Replenishing our Art Supplies and Homemade Cloth Covered Blank Books

I posted a while back about needing art supplies for the kids before the baby comes. I am really trying to make conscious choices, especially when buying something new, so I put a lot of thought into what to purchase. I looked around town a bit and found nothing. We went to a place called the Texas Art Asylum where people can donate materials for reuse. However, there were not items like paint, crayons, markers, clay, etc. (which is what I was looking for). It was basically things you can find at Goodwill for much much cheaper. I haven't purchased it yet, but I know I can find recycled paper notebooks and the clay I need around town. We're going to have to pass on the beeswax and wool roving for now as we just don't have the money. I have some wool roving which I could mess around with but they are all colors that remind me of autumn, nothing bright for summer...

Here's what I bought.

I had $34 in Amazon rewards and so bought the Stockmar beeswax stick crayons for the girls and the Stockmar beeswax block crayons for Taven (he breaks stick crayons on purpose). I got free shipping and had to pay 6$.

I then decided to purchase these eco-friendly colored pencils. Although they may not be the same quality as Lyra and other more expensive brands (or maybe they are, we will see) I like that they are from California and from "well managed forests." I bought two sets of these markers, one for Eaden and one for Naia, and I bought one set of these watercolors. I could not invest in the Stockmar watercolors at this time and I like that these are refillable and I don't have to buy another plastic case over and over. Everything is from Stubby Pencil Studio and so is being shipped together. I paid $44.

So for a total of $50, I think I did pretty good.

 Oh wait! I also bought three Dover coloring books at a place called Whole Earth here in town. We LOVE Dover! 

One book is good for the crayons.

 This stained glass one is good for the markers.

 And I think this Fairy one will be good for the watercolors.

The key to being able to buy supplies such as these is making them last. I already tell the kids over and over what resources are used to make their art supplies and how we have to take care of them. Trying to get them to finish coloring an entire page before moving on to the next can be a bit of a challenge. I find that tearing them out individually helps. If I can find the time, I will sew some rolls for the crayons and markers. We already have some for the pencils. Doing this seems to keep them together and make them a little more special.

I also thought I'd make the kids some blank books. I went over to Bird and Little Bird for some simple book making tutorials. I made a lot, but these are my favorite.

I used the idea of recycled books as pages from Bird and Little Bird and then I added a neat cloth cover. I cut off some of the covers to my kids' coloring books for a more sturdy outside. I used a glue stick to help the fabric stay on before I sewed it. Then I sewed the recycled book pages down the center and glued some white pieces of scrap paper (if the kids left the back of an old drawing blank for example) to each page. Pretty neat! If I have time, I will make them bags for their homemade books and then put everything in a basket for each of them (with their new art supplies). They don't get new things often so I think this will be very special.

In other baby preparation news, my lovely mother has bought us some more cloth diapers! Thanks Mom! I also found quite a few of Taven's baby clothes while cleaning out my closet so I think we'll be okay there.