Tonight, Nick and I went to the grocery store. Actually, it's a "super center"- much like a Super Walmart, but these have been around longer than Super Walmarts, and frankly, are better for groceries. I digress.
Before leaving, I swung by the pathetic, half of a single aisle sized craft department. They have basics, and not much else. To my horror, one side of the half aisle wide department was clearanced out. Every last thing on that side. And, of course, it's the crafty side, not the sewing side.
Now, while I like a great deal, this lead me to think that the store is doing away with that side. They carry some wood shapes, wood objects, various glues, a small selection of paints, lots of pipe cleaners, felt, pom poms, sequins, and more misc items.
I did pick up 4 items. Mod Podge was $3 a bottle for the small bottles, so I grabbed 1 glossy and 1 matte (I have a half bottle of matte, but no glossy, and I've been wanting it!). I also grabbed a wooden cubed box. I can't wait to attack that. Lastly, I picked up a package of 10" long skinny dowels for just $.90. Not sure what I'll do with those, but I'll find a use.
I'm sad. They have a similar selection to Walmart, but better prices. Their felt is $.23 a sheet. Walmart's is $.47. Sure, it's $.25 or cheaper at both Michaels and HobLob, but they are a 20 minute drive each way. Meijers and Walmart are the only two stores in town with a predictable craft supply. Dollar Tree has craft items, but you never know what you'll find, or if the item you want will be there next time you go.
So, while I'm happy that I got some cheap Mod Podge, I'm sad that I'm losing another craft section. On the plus side, their tubs of buttons that I love so much are on the sewing side, which thus far, is intact. Seems to me, in this small town, there would be more of a call for kid friendly craft items than sewing items, but who knows.
Maybe they aren't doing away with it. Maybe it's just an inventory thing. Who knows, right? I will certainly be keeping an eye on the prices, and if it drops more, I'll be grabbing lots more stuff.
Too bad the felt was all gone- it was down to $.13 a sheet. But, I noticed the last two times I was in, that the felt was down to slim pickings without being on clearance. Probably never restocked it.
Showing posts with label craft supplies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft supplies. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Cheap Craft Supplies
Today, Nick and I took a drive into Lansing to do some craft supply shopping. You gotta love a man who is willing to shop for craft supplies with you, while holding the bags, and paying. Ahh.. true love!
My main goal was to just get to Hobby Lobby. We also stopped into the Dollar Tree next to it, and the Big Lots across the street, both of which yielded some supplies for very little cash. I love frugal crafts!
At Hobby Lobby, my main goal was finding some sort of wooden doo dad (technical term) to put in the middle of a picture I'm working on, similar to the monogrammed "H" picture I worked on earlier this week. It's smaller, and I wanted something different in the middle, but lacked anything on hand.
I was hoping for a Fleur De Lis, but alas, did not find any. Instead, I found a little wooden medallion thing that is similar in shape to a Fleur, but isn't. I also wanted to look over the scrapbook paper.
My niece, Alex, is turning 3 in April, and my sister loved the monogrammed "H" picture, and requested one for Alex in bright colors. Since I don't scrapbook, I only get paper when I have an idea of what I want to make, and because it's been mostly Christmas and house items, I had nothing in bright colors.
I found 2 pretty bright colored flower paper, then I saw some nice antiqued looking paper with old letters on it. I picked up 2 of those to use on the wooden cigar box I found at Goodwill yesterday. I can't wait to work on it!
I picked up a 2 pack of wooden letter "A"s, a wooden cross, and an oval medallion to put the cross on. I also picked up a Distress Ink pad, since so many people use them. I found, though, that while it's supposed to be easier to use, it really is just a regular ink pad, simply raised up. I thought it would have some sort of pattern on it for distressing. Anyway, it was 40% off, so not a horrible buy. Oh, and ribbon! I found some cute, bright colored striped grosgrain, which I'll use to make a banner for my niece's birthday- 50% off!
