Eco-friendly Scrapbooking

National Scrapbook day started in 1994 by Creative Memories, and is celebrated on the first Saturday
in May, which means tomorrow is National Scrapbooking day. On this day Scrapbookers all over the country, and often the world, celebrate their hobby on this day with craft store events, crops, online celebrations and gatherings. Many people see Scrapbooking as a wasteful hobby, with all the paper and adhesive, but it really doesn’t need to be, let’s look at some ways to make Scrapbooking more eco-friendly

Choose Green
There are now many many Scrapbook paper manufacturers that are offering scrapbook papers that are printed on recycled paper pulp, and with eco-friendly soy inks rather than standard petroluem-based inks. More and more manufacturers are switching to the recycled paper as the demand rises. Companies like Paper Trunk, Piggy Tales, DCWV and K & Company all offer eco-friendly lines of scrapbook products.

Go Digital
Instead of continuing the demand for paper and adhesive why not get with the latest technology and go digital? Using some digital editing software you can create digital scrapbooks that rival the best paper pages. Not only does this cut down on waste but it takes up less space in your home as almost all homes have computers so no extra equipment is needed, just software. It’s a great format to reproduce if you need to produce multiple albums or pages. Once the layouts are done you can decide whether or not to get your pages printed or print at home, or simply burn to a CD to send to family and friends. This format is also great for sharing digital via email, facebook and other social media.

Reuse & Recycle
Many of the latest items that are available in scrapbook stores can be found outside of the Scrapbooking store. Buttons and other sewing supplies for example can be found in thrift stores, along with ribbons, lace and other modern embellishments. Reuse your fabric, buttons, closures, zips etc from outgrown clothing in your scrapbook pages and albums. Thrift stores are also a good place to look for old books for heritage pages, or even scrapbook albums. Many bargains can be found in thrift stores.

Waste not
One great way to avoid waste when scrapbooking is to carry on creating. Cardmaking is a great accent hobby to scrapbooking as it can use up all those small scraps of paper, snippets of ribbon and knick knacks. If you are a scrapbooker and don’t already create your own handmade cards really it’s like throwing money away! Even if you don’t use the cards yourself you can donate them to charity or your local church for fetes.

Share and share alike
If you have friends that scrapbook get together and to trade supplies and share tools. No sense buying more than you need to and having items cluttering the house (and later the landfill). Sharing tools and supplies is not only eco-friendly but it builds good community and relationships. If you don’t have scrapbooking buddies, check out your local craigslist for events, or church or scrapbooking store for crops. Many stores will allow you to use their tools for free if you pay for crop time or paper/supplies.

Scrapbooking need not be a wasteful hobby, go green and share any other eco-friendly scrapbooking tips you have!

dalgal | My Bio & Articles