Learn more about Miss Demeanor, a.k.a. Shawn Bowman, on her Criminal Crafts website.

Photo from Method Seven Magazine.

Photo from MyNorth.com.

From Diary of an Amateur Crafter…

The start of May brings with it the end of my first SCRAP Challenge. As a reminder, I accepted a challenge by SCRAP (one of my favorite stores featured in an earlier blog post) in which each month SCRAP sends a random assortment of crafty items that must be assembled into a project. I have one month to complete the task and - of course - the challenge is open to readers as well!

This month the items were: old nylons, movie poster, sewing pattern and corks.

Well, I’m proud to report that not only did I meet the SCRAP challenge but so did two other followers! Pictures of the crafty projects are below! Can’t wait to find out what the month of May will hold…

DoaAC’s SCRAP Challenge project resulted in wall art (as so inspired by the many black/white signs I’ve been seeing everywhere). Here’s how I did it and the materials I used.

Materials: old nylons, movie poster, sewing pattern, corks, 2-inch alphabet stencils, foam paintbrush, acrylic paint, scissors, sharp knife, glue gun.

• Lay out my sewing pattern to use as the paper for my poster.
• Use stencil letters and trace the words of the inspirational phrase on the movie poster. Cut letters out.
• Tape the movie posters letters to my sewing pattern paper in the position you want.

• Use a foam brush and acrylic paint and paint the pattern paper (paint over the movie poster letters too).
• Once dry, peel off the movie poster letters.
• Use a sharp knife to cut corks into thin slices, about 1/2 inch thick.
• Use scissors to cut cork slivers into hearts.

• With a hot glue gun, glue cork hearts to pattern paper.
• Cut into three 2-inch strips, braid together.
• Tape braided nylon to back of pattern paper.
• Hang and admire!

And, thanks to the readers/followers that submitted these SCRAP challenge projects!

May Day flower holder: User used poster to make the cone, nylons for a decorative bow, paper pattern for decorative images and corks to hold the handle.

Easter card: User used poster to make the card, nylons to adhere the flowers, movie poster for the word “Love” and corks to frame the card.

Great job, Anne! We love how you were able to make something that was not just a throwaway craft, but something you could really keep in your home and enjoy for a long time.

Stay tuned for May’s SCRAP challenge!

Ryan Lee, a Traverse City artist, said of SCRAP TC: “I think that people wanted something like this.”

Read more about The Big Idea fundraiser and SCRAP TC!

Photo from record-eagle.com.

Read more about SCRAP Denton and its progress in Texas so far!

Photo by David Minton, from dentonrc.com.

Browsing SCRAP’s full and varied shelves is an experience in itself, but To Go Kits allow the customer to purchase a pre-chosen assortment of harmonizing materials—each one a surprise, inspiring creativity to assemble the contents within. Below, you can see the three kits from above exploded to get a better idea of their contents.

SCRAP’s To Go Kits were born from necessity and resourcefulness. Once the long process of picking through and categorizing incoming donations is over, there is generally an assortment of random bits and do-dads that don’t necessarily have a place to live on the store shelves. SCRAP staff came up with the idea to save these hard to categorize bits and create something shoppers could take home or give as a gift. After a large donation of tennis ball tubes was made to SCRAP, the creation of To Go Kits commenced. Later, then-volunteer Keri Piehl (now Education Coordinator at SCRAP) refined the product when she suggested giving each kit a color theme. The kits initially came from the need for a home for all these tiny trinkets and bits, but now we have to cull through our donations looking for these coveted goodies because To Go Kits have become so popular.

Each To Go Kit is assembled by one of SCRAP volunteers, who first sort materials into bins by their respective colors. Then, each volunteer can exercise their own creativity in choosing an appropriate assortment of materials and arranging them in an eye-catching fashion in each tennis ball tube. They take care to pick a balanced amalgamation of items—you will always find some more valuable pieces hidden in among bits of colored paper and fabrics.

