Where do you shop for craft supplies?

Just thought it'd be nice to have a topic where we can discuss which suppliers we use to get our supplies for crafting. Alway good to share Happy

For my jewellery I use www.beadsunlimited.co.uk to get my findings and wholesale charms, A shop in my towns high street called Raphaels Crafts which is where I get all my delicious crystals and glass pearls and also hold many quirky beads cheap.

Now awaiting my first order from www.beadsdirect.co.uk which is gonna have loads of yummy semi precious beads, and I cant wait.

I use the local haberdasheries for getting fabrics because I usually can get good deals on scraps and fabrics.

I also trawl through car boot sales and charity shops for old jewellery and fabrics I can deconstruct and reuse in a design

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36 replies since 3rd July 2011 • Last reply 3rd July 2011

Reply #1:

Hobbycraft, a place called The Thread Emporium which has loads of fabric, threads, buttons and a few other things Happy, Lisa's Haberdashery for material and buttons, Pullingers art shop for brushes and spray paint
ebay for random buttons and wool roving
I am curious to try out http://www.craftsuperstore.co.uk/ as it is a UK place
I am on the hunt for places that sell cheap fabric, I like to go and actually feel the fabric because I am a tactile person and I can also see the actual size, colour and thickness of the fabric in a shop. the same for thread and wool.
anywhere that has a discount card or allows student discount is a fave for me, although lisa's haberdashery DOESN'T accept card Happy it's an expensive place, where it's easy to spend loads.

I'm curious where people get their fleece from and other furry fabric as I have only seen the long length fur and would like shorter soft stuff like you would find on a baby soft toy

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Reply #2:

For cute, unusual charms I love myvintagecharms.com, zap creatives also do some unusual laser and resin charms but they tend to sell wholesale.

As a beadweaver I find it hard to get high quality seed beads in the size and colour I want- stitch n' craft beads are great, they have a website as well as a shop in Dorset.

Whenever, I'm visiting somewhere I also go into any bead shops I see, to see if they have any usual beads. I'm a fan of bead aura and the London bead shop when I'm in London.

Like Nikki I tend to use local haberdasheries for fabric, buttons and ribbon. The House of Fraser near me has a good haberdashery department. Its expensive but they often have sales on wool and will cut you fabric fat quarters, if like me you only need it for small projects.

My best find for sourcing materials is a place near me called Worcester Resource Exchange. As a resource exchange they get donations of all sorts of things from allsorts of companies. Anything from plastic grass off-cuts, to plastic bottle tops and old sweetie jars. They often have old fabric samples, off-cuts and bits of felt. You have to pay to buy things and can either be an individual member or can but on behalf of a company like a school etc. In their general scrap area you can fill a trolley with anything you want for £12 or a basket for a Fiver. They also have what they call 'quality street' which are the nicer items that they sell seperately. This is things like windsor and newton 10 paintbrushes for £1 and £10 packets of Sculpey for £3.50.
Does anyone else have anything like this near them? Because places like this are a great resource and definately worth finding out about?

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Reply #3:

For simple things like paper and stickers I go to the dutch version of a Dollar-store. Everything is cheap there.

For fabric I like to go to the IKEA and 'dive' in the leftover bin, because I only use fabric for small projects.

And for the special stuff (little glass bottles, ribbons, unusual beads) I'll hunt down Ebay. Mostly I look for wholesale lots from Hong Kong or China. Those have very low prices and often free shipping. Like 10 glass bottles 5ml wich only cost GBP 2,95 and free shipping

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Reply #4:

I thirft shop and yard sale a lot. I good majority comes from free cycle which I post for crafty items every few months. This past post I recieved about 5 big totes filled with fabric and old time sewing patterns!

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Reply #5:

Libby W beadsdirect.co.uk do really high quality seed beas they have the miyuki and toho ones Happy

Loving the thrifty shoppers we have here, makes me proud to find a good bargain xx

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Reply #6:

me to! I love saying, when people ask me where I got something, that I found it thrift shopping, for only a dollar! or whatever lol Tongue

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Reply #7:

In PA, I got to Pat Catan's. Out in MN/SD I go to Hobby Lobby and sometimes Michael's.

Sometimes I'll find something really good at Dollar Tree and make something from it, but that's been a rare stop for me lately.

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Reply #8:

Same here Cassie B I love charity shops, great for old pendants and brooches for jewellery making, I had brought a few balls of wool of which wasn't cheap last year then this year found a massive bag of it in my local charity shop and I only paid £2 for over 10 balls of it.

Monika I love my local poundshop which is our version of a Dollar tree I think, sometimes I've found some brilliant craft papers and at the moment they do these offcuts from expensive papers.

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Reply #9:

hey , there isnt really that many places in ireland and the ones that are here are realy expensive but there is beads and bling, yellow brick road, B.D.I but i mostly get mine from etsy, art fire, 1 dollar beads and eebeads Happy eebeads, great for vintage charms Happy

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Reply #10:

Thats really cool, I was thinking of getting some stuff off etsy.

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Reply #11:

i love etsy, but artfire is more for supplies. try both, they are such cool websites. and everyone is so nice on etsy Happy

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Reply #12:

i found somewhere that does fleece! so i'm happy. It's the thread emporium again Tongue

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Reply #13:

I want some fleece, i wanna make some plushies x

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Reply #14:

i just use felt and fur for my plushies,anything i can get a hold of that is pretty and big enough

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