Trashy Crafter is my Etsy Seller of the Week! & Giveaway!

My Etsy Seller of the Week is Kimberly. Her shop Trashy Crafter is amazing. She's written a great guest post for me, so you can find out more about her fabulous project and wonderful jewelry.

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Books are magical, they give you the ability to go on a jungle safari one minute and

a deep see dive with mermaids the next, but what happens when books has gotten

lots of love from years of use? The pages get creased, dog-eared and ripped, the

bend or even start to fall off. That’s where my Mom Helen and I come in, and this is

where the story of Trashy Crafter begins. 

My names Kim, and I have pretty much been a crafter since I was old enough to hold

scissors in my hand and not eat the Elmer’s glue. As a little girl I would come home

from school each day, and as long as my homework was done I could create crafts all

afternoon at my Grandmas house until my Mom and Dad came to pick my sister and

I up after work. My Grandma made beautiful crafts and sold at lots of holiday craft

shows, crafting ran in my blood and it was bound to become a part of my life some

way or another. 

One day while I was in my senior year of college and my Mom and I went to the local

thrift store. While there we noticed they had these auction bins out front of the store

full of damaged and outdated books. We found out that when books would not sell

at the thrift store because of being damaged or outdated, they auctioned them off,

and if the folks sifting through the auction bin thought could not sell the book or it

was too damaged it was just thrown away.

Needless to say my Mom and I were heartbroken that all those beautifully

illustrated children’s books were just thrown away... so we grabbed about 25 books

each in our arms and took them home. I was really busy with school at the time, so

the books sat in the corner of my room for about 3 months. I was trying to think of

a useful thing to turn the books into when it hit me! I was very lucky to have a 3rd

grade teacher that was very crafty, her name was Mrs. Bryant. She had taught us

how to roll magazines pages into paper beads (I’m sure many of you have done this

in girl scouts or grade school). I made my first few beads and knew from then I was

hooked, the most magical part about it to me is that you not only create beautiful,

colorful unique beads made from something that was going to be thrown into a

landfill, but you know what book or item it was made from! 

Everyone has stories, and connects with them so well, the reason we continue to

create recycled book beads, map beads and sheet music beads is that when people

purchase a set at a local craft show or online they have a story behind what they

wear.... Perhaps they went on a road trip across the country, and that map bead

bracelet they wear reminds them of the fun they had, or they had a band teacher

that taught them to play an instrument, so they give them a sheet music bracelet as

a token of appreciation... or even a gift for a mom or teacher that read you a book as

a child that connected with you and stayed in your memory to this day. As humans

we all connect universally with stories, and it’s a beautiful thing to throw away, so

my Mom and I plan on fighting the good fight and continuing to turn old books into

beautiful, wearable works of art.

Our Process:

My Mom Helen and I gather the books from a lot of different places, sometimes we

find them in cardboard boxes outside of library’s, in thrift stores on the clearance

shelf or in the bins, and even get books, maps or sheet music donated from folks

that love and support our mission. Once we gather all of the books we measure and

hand cut the book pages into long narrow triangle strips and roll them one at a time

onto lollipop sticks. Once they are on there we coat each bead 3-5 times depending

on the thickness of the paper. Once that is done we spray them with a matte finish

and then we start to make them into the finished jewelry. We purchase damaged

necklaces and bracelets from the local thrift store and strip them apart to repurpose

the beads. We create the jewelry with a mixture of the paper book page beads we

made along with the repurposed beads. Once that is finished, we hand cut recycled

cardboard bracelet holders and place the book labeling on to each set so folks know

what book their bracelets were made from.

 Kimberly has generously offered a Harry Potter bracelet. One very lucky winner will receive this great prize! 

If you like Kimberly's shop and the giveaway, please show your appreciation by liking her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TrashyCrafter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is international. I will contact the winner by email or on twitter. If I don't receive a reply within 60 hours I let rafflecopter draw someone else. Good luck!