Ideas to reduce waste

Hi guys, something not strictly crafty today, but I did share these tips of reducing waste as part of #marchmeetthemaker prompt yesterday on Instagram and promised I’d elaborate on them today. So here I am:

1. I recently added Ikea pegboard storage to my craft area (yes, that post is overdue. I am sorry, please forgive me?). On these pegboards, I also added a couple baskets – simple, small pantry baskets from Walmart. They aren’t hanging on the hooks exactly how I’d like them, but I don’t mind, because while crafting I do pull them down anyways. But using these as holders for my scraps is helping me reduce so much waste. I am sure a box from one of the deliveries would work too. If you want to make it a pretty, you can do something like this (details here or here):
   

1. I also reuse the transparent pieces of packaging material for creating shaker cards. Thanks to Vicky Papaioannou for this idea. You can see the cards I made using this trick below. They don’t look any different from the ones I made using transparent acetate sheets.
   

1. How often do you start stamping on a good paper and end up not liking what you make? To avoid wasting my good papers and cardstock, I like to first create my pattern – stamped or sometimes even, die cut – using printer paper. You can check out my video below which shows how this works. Thank you, Yana Smakula for this idea!
   

1. Another area where we crafters can save or reduce waste is storage. I love to use old pill bottles or gum bottles (that one of friends is kind enough to give me), for storing sequins, gems or even ribbons.
   

1. Finally a tip that I am curious to try myself – using a self healing mat for die cutting. Yes, we will need to use a shim, but I think that will work great. I found it in this YouTube video from Stamp with Joy.

There you have it. My list of idea for reducing waste. Hope you enjoyed these tip!

Hugs!

~Varada

#Tips