Art and Craft Supplies …..Ways To Cut Costs
If your a mixed media artist or a hand crafter of any kind, a hobbyist who likes to dabble creatively now and again or a mum or grandma that likes to do crafts with their children or grandchildren you will have discovered just how expensive art & craft supplies can be so I decided I would let you in on a few of my secrets of how I reduce the materials over head on Pages from the Heart Gift books so I have to put together my source list of free and inexpensive art and craft supplies. Afraid I’ve had to split the post into two parts
Free Art and Craft Supplies
Mother Nature
Natural items are a wonderful source of no cost Art and craft supplies such as attractive seeds, seed pods, twigs, pine cones, dried flowers and grasses, pressed flowers .tree bark. Egg shells leaves, pebbles, small stones, shells, sea glass, drift wood. All of these and more, as I bet you can add to the list now I’ve made you think about it, Mother Nature can be a fantastically generous source of free art and craft supplies
Art and Craft Supplies others don’t need or want any more ,most city’s and towns have a local freecycle group if you’ve perhaps not heard about them, what they’re about is passing on to others, items of use, just because the owner of the item doesn’t want it anymore doesn’t mean to say the item is worthless, someone local to you may just need that very thing Their mission statement is ” to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community”. . So look up your local group today you may have something you want to give away yourself or look for something you can use to build up your stock of art and craft supplies you might get a bag of fabric scraps ribbons, odd rolls of wall paper or some old leather or suede item for your next project.
Operate your own group exactly the same idea as freecyle but between family, friends, and neighbors check with them, for unwanted items that you can use to increase your arts and crafts supplies stash, exchange items among yourselves, what is useless for them, might be useful for you and vice versa.
Search amongst your childrens discarded school supplies and stationary for items such as colored envelopes and papers for scrap book decoration or to cut into quilling strips, items like , pencil boxes, bags etc can be reused for other purposes of you own ,don’t stick with just your own kids ask relatives, friend’s children. You might find craft paper, crayons, paints etc markers stamps an abundance of art and craft supplies
Last but by no means is least your own recycling bin all kinds of wonderful art and craft supplies can be found there not just items to make projects with but to store art & craft supplies in, don’t believe me check out the images below.
milk and jugs and lids (the lids make great feet for gift boxes)
There are wonderful items all around your home that make great art and craft supplies
pop cans and tabs
Most people have already found that wonderful arts and craft supplies can be found in their own recycling containers
Before you put your blue bins to the curb see what arts and craft supplies you might rescue from it first
Like the idea of the above projects but worried that you may not consume enough soft drinks to enable you to make a ring pull chair or re shingle your house in pop cans ,don’t worry perhaps this guy will let you have some of his to add to your stock of art and craft supplies
free art and craft supplies by the ton
paper towel and toilet roll tubes
Card board rolls utilized as art and craft supplies source
grocery bags paper and plastic
Our sources of no cost art and craft supplies are only limited by our imaginations
plastic margarine tubs See my mother day tutorial
baby wipe containers
Don't discard wonderful plastic containers such as these decorate them use them as gift boxes or just store your art and craft supplies in them.
jars and Bottles
e's a Small glass jars thermillion and one craft projects to be done with little jars,always keep a few as part or your art and craft supplies
Beautiful and elegant low cost glass jar chandelier made from art and craft supplies retrieved from the recycling
Don't overlook what a great addition empty wine bottles can make to ant thrifty crafters art and craft supplies
frozen juice can lids
Even little things such as lids should be conserved and added to your art and craft supplies ,I love the gift tag idea I'll never throw away another frozen juice lid ever again
milk and juice cartons
First image is full size kiddie play house built entirely from milk and juice cartons amazing what can be done using your blue bin as a resource for free art & craft supplies bet the child who this was made for really loved it.
plastic pop bottles (any size)
Apparently we should never put our blue bins to the curb as they are just bottomless sources of art and craft supplies
art and craft supplies galore from the blue bin I'll never buy art & craft supplies again after seeing some of these georgeous ideas
camera film canisters
junk mail
newspapers
magazines
broken crayons
cd’s/dvds
I always throw a few old CD's into my art and craft supplies box but have never found an idea I really liked until now what great clocks for any desk
produce baskets plastic cardboard and wood
cardboard egg crates
popsicle sticks
When my girls were younger we used to save all our popsicle sticks for art & craft supplies mainly we would make dolls picnic furniture from them, but nothing on the creative scale as the lolly stick purse
mismatched board game or puzzle pieces , or broken plastic kids toys
I absolutely love the idea of the lamp and who'd of thought to use broken kids toys as art and craft supplies I'm sure I will never be able to blue bin anything from now on with out taking a second look at its potential first.
candy wrappers
What was once considered garbage is now art and craft supplies I adore the candy wrapper bag shame I don't eat candy
boxes
tins
plastic cutlery
Ok saved these until last just couldn't believe these chandeliers are made from plastic knives and forks,love the flowers too used to make some thing similar but more like a daisy as they were made from plastic forks,if I see ladies dumpster diving at the back of Macdonalds I'll realize they're just trying to add to their art and craft supplies
milk jugs
Pop Cans
paper towel
plastic bags
baby wipe containers
jars and Bottles
frozen juice can lids
milk and juice cartons
Cd’s/Dvds
I would like to give credit to the websites where the above pictures originally came from and so you can go and see more wonderful examples of how throw away items from your blue bin can often greatly enhance your stock of art and craft supplies ,as far as possible these are the links however some images were not tagged so it wasn’t possible for me to find where they originated from, if anyone recognizes their photo and would like it linked to from the free Art and Craft Supplies source list please leave details in a comment
Sorry this post has gotten bigger than I intended so please look for part two of this post we’ve done the free art and craft supplies please see part two for inexpensive art and craft supplies
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Wow great use of recycled items!!!!!
http://www.capturedmomentsblog.com/
beautiful………
wowwwwwwwww great !!! awesome items collection..
love it dude..
and an crafty person..i too use left out this to make my craft..like beads of a broken necklece, toothpaste n soap boxes, sticks from backyard, bamboo well cut to make a flowervase, left wool to make dolls..many many thing..u can make..just the effort u need to put is..gave sum imagination , seach for things you can use at home or outside(im sure u can sumthing useful always.), and then put ur imagination in to work..
all the best.. maily u need a lots n lots of imagination to do a gud art n craft…
mool mantra..
Amazing how someone can take what others think is trash and turn it into something useful (and beautiful!) Although I think the soda can house is a bit overkill…
nice photo
i realy like them
the art work is awsome. i love artistic things.