Inexpensive Scrapbooking Embellishments...You'll Never Guess Where

You'll want to try Lowe's, Home Depot, and the hardware section of Wal-Mart for your next purchase of rubber stamping, scrapbooking, and paper craft embellishments! While not the first place most people think of when making these purchases, you will find unique embellishments that will quickly make your projects stand out above the rest.

When we shopped through our local hardware store, we were amazed at how many items were being repackaged at our local craft and hobby store, resold at much higher prices. Indeed, your hardware store may be the best kept secret to finding the most inexpensive craft embellishments if you are willing to buy in larger quantities.

One overlooked item in almost any hardware store is hemp string and wire, which come in a range of sizes. Wire is can be purchased in a wide array of colors such as copper, gold, and silver. Wire and hemp string make a great embellishment for scrapbooking since they add real depth of character and can be applied in so many different ways. Hemp is very versatile as well. You can twist wire pieces into darling little curly cues or wrap them around a pencil. You might also try forming them around cookie cutter shapes to create hearts, bears, stars, or any other cookie cutter shape you have on hand. The limit for these two embellishments is only in your imagination!

Buying several different grits of sandpaper will allow you to test the effects of each one to create different looks of distressed paper and antiquing. Using a sanding sponge can be very helpful and will keep your hand clean and soft. Cut a piece of sandpaper to fit around the sanding sponge and you will have a solid grip while you distress the edges of your scrapbook paper or paper craft project.

Hardware stores have entire rows devoted to a wide array of hinges. You will also find many different textures ranging from classic to modern. You can paint a handful of hinges white at the same time to have on hand. All you need to do is stamp them with your favorite stamp pad to create a coordinated hinge for your projects!

Even small keys or padlocks are cute on cards and can be painted to match the color scheme. Painting them is also a great way to give them a more girlie, chic, or classy look. It all depends on what style you're trying to create.

The great thing about buying chain at a hardware store is the fact that they will cut it to your requested length. Why purchase five feet of chain when you really only need five inches? Wire mesh (which can be found with the gutter supplies) looks wonderful on scrapbooking paper too. A little bit of wire mesh goes a long way too. Just a small square will give a handsome look and won't overwhelm your card.

Often an overlooked source for great scrapbooking embellishments, hardware stores have been known to yield classy, lifelong embellishments for a fraction of the cost you would purchase them at a hobby store. Head over to your hardware store with a creative eye and you are bound to find embellishments that will give your paper craft project perfect charm!

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Kathy Williams is a freelance writer who enjoys talking about rubber stamping and scrapbooking.