Last week, I thought it would be fun to spend some time at Wal-Mart shopping for craft supplies. While I did come up with some new ideas, the experience was anything but fun.
Just for the record, I am a typical guy when it comes to shopping. I avoid it when possible and always put it off until the last moment. At the store, I am easily distracted and start whining after 5 minutes.
The whole trip was redeemed only by the presence of my digital camcorder. I hope you will enjoy this little video and maybe you will learn from my mistakes.
Once it was over, I had the supplies for about 6 weeks work of children’s church. I’ll try to write articles for the website as I complete them. The cost was not too bad, but my wife tells me I should just order from the crafts catalog next time.
I will certainly be more prepared if I go back. Not having a plan made the whole process more painful than it needed to be. I could find almost everything at the store except inspiration. The employees were honestly following me around after a while, I guess all the talking on camera was a little strange.
I’ll give you one guess about who does the grocery shopping in my family.
If you like you can watch this video about kids craft supplies directly on YouTube. While you’re there, subscribe to my channel. You can also check out our page of Sunday School crafts for children.
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Hi there,
Fantastic ! Information.! God bless your program I Give all Honor and Praise to our God for you and your love for our children. God bless each of you for your dedication to this site.
Thank you
a tip to save some money we buy all of the crayons, glue, scissors, markers, etc for the year in july when school supplies go on sale.
Tony, this site was made to help you out…
Craftprojectideas.com
Have fun at walmart.
Don’t forget Dollar Tree or your local version of the dollar store. We get great deals and stock up. Skip the crayons and get the real Crayola brand when back to school supplies are on sale, look for glue sticks too at 10 cents each. Try Hobby Lobby during sales and check on clearance craft supplies, including their foam craft kits for VBS and Sunday school. We use Oriental trading for sale items and themed VBS crafts but only with FREE shipping offers, PLAN AHEAD- never pay rush shipping.
Another good thing to remember is that craft projects can be edible. So if you have a budget or donors for snacks you can ask for items to make things such as prayer pretzels, ants on a log (when learning about creation) and various other things!
I love going to different stores! Walmart is a must. I buy LOTS of glue sticks. The kids love them, especially our 3 and 4 year-olds! I even buy Craft Bond glue sticks that work really well on heavy card stock and on jewels. Staples is really good, too. They cost more sometimes, but they have good prices on card stock. They have decent star stickers, too. And the construction paper is really nice (buy “sulfite” construction paper — Staples brand). Use Crayola contruction paper for projects where you need the paper to be soft and flexible (like for a band on someone’s head – like a crown). AC Moore and Michaels are great to get the craft bond/ photo stick glue sticks, plus awesome stickers (I just hit a sale at AC Moore — nice), plus really nice designer papers (the kids loved using the designer papers for their memory verse hearts in the Discovering the Divine series). I also found Gel Markers and Metallic colored pencils at AC Moore this week. You should definitely get glitter glue. ALL of the age groups like that, and you can get it at Walmart. Oh, and get jewels, sequins, and spangles. You should have seen some of those hearts (Discovering the Divine series)! They were gorgeous!
Thy the Dollar tree or Dollar Mart in your area . You can get a lot of crafts there. Most are crafts are from orential trading and prices around a $1.00 a kit.
I USE ORIENTAL TRADING POST FOR MOST IF NOT ALL OF MY CRAFT SUPPLIES AS THEY COME IN INDIVIDUAL PACKAGES AND ARE PRICED SO I DON’T HAVE TO TAKE OUT A SECOND MORTGAGE. THEY ARE GEARED FOR ALL AGES AND HAVE A WIDE VARIETY TO CHOOSE FROM. THE KIDS IN MY SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING WHAT KIND OF CRAFT THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE AND FOR VBS THEY HAVE A WIDE VARIETY TO CHOOSE FROM
Tony,
Your video cracked me up. I wonder if they’ll let you back in next time you go to WalMart.
I tend to get stuck in the oversized outdoor toy aisle when I go to the store these days.
I also decided you must be younger than me, because I am pretty certain that we didn’t have glue sticks when I was a kid – just the good old bottles which were fun to dump all over the table and play with as they started to dry! I didn’t discover glue sticks until my oldest was in elementary school.