Doggy Days of Summer Camp

For the last two summers, I was asked to be part of a new summer camp program that was created at Home at Last, the Humane Society, in The Dalles, Oregon.  We wanted to offer a week long day camp for kids in the community to learn about and work with the animals at the shelter.  What an amazing week we had.

Each day the campers walked the dogs along the Riverfront Trail.  Finding 8-9 dogs a day that were kid friendly and were able to walk together in a group proved to be a challenge, but the staff at Home At Last rose to the challenge each day.

The campers learned about animal behavior, created animal themed art projects, made animal beds and dog/cat toys and read to the animals each day.  They also collaborated on painting a dog house that is now sitting in front of the building, greeting the guests each day.

Here are some of the projects the kids created during the week.

Recycled packaging sillouttes

Magazine Mosaics

Painting the dog house

cap nip toys

Zentangles

Animal Silhouettes.  We used this technique on t-shirts.

Dog toys

Art Week 2013

Another successful Art Week at May Street Elementary! Art Week is just what it sounds like.  A whole week when the entire school is devoted to ART!  Six artists are hired and many parents volunteer to teach crafts all week to the entire student population.  This year I decided to have the students make recycled art journals from discarded hardbound books.

I spent a couple of weeks searching through my local libraries discarded books and also talked to local used books stores for donations.  I was able to collect around 100 books and only spent $2.50!  Thank you Artifacts in Hood River, Oregon and The Book Peddler in White Salmon, Washington for your donations.

 I painted the cover of each book with chalkboard paint and had the kids decorate the covers with colored pencils and metallic Sharpies.






I had never kept an art journal before preparing for this week, but after doing extensive research, I decided that it was a great idea!  Giving myself a couple of minutes each day to create is exactly what I need and modeling that to my kids is an added bonus.

I lead the students though a variety of projects to get their creative juices flowing each day and then allowed them time and access to materials to create whatever they wanted in their journals.

Recycled Art Class at Art Center

I started the day with teaching a class about recycled crafts to a group of children ages 5- 9 and their parents.  We made found paper wallets, the same ones I helped 300 students make this week at Art Week at a local elementary school, and recycled sweater monsters.  It is always so rewarding to work with a group of people who are just as excited as I am about creating with recycled materials.  

I have a couple more children's recycled craft classes scheduled in The Dalles, Oregon in February and March through WonderWorks Children's Museum.

February 21st- Recycled Wallets

March 8th- Lavender Dolls and Recycled Pocket Notebooks

Faux Mosaic

Once again I was challenged with finding a use for obsolete materials. My husband came home with a box full of advertising fliers from work, so I got to work coming up with a new project. I am also scheduled to teach at Art Week at a local elementary school and needed one more project to add to the week, so the faux mosaic frames with portraits was born.

The frames are made out of cardboard, painted with acrylic paint. I cut the advertising into 1/2 inch squares and had my kids patiently glue the squares onto the frame to look like a mosaic. Once the pieces were glued in place we covered the frames with glossy Mod Podge. I took a profile picture of each of the kids with my digital camera, then traced their profiles directly from the computer screen. Since the profile pictures were pretty small, I chose to cut them out instead of asking the kids to do this. It takes a pretty steady hand to cut the profiles out so that they look like the child you photographed.

I am looking forward to trying this project with 60 kids next month during Art Week. I asked two neighbor kids to come and try this project with my kids so that I could get a feel for how long it would take them to complete the project and I wanted to see the results from a range of ages. The photos I have posted are from a kindergartner, 2nd and 3rd grader.

Reusable Celebrations

I have been working in my daughter's school as the resident Master Recycler teaching classes about recycling. One lesson I will teach will be about durable vs. disposable goods and help the class put together a reusable party pack. This pack will be a tote filled with reusable plates, cups, utensils, cloth napkins and a reusable celebration banner. The idea is that the classes will use durable goods for their class celebrations instead of disposable items that will go to the landfill. Imagine how much waste will be diverted if all classes used durable goods for all of their parties!

I love the idea of presenting the classes with these Reusable Party Packs, but I wanted the kids to take more ownership in the project than just being the recipient of a tote full of items. I arranged for an afternoon in my daughter's 2nd grade class to teach a lesson and work with the students to create a reusable celebration banner that could be used at all parties. I wanted it made from recycled materials and be versatile enough to use throughout the year, so I can up with this mosaic banner made from cereal boxes and magazine scraps. The students worked in small groups and had the task of creating a letter for the banner. While the class was working hard ripping out colorful magazine pages for their mosaics, student came to me 2 at a time to work on making a cloth napkin. I brought my serger into the classroom along with fabric donated by the students. Each student picked out a piece of fabric and traced a 12"x12" square, then handed it to me to serge the edges. The kids were fascinated by the serger and I had fun teaching them how the machine worked. They were all excited about the professional looking cloth napkin that was created and took ownership in the specific napkin they made. Many students wanted to make more than one and were pleased to be asked to help with more napkins for the students that were absent or guests that may come to the party.

We have also made a happy birthday banner that hangs in the dining room during each family birthday we celebrate in our home.

Recycled Notebooks

For my birthday my wonderful husband gave me a comb binder. What made the gift so special was that I had been wanting one, but had not mentioned it for months. I was surprised to see such a perfect gift! I tend to hint heavily about what I would like for my birthday, but not this time. Thanks Jess!!!
With my new comb binder, I have been making notebooks using recycled materials. I start by using any recycled cardstock I can find. My recycling bin is typically full of boxes from cereal, granola bars, cake mix, crackers, etc. Once the sides, top and bottom are cut off, I use the back sides of the them which offers a clean background to create. I love using paint chips which provide vivid colors to work with. After cutting and gluing them to the cardstock, I wrap the covers in packing tape to ensure the paint chips will stay in place. I tend to do many of my projects with kids and you can never tell if they will use enough glue (or too much glue). The tape is just there to make sure they don't fall off.
I have now done this project with about 50 kids and I am always amazed to see what they come up with for their designs. My favorite idea was to cut out the names of all the paint colors and make a collage with them. There are such creative names given to many of the colors that not only does it make a beautiful design, but it is fun to read too.
Once the cover is completed, I use scrap paper to fill the notebook. We keep a box full of scrap paper at my house. A lot of the scrap paper comes from misprinted pages from my printer, or fliers and announcements sent from school. My kids have learned to use both sides of their paper and typically use scrap paper whenever creating new projects. I am also amazed at how much perfectly good paper people are willing to throw away or recycle. My husband came home with 4 reams of goldenrod colored paper that his boss didn't want and was ready to throw away. Thanks to him for rescuing it. It filled the notebooks that over 50 kids made. My mom also gave me 2 boxes filled will all sorts of paper that her school was ready to throw away.

Recycled Arts Festival

This weekend is the Recycled Arts Festival at Ester Short Park in Vancouver, Washington. The festival runs June 26th and 27th from 9am-4pm. This is one of my favorite events of the year. Each of the artists uses recycled materials to make wonderful arts and crafts.
One of my favorite booths is the "Tossed and Found" booth. For the past 3 months, Waste Connections Inc. has been rescuing items that were heading to the landfill and collecting them for the Recycled Festival. The items are on display on Saturday for the public to see and be amazed at the perfectly good items some people threw away. Everyone is welcome to get a ticket and on Sunday there is a lottery. Tickets are drawn and if your number is called, you can go and find an item to take home. I walked away with a nice camping chair last year, but I have my eye on a comfy office chair this year.

Placemat purses

Let me start by saying, my family is in the process of moving and I am frantically trying to prepare for two more spring sales coming up the next two weekends. The last thing I need is to begin any new projects, or buy any new materials. While at a local thrift store I can across a stack on wonderful place mats made out of Naugahyde. Of course I thought, what can I make these into? I got all 8 for a dollar each and went home to create. I came up with these fun recycled place mat purses. What I love most is that they look like I have great sewing skills with the expertly sewn circles on the front of the purse.

