EcoScrapbook: A Green Scrapbooking & Craft Blog

Does eco-friendly scrapbooking interest you? Do you like to use recycled or repurposed items when you craft? If you're a "green" scrapbooker or crafter, check out EcoScrapbook for plenty of upcycled craft tutorials and ecoscrapbook layouts:

EcoScrapbook.com: An Eco-Friendly Scrapbooking & Craft Blog

Here's a list of popular posts you won't want to miss:

• 9 Scrapbook Starting Points Using Paper Scraps
• EcoScrapbook: As Seen on TV
• How Many Things Can I Recycled on a Scrapbook Page?
• Using Paper Scraps to Decorate a Wedding Book Cover
• We have the power to change how the world scrapbooks
• Back-to-School Project Tutorial: Upcycled Pencil Holders
• Digital Scrapbooking With Picasa
• DIY: Birdseed Ornaments + Upcycled Tags
• Kid's Craft Tutorial: St. Patrick's Day Jar Lid Magnets
• Wine Cork Birdhouse

If eco-friendly or "green" scrapbooking is new to you, have a look at The EcoScrapbooker Manifesto to help get you started on a path to becoming a more eco-conscious scrapbooker:

The EcoScrapbooker Manifesto

This is the final Snap.Scrap.Blog.Tweet post since I've moved over to EcoScrapbook. You can find me actively blogging over there. You can also follow me on Twitter or show your support on Facebook. Thanks! ~Danielle

The World of EcoScrapbook

Handmade flowers made with K&Company reusable packaging.

It's been a month since I launched my new blog, ecoScrapbook, and if you haven't made your way over there, here's what you've been missing:

• We can change how we scrapbook (so we don't look like this in the future)
• 10 nature-loving quotes for your scrapbooks
• How many things can I recycle on a scrapbook page?
• Documenting Earth Day activities in a mini-album
• How to fail at Etsy
• 25 eco-friendly & free scrapbooking supplies

There's a new post every Monday and I just created an ecoScrapbook Facebook page. I'm pretty lonely over there with only two likes, so as an incentive, I'll do a giveaway on the ecoScrapbook blog once I have 25 likes on Facebook.

I was also feeling a little silly over the weekend as I designed an eco-friendly tote bag (click here or see sidebar for image) with the words "I scrap dangerously." If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen the tweet that inspired the bag:

And what did I do during the tornado warning? I scrapbooked, upstairs, with the windows open. Yep, I scrap dangerously.

I was busy finishing up a project before lunch time and no tornado was going to stop me! Luckily, there wasn't one nearby and I'm still here today.

P.S. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Want a little fiesta hair flair? Check out the paper flower hair clip tutorial (made with Glue Dots).

What do you want to know about green scrapbooking?

I've been wanting to start a new blog about "green" scrapbooking for almost a year now. I keep putting it off. I'm not going to waste time listing all my excuses, but I will tell you that I have a plethora of ideas and just don't know where to start. 

Things I've done already:

• Joined Twitter as EcoScrapbook
• Opened an Etsy shop (no eco-friendly scrapbooking supplies there yet, but I have started making stuff)
• Purchased ecoscrapbook.com
• Made the above logo (handcut and edited in Picasa)
• Started a blog (currently with Blogger, but considering Wordpress)
• Have a Flickr group (only one other member right now, LOL)

Now I NEED your input. Please tell me what YOU want to know about eco-friendly scrapbooking, after all, I hope that you will follow me over to the new EcoScrapbook blog.

Here are my thoughts and ideas:

• New project every Monday, possibly challenges to get readers involved
• Gather together a design team to help with the challenges (but am I really qualified to have my own design team? I'm not a superstar scrapbooker or well-known blogger so I kind of feel weird about it.)
• Document my Etsy journey (failures and successes)
• EcoScrapbook or ecoscrapbook or ECOscrapbook or ecoSCRAPBOOK or Ecoscrapbook?
• Having a Blogger blog would be easiest since I already know how to use it, but I keep hearing everyone say that crafters should be on Wordpress (I can't afford the .org now, so I would be using .com).
• Possibly even document me learning how to do digital scrapbooking too.
• Find scrapbookers to do guest posts about eco-friendly scrapbooking.

What do you think? I welcome all critiques, questions, additional ideas, etc. Please comment below or email me scrappindanielle at gmail dot com. I'm all ears!

Thanks for stopping by Snap.Scrap.Blog.Tweet!

