The picture made from corrugated cardboard pads. The Flowers were made from discolored typing paper. The Banner was made from white and pink card stock paper. I used two plastic acrylic beads in the colors of yellow and green to add balance. I am using up these beads after that, I will be using paper and wooden embellishments so that my artwork will be 100% biodegradable. I made this picture from a small 1/8 inch thick corrugated pad. These pads are often used to put in between photos or artwork. They are very strong and sturdy. I was going just to throw this in the trash, but I decided to make something out of the cardboard pad. I made a picture called “Tree of Good Fruits” to remind me of all the things that I need to incorporate into my life every day. I started with the small corrugated pad and painted the edges white. I did this because the actual pad was brown, and it would not have matched the light pastel color scheme I was using for this picture. After that dried, I glued a light blue piece of scrapbook paper to the piece. Then I added white paint to the edges of that to create the illusion that it was the same all the way around. The panel is not a perfect square. It’s more of a rectangle shape, and the adding white paint to the edges helps to disguise this fact. Later on, I cut a tree trunk out of yellow floral scrapbook paper.

I used yellow because it seemed to flow very well with the light pastel color scheme. I painted the edges of the tree white to repeat what I had done on the edge of the picture. I also did this to help the separate the light yellow tree trunk from the light blue background. Sometimes colors will get lost among other colors that are of the same hue even if the colors are completely different. For the next part of the process, I added my handmade pink paper roses to the tree trunk. Even though they are roses, they symbolize fruits to me. Each rose has its very own label. To make the paper roses, I used old discolored typing paper that I stained with pink coloring. When I finished, I still felt like something was missing, so I added green leaves around the pink roses. The leaves helped to create fullness in the tree, and it added a splash of needed color as well. In the end, I added a banner that says “Tree of Good Fruits.” I put this picture my office to remind me of the things I want to bring forth in my life. Thinking back, I should have put Recycling in there also. That is very important to me as well. Cheers and Keep on Recycling, …