Friday, July 24, 2009

I Bought a Lot of Crayolas

First, let me tell you that I NEED a lot of crayons and markers and colored pencils. Not only are the girls and I doing some random art project more often than we're not doing some random art project, but I also make crayon rolls and marker rolls and colored pencil rolls to sell, and they sell better if there are crayons or markers or colored pencils already in them. AND that's my go-to handmade gift for every birthday and other gift-giving holiday. AND the girls seem to think that I should make them a new crayon roll or marker roll or colored pencil roll every time they see me making another batch to sell. And so of course I do.

And second, let me tell you that I usually buy my supplies in bulk through Dick Blick. They sell classpacks of Crayola supplies (don't even get me started--yes, I am a brand snob, because Crayola is BETTER), which sets me up for about a year with, for instance, crayons for the girls, crayons to sell with their crayon rolls, and crayons to include with presents, for about eight cents a crayon. It's about a quarter per marker there for the good ones, and I also take those to class sometimes for editing projects that my students do.

And so what if I told you that Wal-mart, in its back-to-school section, was selling Crayola Crayon 24-packs for 25 cents each? And that Target was selling 10-packs of thin line and broad line markers for $1.00? And colored pencils? Thereby allowing me to stock back up on my supplies, without waiting for shipping, a crazy LOT cheaper than I've ever seen them before (yay, lousy economy!)? And that now, when I sell a crayon roll, there will be about eight cents worth of crayons in that roll, instead of about 64 cents of crayons? And that adds up for my profit?

You'd say, "Buy, Julie! Buy a very many of these things that you need and that are on sale!"

And so I did:
The other super-good deals that I'd recommend are the glue sticks at Target, which are 20 cents for a two-pack. The girls like these so much that I bought quite a lot, even though the amount of packaging that goes into that little stick of glue is just gross. And at Wal-mart, one-subject notebooks are 15 cents each. I bought a few of these, assuming that I'd find a use for them sometime, for scrapbooks or project books or whatever for the girls.

So yeah, there are hundreds of Crayola products just sitting there on my coffee table. I know I ought to box them up and store them until I need them, but still...there they sit.

They just look so pretty, you know?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh! Oh! Oh! I bet your living room now smells just wonderful, just like a new box of crayons!

julie said...

AND I just discovered that K-mart has those 24-packs of crayons on sale for 20 cents!! TWENTY CENTS!!! Even though I have PLENTY of crayons, I feel now like I should go out and buy some more, just because they're 20 cents.

And yeah, those I might just keep at my desk here so I can huff that wonderful smell.

cake said...

i love that shot of the stack of crayolas!

all those poor little school children though... they will arrive at the big box stores, for their discounted school supplies, and EVERY STORE in town will be plumb sold out of all things crayola!

oh, and i am with you on the crayon snobbery. rose art crayons are crap!