And good gracious, were there freebies.
Every major paper distributor was there, promoting their newest products, pushing anyone and everyone to take their inventory to far reaches of corporate and agency life. And take we did. We did so much collecting to share what wonderful options were available – we even got to pay extra luggage fees at the airport for our treasures.
In my excitement of seeing so many selections, I failed to realize that the rather large corporation I worked for would most likely have a binding contract in place with the company who supplied the copy paper. And even though beautiful things existed, that didn’t mean we could have them … or afford them.
So. There sat my mound of lovely samples no one cared about but me, soon to be filed away with my other “creative stuff” at work.
Fast forward three years. I’ve now moved half way across the country, and I still had a vast majority of these samples in my possession. Why, you ask? They were too pretty to throw away or recycle.
Have I mentioned my tendencies to hoard?
In my ongoing effort to reduce clutter, I started pulling out these samples, dismantling the binding, and checking out what I really had. Frankly, it was an odd assortment, but sometimes that provides great inspiration.
The first piece I cut into was a vibrant catalog with an awesome striped envelope. Just look at how many different cards with such a wide range of styles have come out of this one piece!
What’s even better – there are still a few images/backgrounds from this one small catalog I think have potential! To me, this is upcycling at its finest. And one less thing to find space for the next time we move.
