Bulk Art Supplies - Source?
2I work with a sorta large regional music festival (~4,000 people) that takes place every spring (May, to be exact) in Florida.
We have a pretty big dedicated kids area staffed all day and night with activities, music, etc for the kids. One of the popular things to stock the area with is arts and crafts stuff.
I know Woot frequently sold those inexpensive art kits that came with a ton of colored pencils, markers, paints, etc.
Anyone have any leads on where I could buy bulk cheap art supplies? Doesn't have to be the sets like Amawoot sold though those are nice. Basically, just looking for a way to cheaply get a TON of stuff for 4 days worth of kids going at it.
Also, if Meh/Mediocre wanted to sponsor the kids area and stock it, we can work that out. A bunch of fenced in parents watching their kids - talk about a captive audience :)
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Dollar Tree. Also Dollartree.com, with free shipping to your local Dollar Tree. Oriental Trading Company used to be good for this stuff, but it's hard to beat Dollar Tree.
Craft kits: http://www.dollartree.com/toys/Craft-Kits/629c1096c1096/index.cat.
Craft supplies: http://www.dollartree.com/toys/Craft-Supplies/629c1102c1102/index.cat
This looks great for boys, which are harder to serve in crafting. If you have them paint all the pieces before assembly that's pretty much a day's play for them: http://www.dollartree.com/toys/Craft-Kits/Woodshop-Assorted-Wood-Activity-Sets/629c1096c1096p324941/index.pro
@moondrake Those are really great suggestions. Thanks. Never thought to check Dollar Tree for bulk stuff.
@Bingo I use them for my cottage art business, mostly for storage and display items, but sometimes they will have a craft item which is useful to me as well. The free shipping to store is a big incentive to buy from them.
@moondrake I'm seconding Dollar Tree
If you're not afraid of buying stuff from China, Alibaba or AliExpress might be an option. Here's a story about the site from a person who used them to get 280 pairs of custom pants made: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-16/what-is-alibaba-one-man-s-path-to-custom-made-bright-colored-pants
@dashcloud Hmmm. Maybe I could get them 280 pairs of pants to paint? I'll take a closer look at it. Thanks for the idea.
Oriental trading has a wholesale site called Fun Express. You have to submit a short application, but the discount on bulk items is amazing!
@mikibell Interesting, but I hate a store that I have to register to see the prices. "Give us your email address to sell and we will let you in our door. "
@moondrake agreed. Can't close that tab fast enough. Great way to not sell stuff.
Depending on how picky you are check out your local Thrift store for things like colored Pencil, check regularly though as you never know what you'll find or when.
@Bingo not sure if you will see this in time as it is currently a woot-off but they are selling kids craft bundles on kid.woot.com right now
Maybe it's time to put the art back in @poppiart. There must be something other than 30,000 speaker docks in his garage.
@editorkid He's probably rather confused why he's getting emails now.
Schools. They are rarely occupied after dark and most of them only have a security guard roll by maybe once every 2 hours.
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@fakhrulbd24
If this were one of the websites I mod, my "spam alert" would be ringing right now.