3R Scrapping : Toilet Tissue Rolls

Even though I live with 3 boys there never seems to be a shortage of empty toilet paper rolls around here so I thought wouldn't it be great to find a use for them. Boy was I excited when I came across the toilet paper tube mini album idea.

All you need are a few tubes, flatten them out and cover them with designer paper. Each tube makes a nice sturdy chipboard page with a pocket. Bind them together with binder rings, ribbon or the Bind-it-all

Here's what I did: Flatten the tubes and ink the edges. I used peeling paint distress ink. Cover the tubes with designer paper on both sides. Punch holes for binder rings. Cut tags to fit into the tubes. Use tab punch to cut out tabs, stamp words on tabs. glue tabs to tags and insert into pockets.

You find a more tutorials here and here and here

3R Scrapping : Envelope Mini Album

Remember this envelope post from last spring? Well I have recently discovered another way to use all those envelopes that come in the mail. The envelope pocket mini album. There are a couple of videos about making these mini books on YouTube here and here and here. It looked like fun and since I love the idea of recycling as much as I can, I gave it a try. Basically you turn the envelopes into pocket pages for a mini album by covering them with scrapbook paper, make tags out of card stock and insert them into the pockets. These make great places for more photos and journalling. The total size of the book is about 5x6.

3R Scrapping: Bubble wrap and Carboard

Good morning! Today's reuse item bubble wrap and cardboard (yes again! there's just so much of it and it is so versatile!)  Only today I am using there items as tools.  Use bubble wrap and currogated cardboard as a stamp with acrylic paint.  It makes fab custom backgrounds really quick and even though you've probably seen this technique before, it's work repeating.  I know I need to do this one more often.

I'll be using this technique in my June class at Cherry Blossom Studio, here's a little peek.  It's a 6x6 mini book using the new Grease Monkey papers from Bo Bunny, just in time for Father's Day.

3R Scarpping : Security Envelopes

Today's Reuse it item is Security Envelopes.

There is a never ending source in the mail box. 

They come with all those annoying bills but here's the silver lining....

Some have great patterns that you can use in paper projects.

Here are a few I rescued from the trash. I stamped leaves with yellow pigment ink, cut them out and used them in on a scrapbook page.  

Now go make some green stamped embellishments....

3R Scrapping: Carboard and Spoolies

I've been thinking a lot about making more eco friendly choices lately, and it just so happens that ecologically friendly ideas are also ususally economically friendly too. With our planet and our wallets in need of TLC, I present 3R scrapping.  The idea is to reduse, reuse and recycle

Using carboard boxes to creat book covers is pretty straight forward and a great way to repurpose boxes, it's something I've been doing for a while now. Here's a recent example

Other cardboard throw away items you may have laying around are ribbon spools like these

This idea comes from Fiskars TV video tutorial (Spoolie Albums by Sandy Redburn from1/15/2007) they are easy to take apart, cover with paper or paint and then glue back together.  They make great little boxes to store small things like a micro mini scrapbook like this:

More spoolie books here and here.