Malt Bag Challenge

Here are a few of the items that were created with April's Challenge Material, Malt Bags from the brewing industry.

Cloth Basket

Tote Bag

Placemat and coasters...

 malt bags on one side, cotton fabric on the other

Brewer's Notebook

Recycled Sweater Fish

As promised, here are the Recycled Sweater Fish made by 4th-6th graders during the School's Out/ Art's In program at Parkdale Elementary and Cascade Locks School.  The students learned about the flooding of Celilo Falls and the importance of fish to the Native American tribes in the area.

Not only did the students learn about the fishing culture and the devastation of the flooding of Celilo Falls, but they also learned how to use recycled materials to create art.

The students learned how to cut out and pin a pattern, how to put right sides together to sew a stuffed animal, then turn it inside out, stuff and hand sew the opening.

Once all of the fish were completed, they were put on display at May's First Friday at the Columbia Art Center in Hood River  for the whole community to see.

Classroom Marketplace

My daughter has the best 3rd grade teacher.  During a unit on how commerce works, she created a classroom market place where the students learned about how to operate a small business.  They used a class currency to earn money, then created products to sell at their class market.  The students could use the money they earned throughout the unit to buy items from other classroom vendors.  In partners, they had to come up with a product, a plan to make the product in a time and cost effective way, then decide how they wanted to market their product.  Parents came in as guests to share their expertise in business to teach the students how to operate a successful buisness.  I talked to the 3rd graders about having a booth at a craft fair.

As the day for the market drew near, students could assign their parents homework, so they could earn some of their own spending money at the Market. ( I earned $5 for making my daughter's lunch!)

Handmade crayons called Cupcake Crayons.  They were made in cupcake liners in a muffin tin, so the end result looked like miniature cupcakes.   The girls used coiled pipe cleaners on the top to make it look like frosting on top of their Cupcake Crayons.  So creative!

These labyrinths were very popular.  We came home with 2 of them.  They were made using straws and shoebox lids. You will roll a marble through the maze. The more challenging the maze, the more they cost.  The boys even went to the local shoe store and asked for their old lids.

Not just any old friendship bracelet, but Rockin' Bracelets!

Handmade cootie catchers in a variety of colors and patterns.

Water wands made from decorated straws and joke books.  This booth even had a demonstration area for trying out the water wands.

Love the marketing!  Makes you want to buy more than one, doesn't it!

The classroom marketplace was a hit.  Everyone learned so much and walked away with great handmade items.

Gardening at Work

My husband works in a nondescript building in an industrial area of the town, but that is not stopping him from planting a garden at work this year.  The idea is that having a garden at work will allow the employees to help tend to the garden and have fresh food they can harvest throughout the season.  What a great way to create conversation, collaboration and boost moral.  No one will be required to participate in the gardening project, but the hopes are that interest will spread and people will begin to help out with the watering and weeding during their breaks... especially on those beautiful spring and summer days when the outdoors are calling!

The kids and I came by with a picnic dinner and helped plant the garden after work one day.

Everyone helped to put carrots, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, radishes, beets, lettuces, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers and sunflowers in the ground.

The garden is next to the road.  A couple of people stopped by as they were walking their dogs and asked what we were doing.  Hopefully this generates interest from the community too.  Planting a garden at work is such a great idea!

Bike Tires and Inner tubes- May Challenge Material

The Challenge Material for the month of May is bike tires and inner tubes.  I contacted two local bike shops Dirty Finger and Discover Bikes to ask what they had as a common waste (unrecyclable) material.  They both said that used tires and inner tubes are hard to recycle in the Gorge.  There are a couple of take back programs that take these materials, like Liberty Tire Recycling, but once again they are not programs that are easily accessible in the Columbia Gorge.

What can you make with the bike tires and inner tubes this month?  Turn in your completed project to the Columbia Art Center by Thursday, May 31st to have on display at First Friday on June 1st.  Please email me if you have any questions.  rethink crafts@gmail.com