Spring Time is Kite Time... Make your own

I remember heading to Woolworth's as a kid (that shows my age, sigh) and looking through all the cheap plastic kites... There were Spider-Man, Holly Hobbie, Dinosaurs, flowers...so many to choose from. This was a sure sign of spring time! 

Well, welcome to spring! And what a great way to get it started... making a kite from grocery bags or lunch sacks.  Here's how we did ours...

Grab a kid (if you choose too) and these items...

• Large brown paper grocery bag or lunch sack
• Strong string
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Masking tape
• School glue or paste
• Paint (any kind) (we used all natural dyes made from fruits and veggies)
• Crayons, markers, or colored pencils
• Paper streamers or crepe paper that you can cut into strips
• A few found objects (bits of paper, glitter, buttons — nothing too heavy)

1. Begin by taking the hole punch and making four holes in the top of the paper bag— one in each of the corners. Use masking tape at each hole. If you put it on after you punch, use a pencil to punch through the hole. This will ensure that your holes don't tear through.
2. Next, cut two lengths of string about 30" each.
3. Tie each end of the strings through a hole in the bag. The goal is to create two loops.
4. Next, cut another piece of string — again around 30". Loop this new piece of string through the two loops you created and tie in a knot. This piece of string will become the handle of your kite.
5. You are now ready to decorate the paper bag kite using paint, markers, or whatever else you desire. You can paint designs on the kite or turn the kite into a fish by adding eyes, gills, and fins. You can glue different items to the kite but be sure not to load the kite down with heavy items -- or it will have a hard time staying up in the air.
6. Use paper streamers as kite tails and glue them to the bottom of the paper bag. You can make your own streamers by cutting crepe paper, newspaper, tissue paper and even plastic bags into strips. 
7. Once the glue and paint is dry, the kite can fly. Hold on tightly to the string handle and run so that the wind catches the kite. When the bag fills with air it will float and flutter behind you.

The Garbage Lady, Finally an Introduction

Hi all! Thought I'd tell you a bit about how myself and my vision for Good Garbage. My name is Lynn Quire, born in Louisville and raised in Southern Indiana now back, residing in the wonderful area of Old Louisville. I am an avid advocate for reduce and reuse. A self-taught sewer and crafter, I mainly love to create  bags from shirts, pants and other various reused material. I have worked in business from the time I was 18 and have a love of learning new things. This has given me the opportunity to learn businesses inside and out from accounting to human resources to information technology. With this love of learning also comes a passion for teaching.

I have been involved with many non-profits, volunteering, fundraising and organizing events. Though mainly my focus has been on school and youth organizations, I have logged many volunteer hours teaching various skills and working at area events.

As Executive Director, I will be working hard to take the message of reducing and reusing across our community by working with reuse artists, teachers, community centers, other non-profit organizations and Corporations through workshops, classes and camps for preschoolers to adults. My goal is to get our community to stop and think before an item is tossed or recycled as to the other lives that item could potentially have; if not by you, by someone else.

In turn, this will help the community, especially teachers, obtain inexpensive materials for their classrooms, art and craft projects and masterpieces.

During this time I will be searching for the perfect place to call home for our retail store, workshop area, gallery and boutique. I'm always up for a challenge and this one is a dream I'm making a reality. 

You can reach me at Lynn.GoodGarbage@gmail.com or 502.437.9021. I would love to hear about places (Community centers, senior centers, after school programs or summer camps) where I can share the Good Garbage message and ideas on reuse projects and crafts. I believe the only limitation I have is the imagination...and seems there is no end!!!

I am plowing through fundraising and events, shedding blood, sweat and tears, to make Good Garbage: Center for Creative Reuse an Institution in our great city of Louisville!!!