Found Great Handmade Paper

I wrote this a few weeks ago. This was what got me hooked on the weekly trip to A.C. Moore with the 40% coupon in hand.

Three weeks ago, I was at a relative’s house, a relative who I know subscribes to the city’s newspaper. I knew that typically this newspaper carried a coupon to A.C. Moore (a large chain craft shop), on Wednesdays, for either 50% or 40% off any one item which is not on sale. I checked their paper and there was the 40% off coupon.

I had to go to the town that A.C. Moore is in anyway to fill my car’s tank with gas from Costco. So off I went.

I had planned to buy something for either lapbooking or for making ATCs or homemade cards. I wasn’t sure what I’d buy.

The first thing that I found was a “collage pack” of assorted papers. Most of the papers were about 4 inches square. The package was one pound. The regular price was $14.99 and it was on sale for $9.99. I could not use the coupon for this. I also was not finding a pack that had papers in colors that I felt I “must have”. There were way too many orange sheets and also many loud colors or weird patterns that are not my style. After much lamenting, I put them down and left them there.

I then noticed the big display of scrapbook papers and cardstock which were all on sale. I have a lot of cardstock already and didn’t need any more. But at this display was something I hadn’t seen before. It was an assortment package of handmade papers. The label says “Handmade paper by the pound” (no other brand name on it). The package was a 2 pound package. It stated that the sheet size was 4 ¼ inches x 11 inches. I like this size rather than the squares as with one sheet, I can get 4 backgrounds for ATCs. These papers also had botanicals and other interesting papers. The price was $9.99 (on sale), regularly ($12.99). I did the math and was confounded by the idea of paying $14.99 for one pound of the other papers versus $12.99 for double the amount of papers. This made no sense to me. I also noticed that with these 2 pound packs, there were groupings. One package was nearly all neutrals and botanicals, which I loved, so I bought that. Another package was a lot of dark colors or primary colors, and I bough that. I limited myself to two packages.

I still had the coupon to use. I wanted to buy some brads or decorative embellishments which I think are called eyelets. I have seen ATCs with brads and like them. I found a metallic assortment pack of tiny circle shaped brads and bought that, for $2.99. But this was not good enough to use the 40% off coupon on so I kept searching.

I finally found a pack of metal embellishments. One of the designs was a train and my older son begged that I buy it. These embellishments are holiday or seasonal themed. The price was $19.99, and with the coupon, I paid $12.00 for this.

I needed the equipment to get them onto the paper. There were many to choose from and also a large kit for $40. I decided to not buy the tool this week, as I’d wait for the next 40% off coupon.

When I got home I made some ATC backgrounds by gluing the handmade papers onto cardboard from food containers (cereal boxes, etc.).

My son got into the ATCs and made a dozen of them using the handmade papers for the backgrounds and using cut out images of LEGOs and Star Wars items, from catalogs that we receive in the mail.