My friend Becca and I made a pilgrimage last Sunday in her car, but if you are in the mood for some cheap craft supplies and stinky “silk” flowers, you can reach this oasis of glue gun art and acrylic yarn by taking the G, V or R train to the Northern Boulevard station, and walking west on Northern Boulevard (past the Staples) until you hit the shopping center with the Pizza Hut. The Michaels is across the parking lot.

I love Michaels because its the only place in the city where I can find nearly all colors of DMC embroidery floss. It’s probably also the only place in the city that has an extensive selection of scrapbooking supplies (not that I’m into scrapbooking or anything) and puffy paint. If you like knitting, however, I wouldn’t make a special trip to Michaels unless you’re really into petro-based yarn. Here’s a list of yarn stores in the city.

Michaels has a pretty decent selection of glass, wood, plastic and semi-precious beads, but their findings are mostly base metal and even their sterling stuff looks kind of chintzy. If you want jewelry making supplies, I’d make a trek to Toho Shoji on 6th Avenue between 36th and 37th Street for plastic, glass and Swarovski beads, tons of base metal findings and the cutest Japanese kits, and Beads Shop (W. 37th and 6th Ave.) or Big Stone (28th and Broadway right above the N/W stop) for strands of semi-precious beads.

One place I would definitely avoid is Beads of Paradise right next to Union Square on E. 17th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue. Trust me. I used to work there as a teacher/jewelry designer/lackey and their prices are ridiculous. You’d spend on literally one stone what you’d pay for an entire strand at Big Stone or Beads Shop (clever name).

Anyway, here are some photos from our trip to Michaels:


One of their four aisles devoted to scrapbooking stuff.

Several sacks of fake flowers: $500. Random geegaws and knick-knacks: $250. One hot glue gun and refills: $30. Hours of back-breaking labor to create this sexy welcoming arch=Really not worth it, IMO.

Becca in front of a wall of stickers.

The ex-fabric shop employee in me desperately wanted to straighten out these racks of floss, but fortunately a silently-farting child distracted me before I sacrificed hours of my life.

Michaels also had some giant champagne glasses for Valentine’s Day.

This is a portable organizer for scrapbooking supplies.

I love how the Pizza Hut clearly used to be some sort of train depot or lobotomy factory or something else that would necessitate a “waiting room.”