23 February 2012

Create your Perfect Crafty Cresty!

As part of our celebrations for the Chinese Year of the Dragon Froglife has opened a competition for all crafty people. We are challenging you to create a newt using your chosen craft and send us photos for judging later in the year.  Froglife's super-crafter Laura Brady tells all about your chance to make your own Great Crafted Newt.

"Great crested newts are one of the UK’s rarest amphibians and we work hard to protect these amazing creatures. This Croak is also coming out just before Fairtrade Fortnight, so what better way to celebrate then to discover some fantastic Fairtrade products for making your newt? You can get some fantastic eco wools, bamboo fibres or even try making a 2D newt with fair-trade coffee (if this won’t get in the way of someone’s coffee fix) and even better you can do this all while eating some lovely fair-trade biscuits and sweets!

Baked Crested Newts by Froglife's Lucy Benyon
I think Great Crafted Newts will be an amazing activity to take part in.  It’s a reason to put your skills to the test and win some fantastic prizes, whilst helping a great cause. This is not only something to do as an individual but also as a group, at school, with relatives or even, my personal choice, with your friends and lots of cake!
Knitted wire newt by Amanda McKim
This is the first instalment about our competition and the entries and the ideas we have come across.  I hope to keep you all posted with some of the great newts we have been sent, and maybe even a few of our own. 

We are welcoming newts from all kinds of crafters, from knitted to baked, clay to cuddly and everything in between.

Good Luck!"

- The competition is £3 per newt to enter and we provide a variety of patterns, information about newts and ideas in the registration pack to get you started.
- You can enter and find out more at the Froglife website here
- Or you can call 01733 558844 to register.
- Once you have made your newt, choose your best 5 photos and send them back to us for judging.
- You can even send us your new newt to be displayed at the end of the competition, if you’re not too attached to him.
- Judging will take place in October 2012 and all entries must be received by Sunday 30th September 2012.
- Special donation rates are available for groups or schools entering - please get in touch to find out more.  Laura.brady@froglife.org

20 February 2012

Froglife Needs 25 Shopaholics


Froglife is looking to recruit just 25 people to shop online through Give as You Live, to be entitled to matched donations.

Shopping through Give as You Live means that you can buy from thousands of brands, including Sainsburys, John Lewis, M&S and Amazon, and donations are made to Froglife with every purchase you make.

If we can sign up 25 shoppers by the end of March, Froglife will also receive an extra £5 donation from Give as You Live when you spend £10 or more. This really is a simple way to contribute funding to help our work.

Raise £5 for frogs as you shop
There are all sorts of things we could do with that extra £5 donation: buy refreshments for volunteers on a cold and muddy pond digging session, access another £50 through co-funding for education or conservation projects, buy a first aid kit or some pond plants for use on activity days. Every penny counts.

Here’s what you need to do if you’d like to help:
• Please sign up as a Froglife Give as You Live Shopper here today: http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/thefroglifetrust
• You can simply enter your email address and name and start shopping through the website, or you can set up a Give as You Live profile to track your purchases. It can take a little while after each purchase to register your donation.
You need to download a Give as You Live App onto your computer to make it easier to remember to shop through the website. It adds a button to your web browser you can click to register donations when you shop directly on other websites, which also pops up every time you visit a shopping site that’s registered for donations. This works on Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox and is really easy to use.
Helping spread the word through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and your friends signing up will also raise donations for Froglife

Thank you and happy shopping!