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Once upon a time, buying craft supplies online in India was an impossibility. There were no websites, other than ebay (that too only its U.S. branch) where one could buy the essentials for one’s crafty needs. I hated that – especially after looking online at how easy it was for people based in U.S./Europe to buy craft stuff from the comfort of their home. Oh, how I envied them! Luckily for us, now there are numerous craft supplies websites and one can find almost anything online.

This post, and the next few posts are going to be my personal reviews of these websites. Please note that these posts are in no way sponsored. Neither are they endorsements of the said websites. Its my review of the websites to see how good they actually are in terms of range of supplies, availability of said materials, and ease of navigation etc.

The first shopping portal that I am going to review is Craft Gully. It looks neat and is easy to navigate. The search bar works well and there are no dead-ends or empty categories. Also, one can easily zoom in at the pictures and get an idea at how the products look – a necessity, really, but not available on every website.

Other than the various products available, Craft Gully also has ebooks, templates and catalogues for download. All for free!

Other than craft supplies, there’s a whole section dedicated to paints – acrylic, glass & fabric. They also keep kits for paper quilling, art kits and stitching kits. Oh, and you can also buy books (though currently there are just four books available – insert sad face – I hope they add more).

Ok, so here’s the real stuff. Sit back comfortably because this is informative AND really long.

Craft Gully Products

Image credit: Craft Gully

Craft Gully has the following product categories (and we will look at them one by one): Quilling Supplies, Accessories, Paper, materials for glass painting, jewellery making, punch craft, clay modelling, crochet & needlework, scrapbooking, embellishments, flower making, and tapes and adhesives.

Glass painting has very few supplies, limited to glass colors by Fevicryl and four glass stencils. A pity really, because this is a craft I would like to see more range in. We really need more than those basic colors. I’m tired of painting all glass surfaces same old red, green, yellow and blue.

Jewellery Making has a huge variety! I was mesmerized by pages and pages of beautiful stuff! They have got beads of different shapes, sizes, materials and colors; bead caps, beading needles, various charms, connectors, tweezers, wire, earring clasps and studs, eye pins, various clasps, jump rings, blank pendants, wire cutters, pliers etc. Phew! I think this basically covered everything one needs to start making their own jewellery, no? Seriously thinking of trying my hand at this.

P.S.: They have categorised some flatbacked pearls and kundan stones in the Scrapbooking category (why?!) and not here. So if that’s what you need, go see in the other category.

Punch craft has a lot of embossing tools, paper tags, envelopes, googly eyes (?) and just ONE paper punch. No, really. Just. One. Paper. Punch. Which is sad because it would be nice to get a good selection of paper punches. Especially since the category *is* Punch Craft. This was a disappointment.

Clay modelling has very few products and three out of those five are currently out of stock. So the only things available are air drying clay and a shaper tool. Again, a sad state of things.

Under the Crochet & Needlework category I found some embroidery threads – all by Anchor, bells, buttons, sewing kits, crochet needles, pom poms (yes!), a tiny sewing machine and stitch kits (again by Anchor). The range of stitch kits is actually good – they have 2 and a half pages dedicated just to this and the cost ranges from Rs. 205 to Rs. 415. But a lot of these are Out of Stock, too. I wish they had some cross stitch stuff too, other than the readymade kits.

Scrapbooking has, obviously, a nice range of craft papers, die-cut shapes, fabric tapes (which I adored), flatback pearls, kundan stones in various colors (they should have also been in jewellery, by the way), magnets, stickers, tiny paper flowers and leaves (which seem slightly expensive but I love the range provided – so many colors & variety!), paper wreaths (wow! how adorable are these!), pearl stick-ons, photo corners and various rhinestones (again expensive – a pack of 5 for Rs. 27?!).

On a side note, even though the site has categorised everything nicely, I wish they had bunched together all the related stuff under sub-categories. Like various kinds of paper & beads separately as that would make browsing under a category so much easier. Then one doesn’t have to go through pages & pages of beads when one simply needs to see various types of craft paper.

Also, a lot of this stuff is also available under the Embellishment category (so I will be repeating myself), which kind of makes sense.

Under Embellishments, we have tiny acrylic/synthetic flowers, ball chain in various colors and length, charms, crochet tapes (OH MY GOD! Want those NOW!), decorative wire, fabric tapes (same as those in Scrapbooking), die-cut shapes, glitter, jewelled embellishments, kundan stones, stickers, tiny paper flowers and leaves (good range), paper wreaths, pearl stick-ons, photo corners and various rhinestones.

In Flower Making, we have artificial flowers, craft scissors, decorative wire, Duplex paper in different colors, foil coated wires in a range of colors, satin leaves (most of them were currently out of stock), tube moulds, paper flowers, paper wreaths and paper leaves, pollen strands in various lovely colors, pre taped wire in a few basic colors, stocking cloth in a variety of colors – even shaded and flower making tape again in a range of colors. Pretty good!

Accessories has a lot of stuff spilled over from other categories. We have 3D outlines, ball chains, buttons, various tools, papers, hot glue gun, key chain rings, magnetic sheets, foam pads & sheets, curly ribbon, cutting mat, cutters, magnetic tape, metal earring hooks, mobile phone danglers, paper flowers, pipe cleaners, pom poms, resin flowers, rhinestones, scissors, glue pen, stick-on tape, and envelopes.

Papers is self-explanatory. It has 65 items, a lot of which are out of stock. Still, a good range.

Tapes & Adhesives has Crochet tapes, fabric tape, stick-on tape, flower making tape, crystal coat glaze, glue drops, fabric glue, foam pads, glue gun stick and hot glue gun.

Quilling has a huge variety of supplies. I have never pursued this craft, so I am really not an authority on how good the range is, but it does seem exhaustive.

All done! Overall, a great site. Payment options are online only, so no C.O.D. I find paying online better though I know a lot of people prefer Cash on Delivery. And best of all, they offer a 30 days replacement guarantee for all products.

I hope this post is helpful to my fellow crafters. Did you find this post useful? Would you like to see more such posts (or should I just stick to DIY posts)? Do let me know in the comments below.