Happy Earth Day!

Yesterday was Earth Day but we've been celebrating all month on the forum with an avatar challenge. Now more than ever, we definitely need to do our part to help protect the earth. There are so many different ways that we can start by making small changes in our everyday lives. At times, it is so easy to feel overwhelmed with all the information and changes we can make. In our house, we've been working hard to make changes for a few years now but this year we've become even more committed to doing our part. I think one of the biggest catalysts for me was having kids and knowing that their generation will face so many challenges because of the choices we've made in the past and it made me realize just how seriously I needed to step up our efforts.

So you're probably now wondering how in the world this all relates to scrapbooking and why I'm going on and on about this very-near-and-dear-to-my-heart topic?! I can't help myself, it's a topic I'm very passionate about. :)

This past year, I've seen more and more ideas of how we, as scrapbookers, can become more "green" and I thought this would be the perfect time to give us all a refresher on what we can do.

1. Save your scraps and use them to create cards instead of buying cards.

2. Pull our your old papers, cardstock, stamps and tools and create your own unique embellishments with them - a perfect way to make everything match on your layout.

3. Cut images out of patterned paper and use foam squares or pop dots to give them some dimension on your layout.

4. Use tags, buttons, ribbons from clothing & gifts on your layouts instead of throwing them away.

5. Use packaging on your layouts - packages from scrapbooking supplies especially often have great designs, patterns, shapes, etc.

6. Save ticket stubs, receipts, brochures and other ephemera from vacations, concerts, movies, etc. to use on your projects.

7. Alter, alter, alter - boxes, tins, clipboards, frames - all these things can make great gifts.

8. Create photo collages with your photo editing software and save on ink and paper when you print them - instead of printing 2 4x6 photos and cropping them down to 3x4, crop them with your editing software and put 2 3x4 photos on one 4x6 canvas and print one 4x6.

9. Challenge yourself to use old supplies with new supplies.

10. Instead of throwing our your scraps, donate them to your kids' school, a church, the local childrens' hospital and finally recycle them.

11. Use cardboard from an old box on your layout as I did on mine below.



12. Scrap about your love for the earth, what you are doing to make a difference, your passion for a cause or even your love for the outdoors and the things you love to do outdoors - make sure you create a keepsake for future generations to look back on and see how important those things were to you.

Please feel free to share your ideas with me too! I'd love to know what you are doing to show your love for the earth in your scrapbooking.