Cut & Create Cards

I know, I know I am a truly terrible blogger.  I ought to be here every day thumping out ideas on recycling and being green but I'm not.  Yet here I am now with a book (well sort of book) review and what I think is a good idea, or at least one possible solution to a new(ish) problem. 

You can buy a copy of this wonderful and innovative item right here if you live in the UK.  If you don't it is available elsewhere such as in the US here and is well worth looking for.

Why?  This is not so much a book as a kit comprising a booklet and everything you need apart from scissors or knife, hole punch and glue to make nine beautiful paper mosaic pictures.  I have done a lot of papercrafts but I have never tried this one and was keen to have a go.  It comes as an A4 sized folder with a booklet on the left and a wallet on the right filled with the papers and bases.  The instructions are simple to follow and include diagrams showing how to make up each picture.  These are arranged into beginner, intermediate and advanced with three pictures of each and all depict scenes from nature inspired by the author’s Japanese background.  These include a night time jungle at night, a fox in a forest, birds flying home, an egret posing in the water and my own favorite showing cherry blossoms. The materials are all good quality and I would give this set five stars for originality, beauty and user friendliness.  Suitable for a variety of ages as it is not very large and you only need a few additional items you could even take it on vacation.  

So how is this green and what fairly new problem would it solve?  I don't know about your council but last Christmas mine said that they could no longer accept greetings cards for recycling.  Whether you buy or make them they do tend to bristle with glitter, bows, gems and even if not often have a plastic coating to make them shiny.  These things block up the recycling machines and break them so you have to think of other things to do with them or they go into landfill.

Surely making paper mosaics with them is one such idea.  I've made tags with them, cut out bits of them for cards, used them as postcards with the backs cut off and one Christmas even used the shinier and more water repellent ones as coasters, cut into squares.  Trouble is I have have tags coming out of my ears, people think I am cheap making cards with them, I bought some lovely Fair Trade coasters and no longer send postcards.  I am due a new idea and this is possibly it.