDED I CONTINUED TO GLUE ALL THE VARIOUS CUT-OUTS INTO THEIR APPROPRIATE PLACES.


INSIDE BOTTOM:Glued Wiggly Yellow Paper to bottom of Inside card


INSIDE RIGHT: Glued words (wrote the word “and” with my Bic Pen)


  INSIDE: Glued on Kleenex Box Tree, Pink paper Home (drew on windows and doors with pen), Glued on 3 Green Leaves (drew on lines with pen)


BACK: It’s not a card from me unless I put my LOGO on the bottom back, “ from  ~ ll r ~” (words cut from the “Molly Maid” ad) ; Green Paper wiggles from Post-It paper.


BOTTOM FRONT: Glued below Quilt Pattern Circle, 3 Pink Flowers (cut from paper that had old notes written on it), Green Leaves from Post-It Note pad


CARD SENTIMENT READS:
Front: “Coming Home to …”
Inside: “ 100% Love Trust and Satisfaction”
Back: “from ll r “ (my card logo)

(NOTE: Words cut from “Molly Maid” Junk Mail Advertisement)


FINAL VIEWS:

CARD OPEN & LAID FLAT (Shows Front and Back)

CARD OPEN (Inside View)


CARD OPEN (Inside View – Bottom)


CONCLUSION:

So that is my “Trash Project”. I enjoyed doing it, although my creativity doesn’t come quite as fast as it used to. I did it in the hopes that you would be motivated to do something similar or at least come to the conclusion that you don’t need a lot of equipment or the ability to reproduce the Mona Lisa in order to create something.
 The idea is to use whatever is at hand and make something that is uniquely YOU. Go ahead. Give it a try. And don’t forget to have some fun.

I would love to hear comments about what you think of this project and I would REALLY love if you sent me a photo of anything you create as well.

Love Laura-Lee

BACHELOR COOKING: Quick Rice Supper

I call this “Bachelor Cooking” because it is a recipe I have developed that can be made fast, cheap, with not much more than a kettle or microwave and with almost no cooking ability. Tailor made for bachelors, busy people-on-the-go and dorm room living.

Thus I present my:

Quick Rice Supper


INGREDIENTS:

Cup-A-Soup (whatever flavour you like best)

Minute Rice (the type you cook in less than 5 minutes. **)

Water

Salt, margarine (optional)

(**Note: You can use the rice in a bag, but you have to boil it separately in a pot for at least 20 minutes and that defeats the purpose of it being “quick”)




EQUIPMENT:

Kettle and/or Microwave

Spoon

Microwaveable Dish
 
Lid, plate, Plastic Wrap, basically something to cover the Dish with  (doesn’t need to be microwaveable)


DIRECTIONS:

 Open envelope of Cup-A-Soup (your favourite flavour) and dump into microwaveable cup/dish/mug (I add a bunch of salt at this time)

 Pour in boiled water from kettle; stir with spoon

 Immediately add “Minute Rice” and stir (CAUTION: Rice will expand 6-10 times it’s size)


  Put Rice, water, soup mixture into microwave. Set for 30 seconds. It will be different times for different microwaves. You'll have to WATCH IT. As soon as you see it start bubbling, TAKE IT OUT


 IMMEDIATELY put lid on it. Lid can be anything that fits relatively securely. Sometimes I use a saucer or Glad Wrap.
 (CAUTION: LEAVE A LITTLE HOLE TO ALLOW STEAM TO ESCAPE)


 Let it sit covered from 5 minutes to 30 minutes or whatever. (I let mine sit about 15 minutes)

KEEP IN MIND: The longer it sits, the softer and BIGGER the Rice gets. The Rice will grow quite a bit and continue to soak up more of the soup the longer it sits.

Take lid off, stir and eat.
(Adjust to what works for you.)

NOTE: You don’t have to use kettle AND microwave. One or the Other will do. But the HOTTER the water, the LESS time the rice will have to sit. A kettle gets the water boiled hotter, but I use both because an extra ‘zap’ from the microwave means I don’t have to wait as long for it


 CLEAN UP: If lid doesn’t get soup on it, it is just wet from STEAM. Rinse with HOT WATER and it’s clean and ready to go again.

FYI : I’ve been timed at 120 seconds prep time and then 5 minutes it sits before eating. That’s potentially 7 minutes from start to eating a hot rice dish.
 
If you were to buy a microwave rice dish already made from the store, it would cost about $2 – $4 (or even more). Doing it this way works out to about 70-80 cents per dish. (Fast, cheap, and mmmm, mmmm good.)

FYI – I use “Spring Vegetable” Cup-A-Soup
Try this out and don’t forget to come back and leave a COMMENT about how it worked or if/how you changed it to make it uniquely your own, or what your favourite Cup-A-Soup flavour to use with this is.

HOUSEHOLD HINT: Finding End of “Invisible” Tape

It can be absolutely frustrating when using Scotch Tape (or any “invisible” tape) and you lose the end because it sticks back to the roll and you have to pick at it with your fingernails to pull it up again.

Or, when Scotch Tape is used on something and you have the horrible task of trying to remove it. I’ve learned the hard way how to over come this and here is the secret …

 BEHOLD: An Ordinary Roll of Scotch Tape


 Take a tiny part of the end of the tape
  ( 1 cm about?) and just bend it over and tape it to itself.

Not only does it keep the tape from re-sticking to the roll and save you from trying to pull it up again with your fingernails …
But when you use it to attach something and it still has the little “folded over” piece …

FOR EXAMPLE:


  Taped a piece of paper to the fridge. (NOTE: see little fold at top of tape?)


  Flick up the fold with your finger …


  And just pull it off. No problems. No tape remnants left behind.


  Works exactly the same with masking tape or any other kind.

NEVER LOSE THE END AGAIN!

Simple, eh?