Art and Hobby Haul (from February)

     This, my dear readers, is my third and final haul from February (which are taking me forever to post!). February was clearly a very successful ‘no spend’ month. I probably shouldn’t declare that I’m trying a ‘no spend’ month because that is basically inviting me to spend all my money.

     I knew I was going to spend money this time. There was a Docraft event on Art&Hobby. I wasn’t sure what exactly it was going to be but I thought I’d pop along to it with my sister (well, I needed something to drive me into town and also, my sister is very good at flicking through boxes to find cheap things). The event itself was disappointing. We saw that it was just a demonstration on card making which seemed pretty basic. I’m not very fond of doing and making things in front of others because I feel under pressure – I just don’t like people watching what I’m doing – so instead of sitting down and being told how to make a card, my sister and I went to the back of the small shop and looked for nice deals. They have a few boxes down the back of craft things that are half price and this is where I usually get my stuff. Everything I bought in this haul as half price (except for one thing).

     Like I said, my sister is very good at looking through those boxes for me. She looks, finds things and hands them to me and I think about if I want to get the item and how useful it might be. It’s a good partnership we have going because also, she knows I don’t want to the expensive stuff. I rarely spend more than €5 on an item and in this box, most things are €2.50 or under (I left the sticker prices on for the pictures so you could see how much things were).

     A lot of the stuff in the boxes is Christmas stock they need to get rid of now that it’s not Christmas period so over my last few trips to Art&Hobby I’ve been building my Christmas stock back up. I picked up a few more clear stamps to add to my collection: some Forever Friends Christmas stamps and the Docrafts Papermania Letter to Santa set. I also picked up the Papermania Christmas in the Country card/decoupage set because it was cheap but also really, really cute. I’m sure I’ll be able to make a lovely Christmas card from it come December.

     But enough of Christmas! It’s spring now and my sister spotted these lovely foiled decoupage sets that are definitely spring worthy – especially that one with lambs and bunnies. I do like Docrafts because they are good quality. I used a couple of the Christmas ones in my cards last year. They make good focal points. I mean, I also like them because each sheet has two different designs on it and they only cost me about €0.75 each, just saying!

     Next up is some ribbon from Papermania’s Capsule Collection. I was quite happy I spotted these, especially the set on the right. I got the paper pack from this collection in one of my previous hauls because I wanted to be able to make more masculine cards (turns out not all guys can handle floral!). It’s a nice paper pack and I’m happy that now I have the matching ribbon for it. I also bought the matching tapes (coming up!).

     Before we get to that though, look at these Roald Dahl themed things I got! There’s an adhesive paper pack and a card kit – perfect for some kid’s crafts.

     Anyway, now onto the last few items. There’s the set of washi tapes to go with the ribbon and tape (three tapes of different widths for €4.50), a pack of small purple, red and green paper doilies, a stamp and a pack of square cards and envelopes. The pack of cards was the only thing I bought that wasn’t half price. As for the stamp, I actually don’t like bugs and such but this one was half price…it is cool looking so I’m sure I’ll find use for it. I also just really, really like the Papermania Urban Stamps. They’re my favourite ones to use. They’re in-between clear stamps and rubber stamps – they’re rubber but the backing is sticky so you need to put it on a stamp block. They’re often a bit pricier than other stamps but they are very good quality.

     Last but not least, I bought a colouring book. I didn’t actually buy this colouring book in Art&Hobby but I bought it on the same day so I thought I’d throw it into this haul. You can get plenty of really nice colouring books in Art&Hobby but they’re a bit expensive. I just got this one for €1.50 in a euro store and I think I’m going to make some envelopes out of the pages (once I colour them in of course).

     But that’s that for my Art&Hobby craft haul. I spend there a lot but I only recently got myself one of the rewards cards and I think I’m already racking up a few euro on that thing. All in all, Art&Hobby is one of my favourite places for craft supplies, although I do miss that I can no longer get a student discount there – that 10% off is always handy! Do you have a favourite craft store near you? Or if it’s an online store, let me know. I’m always up for checking out new places where I can spend my money…not that I have much of that!