Michaels Craft Store?  Hobby Lobby?

I know Dana gets some of her supplies at the Dollar Store…Where do you get your crafts from?  What is your favorite store?

I won’t shop Walmart for personal reasons but I love, love, love Hobby Lobby. The store near me is huge and they have everything!  I could spend hours in there…uh..I do spend hours there.  I also like JoAnn’s Fabrics.  Michaels, not so much because the one near me is small and messy.

We don’t have a Michaels near us anymore, so I buy most of my major supplies from Hobby Lobby and my cute odds and ends from the trusty dollar store. There is a tiny Joann’s Fabric that I sometimes go to. If I want something really specific, I will order online. But, since part of the fun for me is physically browsing through the products, I like to shop in person as much as possible.

I am the same way, Dana, I need to look and touch items.  I guess I am just very “ands on” that way but it is hard for me to buy online for that reason.  The JoAnns near us is HUGE.  In fact it is so big I don;t like shopping there because my ADD kicks in and I get lost and forget what I went there for.  It is seriously like a mall.

I love Michaels! Love it! I take Ryan there at least twice a week to look around and pick out projects. I love that they have everything you need to make a difficult craft from start to finish, but they also have easy craft kits. I usually let Ryan pick out a little project for us to do. And since there are always coupons in the Sunday paper, I always know I’m getting a good deal.

I go to both Hobby Lobby and Michaels! To be honest, I don’t really notice a huge difference between the two; Hobby Lobby is much bigger, though, so I tend to go there more often. We do have a small scrapbook supply store in my little town, so I head there when I run out of things; they have a few general craft items, too.

I also love Michaels!  They are opening up everywhere here - there are 5 within 15 miles from my house. I have never heard of Hobby Lobby but we also have A.C. Moore’s which is bigger than Michaels and really great!

I also can spend a lot of time just looking at everything and wishing I could do it all!

We have both a Hobby Lobby and a Michael’s near us, but I guess I’m a bit of a snob. I never think about Hobby Lobby as an option. We think about crafts or needing craft supplies and we go to Wal-mart first, Michael’s second. I’ll have to make an effort to really compare the two one of these days.

I love Michael’s and Joann Fabrics too! However, I have found many items also in the dollar section at Target, as well as garage sales and thrift stores! My mom, who loves to go thrift store shopping, has found so many nice and cheaply priced craft items. I’ve gotten the best deals at yard sales.

My mother was the same way, so was my grandmother. They haunted flea markets, garage sales and more. I think they ran me down with that when I was younger. I hate shopping as a general rule now, so I tend to be the strike-team alpha shopper. I target my prey, hit the store, grab my items and head back out again.

Heather,

You really must check out Hobby Lobby! We don’t have a Michaels in my area anymore, but even when we did Hobby Lobby was much better. In fact, my husband actually doesn’t mind going to Hobby Lobby with me because they have such a wide selection of stuff. I check out the yarn, beads, and scrapbookpaper while he looks at the model kits, then we go look at the interior decorating stuff together. We could seriously spend all day in Hobby Lobby.

Since having an unpleasant experience at Michael’s, I don’t go there anymore. Truthfully, I didn’t go there that much to begin with, but Hobby Lobby is better, IMO. It’s way bigger and they have more of a yarn selection.

I go to Joann’s sometimes, too…I will order online if I’m already familiar with how a yarn feels, but for cotton yarn that you use for dishcloths, the local, inexpensive craft stores are the way to go.

I like Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics.

I get most of my craft supplies from Michaels, the Dollar store, Meijers and Fire Mountain Gems catalog.

I also reuse a lot of things. I find creative uses for just about anything from colorful loose buttons, popsicle sticks to old magazine clippings. I always have some creative project going so I save anything interesting that has artistic potential. It drive my husband mad! LOL!

Adrienne

I like Hobby Lobby when I’m testing out a new craft. Once I’m sure I enjoy it and I’ve figured out exactly what I need, I like to shop online to save money. It isn’t as much fun as shopping in person and you don’t always know exactly what you’re getting, but I have to save money. There’s also a great local, small bead store that I love to go to for beads, crystals, gems, and beading supplies.

I agree with Misty that the best way to save money on crafts is to shop online and stay out of the stores! Unfortunately, I think everyone in my area is coming to this conclusion too. My favorite bead store and my favorite yarn store both went out of business this year. The only actually scrapbooking store didn’t even make it a year in business. So, there are downsides to not supporting stores with physical locations too.

Has anyone taken one of the floral design classes at Michael’s? I’ve thought about doing that before, but haven’t yet. It looks like it would be a lot of fun and be a great way to learn how to create nice flower arrangements.