The Secret's Out!

Di at Pixie's Crafty Workshop (go visit her blog too - she's fun and super-creative... and she has blog candy too!) asked me where I get my bargains... so I'm going to let you in on a few little secrets - the places where I buy all sorts of bargains!

So... much like Helen (It's All Fiddle Fart) I love bargain basement shops... Poundland, The 99p Discount Stores, Pound Shop - never be too proud to have a poke around and pick up a bargain! Helen loves stickers and anything she can "Fiddle Fart" with (gotta go to her blog - what this woman can do with her stash is amazing!)... I pick up odd things - like beaded curtain tiebacks - because you can always take them apart to use. I also love the Discount Stores for 99p hardback books (new project coming up involving these!).

Lace is my new "thing"... I LOVE lace. I've searched around for bargains - because I really don't think that £5 for a yard of 20cm lace is good value (nomatter how pretty it is!) ... Well how about over 20 metres of black cut-out lace starting at under £5? Yup... there are such places. I don't particularly enjoy shopping on auction sites, but "Lacey Bits" is so inexpensive... it's worth a visit (just don't start out-bidding me, okay?! *lol*)

Mad About Cards has a craft £1 shop... and a lot of sales where items are as cheap as 10pence!

The price of scrapbooking supplies has soared in recent years... so look in the children's art department for things like foam lettering, glitter glue and paint.

Sadly, one of my local stores where I buy crafting supplies is closing (all say "awwww")... the only good news is that the craft items on sale there at the moment are silly low prices! If your a Sotonian, take a visit to Bitterne and find the bookshop next to Icelands... I have no idea what it's called!

I mustn't forget to add on here that, for some strange reason, rubber stamps are really cheap in New Zealand - so have a nosey around the world wide web, and find a lovely New Zealand online store that delivers to Europe quite cheaply.

Of course, the same applies to many crafting items via the Good Ol' U.S of A. I paid £17 for my Martha Stewart score board (including postage and packaging) from America... and just £20 for a set of five Martha Stewart punches (I really wanted the peppermint candy punch *lol*)

Last, but by no means least, is Pickwells. A little corner of crafty bliss! How's about this for a bargain... The vagabond for £125! Crafting at Pickwells can be incredibly inexpensive - with 10p sales and always a bargain to be found! Sadly, Carolyn doesn't have an online shop - but if you're ever in the area... you really should pop in and say hi :)

So, there's a short list of some of my favourite and most inexpensive places for craft shopping.

I know I prattle on a bit so I apologise for sore eyes having to read through this - but if it saves you a few pennies, then it might even be worth it *lol*

Online Craft Pound Shop...

Yes, it's true... an online craft shop with items selling from just £1 - well, actually... they're having a sale and there are brilliant items priced at just 25p! I'm in a crafting delirium! *lol* I can find some of the same items at The Range and also at an *almost* local store... but not for 25p, so I'm really happy... just had to share this bargain basement corner of the web that I discovered whilst browsing through Gumtree :)

Online Craft Pound Store

I'm Sooo Cheap!

I went, I saw, I shopped... but found absolutely nothing that I started off wanting to buy. So I decided to go looking for 'stuff'... you know how it is - just looking for things that 'might' come in handy and useful in a crafty sort of way... one day far, far into the distant future *lol* So here's my mini-haul of possible stash: I managed to buy...
1. Some large foam letters (got LOADS of these already!) acid-free in a range of brigt pinks and orange colours... £1.29.
2. Hair rings - like wee mini scrunchies. One pot black, white and grey... the other pot brown , tan and cream. I have no idea whatsoever how I will use them - it's just an impulse space-waster at the moment *lol* I thought I'd somehow fashion them into flowers or something... we'll see. 99p a pot with literally hundreds of hair rings in each.
3. Two packs of more funky foam letters - this time bright jigsaw shapes with alphabet letters stamped in black on each mini jigsaw piece. They were so cute! Like mini bottles and pegs, I just had to have them :) 99p a bag with loads of pieces in each, I thought it was quite a bargain.
4. A mini paint set. Easel, mini canvases, paint brushes, pencils, pencil sharpener, a rubber, six mini tubes of paint, and a little tote bag to store it all in. Another 99p bargain... bearing in mind that I paid 89p for ONE tube of paint the same size a few weeks ago.
5. Lastly, a foam alphabet stamp set - quite funky and cute... another 99p find.
So all-in-all I'm quite pleased with myself in some respects... and wondering when I'll actually get around to buying those rub-ons I wanted. HobbyCraft would have been in my sights this evening... but I had to take my beautiful BabyGurl (she's 15!) to stay at her Grandmas house and missed the opening times by half an hour. Still, there's always tomorrow...