While the large craft stores might be a fun place to go browsing for pretty packaged craft kits if your children really enjoy doing a lot of crafts it is much too expensive of a place to buy from. Packaged craft kits for children are terribly over prices and often terribly over packaged. A large box often only contains a small bag of materials and a few sheets of instructions.
You can gather your own craft supplies at home for a fraction of the price that you would spend in a craft store using materials from a variety of sources including free recycled materials.
The basis for many crafts is paper. You can start a collection of paper and keep it in a plastic container or a cardboard box to keep everything dry and uncrumbled.
Flyers often come on bright florescent paper, instead of just dumping them into the recycle bin (or worse, throwing them out) collect them and put them into your craft supply kit. The backs usually don't have any printing on them or unprinted margins and bottoms can be cut off and used.
Save coloured tissue paper from gifts and white wrapping tissue paper from stores.
Wallpaper books. Decrating stores are usually happy to give these away since they have to make room for new ones every season. Dismantle the book and take the samples you want and recycle the rest.
Wax paper from your kitchen can be the base for many crafts. Cut several paper size pieces and lie them flat under the rest of the papers you have collected so when you need them they will no longer curl.
Glossy ads from magazines. These can be used to make collages or cut out interesting images and with a little bit of glue on the back they can be used like stickers.
Unusual paper from magazines.Sometimes high end magazines have unusual textured paper used in ads, foil type paper or plastic type paper.
Glossy paper from junk mail. Junk mail during the Christmas is often printed on higher quality paper and the background colours tend to be rich greens and reds. Cut out the areas that have no printing on them.
Telephone books, the thin paper can be used in making paper mache or it can be used as a glue pad for children. When one page gets sticky turn to the next clean page.
Box cardboard from cereal boxes, shoe boxes, crackers, etc. cardboard from the ends of paper pads. Cut the cardboard boxes down so you are only saving the large front and back panels unless you know you will be doing a craft soon that will need small cardboard pieces.
Scratch paper, this is the yellow or newspaper print paper pads that are used to make the rough drafts of hand written letters. Look for it where stationery is sold. It is a very inexpensive paper.
Construction paper is inexpensive and available to buy at many different places so look for it at liquidators, dollar stores, on sale at office supply stores.
Any white paper that has only been printed on one side can be used as rough work for any project that they are working on. They can use that paper to make templates, practice their painting, cut out practice shapes or try ideas on before using their "good" paper. You can use this printed paper for very young children just learning to use crayons.
You might find paper sources from unusual places. Colourful file folders that are about to be thrown out would be great for you craft supplies. Keep your eyes open and you will be surprised what you will find.
Other Items from around the House
Metal lids from jars and the round metal lids from concentrated juice cans can be used as a template to trace circles. Collect different sizes and mark the sizes on each lid. For projects where you just need a little dab of paint they can be used as pallets as they have small edges to hold in liquids. They can also be used to hold white glue if you need to dip a brush into it.
Buttons. These can be used as decorations on projects or as eyes.
What to look for on sale at a craft stores, art supply stores or office supply stores.
Crafting felt. These can sell for 50 cents to a dollar each at craft stores, sometimes you can find better deals at fabric stores. Black, white, brown, red, green, blue, yellow and some vivid colours would be a good selection.
Yarn- For children the brightly hued multi coloured yarn is always a favourite. To have a few small balls of primary colours would always be useful. Teach them how to make their own pompoms. Check mill stores for inexpensive yarn.
Paint
Tempera paint can be bought in 3 inch round cakes and they will last forever. You only need 5 colours, white, black, red, blue and yellow. You use them by wetting your paintbrush and brushing the paint cake to get the paint on the brush. Place these in seal-able plastic container such as plastic cream cheese containers. Make up a colour chart so the children will learn how to mix colours (yellow + blue= green, yellow + red= orange, red + white= pink etc) .
Acrylic paints should also be bought in white, black, red, blue and yellow. You can add more colours when they are on sale or as you need them for different projects.
