Sand Under My Feet: Crafty Me & More: Definitely a crafter's heaven

Since my blog doesn’t follow a specific topic and I usually blog about everything and anything that I want to write about, I decided to make this entry that tackles about some of the things that I’m passionate about. If you can read my blog title banner/header, you will see there that I included DIY, because I really love doing things or creating something from scratch rather than buying them off the shelves.

I am truly passionate about doing things DIY, which is very evident in my lifestyle. I sew my own clothes if time permits; I also travel DIY too. And ever since I was little I have had an inkling for arts and crafts. I probably owe that to my paternal father side’s genes, my relatives on that side of the family are all artisans in their own way. May of them draws well (especially my youngest uncle, my sister Hazel and my little brother), some loves to create DIY jewelries (some of my aunts), and some have the gift of creating garments from scratch (my grandma, my grand aunt and my sister Hazel). I don’t want to sound boastful but I think it was really innate in me to love doing arts and crafts.

Last April, I styled and coordinated the wedding of our friend with our own take on the shabby-chic theme. Well, every time I look at the photos of our friends’ wedding (unofficial photos), it makes me smile and grateful to the One above who blessed me with the desire of loving to do arts & crafts and to do things DIY. Although this is the third time I’ve styled intimate event, this one I’m proud of because I’ve been involved with it since day 1. Oh btw, you can check out their prenup photoshoot here: Here's Something To Make You All Smile

During the process, we’ve sourced high and low all over Metro Manila and the internet for all the materials that we will be using to create the decors for the wedding. Some, where easy to find and some are not. We had several visits to Divisoria, since almost everything we need is available there; we also went to Dapitan for additional materials; visited crafts stores and warehouses of raw material suppliers.

I had a fixed vision for Myk and Jai’s couples’ table backdrop and for the escort cards holder/guestbook. The ideas for these were inspired by styling we’ve seen over the thousands of wedding photos over the web. But of course we modified it so as not to be tagged as copycats. Sometimes that’s the downside of seeing so much on Pinterest or other wedding blogs that you have so much idea that you lose you and your fiance’s personality in the process. When you like something that you want to have for your wedding or event, try your best to make it your own, that when your guests see it, they will completely agree that , that event is YOU.

Ok, going back… sorry for veering away from the topic. I really wanted that the circles for the garlands [for the couples’ table backdrop] to be in uniform shape, same thing with the heart-shaped papers that the guests will use to replace their escort cards with. So for a couple of months I’ve tried searching for craft punches that comes in certain sizes. I’ve been to almost all National bookstores, department stores and craft stores near our area but still couldn’t find one. I’ve also scoured the internet and found some giga punchers in Amazon, Etsy and Aliexpress but find it too pricey to avail of the express shipping and using the standard shipping might cause the package not to arrive on time.

I saw some from Facebook and Instagram online sellers, yet it’s either there’s no stock or the price is too much. Living Well in SM Aura (sister company of Gourdo’s) carries the Martha Stewart crafting tools but when I dropped by one time, what I was looking for was not available… yet again. And then, I came across this store, CRAFTY ME AND MORE, I think I saw this from a blog post which another blogger mentioned.

CRAFTY ME AND MORE, under the HBCTI Company, is a Philippine distributor at your service to supply you with tools and materials that you need to jump-start your craft projects, fuel your creative minds and make your ideas come to life.

CRAFTY ME AND MORE, know the struggles that you go through in finding craft materials and supplies in the local market, not to mention how expensive it costs since most of the products are available outside the Philippines. Hence, we created this store to bring high-quality brands from the United States available for you. We are a proud partner and an accredited retailer of the following merchants:

- Provo Craft, the innovative maker of Cricut and other great consumer products that bring out your creative best.
- We R Memory Keepers, manufacturer of beautiful, functional, quality-made crafting tools, scrapbooking pads and papers.
- American Crafts, catering to the general crafting market with quality cardstocks, papers and other variety of products to crafters.
- Marvy Uchida, the California based makers of paper punches and other crafting products.
- Hero Arts, a family-run manufacturer of Wood Stamps, Clear Stamps, and other variety of products for stamping projects.
- Stampendous, the leading manufacturer of high quality rubber stamps, clear stamps and other great paper crafting accessories.
- Crafter’s Companion, the award winning company that produces innovative crafting products and the revolutionary Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers.
You can now say goodbye to over-priced shipping fees and importing taxes levied for buying a US product online. These products from your trusted US brands are now available in the Philippines and Crafty Me & More, is proud to be of service to you.

Lo and behold, after weeks of searching for giga punchers when I was about to give up and just settle on drawing circles and hearts and cutting them all piece by piece, Crafty Me and More has the exact jumbo punchers that I need! And the prices for these punchers are reasonable, almost the same price if you'll buy it in the US. They have tons of crafting materials and tools and carry popular brands.

The giga punchers that I bought are Marvy Uchida punchers. I bought one 5/8 inch Diameter/Round and 2 inches Diameter/Heart. These giga/jumbo punchers made creating the best and heart circle cut outs with less effort, not to mention that there are no crooked edges and the cut outs came in uniform sizes. They were super helpful!

I visited their store in Fort Bonifacio instead of buying online (yes you can shop from their store and have them delivered to your house). I did this so that I'm sure that I'll get the exact items that I need and to see how big the punch outputs are. I was so excited when I entered the showroom because there were so many stuff in there that I really wanted to have, especially the super super large punchers use to create tags. The place was surely a crafter's heaven.

Here are the finish products:

In case you need any crafting materials you can check out their website, I'll write the details of Crafty Me and More below. Mind you that this blog post is not a sponsored post, I wrote this to help anyone who, like me a couple months ago, is looking for giga punchers or other crafting materials that are hard-to-find in local bookstores or craft shops in malls.

Hope this entry helps someone out there!