S.C.R.A.P. BLOG
Follow Us
Cootie Catcher Dreams
It’s a mix of origami and fortune telling. It’s also a rite of summer, the cootie catcher. Here is our version.
Print, cut and fold!
Dive In - World Oceans Day Invite
“You may never see the ocean. You may never touch the ocean. But the ocean touches you every day.”
—SYLVIA EARLE
Junk Drawer Challenge
You may have heard the phrase, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”? Well, we really mean it. That’s why we are challenging you to turn trash to treasure in our Junk Drawer Challenge.
Create something new out of the things you find in your junk drawer at home.
The rules are simple:
It can be functional or not.
It can be large or small.
It can be made of many or few parts.
It can be just a great work of art.
DEADLINE June 30, 2020
Upload this entry form along with a photo of your finished object by June 30, 2020 and our panel of junk drawer enthusiasts will award top “prizes” for:
Best Use of Junk
You Made This with That!
Wow! That Came Out of the Junk Drawer?
To enter and for more information: karen@scrapgallery.org
Click image for download :)
Adopt-a-B!
Do something sweet for bees and our environment.
We have a variety of "B" houses - bees, birds, bats and butterflies!
All these houses have been hand-decorated by local kids and artists as part of our Bee Our Guest exhibition. For $25 we will send you your preferred species abode and adoption certificate. You can support pollinators by purchasing a B-House at our store.
Birds, bats, bees, butterflies and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce.
All Over The MAP
We want you to be part of a very special delivery for healthcare, food, and grocery store employees who are working hard to make sure we get the supplies and medical care we need at this critical time in our lives.
The MAP or mail art project consists of post cards, notes, letters and envelopes creatively reconfigured and sent through the mail. Mail art started as an artistic movement in the 1960s but, in this 21st Century adaptation, we want you to create something that can be exchanged through the mail to thank essential workers.
Collage, recycled materials, rubber stamps, paint, poetry, notes – anything that can be put in or on an envelope and sent via post will be accepted. We will exhibit work online and then deliver them.
This thank you mission is open to everyone all over the map!
Teachers & Artists – If you need materials, let us know and we will MAIL you materials. For more information contact Karen Riley at 760/861-6479 or karen@scrapgallery.org.
Deadline for entries is June 26, 2020.
Entries can be sent by mail or virtually:
S.C.R.A.P. Gallery 68743 Perez Rd. D-16 Cathedral City, CA 92234
Let's Celebrate Earth Day Together!
S.C.R.A.P. Gallery is hosting a watch party and Earth Day screening of - A Love Letter to Our Planet: Here We Are (streaming worldwide on Apple TV+ FREE TRIAL). You and your family can watch the movie and after the screening participate by writing your own notes to the planet. S.C.R.A.P. Gallery will share your notes on our social media platforms. You can send them to karen@scrapgallery.org.
Let us know what you think!
Home FREE Art : Out of This World Papier-Mache
What you need:
Newspaper
Lots of white glue and water
Balloon
Paints and an old world map
Are you serious? Every year, Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12 foot high wall from Seattle to New York.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 75 percent of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30 percent of it.
To make this worldly craft, start with a balloon – blow it up and tie it off. Tear newspaper into strips approximately 1 inch wide and 4-6 inches long.
Make up a batch of papier mache fixative (equal parts glue and water). Dip the strips into the mixture and pull each strip between your fingers to get rid of the excess glue.
Layer, layer and layer strips, at least three, across the balloon. Go across horizontally, then vertically and then again, horizontally. You do not need to cover the knot of the balloon.
Once your globe is dry, you can pop the balloon and remove it.
Paint the globe blue. Fashion the continents, islands and other land masses with an old map and glue. Finish with a coat of water based sealer.
Example:
Home FREE Art : Fly That Flag
What you need:
Fabric swatch or leftover fabric
– any size.
Buttons, trims, fabric, paper, etc.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the textile recycling industry recycles approximately 3.8 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) each year, this only accounts for approximately 15% of all PCTW, leaving 85% in our landfills.
Check in with interior designers and ask for out of season fabric and textile samples. You can reuse these materials to create all sorts of flags.
