Seren
One of my favorite stores in Minneapolis is going out of business. Midwest Craft Direct in St. Louis Park is finally closing its doors on Dec 23, 2006. Slowly but surely they are marking down stuff and since I’m home went up there this morning to check it out. I was looking for a new cutter, some calligraphy ink and maybe a few punches.
I was hoping the mark down would be 75% off everything by now…and some stuff was marked down like that…but very little of the scrapbooking/paper craft stuff. Hell, some of it was only 30-40% off and that’s off the RETAIL price…and that price at Midwest is about 10% higher than everywhere else to start with…so it wasn’t such a great sale yet.
But you know me…I did find a few things!!
Once in a blue moon I would see calligraphy ink there…but it was expensive so I never bothered with it. But today it was on clearance for $1.99/bottle and I really couldn’t resist. Even if this were the cheap ink, $1.99 would be a great price…but I got the good stuff and some great colors: Indian Red, White, Green, Dark Blue, Sepia, Violet, Black. I like the thickness of the ink. I know so people like the super watery stuff, but I have a hard time controlling it.
The crème de la crème of the trip was acrylic paint! Near the ink I found a stand of Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints, the small bottles (1 oz.)…and they are the metallic colors!!! I bought one of every iridescent I could find: Gold, Copper, Silver, Bronze, Stainless Steel and Pearl. I also found a bottle of Micaceous Iron Oxide. It reminds me of industrial cement and I can’t wait to use it!
I then went the craft paint isle and put a hurt on their supply. I like Delta Ceramcoat best. I like its thickness and the different coverages they have to offer. I used to only use the basic transparent colors, but as I began working on altered books I realized an opaque coverage would make my life much better. Opaque and semi-opaque coverages mean no need to gesso and then paint with the transparent stuff...plus the colors are more vibrant.
The 2 oz. Bottles were on sale for 79cents. Now, that’s not a GREAT price, but its pretty darn good and the timing is right since I’m sending half of my studio to California and half says here in Minneapolis. I stocked up on opaque colors and basic transparent colors. They have a huge selection of colors and more than just the Delta basic colors…they have the Americana line and Pearls and more. If you’re in the area, you can call ahead and confirm they still have critical mass of paint and then swing by.
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