Up-cycling Coffee Sleeves into ATCs

Cousin of recycling, up-cycling is taking something most people would throw away and using it again, but making something better than what it was to begin with. In that thought, I have been collecting cardboard coffee sleeves that have a cool design embossed in them, really pretty gum/candy wrappers and used coffee filters/tea bags (minus the grounds/tea).

I made some ATCs (artist trading cards, 2.5" x 3.5") this weekend out of my upcycled materials. I painted coffee filters and coffee sleeves with Lumiere acryllic paints and cut them into off-kilter strips. I did a random, abstract multicolored painting on the coffee filter, and cut it into wedges. After pieceing them together, I added little pieces of gum wrapper and stitched.

I liked the effect so much that I started cutting bigger pieces for a larger up-cycled work.