Normally on Mondays I try to talk about eco-friendy craft supplies, but since we're advocating stashbusting this month, I thought we could look at some ways to use scraps around the house and turn them into valuable packaging and promotional materials instead.

First up, the envelope. Great for adding a little, memorable "thank you" into your packages, or to hold jewelry instead of purchasing new boxes. Here is an awesome tutorial on making your own envelopes from scrap paper from the knitted blog. Think of all the possibilities beyond magazine pages and the ubiquitous junk mail... old wrapping paper scraps, your collage stash, outdated maps... the possibilities are endless.

I've never liked packing my packages with wadded up newspaper...something about it always just felt too handmade, in my crazy designer head. So recently I invested in a cheap shredder ($20 at Target) and I use shredded magazine pages instead. Now I always have a ready supply of packing material, and it has a fun, confetti-like look that I really like (thus appeasing my crazy designer-ness.)

Oh, paper bags as mailers! I love this. And I know you guys are already doing this, because I've received a bunch of these packages in preparation for our upcoming Earth Day Giveaway (stay tuned for that! Just one more week until it starts!) I love this idea, and this tutorial from Team EcoEtsy is really easy to follow. You can jazz these up too, with pinking shears or a zigzag stitch, or even colored thread. (via treehugger. check out this roundup of other envelope ideas!)

The best one I've seen recently came from kristina.marie--the walls of the mailer were each constructed from two pieces of paper grocery bag with a layer of plastic bag in between to make it waterproof. Brilliant!

But why stop at mailing supplies? We need business cards, too. I know I've shared the image above (via EarthFirst) before, but I can't help it. Get yourself a rubber stamp and go to town on paper scraps to make yourself some memorable business cards.

Or, if you still want something business-card-sized, grab some empty cereal boxes and cut them to size and stamp away. This photo is from an article on Green Gear on a printer that prints on old packaging for you, but a rubber stamp will do the trick just fine. Or cut the boxes down to letter-size and see if you can trick your home printer into running them through as heavy card stock. (*Please don't break your printer doing this. I am brutal to my desktop printers, but I don't want to be responsible for the loss of yours!)