Billboard Bags and Earth Day

I have been busily working on my billboard bags for two upcoming Earth Day events. The first will be held in Hood River on April 17th in the parking lot across from Full Sail. I loved this event last year and am looking forward to spending the day show everyone my crafts made from recycled materials and being surrounded by people wanting to know more about caring for our Earth!!

The second event is the following week in Portland at the Laurelhurst Whole Foods store from 2-7pm. This is the first time I will be attending this event, but am excited to see other handmade recycled crafts.

To get my billboard bags ready, I spread out one in my backyard. I was amazed at it's size! The girls had a great time playing tag on the billboard before I started cutting it up for my bags. Just imagine, if this was not rescued for reuse, it could have ended up in the landfill. Every billboard you see in town or as you are driving down the highway has to end up somewhere!

New machine = new crafts

Finally, I splurged and bought an industrial sewing machine. I have been wanting to get one for a long time now. The stars aligned and I now have my machine. I can sew through almost anything I want... Multiple layers of canvas, vinyl, leather, cardboard. The possibilities are endless. I am sure my old machine is breathing a sigh of relief.

With my new machine, comes new projects. I have been wanting to try sewing with a recycled billboard. Last week I was having a conversation with a bunch of friends and my new project ideas came up. One of the ladies got excited and told me her husband works for an outdoor billboard company and they are always happy to give the used billboards to interested parties instead of throwing them in the landfill! Yesterday, right after getting my industrial machine, I drove to the billboard company and picked up 3 used billboards!! I have been spending the day sewing billboards into bags! I love how they are turning out! I hope to have them ready for my next big sale... Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Spring Sale on May 1st and 2nd.

Recycled Magazine Gift Bows

Just in time for the holidays. I discovered how to make my own gift bows from magazine pages. What I love about these, it that they are so easy to make and they are all different colors and designs. Hopefully I will be able to create my first tutorial, but unfortunately, that will have to wait until after the holidays. Life is a little too hectic with the holiday quickly approaching.

Reusable Sandwich Bags

Once again, I am using my scrap fabric. In an effort to find something to make with the scraps from the PUL fabric I use to make diaper covers, I came up with this reusable sandwich bag. Now instead of throwing away the plastic one-use sandwich bags I tend to pack lunch for my kids in, we can reuse these new reusable bags. Since the PUL is waterproof, it can withstand holding things like fruits and veggies that are full of moisture. I can either wipe the bags down after use or when they get really messy, throw them in the wash.
I spend a number of hours one day doing research to determine the food safety of using the PUL for this purpose. Although PUL is not food grade, most of the information I was able to find determined that using PUL for these bags was similar to putting your food in plastic bags. I feel comfortable using these for my family and I feel like I am doing my part to reuse, reduce, recycle.

fabric basket

I love spending time searching the web for tutorials to learn how to make more projects. I stumbled across this tutorial on how to make a fabric basket. The tutorial is for a smaller basket and after making one, I decided it was time to increase the size. (auymills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-baskets.html) I wanted a basket to hold my phone books and magazines. As usual, I didn't think it through, wasted a bit of fabric, but also didn't think about the structure of a cloth basket. Where is it going to get it's form? I made a wonderful basket, but it turned out more like a tote than a basket. Back to the drawing board to figure out how to make the sides more stiff so that it can hold books and keep it's form.
I also didn't have enough interfacing for a larger basket, so I substituted a quilted mattress cover for the interfacing. (I always try and figure out a way to use recycled materials in everything I make... and I don't always make sure I have all of the materials before starting projects late at night) If I can find another quilted mattress cover at a garage sale, I think it will come in handy for projects like this.
I love this number fabric. I bought it on sale at JoAnn's Fabric. It was on the sale rack for $4 a yard and I bought it during a half off sale! When I bought it I didn't have any idea what I was going to use it for. I was happy to find this great project to use it for.