Paint brushes- very cheap acrylic brushes don't hold paint very well and don't spread paint very well. Soft brushes do a better job and you can have a few in different sizes.
Glue
Large glue sticks really do work and cut down on a lot of the mess but many of them seem to have very little in them. Look at the size of the glue stick and compare it to the others, 21 grams of glue in a large glue stick costing $1 is no bargain if you can get 20 grams in a small glue stick costing 69 cents.
White glue is the classic glue to use in crafts as it can make so many things stick together and it easy to wash off hands and clothes with water.
Scotch tape and masking tape are useful to hold things together when you need something more than glue.
Scissors
Child's scissors are blunt tipped so they will not stab themselves. For very young children you want scissors that will only cut through construction paper and not fabric and that are dull enough that the edge will not cut their hands or poke their skin. Never leave children unsupervised with scissors.
Decorative edged scissors are fun to have but you only need a few as many of the styles are very similar to each other.
Crayons
It might be best to buy a brand name of crayons since there have been several recalls of cheap crayons because they have found traces of lead in them. Look for them on sale.
Markers
Cheap markers tend to dry up very quickly and not have much ink in them. What ever you chose to buy make sure that they are washable so clothes and furniture don't get ruined.
Coloured Pencils- very cheap coloured pencils have the lead broken in them so it is always falling out. Get the 24 package variety and be prepared that there is always one colour that gets used up faster than the rest.
Hole punch
A paper hole punch is a standard crafting tool. Look for other punches on sale. Heart punches are fun to have especially around Valentine's Day. Don't go overboard buying paper punches as it is good for hand co-ordination for children to learn how to use scissors. Drawing out circles and other shapes and cutting them out helps children with this.
Chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
These are used to make all sorts of critters and to add accents on other projects.
Googly Eyes
These are the different sized eyes that you can glue on everything from rocks to pencils to make them look like creatures. If these come in a small plastic bag transfer them to a resealable plastic bag.
Sketch Pad Artist Paper
This is a better quality paper that you can sometimes find at liquidators for 99 cents for 24 sheets. It is a lovely quality of paper and folded into quarters it makes a nice blank card that a child's "art work" can be glued to the front to make one of a kind stationery.
Keep a list of the craft supplies that you are looking for and try to buy them only on sale. If you only buy one or two things a week on sale it will take you a little time to gather them all up but it will save you a huge amount of money. Keep all your supplies in one area or in one container and make sure that when you have finished crafting that everything goes back into that container or area. You don't want to waste time having to rummage around the house to look for what you need.
So what do you do with all your supplies? There are many on line sites that have great ideas for crafts that your children can make. Remember to look for crafts that are age appropriate, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to do a craft you are too young for and nothing more boring that doing a craft that you are too old for. Crafts for specific occasions seem to be what children enjoy most (and there always seems to a holiday coming up that they can decorate for) because then they can show off their efforts. Greeting cards, holiday table decorations, holiday ornaments and useful objects such as pencil holders are fun for them to do.
Supervise what your children take out of the craft supplies. Very young children will just scribble on a page, call it a drawing and go onto the next page, they will go through a pad of paper in 3 minutes and refuse to draw on anything that already has a mark on it. It is best if you only give them 2 or 3 pieces of paper at a time and tell them that is all they will get for now.
You can check out craft stores for ideas to put together separate kits for your children. A knitting craft kits for girls in a craft store will cost over $15 for two balls of yarn, knitting needles and instructions on how to knit a small skinny scarf, better to buy three balls of yarn, knitting needles are always available at thrift stores for about $1 and down load knitting instructions off the web. If you were to put it all in a pretty gift bag then she would have a place to store her project as she worked on it.
As children do more crafts they start to have a preference of what they are interested in. It might be jewelry making, woodworking or needlework. While craft stores have supplies for all of these crafts you might be better off going to specialty stores, hobby shops, fabric stores and hardware stores.
The whole point of children doing crafts is that they enjoy themselves while doing something creative. And that does not take a expensive trip to the craft store to accomplish.
