But good stewardship and lapbooking can go hand in hand. There are many ways to recycle lapbook scraps, and some are as fun and educational as the lapbooking itself. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Scrap waste is a major drawback of lapbooking, but good stewardship and lapbooking can go hand in hand!
Get Crafty
Just because your scraps are small doesn't mean they are useless. Let your creativity loose and you will be amazed by what you can create.Why not glue together a paper quilt? Paper quilts are much easier to make than the sewn variety and are perfect for decorating greeting cards and bookmarks.
Tiny bits of paper can be used to make beautiful mosaics. These can also be used on greeting cards, as bookmarks, laminated to make placemats or coaster, or framed to hang on the wall.
Paper scraps can also be used to create beads and papier mache objects.
- Recycled Paper Crafts
- Make paper beads, papier mache, and more.
- Scrap Box Craft Ideas
- There are a lot of things you can do with a box of scraps, and kids love looking through it to find little treasures.
- Quick and Easy Valentine's Gift Cards from Paper Scraps
- Got scraps? Make one-of-a-kind gift enclosure cards to go with a Valentine's Day surprise.

Use Your Scraps In a Diorama!
Have Scraps? Make a Scrapbook!
Take pictures as the kids complete their lapbooks and use the scraps to create color coordinated album pages. Use larger scraps to frame the pictures and smaller ones to make decorations.
Scraps are also great for adding color and variety to notebook pages. Try drawing shapes or pictures to cut out and attach to your pages.
Got Paper? Make Paper!
- Make Your Own Paper
- What happens to used paper? Most paper is thrown away in landfills or is burned. Why not turn old newspaper, office paper or unwanted wrapping paper into a piece of art?
- How to Make Paper - An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide
- Step-by-step guide to make handmade paper at home, with pictures included.
- How to Make Paper
- We've all heard it before: reduce, reuse, recycle. But when it comes to paper, recycling doesn't have to mean tossing those scraps into a bin and dragging it to the nearest recycling center. Instead, you can create your own functional (and artistic) paper from old newspapers, unwanted files and letters. Here's how to do it.
- Papermaking
- Paper is made from cellulose fibers that are found in all plant cell walls. The fibers may come from any one of several plant sources such as wood, bamboo, cotton, esparto, hemp, jute, sugar cane, wheat, or rice. However in North America, wood is the major source of paper making fibers. A mixture of water and fibers is filtered through a fine screen to form a sheet of paper. As the wet sheet is dried, chemical bonds are formed between the molecules in the cellulose fibers to give the paper its strength.
Arnold Grummer's Econoly Large-Dip Handmold Papermaking Kit
I ordered this kit for my daughter to use. The included items were great, however the instructions were a bit complicated and the large size of the mold made it hard to find anything big enough to dip it in. We ended up using a cooler and that was still too small. It was nice having the screen and mold premade, but a do-it-yourself version might have been easier.
What Ideas Do You Have For Using Lapbooking Scraps?
Evelyn_Saenz wrote...
We have a box of scrap paper that we use for craft projects, note paper or decorating gifts.
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tandemonimom wrote...
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stampinjill wrote...
I like to use scraps for paper punching shapes (heart, star, etc.). Throw these on a table for birthday or holiday. Or toss some in a card you mail out. Cardstock scraps are also great for gift tags if you just trim with decorative-edge scissors--quick and cheap (could even glue on some of those punch-outs to decorate them!).
eclecticeducation wrote...
I keep all my scraps (ones big enough to use again ie: about 2 inches or more) in a scrap box and when I need just a small bit of paper, instead of using a full sheet, I go through my scrap box.
Jimmie wrote...
I'm kind of boring. I just cut them up into notepaper sizes. :-) I love having all the fun colors. Great idea for a lens, Melissa!







