Recyclable Products

Did you know you can make handmade cards with recyclable products?

"Your descendants will gather your fruits
~Virgil"

Have You Made Cards with Recycled Materials Before?

In these days of economic uncertainty, spending money on craft supplies can sometimes seem like a bit of a luxury. If you are like me, it doesn't matter if I have money to spend on craft items or not, the urge to make something out of paper is still there! So why not look around at ordinary things that might otherwise be discarded and see if they could be used in your handmade crafting?

If you have re-used items in your own crafting, I would love to see how you have done so. There's a place at the bottom of this page that will allow you to make your own page on PaperCraftCentral about your green project. I'd love to see some of your work!

I was in a swap at RubberStampChat recently where the challenge was to make a card from materials originally used for something else (often referred to as using 'found' items). That sounded like too much fun to miss out on! So I signed up to make a card and swap one with another forum member.

I have now made my card and sent it on to the person I was meant to mail it to, but she hasn't seen it yet. Once she has received it, I will post my card so you can see it here :)

I did make a card for a friend to help her celebrate her favourite dog's 14th birthday. I cut out this cute Labrador from a tag on a pet item I purchased and used it on my card front:

Would you like some ideas for what recyclable products can be used in paper crafting? I thought you might! Here's an incomplete list of materials you could possibly recycle into a handmade card/scrapbook layout that I have either used myself or gleaned the idea from other crafters:

• Clothing tags
  
• Use the sleeves on a cup of takeaway coffee to punch shapes from
  
• broken jewelery
  
• washers
  
• screws
  
• Tyre flattened tin cans
  
• bottle tops
  
• jar ad bottle labels (soak them off and dry them flat)
  
• wire
  
• mesh
  
• lolly sticks
  
• coffee stirrers
  
• paper cups
  
• drink coasters
  
• envelopes
  
• gift wrap
  
• commercial greeting cards
  
• sweet wrappers
  
• the tabs from soft drink cans
  
• newspapers
  
• magazines
  
• junk mail
  
• menus
  
• travel brochures
  
• cereal/cracker boxes
  
• cardboard boxes and the corrugated middle of thicker cardboard
  
• plastic handles from boxes
  
• scan the lace/text from your clothing or curtains to print off and use
  
• yarn/wool
  
• kitchen twine/string
  
• hanging loop ribbon from clothing
  
• motifs cut from old clothing
  
• full page cardstock weight preprinted subscription pages
  
• sea glass
  
• the shiny insides of potato chip bags (fold them inside ordinary paper before punching to give them enough body to be punched, or hand cut shapes form them)
  
• pull the ends of an empty, thin spool of ribbon and use the insert to make a small wreathe decorated with punched/stamped images
  
• calendars
  
• post cards
  
• catalogues
  
• second hand book pages (including those written in foreign languages)
  
• wrappers from all sorts of things
  
• the lids on top of microwavable meals
  
• silver tops from coffee tins can be put through some dye cutting machines
  
• old postage stamps
  
• beads
  
• old watch parts
  
• paper bags
  
• fish hooks (blunt them first)
  
• raffia and ribbon from presents
  
• old buttons
  
• Styrofoam
  
• bubble wrap
  
• feathers
  
• lace
  
• hessian
  
• material scraps
  
• playing cards
  
• safety pins
  
• the insides of security envelopes
  
• comic strips
  
• diaries or journals
  
• dress patterns
  
• sheet music
  
• wallpaper
  
• letters
  
• maps
  
• photographs
  
• ticket stubs
  
• programs
  
• tissue paper
  
• typing paper
  
• phone books
  
• toys and toy packaging materials
  
• Christmas ornaments and hooks
  
• cupcake pics
  
• paper serviettes
  
• cheap leis from dollar stores - dismantle and use flowers separately
  
• embroidery threads
  
• the other side of card stock you have used but don't like (paper has two sides!)
  
• old coins
  
• use old make up to chalk or paint with and old nail polish to gloss images
  
• tea bags/coffee filter paper
  
• paper doileys
  
• cork
  

Can you think of other recyclable products? If so, add them here and I will add them to our list! Even better, if you have a handmade item you have made form recyclable products, please do show us and inspire us to re-use as much as we can!

Do You Have A Favourite Handmade Card to Share?

Have you made a card lately and have fallen in love with it? Do you have a picture of it too? We'd love you to share it!

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