An Eco-Friendly Approach to Card Making

Have you ever seen art made from scrap, from discarded materials, empty bottles and soda cans, plastic containers and the like? Have you seen those colorful bags made of sewn-together tetra packs? People are becoming more and more environmentally aware of the negative impact that comes from the discarded wastes of our lifestyles. That is why the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – became a popular movement in the 1970s due to rising energy cost and global warming and is a continued practice today.

In card making and similar crafts like scrapbooking, there are many available materials that can be purchased in specialty stores and online markets. Yet during these times when being thrifty is a must and green-living is ideal, why not be practical in both your lifestyle and your art? Creativity, after all is reflected not in the price of the materials used, rather on the final product. If you are to use the 3Rs principle, you’d not only be saving dollars into purchasing expensive greeting cards, you’d also be saving the environment from much unnecessary waste, not to mention succeeding the challenge of producing something of value from discarded and pre-used items.

Card making is one of the crafts that anyone with a drop of creativity can do. It can be inexpensive and enjoyable to make and meaningful to the recipient. It can also be a means to reuse discarded items that would otherwise have ended up in the dumpster. Here are some ideas on how to use discarded items as card making accessories:

1. Used ribbons from gifts can be used as decorative ribbons in cards, and can be used to tie pages of the card together.

2. Old newspapers can be used in making paper mache.

3. Images from magazines can be cut and pasted to create a collage.

4. Discarded buttons, thread, beads, laces and other accessories used for sewing can be used as decoration.

5. Discarded cereal boxes can be used as the card itself, which can be covered by art paper or paper with print only on one side.

6. Used gift wrappers can be made into envelopes for the cards.

7. Used crayons can me melted and blown into the card for a unique design.

8. Cardboard could be replicated to make embossed designs.

Being practical doesn’t mean being cheap. Re-using and recycling materials definitely reduces wastes. By following the 3Rs in card making, objects that are wastes for many can be made to be something of value to some.