Re-Art Swap

Once a year, a local art store hosts a Re-Art Swap where anyone can drop off old art materials and then pick up things they want. All for free! Today, I volunteered for a few hours at the swap and had a blast. It was like Christmas for an art teacher!

A Re-Art box full of varied items including skeins of yarn, books, magazines, and craft supplies.

Here is a big box of stuff that I donated. It felt so good to clean out my art supplies. Little did I know that I would come back with as much stuff as I gave away! Although most of what I picked up are things that I am going to bring to the school I teach at, so at least it won’t be stuff in my house.

Storefront with colorful items in the display window and a "Think Local First" banner above the door, showcasing art pieces.

Here is the front of the Absolutely Art store.

People browsing items at an outdoor yard sale, with tables displaying various goods under the trees in the background, creating a swap atmosphere.

People looking through piles and piles of fabric scraps and other goodies. The place was open all day and lots of people came and went, dropping off old supplies and picking up new ones. It truly was “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” The area was bigger than my camera captured and there was another aisle not picture and more around the corner.

A table in an alleyway covered with various items for sale, including books, boxes, and other miscellaneous goods. It's a casual swap spot for bargain hunters looking to score unique finds and Re-Art pieces.

More boxes of stuff.

Here are some of the things I picked up for my classroom.

A box filled with various small, intricately cut wooden pieces, including hearts and other shapes.

These are very delicate, thin pieces of wood cut into a variety of shapes.
This will be fun to use in collages for the kids.

Close-up of a neatly organized stack of white printer paper.

8″x10″ pieces of foam board

Three jars filled with various colorful pieces, including sea glass and small objects, arranged on a black surface.

lots of glass pieces for mosaics

Various craft supplies, including paint bottles, Crayola crayons, foam stickers, and artificial flowers spread out on the floor.

crayons, souffle cup lids, unopened glass paints, flowery stuff

A close-up of a stack of multicolored paper sheets, with shades of blue, white, pink, red, and green.

Stack of perfectly good cardstock.

A collection of assorted school and craft supplies, including glue sticks, paper, beads, and folders.

Glue, origami paper, labels, a large piece of glass for glass fusing, mosaic tiles, star stickers

A scattered pile of colorful vintage postcards and stickers.

Collage goodies!

A collection of colorful postage stamps spread out, featuring various themed designs and illustrations.

I love these Easter Seals stamps.. they are from the 70’s and 80’s

Various craft supplies including stickers, paper pieces with designs, a Halloween pumpkin, alphabet cutouts, colored paper, and items for a Re-Art Swap.

Labels, scrapbook paper, random ephemera… notice the Disney stickers (perfect for the Disneyworld scrapbook I am going to put together this summer)

A collection of art supplies and papers, including colored pens, various drawings, and a Winnie the Pooh card.

a book, crochet hooks, stickers, greeting cards, Pitt artist pens and Faber Castell markers

At the end of the day there were boxes and boxes and boxes of unclaimed stuff, so I don’t feel bad taking as much as I did. There were plenty of items for everyone!