Next, we stopped at Dollar Tree, where I just wanted to look around a bit. I did find some things, though. I picked up a 10-pack of flower shaped wooden shapes, a 7-section shadow box, 2 "pictures" (which will be sanded down, mod podged with paper, and made into 1 "A" sign), plus 2 letter "H" wooden shapes, marked down to $.50 each. I forgot to get the shadow box in the photo.
What I'll do is layer the smaller picture ontop of the larger one for the "A" sign. The big one already has some pretty light aqua sheer ribbon to hang it from, too!
At Big Lots, I wasn't doing much looking, but found a great deal- scrapbooking kits for $2 each! They each had 8 sheets of 12x12, and an assortment of embellishments, plus some letter shaped post-it notes. I also grabbed 4 small spools of decorative ribbon. One is lavender and says "Heaven Sent" on it, with stars. One is white and says "Father's Day" on it. One is lavender canvas ribbon, and the last is wired, sheer lavender & green gingham ribbon. The ribbon was only $.75 each for 2 yards.
As for the shapes themselves, I plan to add at least 1 to the "A" sign I make.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Oh, and on a final note... I was amazed and flattered to find out that I've been featured on 4 sites since yesterday.
My main goal was to just get to Hobby Lobby. We also stopped into the Dollar Tree next to it, and the Big Lots across the street, both of which yielded some supplies for very little cash. I love frugal crafts!
At Hobby Lobby, my main goal was finding some sort of wooden doo dad (technical term) to put in the middle of a picture I'm working on, similar to the monogrammed "H" picture I worked on earlier this week. It's smaller, and I wanted something different in the middle, but lacked anything on hand.
I was hoping for a Fleur De Lis, but alas, did not find any. Instead, I found a little wooden medallion thing that is similar in shape to a Fleur, but isn't. I also wanted to look over the scrapbook paper.
My niece, Alex, is turning 3 in April, and my sister loved the monogrammed "H" picture, and requested one for Alex in bright colors. Since I don't scrapbook, I only get paper when I have an idea of what I want to make, and because it's been mostly Christmas and house items, I had nothing in bright colors.
I found 2 pretty bright colored flower paper, then I saw some nice antiqued looking paper with old letters on it. I picked up 2 of those to use on the wooden cigar box I found at Goodwill yesterday. I can't wait to work on it!
I picked up a 2 pack of wooden letter "A"s, a wooden cross, and an oval medallion to put the cross on. I also picked up a Distress Ink pad, since so many people use them. I found, though, that while it's supposed to be easier to use, it really is just a regular ink pad, simply raised up. I thought it would have some sort of pattern on it for distressing. Anyway, it was 40% off, so not a horrible buy. Oh, and ribbon! I found some cute, bright colored striped grosgrain, which I'll use to make a banner for my niece's birthday- 50% off!
Next, we stopped at Dollar Tree, where I just wanted to look around a bit. I did find some things, though. I picked up a 10-pack of flower shaped wooden shapes, a 7-section shadow box, 2 "pictures" (which will be sanded down, mod podged with paper, and made into 1 "A" sign), plus 2 letter "H" wooden shapes, marked down to $.50 each. I forgot to get the shadow box in the photo.
What I'll do is layer the smaller picture ontop of the larger one for the "A" sign. The big one already has some pretty light aqua sheer ribbon to hang it from, too!
At Big Lots, I wasn't doing much looking, but found a great deal- scrapbooking kits for $2 each! They each had 8 sheets of 12x12, and an assortment of embellishments, plus some letter shaped post-it notes. I also grabbed 4 small spools of decorative ribbon. One is lavender and says "Heaven Sent" on it, with stars. One is white and says "Father's Day" on it. One is lavender canvas ribbon, and the last is wired, sheer lavender & green gingham ribbon. The ribbon was only $.75 each for 2 yards.
This is 1 kit opened up- 2 chipboard alphabets, 1 accent stickers, 1 6pack of boarder art, some chipboard tags, sticky buttons, card kit, and more. LOTS of stuff for only $2!
