Earth Day Discount! 20% OFF Junk Mail Gems this weekend!

Happy Earth Day!! 

In honor of Earth Day this year, I am offering all of my loyal readers 20% off your Junk Mail Gems order! Just enter the coupon code "EARTH2011" at checkout! 

I just recently switched my entire site over from Paypal to Google Payments, and one main reason was so that I would have this ability to offer coupon codes and promotions.  So, this is my first crack at a coupon code.  Hopefully it works...if not, please let me know! ;-)  There are NO minimum orders required, and this coupon is good all weekend, NOW through Easter, April 24, 2011! (One coupon use per customer) Use it to get a jump on your Mother's Day shopping, or just treat yourself for being the earth friendly bargain hunter you are!

And since I don't have anything else amazing to share, I'm going to mooch off of some other bloggers who were more on-the-ball this Earth Day and prepared more fun material for you...

ReadyMade posted a link to a great tutorial for making your own plantable paper!  Very cool.

Hop on over to Inhabitots for 5 fun ways to celebrate Earth Day with your kids!

However you choose to celebrate, have fun! :-)

DIY Travel Play House using a Recycled McDonald's Happy Meal Box!

Okay, so I promised you a new tutorial on how you can recycle your McDonald's Happy Meal boxes...here it is!  I have created pdf patterns that you can download for free over at my design site.  Check out my step-by-step photo instructions at my IDMommy blog!

Ignore this little Ronald telling you to throw away your box...

...and make a little house out of it instead!

Pop-Up Junk Mail Christmas Cards

I just finished making my 2008 Junk Mail Gems Christmas cards, and had to share, since this is something that pretty much anyone can do!



These cards are made out of 100% recycled junk mail and are sure to get a reaction. If you are a pop-up fan, then you already know of Robert Sabuda's fantastic work. His website is full of easy tutorials for making your own pop-up cards, and this is where I found this reindeer pattern. I added the red nose by simply using a hole punch on a piece of red junk mail and gluing the resulting dot on one side of the folded nose, and then painted on the eyes. The piece on the left side that I wrote on is the inside of a security envelope. I used a menswear catalog for the main card and the reindeer...the front and back covers, since they are a thicker stock.

In retrospect, I should have designed the cards to fit inside a business reply envelope, which I could also have recycled. Well, I guess there's always next year!

Check out Robert's tutorials if you either have a lot of time to make cards, or a small mailing list! :-)

"Gathered Together" 2009 Calendar

I just saw this beautiful calendar on one of my favorite shopping sites and had to share. Since I was a little kid, I've been a huge fan of collage and making 3D stuff out of paper and found objects. My mom could never throw away a cereal box without me or my siblings wanting to turn it into a robot. This is a collaboration between Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh, who both have more great work on their sites worth checking out. It's even printed on recycled paper with veggie-based inks!

It also reminds me of a post card illustration I created a couple years ago with the same fantasy-like feeling, only I did this one digitally in Photoshop, entirely out of pieces of photos I had taken of plants and flowers. But, this makes me want to get out my glue and scissors and get back to doing things the old fashioned way. I could definitely do something fun with Junk Mail as well as you know I have plenty of it!