Photography and Content
Copyright Ingrid Talpak 2009
Morestylethancash
Flyers often come on bright florescent paper, instead of just dumping them into the recycle bin (or worse, throwing them out) collect them and put them into your craft supply kit. The backs usually don't have any printing on them or unprinted margins and bottoms can be cut off and used.
Save coloured tissue paper from gifts and white wrapping tissue paper from stores.
Wallpaper books. Decrating stores are usually happy to give these away since they have to make room for new ones every season. Dismantle the book and take the samples you want and recycle the rest.
Wax paper from your kitchen can be the base for many crafts. Cut several paper size pieces and lie them flat under the rest of the papers you have collected so when you need them they will no longer curl.
Glossy ads from magazines. These can be used to make collages or cut out interesting images and with a little bit of glue on the back they can be used like stickers.
Unusual paper from magazines.Sometimes high end magazines have unusual textured paper used in ads, foil type paper or plastic type paper.
Glossy paper from junk mail. Junk mail during the Christmas is often printed on higher quality paper and the background colours tend to be rich greens and reds. Cut out the areas that have no printing on them.
Telephone books, the thin paper can be used in making paper mache or it can be used as a glue pad for children. When one page gets sticky turn to the next clean page.
Box cardboard from cereal boxes, shoe boxes, crackers, etc. cardboard from the ends of paper pads. Cut the cardboard boxes down so you are only saving the large front and back panels unless you know you will be doing a craft soon that will need small cardboard pieces.
Scratch paper, this is the yellow or newspaper print paper pads that are used to make the rough drafts of hand written letters. Look for it where stationery is sold. It is a very inexpensive paper.
Construction paper is inexpensive and available to buy at many different places so look for it at liquidators, dollar stores, on sale at office supply stores.
Any white paper that has only been printed on one side can be used as rough work for any project that they are working on. They can use that paper to make templates, practice their painting, cut out practice shapes or try ideas on before using their "good" paper. You can use this printed paper for very young children just learning to use crayons.
You might find paper sources from unusual places. Colourful file folders that are about to be thrown out would be great for you craft supplies. Keep your eyes open and you will be surprised what you will find.
Other Items from around the House
Metal lids from jars and the round metal lids from concentrated juice cans can be used as a template to trace circles. Collect different sizes and mark the sizes on each lid. For projects where you just need a little dab of paint they can be used as pallets as they have small edges to hold in liquids. They can also be used to hold white glue if you need to dip a brush into it.
Buttons. These can be used as decorations on projects or as eyes.
What to look for on sale at a craft stores, art supply stores or office supply stores.
Crafting felt. These can sell for 50 cents to a dollar each at craft stores, sometimes you can find better deals at fabric stores. Black, white, brown, red, green, blue, yellow and some vivid colours would be a good selection.
Yarn- For children the brightly hued multi coloured yarn is always a favourite. To have a few small balls of primary colours would always be useful. Teach them how to make their own pompoms. Check mill stores for inexpensive yarn.
Paint
Tempera paint can be bought in 3 inch round cakes and they will last forever. You only need 5 colours, white, black, red, blue and yellow. You use them by wetting your paintbrush and brushing the paint cake to get the paint on the brush. Place these in seal-able plastic container such as plastic cream cheese containers. Make up a colour chart so the children will learn how to mix colours (yellow + blue= green, yellow + red= orange, red + white= pink etc) .
Acrylic paints should also be bought in white, black, red, blue and yellow. You can add more colours when they are on sale or as you need them for different projects.
Paint brushes- very cheap acrylic brushes don't hold paint very well and don't spread paint very well. Soft brushes do a better job and you can have a few in different sizes.
Glue
Large glue sticks really do work and cut down on a lot of the mess but many of them seem to have very little in them. Look at the size of the glue stick and compare it to the others, 21 grams of glue in a large glue stick costing $1 is no bargain if you can get 20 grams in a small glue stick costing 69 cents.
