Building My Crafty Stash at Target

Yesterday there was a threat of snow and ice, and I needed to get a birthday present for a girl at the Bit’s school, so I headed out to Target after dropoff. I knew I could get some essentials (bottled water and candles, in case the power went out) and a fun gift (some awesome Melissa & Doug decorate your own wooden magnet dress up kits) and maybe pick up a little something for the Bit and I to do should we be snowbound today.

The bad weather didn’t occur (OK, it was bad for, like, half an hour mid-day yesterday, but nothing like what we expected) but I still had a grand time picking up bits and supplies that we’re sure to use soon. If I share.

The Dollar Spot

I don’t think they actually call it the dollar spot anymore, but you know what I’m talking about. The island of impulse purchases at the front of the store is currently the perfect place to shop for cheap and adorable little craft supplies. Witness:

OK, the sweet little wooden box was actually $3, but I think everything else here was $1 each. And there’s a lot:

• miniature alphabet stamps
• 12 yards of red and white bakers’ twine
• 1.5 yards total in 3 designs of little felt flower ribbon
• 25 buttons
• 3 glass magnets (I’m gonna make my own some day, but these are adorable)
• set of 6 assorted clips (I want one of those arrows for keeping place in knitting patterns)
• 8 gift tags (which I really wanted for the mini ones for journaling)
• 3 wooden clothespins with arrows on them (yeah, I could make that, too, but so cute!)
• a tiny roll of pink and orange dotted paper

But wait, there’s more!

• a cute little notebook with a bird on it (there were a ton of adorable notebooks for a buck a pop)
• 8 scalloped greeting cards begging for embellishment
• 45 kraft stickers, some hearts and some little flags, tags, etc.
• set of 222 alphabet stickers
• set of 113 rub-on letters

I also got some spring-themed stickers, some Hello Kitty stickers and a coloring book that I think was $3. So I barely even got in the door, spent about $20 and set myself up for a whole lot of future fun.

The Craft Aisle

I remember when Target — or at least my Target — didn’t really have a craft aisle. There were kids’ art supplies, probably, and they sold sewing machines, but that was about it.

Over the past couple of years this part of my store has blosssomed. There’s now an aisle just for things like crayons and markers and the fun Kid Made Modern line of craft supplies and kits (we sampled the glittery paint awhile back, and it’s lots of fun) and another aisle with craft kits and scrapbooking supplies.

There’s a ton of Smash stuff, which is all really cute, lots of cheap stickers — I got a pack of rubber duckies playing dress up for 99 cents — and fun supplies of all sorts.

The main thing I picked up back there this time around was this:

It might be hard to tell from the packaging what this is, but it’s a series of tools you can use to punch holes in scrapbook paper in order to sew a design onto the paper. As the image shows this would be cute for card making, but I’ve been wanting to play with stitching in art journal/mixed media type projects so I think this would be helpful for that, too, we’ll see.

It’s purchase was spurred by a review I read online and now can’t find anywhere, but I was intrigued enough to give it a go.

All of this is in support of my February mission to “create art,” which has so far been going pretty horribly. I’ve got a week to turn it around. Maybe I should go make something!

Are you as obsessed with the bargain corner at Target as I am? Tried any good crafty gadgets lately? Let me know what you’re up to!

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing.