Friday, September 16, 2022

Fall Hours

At this time we are planning to be open all Saturdays this fall! We will keep everyone in the loop on our social media account if we have to close unexpectedly for any reasons. However, expect to come to 1761 Wallace Street (our back door!) between 10:30am-2:30pm on Saturdays and our volunteers will help set you up with some great deals on secondhand art supplies! 😊

Volunteer availability is usually our biggest reason for closures. We are always in need of volunteers! We have a small team of amazing dedicated shop volunteers that work hard to keep this service open for you but we can't do this alone. If you have time on Saturdays, head to the "Volunteer" section of our website to submit our volunteer application and our Executive Director will be on touch with our volunteer manual and getting started with shifts.

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Summer Schedule 2022

We are giving our lead volunteers time off this summer to enjoy the beautiful weather that only comes in June - August, thus we will be open reduced hours. We will only be open:

  • June 11 & 25
  • July 9, 16, & 23
  • August 20 & 27

All other Saturdays not noted above we will be CLOSED! Please make sure to plan your visit this summer around our summer schedule. We hope you enjoy the sunny days and all of the wonderful things that you can do in the Saskatchewan summers.



Friday, May 6, 2022

May Events & Closures

May is going to be a busy month! We are having to pause donations due to being overwhelmed in our storage room and donation bins with too many wonderful secondhand things!



Our Book & Fabric Sale will be running Saturdays in May from 10:30am-2:30pm at 1761 Wallace Street (use the back door). Please note: we are CLOSED on Sat, May 28 due to volunteer availability. 

Book Sale Details

With a purchase of any amount, all customers can take home up to 10 free books per Saturday. For example: pay $5 for a small bag and take home 10 books then come back next Saturday and spend $20 on an individual membership and take 10 free books home. 

Fabric Sale Details

Regina Art Supply members can take home a free $20 bag of fabric or fabric scraps. One per member for the sale duration. Must have a valid membership. Memberships are $20/year and are valid 1 year from purchase date. Memberships can be purchased in store or in our Online Shop. This sale does not include notions. Members must be residents of Saskatchewan.

Friday, April 22, 2022

CLOSED April 23

Due to volunteer sickness and availability we are going to be CLOSED on Saturday, April 23. Sorry for any inconvenience to anyone who planned to stop by. Hoping all will be well enough to open on April 30! 😊

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Updated Policies

Although provincial mandates have lifted we would like to remind patrons not to come visit us if you are sick or have been sick in the days leading up to your visit. We will also be continuing masking for all volunteers and patrons in the shop for a few reasons:

👉 We are entirely volunteer run and we need our volunteers feeling both safe and healthy to continue offering you wonderful creative people our awesome selection of secondhand art supplies.

👉 Our shop is small and we would also like to make sure those who patron our shop who are at risk (ex: immunocompromised) feel comfortable continuing to come shop.

👉 We are a non-profit and don't have the funds at this time to invest in a plexiglass barrier at our register. This means we will need to be in close contact for all transactions and want to limit any risks by making sure everyone at the register is masked.

👉 We do not have any data/studies about air flow or air exchange in our location and would like to wait until the right season when we can open our garage doors for open hours and hold outdoor events to consider mask optional interactions.

We will continue to make free disposable masks available to anyone coming in to shop and we also have washable cotton cloth masks we can give to you for free. Thanks for your understanding about our continued masking policy! 


Sunday, January 30, 2022

A Stamping Revelation

 After I got sucked in to the vortex that is mixed media, I may have gone a little crazy buying stamps (and other things as well, but that is another story LOL). VarageSale, thrift stores, our very own Art Supply Exchange... no place that had cheap stamps was safe from me. Now I'm the proud owner of a large, jumbled stash of stamps, most of which are mounted on wooden blocks.



Having them all in a tub is, quite frankly, useless. I bought so many so quickly that I don't even know what I have. I could have duplicates and not even know it. And I can't ever find what I'm looking for... and that's if I even own what I'm looking for! Plus, I have it on good authority that storing them in this way can also damage the stamps, particularly those on the bottom. 

So this January I decided it was time to organize them. I did find a beautiful set of storage bags on Amazon, specifically designed for wooden stamps. But (a) they were expensive, (b) I would have needed a lot of them and (c) I really felt I should be able to come up with a method that didn't require me to buy more stuff. 

So I dove deep into Google and Pinterest. And I discovered something amazing. You can remove the stamp from the wood block if you do it carefully. There are any number of different methods and tutorials (none of which I have tried yet). This leaves you with only the rubber stamp. You can also remove the picture of the stamp from the block, adhere it to the back of your rubber stamp, then trim with scissors or a craft knife.

Now you have all these lovely stamps that are much smaller, and fit beautifully into things like old CD cases for storage!

prairiepaperandink.typepad.com/clear_stamp_sto.html

Another plus? By adhering the back of the stamp to cling vinyl, the stamps will cling to your acrylic blocks. I'm not sure how this would work if you also want to add the picture of the stamp on the back, as outlined above. Perhaps transparent cling vinyl, but I don't know if that actually exists.

So after unmounting all those stamps I would have all those wooden blocks left over. I know I wouldn't be able to toss them so I looked into possible uses. Here are some of my favorites:

Add a photo and some embellishments to create a beautiful keepsake for yourself or to give as a gift:

littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/easy-photo-blocks-tiles

Along the same idea, but without the embellishments, is this cute stacking puzzle. You could make it a much simpler project by just creating the puzzle without the holes and dowels:

jenwoodhouse.com/diy-stacking-block-puzzle

You can also use the blocks to create some home decor. This example uses leftover baseboard and other home building scraps, but the process would be the same with stamp blocks (except you may need to scuff the surface of your stamp block with sandpaper to make the paint adhere better):

thistlewoodfarms.com/trash-to-treasure-diy-wood-block-letters

Or instead of single letters, write entire words on larger stamp blocks:

www.pinterest.ca/pin/160229699232776724

If you are interested in making something that looks a bit fancier, here are some beautifully painted wooden stamp blocks that can either sit on a shelf or be hung on a wall:

The larger blocks lend themselves well to seasonal decor. I found all sorts of Christmas ideas, but thought these fall-themed blocks were particularly nice:


Here is a cute idea for kids. This method could also be used to make cars or trucks:

www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1389697

If you have access to a good saw, you can make something like these assorted houses and boats:

Or how about a large tic-tac-toe game? These are meant to be coasters, but there's no reason they can't just be game pieces!

www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/tic-tac-toe-tray-game-coasters.html

Some other fun ideas:

Building blocks for children
Candle holders
Add letters or numbers to create a learning toy for young kids
Drawer or cabinet pulls
Glue different types of sandpaper to them to make sanding blocks
Use as a base for reusable homemade stamps - wrap with yarn, lace, bubble wrap, etc.

I do not have a photo for this, but I read on one forum that you can glue the hook side of velcro to a block, then use bits of felt as daubers for inks or paint. You can remove the felt to clean it and then use it again.

Did any of you know that unmounting wood block stamps was a thing? Have you gone through the process? If so please let us know how it all worked out for you!