White glue is the classic glue to use in crafts as it can make so many things stick together and it easy to wash off hands and clothes with water.
Scotch tape and masking tape are useful to hold things together when you need something more than glue.
Scissors
Child's scissors are blunt tipped so they will not stab themselves. For very young children you want scissors that will only cut through construction paper and not fabric and that are dull enough that the edge will not cut their hands or poke their skin. Never leave children unsupervised with scissors.
Decorative edged scissors are fun to have but you only need a few as many of the styles are very similar to each other.
Crayons
It might be best to buy a brand name of crayons since there have been several recalls of cheap crayons because they have found traces of lead in them. Look for them on sale.
Markers
Cheap markers tend to dry up very quickly and not have much ink in them. What ever you chose to buy make sure that they are washable so clothes and furniture don't get ruined.
Coloured Pencils- very cheap coloured pencils have the lead broken in them so it is always falling out. Get the 24 package variety and be prepared that there is always one colour that gets used up faster than the rest.
Hole punch
A paper hole punch is a standard crafting tool. Look for other punches on sale. Heart punches are fun to have especially around Valentine's Day. Don't go overboard buying paper punches as it is good for hand co-ordination for children to learn how to use scissors. Drawing out circles and other shapes and cutting them out helps children with this.
Chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
These are used to make all sorts of critters and to add accents on other projects.
Googly Eyes
These are the different sized eyes that you can glue on everything from rocks to pencils to make them look like creatures. If these come in a small plastic bag transfer them to a resealable plastic bag.
Sketch Pad Artist Paper
This is a better quality paper that you can sometimes find at liquidators for 99 cents for 24 sheets. It is a lovely quality of paper and folded into quarters it makes a nice blank card that a child's "art work" can be glued to the front to make one of a kind stationery.
Keep a list of the craft supplies that you are looking for and try to buy them only on sale. If you only buy one or two things a week on sale it will take you a little time to gather them all up but it will save you a huge amount of money. Keep all your supplies in one area or in one container and make sure that when you have finished crafting that everything goes back into that container or area. You don't want to waste time having to rummage around the house to look for what you need.
So what do you do with all your supplies? There are many on line sites that have great ideas for crafts that your children can make. Remember to look for crafts that are age appropriate, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to do a craft you are too young for and nothing more boring that doing a craft that you are too old for. Crafts for specific occasions seem to be what children enjoy most (and there always seems to a holiday coming up that they can decorate for) because then they can show off their efforts. Greeting cards, holiday table decorations, holiday ornaments and useful objects such as pencil holders are fun for them to do.
Supervise what your children take out of the craft supplies. Very young children will just scribble on a page, call it a drawing and go onto the next page, they will go through a pad of paper in 3 minutes and refuse to draw on anything that already has a mark on it. It is best if you only give them 2 or 3 pieces of paper at a time and tell them that is all they will get for now.
You can check out craft stores for ideas to put together separate kits for your children. A knitting craft kits for girls in a craft store will cost over $15 for two balls of yarn, knitting needles and instructions on how to knit a small skinny scarf, better to buy three balls of yarn, knitting needles are always available at thrift stores for about $1 and down load knitting instructions off the web. If you were to put it all in a pretty gift bag then she would have a place to store her project as she worked on it.
As children do more crafts they start to have a preference of what they are interested in. It might be jewelry making, woodworking or needlework. While craft stores have supplies for all of these crafts you might be better off going to specialty stores, hobby shops, fabric stores and hardware stores.
The whole point of children doing crafts is that they enjoy themselves while doing something creative. And that does not take a expensive trip to the craft store to accomplish.
In a rush but want to explore More Style Than Cash further when you have time? Add me to your Favorites or follow me on Twitter.
For more Articles chose from Crafts, Decorating, Food and Entertaining, Fashion, Gift Giving, Stationery and Cards, Health and Beauty, Kids, or Money Matters.
Photography and Content
Copyright Ingrid Talpak 2009
Morestylethancash
Leave a comment