Recycle with Envelope Punch Board

Do you recycle?  I think in this day and age, it is safe to say most everyone does recycle something in their life.  Recycling has come a long way in my life time .... imagine what it will be like in 50 more years???  Or what the earth will be like if we don't all do some type of recycling.  There are significant environmental as well as economic benefits to recycling.  Recycling helps create jobs, can be more cost effective than trash collection, reduces the need for new landfills, saves energy and adds to the economy.  I remember when we had our first recycle bin and rules for recycling.  Seems like there were more things we could not put in than things we could.  And, if it was supposed to rain, you couldn't put your bin out because they would not take wet paper!  Sometimes it was more trouble than it was worth.  When we lived in Washington state, we had different bins for glass, paper and plastic.  I don't think the trucks would take the plastic and if we wanted to recycle it, we had to take it to a Recycle Center.  Here in NC, we can recycle a lot of things but not cardboard.  So, Sonny collects our cardboard, and takes it to the "dump" periodically where they recycle it. I like to think I am making the world a better place for my children and grandchildren.  So, where is this going???   What does recycling have to do with card making?  I will tell you.  When participating in the recycling process, think about reusing a piece of artwork, which would otherwise be too small for a card, onto another piece of artwork.  Our hand made greeting cards are a great way to share with family and friends and through your creativity, you will help save some trees as well. .When I stamp on a piece of card stock and don't like the image, instead of tossing it in the trash, I save it.  I can always use the back side of it or punch a little square out of it for a future project.

I am a big advocate of recycling envelopes!  You know those return envelopes you receive in your junk mail?  Well, my Stamp Club gals will tell you I reuse them like crazy!!  That is what I use to put their projects in for club.  And I also use them when doing swaps.  All the little pieces of the project go in the envelopes.  Here are a few good uses for those recycled envies:

•  A good use for old envelopes is to write your grocery list on the back of the envelope. Keep  grocery coupons inside the envelope so that you have everything with you at the grocery store.
• Envelopes also make great scratch paper. Use a letter opener to open them straight across the top or across one side so that the edges will be neat.  Use the scratch paper for leaving notes, writing grocery lists, writing down   "to do today" lists, and also for jotting down ideas.
• You can make little note pads from your envelopes as well. Cut your envelopes in half to create smaller rectangles. You can staple small stacks of them together or you can punch a hole in one corner and tie them together with string. Reusing envelopes as scratch paper is doubly good for the environment because once you have used them, you can still recycle them. This prevents you from having to buy scratch paper pads and also ensures that even more trees will be spared by reusing the paper.
• Envelopes can be used to organize photographs and small papers (like I do with my swaps.) Sort photos by event and place them into individual labeled envelopes in a shoe box. Envelopes can also be used to hold coupons, cash, and old receipts.

This week, thanks to my Envelope Punch Board, I recycled a bunch of pages from an old Stampin' Up catalog by making envelopes!!  And you can mail them too. I did all of them in a couple of hours (or less) while watching TV.   Cut the paper 8" x 8" and follow the instructions for the Envelope Punch Board for this size of paper.  I had a pack of mailing labels that I put in the center of the envelope for the address and put my return address label in the top corner and, voila!  I have a bunch of envelopes!!

If you don't want to do the whole envelope, you could just make envelope liners with recycled paper:

 So, get busy recycling!!