This is kit 2- similar items, but some differences. Accent paper instead of boarders, different colored chipboard tags, 1 different chipboard alphabet, different buttons, and 1 of the 4-packs of paper is patterned instead of all solids.
All in all, I got 16 sheets of paper- 12 are solid colors (with some duplicates), and 4 are patterned.
Both kits came with a 20 count pack of stickers, but they are cardstock stickers. Both sets were identical, with the stickers shown above.
All of the paper from the packs. I love having some solids to work with, since I rarely buy solid colors.
Some of them upclose.
It was nice getting out of the house, though my bottom is really sore now. It's been doing really well, but I've noticed on the days I'm active, especially if I have to stand up a lot, my tailbone gets REALLY sore. Tomorrow, we're planning to start putting the Christmas stuff away. I know, I should have already. Honestly, though, there have been times the tree was still up just before Valentine's Day.
It would have gotten taken down before now, but the weekend we planned to was just 2 days after I broke my tailbone, so alas, it did not happen.
If we can haul rear on getting it all down tomorrow, and put away, then I want to do some crafting. On my block for this week:
- "A" sign for Alex
- ALEX Banner for her birthday, similar to my LOVE banner
- Aged Cigar Box
- Finish the extra sign for me
- Do some more organizing in my craft area
As for the shapes themselves, I plan to add at least 1 to the "A" sign I make.
Oh, and on a final note... I was amazed and flattered to find out that I've been featured on 4 sites since yesterday.
- My LOVE Banner was featured on Dollar Store Crafts for Friday
- My Post It Note Holder was featured on Mad In Crafts for Friday
- My Post It Note Holder was featured on The Girl Creative for Saturday
- My "H" sign was featured on Sweet Sumo for Saturday
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Goodwill Run
Last week, I had about an hour to kill, and had to go to Dollar Tree to get glitter for my Reindeer. Driving there, I go right past my other favorite shop- Goodwill. We have such an awesome Goodwill. It's clean, it's staffed by friendly people, and best of all, there are actually 2 shops.
Shop 1 is a regular Goodwill with regular prices. Shop 2 is our As-Is center, where the prices are deeply discounted. It brings in items from 15 area Goodwill's that don't sell on the first try in the regular retail shops.
I digress. I had just about an hour before I needed to be at the meeting point to pick my older two kids up from school. I could explain why there is a meeting point, but really, I would simply be digressing and getting off point.
I decided that if I spent 20 minutes at Goodwill, and 20 minutes at Dollar Tree, with a 5 minute drive between Goodwill and Dollar Tree, I could get to the meeting point on time.
I am SO glad I stopped in. My first stop was the As-Is center, looking for sweaters and whatever else I could find to use for crafts. I found a gorgeous Angora mix pale pink sweater. It was too small for me, but would make a soft, warm hat for my niece Alex for Christmas.
I also found a stool, brand new with tags from Target on it. The original Goodwill tag said $19.99, but because that side is a discount side, I got it for $3.29! It did have a crack on one of the spindles between the legs, but a little glue, and some weight on it for a night, and the crack is glued together nice and tight.
Better yet, when I looked the stool up at Target.com, I found that a 2-pack retails for $99.99! I got 1 for $3.29! I love it, too.
On the other side, I found a few small things, nothing big. A tub for craft storage for $.99, a Christmas coffee mug to send my Grandpa in Florida, and a Garfield mug from McDonalds from back in the 80's.
As I stood in line, I saw a big gold basket with what looked like craft items in it, all taped shut. I left my cart in line, and looked for a moment. It was marked $2.99, and I could see wire garland, wooden objects, and tea light candles in it. I decided to hedge my bets, and grab it.
I figured at the very least, I would use the basket for Christmas. It's painted metallic gold with some glitter on it.
When I got home, I realized just what a treasure I found. It was packed down with all sorts of craft items.
