Here’s how it works:

+ Each month we choose a charity to make for.
+ Here on the blog we’ll post a nice round up of project ideas and all the details.
+ Make your projects (as many as you are able) and attach the donation tag with all the info filled out.
+ Bring them to the next Creative Collision.
+ We will drop off all the projects as one big drop – if you would like to volunteer to come with that would be great – it’s very rewarding meeting the people who will benefit from the making.

February Handmade Charity Project

For the month of February we are going to make hats, scarves, mittens and gloves for all the fine folks over at the Ames Emergency Residency Program.

If you’ve never heard of the Emergency Residence Project, let me share with you a bit about this great program.

The Emergency Residence Project (often referred to as the ERP) provides shelter with meals, referrals and intervention to prevent homelessness.

According to their website:

“This year marked our 25th anniversary of providing shelter.  It was also our busiest year.  Through our Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, and Homeless Prevention programs we helped 2,372 people. We housed an average of 45 individuals a night, about ½ of whom were children.  Our closeness to them and our ability to make a difference, every day, in their lives gives us more than enough motivation to continue this work.”

Definitely a project worth of our handmade efforts. They need a lot of support, with all the cuts to budgets and the freeze on housing vouchers, not to mention the crap economy.  There are a lot of people in need of shelter. If you have some extra resources, check out their Offer Help page, there are a lot of non handmade ways you can give that will make an impact too!

This time of year, all the people they are helping – adults and kids alike, could really use some extra warmth and comfort, so we are making them some!

Over on p2designs there is a great round up of patterns for charity making, all free. Just download them and get cracking.

For Knitting: KnittingPatternCentral has a huge load of patterns

For Crocheting: CrochetPatternCentral also has a huge load of patterns

For Sewing: Check out Burda Style

Remember, Men usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to handmade goods, so try and make a men’s hat as well. I particularly like this Turn a Square knit men’s hat.

Drop off will be at the next Creative Collision: Wednesday, March 9th, 2011.

Do you have an idea for a local charity to make things for? Leave a comment and we will try to get it set up!

Already know what pattern you’ll be making for this month’s charity? Let everyone else know so we can all swap ideas around.

See you all in March!

xoxo – Ames C.art

The Ames Collaborative Art Annual Project strives to mobilize artistically inclined youth, adult, and elder residents of out community to create large scale collaborative art projects within Ames, Iowa. Help support the 2012 Ames C.art Annual Project by sending donations to: Ames C.art, 2321 N. Loop Drive #102, Ames, IA 50010

{2010 mural, Thinking of Ames, located at the corner of Chamberlain and Welch in Ames, IA}

What is the 2010 Campustown Mural Project?

The Ames C.art Mural Project began as an initiative by the Campustown Student Association in the Spring of 2009. The owner of T-Galaxy agreed to the mural’s proposed location on the T-Galaxy building’s north wall. In October of 2009, Ames Collaborative Art (Ames C.art) accepted the invitation by the Campustown Student Association to coordinate and actualize the Campustown Mural Project as the initiation of the Ames C.art Mural Program.

This collaborative mural project was an entirely volunteer-driven effort intended to bring different populations of the Ames community together: school age children, college students, university staff, city residents, and local artists. We joined together of different aspects of the community to create a piece of public art which everyone can enjoy and encourages pride in and celebration of the Ames community.

Order your copy of “Thinking of Ames” on Lulu today!Get your own mural mug, postcard, or shirt on Zazzle!

The Making of the Mural

Special Thanks to all the community members that made this project possible: Griffle Inc, Sherwin Williams, Lowe’s, T-Galaxy, The Campustown Student Association, Craft Leftovers, the Ames Progressive, the Campustown Fire Station, The City of Ames, The Paint Iowa Beautiful Grant Program, Ames Community Art Council, Ames Public Art Commission, and all the wonderful volunteers who took the time to paint this mural – without you, this project would have never become the reality it is today.

Over the last 10 days Griffle has been taking time laps photography of the project for us. We were all so excited to see what it looked like that they stitched it together for a half project release. Check out all the work we have done so far. Thank you so much to all the volunteers who have come out to make this project happen. A special thanks to Fire Station #2 and their continued support!

If you are interested in helping with the mural, just stop by this Thursday – Sunday 11am – 7pm. No experience needed, we need all skill levels to get this project to the finish line.