You may also be interested in:

• 21 Green Scrapbooking Supplies You Already Own
• 11 Ways to be an Eco-Friendly Scrapbooker
• How to Make Business Card Bookmarks Using Recycled Scrapbook Paper

I won Marcal Small Steps seeds and now it's your turn!!!

If you follow me on Twitter (@ohiodanielle), you may have heard that I won seeds from Marcal Small Steps (@MarcalSmallStep). Yay for me! It was the first (and only) time I ever won anything on Twitter. A week after the contest, a large envelope arrived in the mail will an abundance of Mammoth Sunflower seeds. What a coincidence! I had already planned on planting this large type of sunflower for backyard privacy like I did in 2007:


These Mammoth Sunflowers grew TALL which is why I wanted to plant them again.

Sunflowers are happy flowers. They grow small and they grow tall, but no matter their size, sunflowers provide cheerful smiles and plentiful seeds. AND now YOU get a chance to experience your very own sunflower garden!

The first 6 people that comment on this post and leave their Twitter name or email address will win Marcal Small Steps Mammoth Sunflower Seeds!


Winners will receive two packets of Mammoth Grey Stripe Sunflower seeds! Good luck!

Layout Supplies Used: DCWV 70% Recycled Paper, Glue Dots, Fiskars Adhesive Tabs, brads, cardboard, Heidi Swapp Edge Distresser, AC Memory Marker.

11 ways to be an eco-friendly scrapbooker

How can scrapbookers be eco-friendly and consume massive amounts of paper? The arts and crafts industry has begun to take steps toward greener scrapbooking options by offering supplies using recycled and sustainable resources. Scrapbookers now have choices to allow room for eco-friendly crafting. Here are eleven simple ways to become a green, eco-friendly scrapbooker:

1. Save paper scraps.
2. Decorate scrapbook pages with gifts.
3. Keep layouts warm with old clothes.
4. Dig into the recycling bin.
5. Shop at green craft companies.
6. Stock up on recycled paper.
7. Add recycled plastic to scrapbooks.
8. Stick things together with eco-friendly glue.
9. Use non-traditional scrapbook albums.
10. Create a recycled craft space.
11. Become a digital scrapbooker.

Read the entire article, Green scrapbooking: Ways to be an eco-friendly scrapbooker, here.

On a search for eco-friendly adhesive

Walking through a craft store, searching for eco-friendly glue was not a fast and easy task. My goal was to find scrapbooking adhesive that was safe for both the environment and photographs. What I found was Amazing ECOGLUE: The Earth Friendly Power Glue.


I grabbed the bottle and read the packaging. Nowhere did I see anything about the product being acid-free, which left me unsure if this "Amazing" glue could be used for scrapbooking. I bought it anyway since it was non-toxic, safe for kids and "bonds like an industrial adhesive." If I couldn't use it for scrapbooking, this 2 fl. oz. bottle of glue would still be useful for other projects like fixing a broken hand-carved Willow Tree sculpture.


The white ECOGLUE reminded me of the same stuff my seven-year-old uses for her craft projects. I was surprised by how quickly it bonded with the broken wood pieces. The glue dried clearly and the baby was back in daddy's arms.


Clearly, this ECOGLUE project was a success. It works on wood and according to ecoglue.com, the craft glue also works on stone, metal, ceramic, glass, Styrofoam and more. Eclectic Products offers a variety of environmentally safe glues for general crafts to extreme and industrial projects. Visit www.eclecticproducts.com for more information.

After finishing my project, I contacted Eclectic Products to find out if ECOGLUE for crafts was safe for scrapbooking. The customer service representative said that the product was acid-free. Even though ECOGLUE can be used for paper-crafting, I'm not sure if I would use it on photographs. Maybe another experiment is in order...

The Green Stack: Scrapbooking with DCWV's recycled cardstock

In a recent post, Green scrapbooking & an eco-friendly mini-scrapbook, I mentioned that I purchased DCWV's Green Stack: 70% Recycled Paper. Below are four 8x8 layouts I created using this stack, as well as paper scraps, buttons, leftover ribbon and string. All the quotes came from Meditations on the Earth: A Book of Quotations, Poetry, and Prose.

Maumee River, Fall 2008:

Maumee River, River Road:

The mantis I found on my front porch:

Polar bears at the Toledo Zoo:

Come back tomorrow to see how I turned a kitty litter container into storage for my scrapbooking supplies. Don't forget to follow me as EcoScrapbook on Twitter, where I tweet about eco-friendly crafting and scrapbooking.