Example:
Home FREE Art : About Face Mosaic Portrait
What you need:
Junk mail and/or old magazines
Glue stick
Cardboard
You must be joking? The average American generates more than 4 pounds of trash per day.
Did you know? The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 75 percent of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30 percent of it.
This mosaic portrait is made by cutting up small pieces of junk mail. Reuse a piece of sturdy cardboard for your “canvas” and draw or trace figure.
With a glue stick, glue pieces no larger than ¼”, you are basically repurposing paper into tesserae, the small pieces used for mosaics. Make sure to leave space between your tesserae to give the appearance of grout lines. Grout lines help to adjoin objects into one cohesive piece.
When all your pieces are glued, finish with a coat of water based sealer.
Example:
Home FREE Art : Recycle Resolution French memo board
What you need:
12” x 12” cardboard egg tray or carton
Paint
Trims, buttons, paper and fabric scraps
Yarn or string
Paper clips
Recycle Resolution. Make this the year that you decide to do something every month that helps our environment.
Make something and share it with others. Create random acts of scrap!
To make this French memo board, start by punching one hole in each of the four corners of a 12” x 12” egg tray and one hole in the middle of each side.
Now decorate the egg tray. You can paint it, you can glue scraps of paper, trims or fabric, really add whatever you like.
Lace your yarn, making large X’s across. Go corner to corner and tie them off with a knot on the backside of the tray, then lace from top to side and bottom to side.
You can slip notes and photos underneath the yarn or fasten paperclips to add even more things. To hang the memo board, punch two more holes anywhere at the top and string with ribbon.
Home FREE
Home FREE is a recycled art project you assemble at home. You can share, tag and # your creations with us.
There’s no place like home! Americans produce approximately 267.8 million pounds of trash annually or 4.51 pounds per person per day. This includes bottles, paper, cardboard, packaging, food, grass clippings, furniture, computers, parts, gadgets and doodads – things that come from home.
So let’s start at home. We are kicking off a new program that’s just for you. We know you have all sorts of things around your house. How about taking some of those things that would normally be thrown away and repurposing them into arts and crafts?
Every week or so, we will provide you with project ideas that you can make with just scraps, strips and stuff.
To start off, print our Super S.C.R.A.P. Scavenger Hunt Sheet. This lists materials you will need for upcoming projects.
If you don’t find everything on the list, feel free to substitute other items. Let us know what else can be reused.
In fact, let us see what you have created by tagging us and using #homefreeart
Do your part. Stay home. Recycle and make art!
It’s that easy….You are Home Free.
Don’t forget to tag us and use these Has#tags:
#homefreeart #randomactsofscrap
#BeCause Student Poster Contest
Even in these trying times, we need to continue to provide encouragement, motivation, and creative opportunities for our youth.
This April marks two important dates, Global Youth Service Day and the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and while students may be at home, they can still make a difference.
That’s why we are launching the #BeCause Student Poster Contest - What’s Your Cause?
We know kids care about the environment and here is an opportunity to share their creativity and thoughts - all online. The contest is open to all students, anywhere around the globe. We are accepting drawings, photographs, illustrations and other mediums submitted by email. Artwork will be shared and displayed on a variety of social media platforms including a dedicated S.C.R.A.P. Gallery virtual exhibition. For more information, email karen@scrapgallery.org.
Earth Day 50
S.C.R.A.P. Gallery is seeking artists for an exhibition that explores context, responsibility and perspectives on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
In 1970, Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson and inspired by the protests of the 1960s. Earth Day began as a “national teach-in on the environment” and was held on April 22 to maximize the number of students that could be reached on university campuses. By raising public awareness of pollution, Nelson hoped to bring environmental causes into the national spotlight. Artists have played an important and historic part in the history of Earth Day. Robert Rauschenberg designed the first Earth Day poster to benefit the American Environment Foundation in Washington, D.C.
This exhibition is part of S.C.R.A.P. Gallery’s Earth Day 50 Initiative, a broad based creative and educational effort addressing the most important issues that we now face: climate change, plastic pollution, water degradation and conservation, air pollution and wildlife destruction. This initiative notes we do not have another 50 years to wait or attempt to or plan. We need global cooperation and action now.
