Midlands Craft and DIY Supplies

In the past few weeks I have received a few emails requesting a list of craft supplies in the Natal Midlands Area - Having DIY'ed most of our wedding stationery, (and being a stationery-freak in general) I have come to know the craft suppliers in the area pretty well - so I will let you know what I have found.

This list of supplies is in no way exhaustive, and if you know of any awesome places that I've left off - please feel free to leave a comment below.




House of Arts
Formely Prints Charming, the House of Arts, in Victoria Road stocks a selection of scrap book style papers as well as various other A4 sized coloured papers and cardstock. They also stock a small supply of ribbons, scrapbook embellishments and general art supplies including decoupage materials and stamps.

Speciality Papers
Having only recently discovered Speciality Papers - it has quickly become one of my favourite stores. It is located on 21 Hyslop Road - near to the Royal Show Grounds and they stock a wide selection of coloured papers, crafting supplies and loads of general stationery. For our wedding invitations we opted for papers in golds and bronzes - which we bought from Speciality Papers. They stock matching envelopes and are competitively priced. They also do book-binding, laminating and printing - so basically a one stop shop for "stationery-freaks" like me.


Bargain Basket
If you are looking for random bits-and-pieces I can recommend stopping in at Bargain Basket - this is kind of "lucky-packet" store because sometimes you may find some real gems and other times you may not. If you are looking for random odds-and-ends there is a good chance you may find them here - ranging from mini pegs (which we used on our wedding invites), little mini glass bottles and other random stationery supplies. As part of our men's favours - we bought a selection of old school games: Dominoes, Pick Up sticks and Playing cards - which we wrapped in paper, with a hand-stamped message to co-ordinate with our theme. We bought the games from Bargain Basket. Bargain Basket also stock a variety of different paints and art supplies - and is actually where we purchased the gold, bronze and copper metallic paints that I used to paint the flower girl shoes and DIY paper flowers with.

FoodPak
Another "lucky-packet" store is Food Pak located on 157 Victoria Road. Being primarily a Food packaging store you are likely to find food-packaging type goodies - For example - mini plastic containers, cellophane bags and brown paper bags (which are great for gift-wrapping by the way). You can also find really cool mini condiments etc. For my 16th Birthday, I had a "breakfast picnic" I decoupaged a wooden box for each of my friends with their names on it and then filled the wooden box with breakfast goodies including muffins, croissants, yogurts, mini jam-pots, cheese and fruit. We got the jam pots, marmalades, disposable cutlery and pretty coloured serviettes from Food Pak. (We also bought some inexpensive fabric and sewed up the sides to give each girl a mini picnic blanket). I should actually try and find some pictures of that birthday to blog about it - it was awesome.

Ragland Fabrics
Another place that stocks random bits and pieces is Ragland Fabric Store - 45 Peter Kerchoff Street, Pmb. Apart from the usual buttons and other fabric related supplies (laces, sequins, organza ribbons), they have also a very new (and small) craft supply section. I would say it is more geared towards kids, but if you are in the area - buying buttons for your DIY button flowers anyway, then you may as well give it a peak and you could find something you are looking for.




Unfortunately I don't think that the Washi Tape explosion has fully hit the Midlands shores yet. The majority of my (precious) Washi Tape collection was bought overseas whilst I was living in South Korea. Or from my very lovely husband - who sourced them from all over the world.

Doolally Daisy
A good friend of mine - Andrea from Cleverbird Banter has personally ordered washi tape from a local company called Doolally Daisy and she has always been very happy with her orders. I haven't used them myself for ordering Washi tape, but I trust The Clever Bird - so you can too.

The Washi Bug
Another local washi tape supplier - is The Washi Bug - you can read more about them on Andrea's blog here. You can also browse their catalogue of washi tapes here.

Etsy
Alternatively, if you are willing to order online, you can always search for washi tape on Etsy - which is where the husband got the vast majority of the Washi Tapes he ordered for me as a pre-wedding gift.

I can't tell you how much I love washi-tape! I used it basically all over our wedding - which I will hopefully be able to show you as soon as possible (there's been a small {large} speed bump in that road but hopefully will have some photos to show you soon! Everyone hold your breath/thumbs/extra appendages). Anyway, I've used washi tape for nearly everything - DIY business cards, gift wrapping, trash books and card making - I could be here forever.

Two other stores worth a visit are Rosehurst (239 Boom Street) - which has an awesome cafe and coffee shop and The House of Heart Emporium - (formerly the Dunrobin Centre, Warwick Road - Town Bush Valley). Although these stores are not stationery and craft stores per se, they do stock a wide selection of beautiful gifts and locally crafted beauties. Definitely worth a visit.

Hope this list of crafting supply stores has been helpful - if you are in the area and you know of any other good places that I've left off this list - please do post a comment - I'd love to check it ou when I'm next back in the hood.

Stationery Freaks Unite!

PS: 

Stationery - Pens

Stationary - a car that's not moving.

You're welcome.