SCRAP To Go Kits are available for $4 in the SCRAP store. Look for To Go Kits and other SCRAP products out in local boutiques soon!

As a group, we looked at various photos of Maya masks and talked about their significance to the Maya culture as the masks were used for a variety of things including to pay respect or homage to a spirit, an animal, a loved one or even to a natural phenomenon such as the rain.

With this in mind, the students took a trip to SCRAP in two groups of 14 and we picked out cardboard sheets for our mask plates and any and all crafts to adorn the mask, with each student putting their own touch on their masks. The students picked a variety of creative adornments to the masks including using the visors on the front of bike helmets as crowns, a foam tube as a quasi-elephant nose, plastic tubes and sunglass lenses as eyes, long bird feathers as hair and a row of wine bottle corks as the mouth and beard. 

Through this project, the students had an opportunity to take in part in reusing things that normally might have been thrown in the trash and to make something unique and creative from these materials, entirely of their own design. It is one thing to try and emphasize the importance of reusing materials through discussion but there is something unique in the students using these used materials to craft a piece of art by hand. Institutions like SCRAP afford us this rare and wonderful priviledge and for that we are very thankful.

A retired school teacher began her own branch of a nonprofit organization in January, to bring art and environmentalism together in downtown Denton. “I never dreamed I was going to open a nonprofit,” Donna Gregory, director of SCRAP in Denton said. “It wasn’t part of my design.”

SCRAP is a creative reuse center based in Portland, Ore. that accepts donations of arts and crafts supplies that would otherwise be sent to the landfill, and sells them for a low price. Items in the store include yarn, old T-shirts, bottle caps and more. “When I saw it [in Portland] and realized the impact it had on that community, I thought Denton would be perfect for this,” Gregory said.

Gregory was born and raised in Denton. Though she moved to Austin to go to University of Texas and then lived in East Texas for a while, Denton was always her home. She moved back in 1982 to continue her teacher career. After 34 years of teaching, Gregory retired in 2009. She was influenced by arts and crafts since she was a child because her mother made quilts. As a young adult her interest strengthened. Her favorite is sewing and quilting. She has three daughters, Alyson, Laura and Heather that she made clothes for when they were young.

Gregory first encountered SCRAP when visiting her daughter, Heather in Portland, Ore. Gregory thought the values of SCRAP, creativity and environmentalism, were perfect for her hometown. She came home with the notion of establishing SCRAP in Denton. Gregory said everything came together smoothly. The location, board of directors and community support were all on her side. But, like anything, Gregory said, it took patience.

“There were bumps in the road, but not anything that wasn’t anticipated,” Gregory said. “Well I guess you can’t anticipate all of it, but things you know you have to deal with.”

SCRAP opened on Jan. 5 and is located on the Denton Square, 215 West Oak St. The Denton location is the first in Texas, and fourth in the nation. SCRAP’s headquarters is in Portland, Ore, other locations are in Washington D.C. and Traverse City, Mich. The location is what Gregory said is so perfect about SCRAP. Gregory worries about outgrowing the space they are in right now, but when they do, she hopes to stay on
the Square. “I feel like downtown is the heartbeat of Denton,” Gregory said. “Right now, getting started, it’s really important to be here.”

Rent is donated to SCRAP by the building owners, but the organization still pays for insurance and taxes. Beginning SCRAP on a zero budget, Gregory needed some income. The location is 5,000 square feet, so extra space is rented out to other community nonprofit organizations. Querencia Community Bike Shop rents out the garage, and other spaces are rented to Cherry Kandy, Community Under the Sun and Sew Circa. “Everyone has a key to the front door,” Gregory said. “So it has to be a very cooperative effort and respect of each other’s space.”

