PGC – Budget Planner/Craft ideas

I absolutely love a bargain and when you have hobbies as expensive as arts and crafts money that can be saved is a big plus for me.

Over the years I have made some mistakes with purchases and found that something’s you can get away with buying cheap but others you really do need to invest money to save money, if that even makes sense.

From my personal experience I have found that “consumable supplies” for want of a better description can be brought cheaply, “tools” on the other hand are always worth investing it!

Take paints for example, you can buy cheaper water colour or acrylic paints and use them with middle to top range brushes and get the same effect as more expensive paints: however if you take expensive paints and use them with cheap brushes then I am never really happy with the end result. 

Now, I’m not telling you to run out and spend a fortune I just think that if you are going to invest money in art supplies then it’s worth knowing where to invest them (even though I’d sell my left kidney for a Jane Davenport art set).

Silhouette portrait : yes I know it’s not really a bargain purchase, they RRP at around £145 but if you are a crafter or planner then they are worth their weight in gold. The average planner sticker “kit” costs approx £10-£15 a week ready cut and shipped, you can pick up free printable kits from a variety of websites, a simple Google of “free planner printables” brings up an array of websites. With a silhouette you can print these over and over again for the price of a few sheets of sticker paper.

I’ve used my silhouette portrait for paper cuts, ephemera, dashboards, die cuts, alphas and so much more, literally every project has something in it which I’ve used my silhouette for: so although they may not be a cheap purchase I definitely think that overall they are a must have purchase.

Group buy ins : there are several groups on Facebook (mine is here) which offer buy ins. How these work is that wholesalers sell to retailers but we have to put minimum orders in, so rather than order in bulk of one product we have buy in groups that allow people to purchase at wholesale prices, then the rest of the stock we can place up for sale at retail prices. There are buy in groups for literally anything, mine is for planner and paper craft items and we have lots of different brands. 

Shops : B&M have really upped their craft game lately, I was in there a few days ago and brought 40 acrylic paints for £6.99, rolls of washi tape for £1.99 and packs of alpha stickers for £1.49. Hobbycraft have their value range which I often use and their “budget” range (artist loft) is my mostly used supplies.

If you are just starting out with crafting or planning the top 5 budget items I recommend is; (assuming you have your planner/art book) 

White cardstock, either A4 or 12×12. I use white 12×12 as backgrounds for scrapbooking and use patterned paper for the accents.

Washi tape, can be used for crafts and planning, they can be brought cheaply and last a while. 

Punches, can be picked up cheaply and can be used to punch decorative edges in planner or to embellish pages.

Ink pads, can be used for stamping in Planners or craft projects, call also be used with Aqua brushes to create a water colour effect.

Background stamps, these can be picked up dirt cheap and are often free with magazines, they can be used in Planners and art projects and give a texture to your page, layer them with colours to compliment your embellishments to make them pop on the page. – Emma-Louise Smith – Kelly Vizma… – Vicky Buckley… – Jo Whight – Amy Hunt – Rej Relova – Rej Relova – Haley Daley-Hannibal… – Louise Parkinson – Alyson Duncan – Hannah Saadat Jones Stephanie Kaye… Debbie Binnersley… Hannah Marriage (Smith on FB) Sally Bartlett

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