Nothing beats the back to school sales for stocking up on basic craft supplies like glue sticks, crayons, markers, scissors, construction paper, etc. For items such as yarn, ribbon, pom poms, felt, wiggle eyes, craft foam, pretty craft paper, feathers and the like – check for sales at Hobby Lobby and Joann throughout the year.
Otherwise, I’ve found Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree to be the best places to buy general craft supplies everyday.
Dollar Tree is usually my first stop. I’ve picked up small caddies in the school supply section to hold scissors, glue sticks and crayons. The book section is a great resource for simple workbooks, puzzles and stickers. The crafts aisle generally has a little bit of everything in smaller packs so it’s perfect for small scale crafting or just trying out a project without spending a lot of money. If you need to scale a craft project for a large number of kids, I suggest shopping for supplies at Wal-Mart or Amazon.
My find this week was SureFresh round containers to store our bagged/random Perler beads by color. You’ll find them in the kitchen section near the zipper bags and plastic wrap. Each container holds at least 1,000 beads and you get 5 containers in each pack. This works out to 25c per container. Much less expensive than some of the other options I’ve found available. BTW, these also work great to corral wiggle eyes, pony beads and buttons.
For storage solutions, I like the bins that latch with a carry handle. I picked this one up at Michaels, but you can find some variation of it at most craft and big box retailers. All 20 bead boxes, beads to be sorted, tweezers and small Perler templates are in the box. Ironing papers and design charts fit on top before adding the cover. Once the beads are sorted, there should be enough room to add the larger Perler templates. This means I’ll be down to one carry bin and one large jug of assorted melty beads. Perfect!
Come Stitch With Me 