Crafting is a great hobby. It's relaxing and a great way to express your creativity. Unfortunately, craft supplies are quite pricey these days, which sometimes means that a crafting hobby gets set aside in favour of using the funds elsewhere. Luckily, you don't have to do that. You can save money on craft supplies and continue enjoying your creative passion. Heck, some of them are downright cheap or free!

If you are one of the millions of crafters looking for less expensive alternatives for craft supplies, I hope this hub will be of some help to you. Just click on the title below this paragraph that you're most interested in to discover some money saving ideas for your craft supplies.

Co-operative Savings

Craft Supplies Savings Sites

Recycled Craft Supplies

Bargain Hunting for Art and Craft Supplies

____________________________________________________________________

Craft Supplies Swap

A good way to get free craft supplies is to get together with a group of fellow crafters for the purpose of swapping unused craft supplies. You get to visit old friends, make new ones and have some fun discussing your arts and crafts projects. It's an opportunity to trade tips and enjoy the companionship of people who share your crafting passion.

Group Bulk Buying Power

While you're having your craft supplies swap, why not see if you can combine arts and crafts supply orders to gain some bulk buying power? If you have enough people who use the same crafting material, you can order it by the case at a discount. That way, you get a better price without having to store an excess of it.

If you want to look into bulk buying of craft supplies online, try Create for Less or DollarDay$.

The websites below offer quality arts and crafts supplies at good prices. Perhaps you know of some others but it's worth your while to check these links out if you're looking for inexpensive options for your crafting needs.

Scrapbooking Supplies - a good place for scrapbook albums and other scrapbooking supplies is Scrapbook Warehouse. There appears to be an extensive collection of offerings for your scrapbook hobby. They also carry art supplies.

Knitting Supplies - KnitPicks.com has the tagline,"Passionately committed to affordable luxury knitting." Knit Picks showcases an array of yarns, needles and patterns. There is a section of 100+ free knitting patterns.

Quilting Supplies - this resource offers featured discount products that you can take advantage of, as well as new items, traditional quilting needs, embellishments and a free block pattern of the month. Quilting Warehouse also has a sale section on their home page.

General Art and Craft Supplies - Factory Direct Craft Supply carries a multitude of various art and craft supplies that are suitable for almost any crafter. They advertise discounted pricing and at the time of this writing, a BIG SALE, where you can save up to 90%. Their blog includes craft ideas. Check it out.

Jewelry Making - Frequent buyers save 20% on each and every order at House of Gems. This site states that it sells, "Wholesale beads & jewelry making supplies", so it's a good one to investigate your jewellery making needs. They not only carry beads but also tools, adhesives, findings, gift packaging and displays.

You might have a goldmine of craft supplies right there under your nose.  Check anything you might have in storage or just laying around in your basement, attic or the back of your closets.  You can remove buttons, ribbons, snaps or sequins from old garments or take apart old jewellery to create new.  This is a great way to recycle and reuse while giving you free craft supplies.

Your local classifieds is another good place to locate low price or free items for your arts and crafts needs.  Don't forget to check the section where people offer things for free.  People will often list things in this category when they are decluttering.  They just want it gone, even though there is nothing wrong with the items.  Everybody wins!

Making the yard sale and garage sale rounds can be another good way to locate inexpensive craft supplies.  You can save time if you view yard sale items being offered and their locations from the comfort of your own home.  A few online sites that allow you to do this:

Weekend Treasure

Garage Sale Hunter

Yard Sale Search

I hope this information in this hub is helpful to saving you some money on your craft supplies.  If you know of a good resource and want to share it in the comments, I'm sure other readers and crafters will appreciate it.

Happy crafting!