Written by Do you shop for doodlewashing supplies online? If you live in the United States, Ohio-based ConsumerCrafts just added a full line of fine art supplies to their comprehensive line of craft and decor items. Shipping is free after $49, and discount coupons are available through both their e-mail newsletter and popular coupon sites.
ConsumerCrafts Site Navigation
The site has a “choose your own adventure” style navigation with buttons and drop down menus that allow the user to customize how the product is displayed. They also have a search bar at the top center of the site that suggests and returns accurate results.
As of November 2018, ConsumerCrafts is still uploading photos of art products (click here to visit the site), and most of the items I browsed had no ratings or reviews. Paint tubes do not have pigment information or swatches of colors available. I also found a couple of photos loaded onto products that were not the item listed. The shopping experience is best right now if you already know what you want when you enter the site.
Ordering and Shipping
The cart system is straightforward, and my cart held my items even after I closed out the site. My order arrived 4 days after it shipped. Packaging was minimal, but all of my items arrived in good (minor visual damage which did not affect quality or performance of product) or excellent (pristine, as pictured) condition.
Watercolor
Over 40 brands of watercolor are represented including full lines of Daniel Smith, Da Vinci, Holbein, M Graham, QoR, Van Gogh, and Winsor & Newton. The Da Vinci and Holbein lines of gouache are also available. I ordered a 15 ml tube of Da Vinci Cobalt blue, a color that is priced at $26.35 MSRP. ConsumerCrafts offers this color for just $13.44. The paint was shipped inside a small recycled paper box in a 6 x 9 padded mailer via UPS and arrived in good condition.
ConsumerCrafts also carries a wide variety of both watercolor pencil sets and open stock. I ordered three Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils open stock for just $1.49 each, as well as a fragile Prismacolor regular colored pencil in white for $1.09. Both pencils can be difficult to find open stock, and usually retail for over $2.00 each. The Cadmium Yellow Albrecht Durer pencil I ordered was out of stock, but the other two Albrecht Durer pencils arrived loose in a padded mailer envelope via UPS in excellent condition. Sharpening the two pencils further revealed the lead was unbroken. The white Prismacolor colored pencil in the same package arrived in good condition. This pencil also sharpened up reliably indicating the interior lead had remained intact during shipping and handling.
Paintbrushes
I have had dismal results from some retailers when ordering brushes, and was curious to see how ConsumerCrafts would measure up. I chose one of my “holy grail” brushes that is not available on other large art supply websites, the Da Vinci Cosmotop B quill. This brush was shipped in the same padded envelope as my paint, and arrived in good condition. ConsumerCrafts shipped the correct brush in the correct size and it came to a beautiful, sharp point after wetting. I saw considerable savings once again. This brush retails for $49.30 on a leading online art supply seller, but was only $30.00 on ConsumerCrafts. In addition to almost 200 DaVinci brushes, they also carry brushes by Princeton, Winsor & Newton, Robert Simmons, Escoda, Grumbacher, and Royal & Langnickel.
Paper
Consumer Crafts stocks watercolor paper by Strathmore, Derwent, Grumbacher, Canson, Arches, Fabriano, Bee, Holbein, Aquabord, Winsor Newton, and Yupo. The prices are competitive, but the selection on most of the brands is limited.
Pen & Ink
A wide variety of technical pens (Pitt Artist Pens, Sakura PIgma Microns) and pen sets as well as ink and brush markers are also available at ConsumerCrafts for prices that are competitive with brick and mortar stores.
Conclusion
I was given a $50 gift card to experience ConsumerCrafts and introduce the company to the Doodlewash community. I was not paid for my review, nor will I receive any further compensation from ConsumerCrafts, though this post contains affiliate links that help support Doodlewash. Had I purchased the same items on another leading retailer, I would have spent an extra $36.63 for a total of $86.63 and not received the open stock Prismacolor white pencil. I was thrilled to see some harder to find brands and rare items represented on ConsumerCrafts. The site was easy to navigate, even on my mobile phone. Because the shipping minimum can include items from crafts and home decor, it would be easier for me to meet on a regular basis than most of the art supply sites. Overall, I’m pleased to meet this “new kid on the block”, a sibling of the well-loved Michael’s chain. #consumercrafts #consumercraftsart
Do you plan to order online during this holiday season? Are you excited about a new source for watercolor supplies? Talk to me in the comments!
Thank you for the heads up, Bekki! I’ll have to check these guys out!
Prices are hard to beat, and shipping is free after $49!
Right now they have free shipping after $25. All the more reason to buy!
Thanks for the info!
You’re very welcome. Have fun exploring the site!
Thx for. Posting this. Have seen it’s ad in FB and was curious as to reliability and quality of products. Was wondering if these are old product – paints for instance would they be drying out? What is your experience with the products?
I just sent them an email asking who owns them, what other companies they own and IF they are related in any way to Hobby Lobby. (I don’t care to support Hobby Lobby with my business. I’ll be anxious to hear back.)
I share your concerns so also need to research further. I use the Buycott app but this company does not appear (for good or for bad) so I will need to do some deep dive googling.
I had not heard of this company. I will definitely have to research further.
Thanks! Looks like a great source.
At this time Consumer Craft is out of business according to the BBB.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea and it is really amazing. Thank you so much. Looking forward for more such creative stuff.
it was really helpful.