Crafting for Good Blog
Crafting for good is about helping yourself and others through creativity.
Visiting this site and purchases from our not-for-profit shop all help our community work...we call it Robin Hood crafting; those that can, helping those that can't.
New! Printable Pop Up Box Bundle
3rd Birthday Discount
Card Making Tutorials
Card making tutorials for our card making downloads: printables with purpose and where society profits
Easy Fundraising for Crafting4Good CIC
Easy fundraising for our not-for-profit craft company when shopping online - help us to help others
Printable Activities for Elderly People
Today I discovered Twinkl's printable activities for elderly people; they have a whole host of resources listed under 'dementia support' amongst their adult education printables, but obviously, we were intrigued by their creative ones - and what a find!
You can sign up for a free account or upgrade to a paid one, then download the printables you need - as well as art and craft ideas there are resources for reminiscence, intergenerational activities and even support, wellbeing and planning information for Activity Coordinators.
A wealth of printable and digital resources appear once you choose one of the craft idea categories - such as these fabulous Van Gogh printables:
Head over to Twinkl to check out the activities for elderly care whether you're an Activity Coordinator in a residential care home or caring for someone at home.
Card Making for Men & Wellbeing
What card making for men in a homeless shelter can do for their wellbeing
Open today, first Saturday of March
We’re open today as it’s the first Saturday of the month - Mandy is in our shop at the Ridings Centre in Wakefield, introducing our new theme “Mark Making March” promoting simple creative use of our donated supplies...pop along and make your mark!
Thanks to Rachel (Bobshaped) for the idea - feel free to suggest themes that promote re-use of our donated stock.
Big News!
Donated Die-Cutting Dies
126 packs of metal dies donated today - we are astonished, humbled and incredibly grateful.
Just think of the social impact that will come from these, one way or another, for individuals, community groups and organisations (we always look for the ‘best use’ to bring maximum benefit) - there’s even tiny button dies we can use to make the best from even the smallest pieces of waste card ♻️
All our donors are incredibly generous (we had another batch of much needed Christmas dies just earlier this week!) and we are extremely grateful to *everyone* for supporting us in promoting positive mental health and wellbeing through creativity.
Decorate Your Own Wooden Christmas Baubles
Decorate and personalise your own wooden baubles to hang from your Christmas tree with our new wooden craft blanks.
We now have a supply of good-sized, flat wooden bauble craft blanks in the store (UK shipping only) which would be perfect for community group activities in the run up to Christmas.
✔️ Very good-sized flat bauble made from MDF: 11cm diameter with a hole for hanging. We've shown a £1 coin for size comparison and the decorating surface is bigger than the palms of our hands!
✔️ Ideal for kids and community group activities, Baby's 1st Christmas, new home and couples' first Christmas or start a family tradition of making a family decoration for each year etc.
✔️ Use various art and craft supplies to decorate the smooth, plain surface e.g. paint them, stamp on them, cover them with decoupage, napkins or papers, add beads, polymer clay, ribbon or other 3D embellishments (and we would love to see what you make!)
Sharing Creativity
88 year old lady: “I don’t know where I’d be without my crafting” She was bringing donations to share with others because creativity has helped her so much... “coping with life...losing myself...time flying by”
Mental health affects all ages but creative people are happy to help each other so that all ages can benefit from what’s helped them
#BuySocial to support Social Enterprise
#BuySocial to Support Community Groups
Our customers and craft stash donors support us and help us to supply free craft supplies to community groups.
Cath’s Cross Stitch Group at St Swithun’s Community Centre in Wakefield will use these unwanted magazine freebies to make items for sale at the Christmas fair, raising money for further supplies so their group can keep running.
Creativity, getting out of the house and leisure time with others is important for wellbeing and positive mental health. Crafters supporting crafters.
If you have any art supplies or craft stash you’d like to donate please get in touch and we’ll make sure it’s put to good use.
How We Raise Funds as a Social Enterprise
🤔 Confused about us? Here’s how we share resources and raise funds for people’s wellbeing and mental health:
1️⃣ Selling downloadable, printable card and craft kits in our online store.
• Affordable bundles and kits from £1.20
• 99% can be used by groups
• Sell What You Make to raise funds of your own
• Currencies: 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇪🇺
• Browse our downloads here
2️⃣ Selling unwanted, donated art and craft supplies in our offline shop at low prices so those on a budget can enjoy the benefits of creativity. *Please check opening times with us before visiting during October* Mail order available if you don’t mind covering P&P 📦
• Donations are sent to us from artists and crafters, as well as some forward thinking companies who send their clearance or waste items that might otherwise go into landfill ♻️👍
• Used, surplus or unsellable donations are provided to community groups, nurseries and care homes either free of charge or in Craft Boxes we put together for a small service charge e.g. offcuts of paper, fabric samples, unwanted magazine freebies, part-used but good condition materials, supplies and tools like rubber stamps etc
All this supports individuals, community groups and organisations to enjoy creativity which we all know can be great for our mental health.
It also means we can do extra things like our Art Therapy course, helping people on a more personal level.
Why did I write this post? Because we do many things but we’re a very small team so sometimes we can’t shout about it all...then people think we only do x or y and get confused e.g. when they see us selling our printables.
We need to sell our printable downloads AND donations we receive in order to raise funds and do community work 👍
Huge thanks to everyone who supports us, in all these various ways 🙏
Subsidised Group Art Therapy in Wakefield
At Crafting4Good CIC our overall aim is to promote positive wellbeing and mental health.
Therefore, we are proud that we're able to provide subsidised group Art Therapy sessions in the community, with a registered Art Therapist over 6 weeks, starting September 2019.
We can subsidise the cost of the 6 week course through income generated from sales of our printable downloads and donated craft supplies in our new Creative Hub. In addition, we have been supported by Eastmoor Community Project who have funded the room hire at St Swithun's Community Centre.
Whilst we would like to offer free places, as a starting point we have been able to subsidise the 6 sessions so that attendees only have to contribute either £10 or £5 (unwaged) per session. This is required in advance so we an ensure commitment to the group over the full 6 weeks.
At the time of writing there are still a couple of places left for Monday's start date - take a look at our Group Art Therapy Course for further information and to book your place.
