Finding Great Hardware Store Embellishments For Your Paper Craft Project

Most crafters would look at you strangely if you told them you find unique embellishments at your local hardware store. While a hobby or craft store is a fantastic place to start since they sell many card and scrapbooking essentials, a great alternative is your local hardware store. Hardware stores usually have a great variety of unique things which make fabulous paper craft, scrapbooking, and card making embellishments.

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. We found many of the same embellishments in our hardware store, sold in larger quantities, and cheaper than had we purchased them at a craft and hobby store.

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 perfect little curly cues or wrap them around a pencil. You might also try forming them around cookie cutter shapes to make 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.

A favorite embellishment of rubber stampers and scrapbook enthusiasts everywhere is the hinge. We have all seen the wonderful ideas and cute looks that a hinge can add to a card. Hardware stores often have a great variety of sizes and colors. You will also find many different texture styles ranging from classic to modern. If you find a hinge you just love but would prefer to be another color, don't lose hope. Go over to the spray paint section and find white metal spray paint. (Make sure it adheres to metal) You can paint a large amount of hinges white then all you need to do is stamp them with your stamp pad to create a unique color coordinated hinge!

Don't forget to check out the tiny padlocks and keys that can be purchased in the hardware section of the store. Paint these as well to match the color scheme and you will be amazed at how they make a wonderful new dimension to the page.

Your local hardware store is usually very helpful at making custom lengths of chain, which can often be purchased for a few pennies. Wire mesh, which can be found with the gutter supplies, looks fantastic on projects. You will probably have no at all locating white wire mesh that can be stamped to any color you desire.

Hardware stores are an overlooked source for great scrapbooking embellishments, but they often yield adorable, sturdy embellishments at a fraction of the craft and hobby store cost. Take a trip to the hardware store, with a creative eye, and you will be sure to discover embellishments that will give your rubber stamped card a stellar look!