1 bag of wooden stars, retail $.59
3 Christmas Frame Ornaments, retail $.99 ea
1 Bag Sparkly Pom Poms, retail $2.99
10 Assorted Wooden Spring Clips, retail $1.49 ea
An assortment of partially finished & unfinished wooden objetcs
Handful of unburned Tea Lights
1 Gold Glitter Basket, retail $4.97
1 Wooden Trinket Box, retail $1.49
1 Bow Maker, with original instructions
1 Wire Garland, retail $1.00
I am so excited with my find!
To give you an idea on the size of the basket, I used it for our Family Movie Night Christmas gift. It has 2 1-Liter bottles of Jolly Rancher Soda (1 red, 1 green), 5 movies, 2 bags of candy, 1 jar of unpopped popcorn, and 1 popcorn seasoning. It's a BIG basket! I want to add a big bow to the front of it, though.
If I were to have bought all the craft supplies full price, and the stool full price, it would have cost me at least $80. Instead, I got all of it for under $10!
For those of you out there who don't check out Goodwill for the good deals, you should start!!
Shop 1 is a regular Goodwill with regular prices. Shop 2 is our As-Is center, where the prices are deeply discounted. It brings in items from 15 area Goodwill's that don't sell on the first try in the regular retail shops.
I digress. I had just about an hour before I needed to be at the meeting point to pick my older two kids up from school. I could explain why there is a meeting point, but really, I would simply be digressing and getting off point.
I decided that if I spent 20 minutes at Goodwill, and 20 minutes at Dollar Tree, with a 5 minute drive between Goodwill and Dollar Tree, I could get to the meeting point on time.
I am SO glad I stopped in. My first stop was the As-Is center, looking for sweaters and whatever else I could find to use for crafts. I found a gorgeous Angora mix pale pink sweater. It was too small for me, but would make a soft, warm hat for my niece Alex for Christmas.
I also found a stool, brand new with tags from Target on it. The original Goodwill tag said $19.99, but because that side is a discount side, I got it for $3.29! It did have a crack on one of the spindles between the legs, but a little glue, and some weight on it for a night, and the crack is glued together nice and tight.
Better yet, when I looked the stool up at Target.com, I found that a 2-pack retails for $99.99! I got 1 for $3.29! I love it, too.
On the other side, I found a few small things, nothing big. A tub for craft storage for $.99, a Christmas coffee mug to send my Grandpa in Florida, and a Garfield mug from McDonalds from back in the 80's.
As I stood in line, I saw a big gold basket with what looked like craft items in it, all taped shut. I left my cart in line, and looked for a moment. It was marked $2.99, and I could see wire garland, wooden objects, and tea light candles in it. I decided to hedge my bets, and grab it.
I figured at the very least, I would use the basket for Christmas. It's painted metallic gold with some glitter on it.
When I got home, I realized just what a treasure I found. It was packed down with all sorts of craft items.
3 Christmas Frame Ornaments, retail $.99 ea
1 Bag Sparkly Pom Poms, retail $2.99
10 Assorted Wooden Spring Clips, retail $1.49 ea
An assortment of partially finished & unfinished wooden objetcs
Handful of unburned Tea Lights
1 Gold Glitter Basket, retail $4.97
1 Wooden Trinket Box, retail $1.49
1 Bow Maker, with original instructions
1 Wire Garland, retail $1.00
I am so excited with my find!
To give you an idea on the size of the basket, I used it for our Family Movie Night Christmas gift. It has 2 1-Liter bottles of Jolly Rancher Soda (1 red, 1 green), 5 movies, 2 bags of candy, 1 jar of unpopped popcorn, and 1 popcorn seasoning. It's a BIG basket! I want to add a big bow to the front of it, though.
If I were to have bought all the craft supplies full price, and the stool full price, it would have cost me at least $80. Instead, I got all of it for under $10!
For those of you out there who don't check out Goodwill for the good deals, you should start!!
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