Skraptacular Bulletin: Fête, Festival, Fun...But What Are you Giving Up?

  

Fling Your Mardis Gras Bling...and Then Upcycle It!

In the never-ending winter we hope you've managed to celebrate Mardis Gras or Carnival. Take the last opportunity to step out of the Annual February Misery Day Parade and high step it into a Mardi Gras March! Skraptacular has a soft spot for NOLA's Mardi Gras celebration; we got our start selling upcycled crafts to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims.

So if you're done with the February fling and done with the beads and bling, here's a way you can transform your Mardis Gras beads into some nifty coasters. Another option is to recycle or buy recycled Mardi Gras beads and throws from Arc and do your part to create “Green” jobs for people with intellectual disabilities.

But what if you're giving up wine and beer for Lent? You don't have to be Christian to adopt the discipline of the Lenten season in the same way you don't have to be Buddhist to learn the discipline of Zen meditation practice. Lent begins this year on Ash Wednesday, March 5th and extends for forty days until Easter.

What Are You Giving Up?

According to the experts it takes exactly 21 days in succession for you to make new behavior into a habit. If you stick to Lent guidelines, you've got almost twice that time to make helpful behaviors a part of your life or get rid of harmful ones. At Skraptacular we have some suggestions (don't we always?)

What if you...

1. Give up taking plastic bags at the grocery store?

2. Weave the plastic bags you have into plarn-plastic bag yarn-creations?

3. Compost your veggies every Sunday through GrowNYC ?

4. Own a corner of the city and clean-up litter?

5. Stop buying bottled water?

6. Make clothing purchases from ethical fashion brands such as, RepurposingNOLA andLoomstate

Skraptacular's Work with United Palace is Habit Forming 

  

We're starting our own new habits. Rather than visiting the underserved children who come to the  United Palace Cathedral's after school program every other week, we're going every week, bringing our Skrappy interns who are full of enthusiasm for every project we embark upon. This week we made bottle cap refrigerator magnets, some of which we'll be giving out as party favors at our Springing Affair fundraiser. In addition to the unalloyed happiness of using their hands making crafts, our young charges learn to wed the concepts of creativity and conservation. It's a win/win situation.

A Tribute to Pete Seeger

A tribute to Pete Seeger

"If there's a world here in a hundred years, it's going to be saved by tens of millions of little things."- Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee - Down by the Riverside

In 1966, the year I was born, Pete Seeger, in despair over the pollution of his beloved Hudson River,  announced plans to "build a boat to save a river".  The sloop Clearwater was one man's vision to start a grassroots action that played an important role in the passage of laws to clean up our nations waterways . Pete Seeger is my hero and my inspiration for bringing people together to increase environmental awareness.

In celebration of this great man's life let's all take small steps to craft a more sustainable, eco-conscious existence on our amazing planet--from bringing your own bags to supermarkets and refusing more free tote bags--to creating one-of-a-kind artworks from would be refuse.  

Save the Date!! 

Our third annual fundraiser, A Skraptacular Springing Affair, will take place on the evening of Thursday, March 27th  at 307 West 38th St(between 8th and 9th, 20th floor). We hope you will join us in celebrating our achievements of the past year and helping us raise the funds that will allow us to accomplish our 2014 goals. This fundraiser comes a week into Spring-which can't come soon enough this year-and features a silent auction with items ranging from an iPod Touch to original art, live music, food and drink and lively company.

I'M DREAMING OF A GREEN CHRISTMAS...

I'M DREAMING OF A GREEN CHRISTMAS...

...Not just dreaming, but making a green holiday happen. Our 8th annual Holiday Eco Gift-Making Workshop was a spectacular, Skraptacular success:

• 200 busy elves of all ages beaded and collaged and sewed and glued
• 100 pounds of fresh balsam, recycled from the PS 187 holiday tree sale, went home in fragrant cushions to scent homes with the splendor of the season
• 50 Yards of fabric were fashioned into tote bags, aprons, cushions and confidence
• Dozens of champagne cork and wire angels flew into homes across the city
• 18 dedicated Skrap interns and adult helpers worked patiently to help transform old juice cans, wrapping paper or bottle caps into gifts and awe-inspiring gewgaws!

The Holiday Eco Gift Making workshop is Skraptacular's main way of  sending the message of conservation, sustainability and creativity into the community. We couldn't do it every year without your help! 

Thank You!

  

     

  

                                           

 P.S. We hope you are now inspired to turn found objects and items you might have tossed into presents, hostess gifts or stocking stuffers!