Sunday, April 22, 2012

Earth Day Eco Scrapping




Today, April 22 is Earth Day and I thought it would be appropriate to blog today about how I try to do the three r's.  Reduce, reuse and recycle in my scrapbooking and other crafty ventures.

Where I live recycling has become second nature.  Our home has been recycling almost everything for about two years now.  We have a curb side pickup service that comes around.  We still have to sort our glass, plastics and paper into two separate bins for the pickup service.  I must admit I do not compost yet, but am realizing with all the fruit and vegetables that my family consumes, it is time to get serious about it.

As far as scrapbooking goes there are lots of ways I am recycling.  I like to use old packaging on scrapbook pages and mixed media projects.  Fabric from old clothing I use for flowers as well as ribbon.  I have used fabric softener dryer sheets to make flowers for my scrapbook layouts and my mom recently gave me a big jar of awesome antique buttons that I plan to use for all my crafty projects.  I recycle all of my tiny paper scraps and if I do create with them, I like to use them for cards or embellishments by punching out circles or flowers.

As I am a complete paper fanatic, it is really hard for me to refrain from buying a few collections annually, but with that said, I am in the process of going through my old papers and either donating to some worthy causes such as therapeutic scrapbooking at local hospitals or donating to schools or my lovely ten year old niece who is starting to scrapbook.  I am becoming more conscious of what I buy.

Mixed media is something I have enjoyed this year and I like to use tissue paper from gifts and old book pages and cardboard boxes to spray my projects in.  Sometimes I like to use cardboard for texture on my projects and also cereal boxes for mini albums and templates.

I also like to use magazines and old greeting cards on my mixed media projects as well as I use magazines for colour inspiration in my colour inspiration journal.  As far as scrapbooking magazines, I keep all my Canadian Scrapbooker Magazines since it began, but only keep the other ones for about a year and then I donate them.

I would love to hear what you do to reduce, reuse and recycle.  Please leave me a comment. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Enjoy Earth Day!

2 comments:

  1. Recycling is second nature to us too.
    We have four bins...one for garden waste that is recycled to use a compost on farms, one for recyclable materials (glass,plastic,paper), one for non-recyclable (the least used) and one for food waste..also turned into compost. The food waste is collected weekly, the others every two weeks.

    When I have my quarterly stash tidies I pass any papers/freebies from magazines/embellies I know I'll never use on to a friend who then sends them to her grandchildren.

    I recycle magazines to either my GP's surgery or to the vet.
    I try to use packaging as much as I can, I turn soda cans into metal embellies and I've just had fun recycling candles into teacup candles....details will be on my blog tomorrow.

    Keep up the good work!!
    Hugs xx

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  2. Thanks for sharing Lee-Anne... I really need to get more into the recycling thing... just not a bit priority in our country yet... which is sad.

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