Reused Arts & Crafts

Portland has a great little used arts & crafts store called SCRAP (School and Community Reuse Action Project). I have been going there for a couple of years, but on my most recent trip I was thinking about how wonderful it is and how every town should have at least one of these places.
In short, SCRAP takes donations for unwanted items that can be reused as art materials for craft projects. SCRAP keeps trash out of landfills, provides used art supplies at a low cost to the community, and inspires creativity because what they have is always changing.
I have mentioned SCRAP in a post a while back, but I like the place so much that I thought I would blog about it again!
I love heading into scrap to see what I can find. Some of my staple purchases are used crayons that I can re-melt into new crayons, fabric scraps, and construction paper. But just walking around to see what they have is an inspiration to my inner artist. Plus, I always walk out of there spending under $10.
Does your town have a similar store that you can head to first before purchasing new art supplies? If your town doesn't have a store like this, can you start one? How about starting simple, like a free art box at your child's school where people can drop off unwanted items and take things they may need? Or even an email art-list where folks can post what they have or what they need to exchange within the community. Art is that much more fun to create if you know what you are creating it with was almost thrown into the trash! Pin It Now!