The exhibit is open to all artists, students and organizations. Deadline for submission is Friday, April 10, 2020. For more information, karen@scrapgallery.org.
Bee Our Guest
Calling all artists! Want to help our pollinator friends as they help us? BEE a part of our Bee Our Guest Art Contest. We provide the house and you paint it. The houses will become part of our community, placed all over to provide homes for our pollinator friends that are vital to our survival. Yes, bee very aware of this fact! Contact us at 760-861-6479 or karen@scrapgallery.org.
There's No Place Like Home
So said Dorothy Gale, famously, in The Wizard of Oz. Nothing could be truer.
No matter the address, from mansion to humble dwelling - urban to rural, it’s more about individuality, determination and soul. In The Art of the Shack, we explore and celebrate the concept of home inspired by the work of American artist Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015) who was influenced by the sharecropper shacks she experienced in the Deep South and the do-it-yourself builders and architects around the globe.
Developed by the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery and the Coachella Valley Art Center, The Art of the Shack showcases work incorporating reused and recycled materials.
We want to see how your shack stacks up? Create a shack and we will exhibit your work at one of these two locations - Shack East at CVAC in Indio and Shack West at S.C.R.A.P. in Cathedral City.
Student artist submission deadline is June 7, 2019.
Professional artist submission deadline is July 4, 2019
Size limit — no larger than 12” x 12”
For more information, karen@scrapgallery.org
What's On Your Plate?
S.C.R.A.P. Gallery invites artists, students and community groups to take the ubiquitous plate and transform it. How is climate change affecting what we eat now and in the future? How will our global palate change?
Two and three dimensional work with elements of recycled materials is encouraged. Please contact Karen Riley, karen@scrapgallery.org for more information about submissions.
Become A Part of Something Big
We are proud to be recognized as a Lead Agency for Youth Service America. As an official organizer of 9/11 Day of Service, MLK Day of Service, and Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), Lead Agencies are responsible for convening partner coalitions of youth development and community-based organizations, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, national service programs, and faith-based organizations to activate youth – especially those in underserved communities who are not usually asked to serve. From September through April, Lead Agencies also participate in ongoing capacity-building training via conference calls and webinars, tailored resources, and bi-monthly newsletters.
On the 31st annual Global Youth Service Day in April 2019, Lead Agencies will be completing projects nationwide, covering different topics that will leave a positive impact on their respective communities. S.C.R.A.P. Gallery is planning a variety of projects and events including the Walking For Water 6K at Nellie N. Coffman Middle School and A Whale of A Project at Sunny Sands Elementary School in Cathedral City. These are unique environmental projects that are designed and coordinated by youth. For more information, please contact us. We look forward to your ideas and participation.
Sea Change - The Politics of Plastic 2050
S.C.R.A.P. Gallery is calling visual artists to submit art for the upcoming September 2018 exhibition Sea Change – The Politics of Plastic. According to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, by 2050 plastic in the oceans will outweigh fish.
This exhibition seeks work that explores the effects of plastic pollution in our seas and oceans. Artwork must contain plastic waste.
Deadline for submission is August 31, 2018
For more information contact karen@scrapgallery.org
Chasing Coral Screening on January 27
Please join us at the Mary Pickford Theater in Cathedral City on Saturday, January 27 at 2 p.m. for a free screening of the documentary, Chasing Coral.
Chasing Coral taps into the collective will and wisdom of an ad man, a self-proclaimed coral nerd, top-notch camera designers, and renowned marine biologists as they invent the first time-lapse camera to record bleaching events as they happen. Unfortunately, the effort is anything but simple, and the team doggedly battles technical malfunctions and the force of nature in pursuit of their golden fleece: documenting the indisputable and tragic transformation below the waves. With its breathtaking photography, nail-biting suspense, and startling emotion, Chasing Coral is a dramatic revelation that won’t have audiences sitting idle for long.
Following the screening, S.C.R.A.P. Gallery will host a reception for guests to view the exhibit, Against The Current, which features artwork and a "reef" created with recycled and reused materials. The S.C.R.A.P. Gallery is located at 68718 E. Palm Canyon Drive, across from the Mary Pickford Theater. For more information call 760/861-6479.