Green scrapbooking & an eco-friendly mini-scrapbook

Eco-friendly scrapbooking has been on my mind for a long time. My goal is to one day create a completely green scrapbook and the search for supplies and information has already begun.

Here is my first eco-friendly scrapbook:

As I was planning a MemoryWorks scrapbook party, I wanted to design something that would help me with my presentation and ended up creating a mini-album using old product catalogs and paper scraps. I had catalogs from 2007-2009 that were still in great condition and really wanted to use them since they were too nice to just throw into a recycling bin. Other items on hand were a naked album and box that had been in a storage cabinet, along with a container of decoupage. So the tearing and cutting enthusiastically began.

Within the mini-album, I included the basics about MemoryWorks so I could easily remember what I needed to during the party. Each page has a simple design with handmade flowers. I cut out square scrapbook layout examples to make the flower embellishments, added buttons, fiber and small strips of paper from the catalog.

After I finished the mini-book, I used the leftover catalog pieces to decoupage a box for album storage. What a fun project! Then, I tweeted: "I decoupaged... and I liked it."

Project Supplies: Recycled items include MemoryWorks Catalogs, paper scraps, leftover fibers, button. Other items used were decoupage, naked album and box, adhesive, Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Ink.

This project is great for scrapbook consultants since they can reuse old catalogs in a creative way and still share examples of products from the past.

In addition to my decoupaged creation, my oldest daughter wanted to get in on the decoupaging action. Below is the collage she made using my MemoryWorks catalog leftovers:


Since we are on the subject of recycling and catalogs...

When I was going through a large pile of magazines, mail and other paper stuff to recycle, I found an article I printed-off last summer by Nancy Nally of ScrapbookUpdate.com about green scrapbooking: What Does “Green” Mean To Scrapbooking?

What I learned: Companies are going green (Tinkering Ink, Cosmo Cricket, Piggy Tales, Die Cuts With A View (DCWV), K & Co.)

With Earth Day right around the corner, my going green mission was renewed and my search continued.

During a recent trip to JoAnn's, I came across the Green Stack by DCWV and boy, I was excited and double-excited since it was on sale. Shortly after returning home from this shopping trip, I made my first layout using 70% recycled cardstock.

Then I did a Google Search for green scrapbooking and these were the top eight results:

1. How to Go Green with Scrapbooking

2. How to Find Green Scrapbooking Supplies

3. Green Scrapbooking: Paint Chips

4. Crafting a Green...Scrapbook?

5. Blog Action Day: the environment

6. Easy Being Green

7. Piggy Tales Introduces Green Scrapbooking

8. Eco Friendly or “Green” Scrapbooking

What I learned:

• Crafting A Green World is a great place for eco-friendly DIY craft projects.
• "Converting to recycled paper will save more than 100 trees a year, [Debbie Juden, Piggy Tales CEO] Juden said." via TRASHformations blog.
• Creatively Green http://www.creatively-green.com/index.html is the place to shop for eco-friendly craft supplies.
  

After typing in a variety of other eco-friendly combinations, I found the NatureMoms blog and her Scrapping Green post to be full of great tips for greener living. I highly recommend checking this blog if you want to learn more about making better choices for your family.

So there you have it! Now you know what I know about green scrapbooking, eco-friendly scrapbooking, eco-scrapbooking, whatever...it's good.

Green scrapbooking has a new supporter: @ecoscrapbook

Have you heard? I'm now tweeting as @ecoscrapbook! Take a look at a few of my tweets:

• I've been scrapbooking with 70% recycled cardstock by @DCWV #ecoscrapbook
• Crafting a Green…Scrapbook? http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/10/22/crafting-a-greenscrapbook/ @CAGW
  
• Eco-Friendly Scrapbook and Craft Paper from Creatively Green http://bit.ly/9LRegz @CAGW @creativelygreen
  

Now, I'm not a crazy-super-eco-granola-woman, but I try to make greener choices during the spring. Maybe it's the green grass, my April birthday or the annual Earth Day celebration... Whatever it is, changes are made in my life that can positively alter the earth, even if it's only a little bit.

As a scrapbooker, I use an overabundance of paper. It's pretty. I like it and use it to document my family with hopes that future generations will enjoy looking at my scrapbooks when I'm dead. I don't plan on giving up my favorite hobby to save the planet, but I will make choices to be more eco-friendly as I scrap. Thus, the reason I created @ecoscrapbook is to share the things I learn about green scrapbooking with you.

Do I know what I'm doing? No, but it's fun to learn! So follow me on Twitter as @ecoscrapbook and we can have fun together.