MARCH is NATIONAL CRAFT MONTH!

Good morning everyone! Upon going through my inbox today, I discovered March is National Craft Month! (Yippee Skipee! I've been saving my pennies for rainy days such as March!) This tells me there will be some awesome sales over the next month, so I thought I'd share some sites of interest with you.

Living in a small town, my crafting shopping options are limited, and a lot of products I need (want/need, same thing!) are not available locally. So I have two choices: travel 2 - 4 hours to reach stores in a large city OR shop online (which is what I do 85% of the time). Below is list of 5 of my favorite online retailers I have purchased from and my experiences with them (in random order):

www.joann.com - a great selection of crafting items of all kinds! Orders on my doorstep in 1-2 weeks, a little longer around the Christmas holiday. Site is a little slow during high traffic times, but a great site overall, with good sales & coupons (sometimes for free or reduced shipping). I like!

www.marcopaper.com - a great site for paper, cardstock, adhesives, stamp cleaner, and the like! Excellent customer service by phone & fairly quick shipping (under a week)! Occasional specials for free/reduced shipping. I like!

www.dickblick.om - I get most of my Spectrum Noir refills from here! Really quick shipping and items are well-packaged. A huge range of art supplies to choose from. Excellent customer service by phone (I accidentally ordered 2 wrong items, called their 800 number - got a rep right away, she deleted the 2 wrong items & added the correct ones in right over the phone! Awesome!) Frequent %OFF sales and free/reduced shipping specials. I like!

www.consumercrafts.com - a good selection of craft items, including cardstock, ribbon, embellishments, cutting dies, embossing folders, more....  Frequent sales & specials, sometimes for free/reduced shipping! Great clearance sales. Quick shipping/well packaged. I like!

www.amazon.com - Excellent selection to choose from. Quick shipping, good prices, easy to navigate, I get a lot of my Spellbinders dies here. They have a nice filter in the sidebar - 50% off or more on brand names you've searched - great tool for finding bargain prices! I like!

If you have a favorite site or two you'd like to add, please post in the comments section below!

Well, I'm off to take inventory in my craft room - need to make a list of what I'm running low on so I can restock in March!  Hope this article was helpful to you! Smiles, Laura