Gregory’s goal for the first year is to keep her head above water. Long term, she hopes SCRAP’s donations, volunteers and customers will grow. “I’d love to see it become a community hub,” Gregory said. “We’ve got this classroom space. It’s not my focus now. My focus now is on the retail space.” The classroom space will eventually be used for volunteer-taught art classes Gregory said. When the classroom is not used for classes, it could be a community work and craft space, she said.

When Gregory is not at SCRAP, she stays involved with the community. She is a member of many groups including the Retired Teacher’s Group, her church and a mountain dulcimer group. Martha Coburn, also a retired school teacher, is Gregory’s best friend and the volunteer coordinator at SCRAP. She trains and schedules volunteers to work during retail hours. Currently there are 12 trained volunteers. “Each of them has a specialty,” Coburn said. “One loves yarn, one loves buttons, one can measure fabrics so fast, it’s amazing.”

Coburn said the best part of working with Gregory at SCRAP is all the creative people they get to meet. “Everyone has that creative bit in them somewhere,” Coburn said. “Now we get to help them do it a little less expensively.”

Shelley Christner has been volunteering her time to SCRAP for two weeks. She heard about SCRAP from Gregory, when she came to speak at one of Christner’s craft shows. Christner was interested in volunteering because it was an opportunity to be out among the crafting community, she said. “Donna and Martha have been here [in Denton] for a long time,” Christner said. “I feel like I’m a part of this creative legacy.” Christner said everyone who comes into the store is friendly and excited to be involved in the big creative family that is SCRAP.

SCRAP uses out-of-date letterhead from local business for most of the in-house paperwork and printing. Over time, SCRAP has transitioned to mostly digital documentation and has reduced paper usage considerably. Any copy machine mistakes or unnecessary prints are used as scratch paper, and then finally recycled.

When SCRAP needs to print something important or it’s destined for community distribution, we still print on old letterhead but stamp the back with our custom “Reused material” stamp. This lets the recipient know that the letterhead is reused and then they can appreciate our commitment to reuse.

Many members of SCRAP staff take notes and make to-do lists in handmade notebooks created with the bookbinding machine in SCRAP’s workshop space. As notebooks are filled, old pages are recycled and new pages are added.

In all three of SCRAP’s bathrooms, we provide clean towels made from cut up t-shirts for staff and customers to use to dry their hands. Even though it makes for two loads of laundry each week (done with cold water and concentrated detergent), this method saves thousands of gallons of water each year that would otherwise go into producing paper towels (even the recycled kind).

In addition to the store’s industrial overhead lighting, SCRAP features several artistic light fixtures refashioned from found or scrap materials used to brighten up dark corners. When possible, they are fitted with energy-efficient bulbs and all lights are on timers to ensure that we are only using them when the store is open.

The information board in the store is made from corks and reused coffee tins. When we couldn’t find an appropriate display for all our fliers and posters, we made something that suited our needs.

Our shopping baskets that customers use while browsing were donated by New Seasons. If you are looking for reused fixtures or retail displays, we sometimes purchase items from Portland Store Fixtures, as well.

All of the fixtures and displays in the Re:Boutique were donated to SCRAP. When we want a larger display but don’t have the right size fixture, we combine many smallers items to create a larger installation. This way our displays cost us virtually nothing to obtain, and they are more versatile when we want to rearrange or remodel.

In the workshop space, we provide bins for compost, hard plastic and plastic film recycling, paper recycling, and regular garbage. SCRAP has a large dumpster that we fill every week with recycling, but our garbage fills just one residential-sized garbage can.

Throughout the SCRAP store and workshop, plants liven up the space in reused containers, like rain boots and drawers found in a free pile. We often water the plants with water leftover from different craft activities, like paper making and painting.

Like the reusable hand towels in the bathrooms, SCRAP provides reusable napkins that visiting groups and birthday parties use when they have cake or pizza. The tablecloths used for events like these are reusable as well.

Which of these ideas did you find the most useful? Is there anything you already do in your home? Any suggestions for new tricks we can use at SCRAP?