Way back in 2006 I created a piece of artwork for a dear friend.  When we both lived in California we would get together once a week.  She and I used to meet 1/2 way between our houses, always at a Starbucks – for all the obvious reasons. Well, when she bought her first home I knew exactly the piece I wanted to make for her.

The Starbucks Card Mural

Overall Dimensions: 40″ w X 48″ h

I used 6 – 16″ x 20″ Canvases

341 Starbucks Cards

The creative process

I laid out the canvases on the floor and laid the cards down around the perimeter. I wanted a completely straight edge to frame the work, so I laid that down first. I then hot glued the perimeter cards, ensuring that where the seams of the canvases met I glued a card over the seam to make it invisible.

I did not glue the card that covered the seam to both canvases because I wanted my girl friend to be able to easily remove the piece and pack it up if she wanted to move it to a new home later. (Good thing I did because she is now in home #3.) Which means that I made the piece so that the canvases are hung individually, but fit together with cards over lapping two canvases.

After creating and gluing down the boarder, I then filled in the middle of the work. I went canvas by canvas and placed the cards down.  I did not want any of the same card design right next to one another. I also wanted the red and light blue cards to be prominent in the piece so I used more of those cards. After laying out the cards I hot glued each of them down, again making sure I covered seams and allowed the canvases to be independent of one another, meaning they can be separated without destroying the piece.

That is me {in 2006} with the finished artwork.

This was a serious labor of love. First I had to collect enough cards. I put in a call to everyone I knew and talked to all my local baristas. I had them hold on to old cards for me. They were super gracious and gave me handfuls of old cards. People were wonderful. I collected over 3,000 cards. Over time other artists have asked to dip into my collection, which has been amazing. I love to see what other artists create with the same medium I have used. When we moved to Roatan (read about that here) we sold almost everything. We still have a few pieces of furniture in someones garage… we also have all my husbands books from his church office and we have the plastic bin of bucks cards. I know it sounds strange, but I still see so much potential in those cards… plus, someday I want to do a Starbucks Card mural for myself (or for myself and 7 other people – the math might be shaky on that one, but 3,000/341 is about 8, right?)

 When I originally created this piece I had no idea how collectible Starbucks card were. I also had no idea what a huge fan base they have. There are whole websites dedicated to collecting Starbucks Cards. It’s crazy. If you heart bux you should check it out.  This is one of my favorites.

Do you have a special Starbucks card?