We love to help promote our Etsy friends‘ beautiful products and newly discovered shops with exquisite pieces. Explore our most recent collections including Copper Garden and Spring Bliss!
Author Archives: Paper Soil
Kitchen Upcycle: Skewers!
It’s no wonder that the upcycle materials for our first products are found in the kitchen! We love food and its always been a central gathering space in our home.
We take skewers from shish kabob to the bejeweled garden where they are transformed into glittering stems for our Japanese Origami Paper Crane Bouquets. The pointed end is perfect for placing paper cranes to create a magical dazzling bouquet that is both stylish and eco-friendly.
I continued to explore creative reuse of skewers for other projects inspiring our very popular Mint Green Handmade Japanese Origami Paper Crane/Clear Beads Chopsticks Decoration. With this piece, I want to capture the minimalistic design and beauty of traditional Japanese art. The spirit of peace, love and hope is embodied in the design elements: the symbolic Japanese paper crane and skewers as a creative representation of chopsticks, a traditional eating utensil in Japan.
Paper Soil Color Splash
We are happy to be featured in some truly stunning collections with other Etsy sellers. Here are a few to put you in the sunshine spring spirit!
featuring our Mint Green Handmade Japanese Origami Paper Crane/Beads Chopsticks Party Holiday Decoration perfect for a unique ecochic wedding or party favor
featuring our Japanese Origami Wedding/Holiday Ball in Blue and White Hand Folded with Peace, Hope and Love perfect for the art lovers in your life or your own ecochic wedding
featuring our Upcycled Loving Memories Folded Book Heart Sculpture with Ribbon and Lyrical Heart Embellishments , a perfectly unique and unforgettable anniversary, birthday, valentine or wedding gift! Say “I love you” in ecochic upcycled style!
It’s Dr. Seuss Day!
To celebrate, I’m getting creative with colors, characters and all things Etsy! Enjoy this very Seussical themed treasury and of course don’t forget to read something silly and wonderfully inspiring today!
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.”
“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way.”
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try.”
“And will you succeed? Yes, indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.”
Be Creative Everyday
As an artist, with a full time job in a different industry, I am trying to be deliberate about growing my creativity and my upcycle business, Paper Soil, each day. This weekend, as I was organizing my studio, I found an old dry erase calendar that my son used when he was younger to learn how to manage his time. This is a large double-sided wall calendar: one side spans 90 days and includes my son’s homework and sport’s schedule from 2009 when he was 13 years old. I turned the calendar over to the other side which features a 30 day calendar. I started thinking about how I could use this calendar to meet my creative objectives. I could use it for it’s intended purpose or I could repurpose it. I decided to hang it vertically so that the names of the week run down the right side of the calendar in a column. Each space that would normally have a number indicating the day of the week, will now have a color, whatever color I am inspired to select any given day. Each space that would normally have text for tasks, appointments, deadlines etc., will now have a doodle, pattern or design. My goal is to be creative everyday with my new creativity board. Keep up with my daily drawings on the Paper Soil Instagram account @papersoilsamples!
Holiday Remix
Have yourself a glitter teal Christmas, may your art be bright!
From now on your hope will be your shining light!
Here we stand in creative wonder and delight!
Have yourself a sparkling midnight garden night!
Your Unforgettable Wedding – Flowers
Your wedding can be magical, artistic, creative, and unforgettable with a few changes to the traditional elements.
Bouquets – Think of your flowers as a work of art, an everlasting garden filled with delicate petals, flowing ribbons, dazzling wonder! Your flowers stay fresh and bright throughout the day and for years to come, a unique souvenir for the bride and groom. Your bridesmaids each receive a handcrafted bouquet of paper flowers, jewels and ribbons to carry down the aisle, turning heads and captivating guests with wonder and delight, flowers that bloom with love, art, life! Your bouquets double as bridesmaid gifts, as a thank you and souvenir of your unforgettable wedding that everybody will be talking about.
Splash in the Strawberry Ocean
Dance in the Midnight Garden
Sing in the Bejeweled Garden
Dare to be different and make a statement with a unique twist on wedding flowers!
Now through December 3, use coupon code CYBER15 at Paper Soil for 20% off all our wedding bouquets including our wedding packages! That’s a steal!
A Very Musical December
The gift of music is one of my favorite traditions during the holidays. This weekend, my youngest child is singing in her first holiday college concert. Hearing her beautiful voice is a warm woolen scarf, hot cocoa, delicate snowflakes, winter lights, star dust and cinnamon sugar all rolled into one. My heart’s delight! The following weekend, her choir joins the Greater Bridgeport Symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a gorgeous jubilant celebration of musical genius, art and joy!
With a family of musicians including a violinist, pianist and guitar player, music fills our lives. Favorite holiday music includes:
What is your favorite holiday music?
Paper Soil – Organically Grown
You will see a theme on our Pinterest boards beyond images of ecochic upcycled creativity. Each of our boards has a quote as the cover image! As a librarian by day, I know the value of words to add meaning and help reveal pieces of a story.
Here are some of the quotes that help tell the Paper Soil story:
Gifts for Book Lovers – “All who wander are not lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
Eco-friendly Holiday Gifts – “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” – Vincent Van Gogh
Paper Soil Team Treasuries – “If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever. “ – A. A. Milne
Gifts for Nature Lovers – “Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein
Holiday Gifts for Art Lovers – “Art is not a thing, it is a way.” – Elbert Hubbard
Now through Thursday, December 3, use coupon code CYBER15 at Paper Soil for 20% off all products!
Holiday Colors
The newest designs are up at our Etsy store! I had a lot of fun creating these designs and documented the process at @papersoilsamples, our Instagram account. I was going for a minimalistic design that danced with winter creativity. The upcycled giftbags used for these cards contain some of my favorite color combinations: purple, green, and teal. These bags have been given to me over the years containing birthday, anniversary and holiday gifts from my husband. The first of these artful bags I received was a tall purple bag decorated with green, gold and blue peacock feather designs.
and
are each available for $35. Place your orders between now and Thursday, Dec. 3 for a 20% Cyber Week Sales discount!
Wishing you and yours a creative holiday season!
papersoil 
