Do you often find yourself running to the store to pick up items for a craft or learning project? The cost of supplies can add up over time. Use some of the following ideas to get free or cheap craft and educational supplies.
- Ask a local law or medical office for old file folders. Normally they are shredded or recycled. Many places will be happy to cut the names off of the folders and pass them along to you instead. You can use them to make lapbooks, file folder games or just to organize paper activities.
- Restaurants that provide children with coloring supplies usually throw crayons away when they are left at the tables. Ask if they will save them for you instead. Old crayons have a number of uses such as making sun catchers, forming them into new shapes by melting, crayon batik, texture rubbings and crayon encaustic. You can never have too many.
- Paint and wallpaper stores have thick books of samples which must be replaced when the patterns go out of date. Ask for the old sample books and use the paper for scrapbooking, lapbooking, art projects and paper crafts. Paint chips and stirrers are also free and useful materials that can be obtained at paint stores.
- Find out what your local newspaper does with the newsprint that is left on the roll after the printing. Often times, the end rolls are given away or sold for next to nothing. A bonus is the sturdy cardboard tube that the paper comes on.
- Visit your local flooring shop and ask for out-of-date carpet and tile samples.
- Next time a fair or trade show is in town, head on over with a goody bag. Pick up pencils, pens, magnets, stickers and calendars from the vendor tables.
- Believe it or not, there are still places that develop film. Find those places and ask for the film containers. They are perfect for storing mixed paint.
- Ask local restaurants for things that they would normally discard like coffee cans, cardboard rolls, paper canisters, jars and egg cartons.
- When your bakery or grocery store has to discard out-of-date items like cinnamon rolls or cakes, what do they do with the aluminum pans that they sit on? Ask for those items.
- Find out if there is a quilting or sewing group in your area and ask for the scraps of fabric that are too small to be useful to them. You can use them to make finger puppets or to decorate a project.
- Don't forget sites like Freecycle and Craigslist. You can also ask your Facebook friends for things that they would otherwise throw away like old socks and gloves, cardboard tubes, buttons, yarn, ribbon and jars.
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