Pssst. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. We love shopping for art supplies ALMOST as much as we love the making of the art. Seriously. We love touching, feeling, testing colors, dreaming up new things to make solely based on our love affair with the supplies. A well-stocked supply cabinet means we’re never without tools to create and helps inspire us endlessly.
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Color Aid Paper, varies by size. 2. Micron pens, $10.94 for 6. 3. Neenah Paper, $9.49. 4. Princeton Select Brush Set, $13.49. 5. Blackwing Pearl Pencil, $24.95 for 12. 6. Astrobrights Colored Paper, $12.64 7. Sketchbook, $12.18.
8. Swingline Paper Cutter, $22.43.
Let’s start with our never-without staples.
Paper. We stock a variety of paper in our cabinets. We love this paper for everything from painting and daily journals, to kids projects and card making. It's durable enough for most mediums, and inexpensive enough to not be precious. We use our trusty paper cutter to cut smaller sheets for daily journals, cards or anything else we’re working with. For colored paper, we're partial to old school color-aid for it's beautiful quality. We use it sparingly in collages and projects. For everyday use, we love this Astrobrights set for their versatile vibrancy. We also love creating on the go, and tend to take a sketchbook like this nearly everywhere go. We jot down ideas, paste business cards or interesting paper textures and draw quick sketches to revisit later.
Tools. We like to be well-stocked in the pen + pencil category. We own many, many versions of both - but hands-down our favorite pencils for sketching are these Blackwing beauties. Our go-to pen is this simple Micron. We love both of these for their quality + simplicity. These brushes are an excellent value + great starter set - covering all the sizes you’ll need to get painting.
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Washi Tape, $3.50 each. 2. Stabilo Boss Highlighters, $8.99.
3. Sharpie Electro Pop, $14.99. 4. Case for Making Neon Watercolors, $98.
5. Sharpie Electro Pop, $14.99. 6. Custom Date Stamper, $16.78. 7. Faber-Castell Colored Pencils, $8.99. 8. Stickers, varies by size. 9. Ban.do Stick With It Paper Tape, $12. 10. Feather Rubber Stamp, $3.50. 11. Kuretake Watercolor Set, $29.77.
12. CFM Indigo Ink, $18.
A big part of our daily practice is FUN. We keep a variety of mediums + tools on hand to keep our daily journal + art making practice evolving + interesting. We’re in it for the process, to enjoy every moment and just make things that we like.
Markers + Highlighters. We have more markers, pens and pencils than we would ever care to admit. Which means, we're overly qualified to recommend a few of our favorites. Sharpies, we own nearly every size - but especially love this set for hand lettering + rock painting. Stabilo boss highlighters are the bomb for layering subtle color over or under paint.
Paints. We love everything about this versatile, beautifully pigmented Japanese watercolor set. It's a large starter set, something you won't find too precious to use. For a more splurgy set, we're kind of obsessed with everything Alexis at Case for Making puts in her shop. Especially these starter sets and this indigo ink. For acrylic, we love love love Golden acrylics. This is a great starter set, but we prefer to shop these in person and grab the colors that make us smile likethis, this and this.
Stickers, stamps + tape. Fun stickers, stamps + tape are great to have on hand for when you're in need of a SUPER quick creative fix and can be added over or under any medium to add texture + layer. We love the selection of tape + stickers at Ban.do, Cute Tape and Chroma label. And for stamps, Etsy shop Nora Jane.has SO many good options.
What are you favorite tools for making? Share in the comments below, and get to making!
