Contact:
Alyssa Oliveri
(202) 973-5872
alyssa.oliveri@abundantforests.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Scrapbooking Tips to Respect the Environment While Preserving Family Memories

Washington, DC (February 8, 2006) – A growing number of Americans are joining the scrapbooking craze. Starting today, they can benefit from new environmentally friendly tips that save money and resources. Scrapbooking is all about creative use of paper products. Paper is an all-natural, renewable resource, automatically making it an environmentally friendly medium. Plus, you never need to throw anything away - every little bit of paper can be used to make a scrapbook.

“It’s important to feel good about your scrapbooking,” says Stacy Julian, founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine. “You can do more than preserve family memories. You can get creative with paper - a natural, renewable resource - and have the peace of mind that you are doing something good for the environment.”

According to a recent Harris survey, 74 percent of Americans think it's very important to protect the environment. However, many struggle to understand exactly how they can help. Being an environmentally aware scrapbooker is a great place to start. Since nearly 25 percent of U.S. households are now scrapbooking, it’s a hobby that touches many Americans and therefore is a great forum for environmental awareness.

“Knee-deep in your scrapbook project is the perfect time to teach your children about where important resources come from,” continues Ms. Julian. “Paper is a wonderful material, and it comes from a resource that is constantly being replenished and cared for - our forests.”

It is fun and easy to use scrap paper and repurpose things from around the house to create a scrapbook that is personal and unique. The following tips are from the Abundant Forests Alliance.

1. Start off on the right foot. Or the right paper that is. Look for “acid free” or “archival” paper, which can protect your scrapbooking photos and memorabilia. While paper is a natural, renewable resource, it is also recyclable. Remember to always recycle or use your scraps.
2. Protect those photos. Preserve your family photos for generations to come. After gathering your photographs, make color copies of the originals so you can use them for something else besides your scrapbook.
3. Can’t scrap it? Snap it. If you physically cannot fit a large object in your scrapbook, you can take a photograph of it and include that instead.
4. Save the small stuff. Save small items from special events and day-to-day life, and recycle them in your scrapbook. Using a variety of materials adds personality and texture to every page. For example, you can reuse things like old letters, awards, certificates, ribbons, menus, business cards, articles, programs, announcements and food wrappers.
5. Repurpose gift wrapping. Instead of throwing away used wrapping paper or gift bags and tags, consider including pieces of them in a holiday or birthday scrapbook as page decorations and colorful reminders of special gifts - and a fun new way to recycle!
6. Bring the outside in. Take your kids on a nature walk. Explore your neighborhood or a local park and collect items such as leaves, flower petals, bark and pebbles. Commemorate the experience in a scrapbook.
7. Celebrate a special newborn. In addition to taking photos of a child’s special day, create an irreplaceable scrapbook to honor his or her first day in the world. You can recycle that day’s newspaper to chronicle world and local events. Include everything from the weather report to the price of milk.
8. Create rainy day memories. Don’t let dreary weather get you down. All you need for fun, and a unique scrapbook, is within your house. Initiate a “rainy day” scrapbook with a scavenger hunt for the kids and ask them to collect items that represent a good day at home. Include a label from a favorite food or a piece of last night’s pizza box. Add a drawing of a favorite toy. Use magazines to cut out words and pictures. The family fun will become its own memory.
9. Say “I do” to scrapbooking. Whether you are her friend or the bride herself, spend a weekend collecting items from a wedding so that she can remember fun details of her special day. Natural resources to use include invitations, specialty napkins, dried flowers, photos, confetti, fabric from her dress altering or ribbon from the flower girl’s hair.
10. Remember to recycle. Scrapbooking by its very nature relies on a renewable resource - paper. Paper also is recyclable, so remember to recycle your scraps.

Wal-Mart is hosting special scrapbooking demonstrations at more than 500 of its stores the weekend of March 3rd, 2006. Visit www.abundantforests.org to find a location near you. After the event, you can view an online version of the demonstration. You can also visit www.abundantforests.org for more useful scrapbooking tips and suggestions.

For more information, please visit www.abundantforests.org.

About the Abundant Forests Alliance Members of the wood and paper products industry in North America have formed the Abundant Forests Alliance. We share information with consumers and customers about the many ways our industry is helping to ensure that with proper care and management there will always be abundant forests. We also listen and respond to environmental concerns about our forests and products. Through sustainable forestry practices, improved recycling and new technologies, our industry is helping to maintain the delicate balance between supplying the wood and paper products people need and giving the forest what it needs to flourish. By working together to renew, reuse and respect our forest resources, we can balance the needs of people with the needs of nature so forests can remain abundant.

Our members include Anthony Forest Products Company | Georgia-Pacific | Green Diamond Resource Company | International Paper | MeadWestvaco | Monadnock | Plum Creek | The Westervelt Company | Weyerhaeuser