But now you’re a little older, and you’re trying to get the love and affection of more than just your mum. Well we’ve got the secret: the same hand made effect still works!

If you want to woo that special someone this valentine’s Day, we’ve got all the red and pink card, love heart cutters, glitter and PVA Glue you’ll need to make them go “awww”.  They might even stick it on their fridge door.

For those who doubt they’ve still got the artistic talent they used to impress Mum and Dad with when they were 7, we’ve also got the wrapping for that “saw this and thought of you” present.  We may even have the present too!  What says “I love you” better than this ”I Love You” silver sweetie?  (Hand made cards, obviously, but it’s a close second).

As ever, the artstore team are all soppy romatics at heart, and always happy to help you make your loved ones happy this Valentine’s.  All you need to do is ask.

But hurry, the artstore shop at the Artschool will be closed in line with Glasgow School of Art term: 12th December 2009 to 5th January 2010.

But don’t worry if you’re working straight through: artstore on Queen St will be opening late right up till Christmas!  Check out the opening times below.

Between working, keeping the kids from going hyper about some guy in a red suit, nativity plays and all the Christmas parties, we know squeezing in the gift shopping isn’t easy.  That’s why artstore are doing late night every night.. and early on a Sunday!

From the 1st December to 23rd December our Queen Street store hours will be

Monday – Saturday 0900-1900

Sunday 1000-1800

We’ve got great gift ideas for everyone; Galt and Great Gizmo box kits for the kids, retro and classic novelty stocking fillers for the older ones, and of course a great selection of Winsor Newton, Derwent and Daler Rowney Art sets too.  We’ve even got a great selection of Christmas cards and wrapping papers.

Come in and get the shopping over and done with.  Then you can step outside and see the lights of Royal Exchange Square and George Square just the way they were intended: relaxed, with the presents in one hand and mulled wine in the other.

Don’t worry, no reindeer or Santa’s were hurt in the crash, but our boss’ bank balance might be.  We’ve got fantastic prices on children’s box kits from Galt and Great Gizmos, Christmas classics like rubber band planes and matchstick models.  Of course there are Reeves art sets to suit all abilities and Daler Rowney and Winsor Newton sets for the enthusiast.

We’ve even dedicated a whole corner just to stocking filler’s.  So come on in and fill your socks right up.  Check out the sales promotions page for more great gift ideas.

But while we love giving great student bargains all year round, all the team are getting excited about one of our favourite times of year: Halloween.

We love any excuse to dress up, and we always have great fun hearing what you guys are dressing up as too. Last year’s most popular costumes were Smurfs and Heath Ledger’s Joker. Let us know what you plan to dress
up as this year and we’ll do what we can to help.

Whether you’re looking for facepaints, masks, fake blood, fabric dyes or novelty toys for trick or treaters (young and old!), we’ve got the lot.  Don’t throw your costume together too late: come in and visit us now!

Artstore is all about being creative, and we love that our neighbourhood is one of Glasgow’s best creative hubs. So whether you fancy being creative, or just want to watch others for some inspiration, the Merchant city is the place to be this weekend. Come on down and join in the party!

www.merchantcityfestival.com

We thought that whilst we’ve been jabbering on about some, quite frankly, very interesting subjects over the past few weeks, we would give you a little insight into the magic that’s happening behind the scenes on the Artstore website.

We’ve been cutting through describing products like a hot knife through butter, and although it’s probably the most tedious part of the project we’ve now gained a superhuman knowledge of art materials simply by forcing ourselves to learn about EVERYTHING!

As well as describing everything, we’ve been systematically photographing, weighing and measuring every product that’s made the cut for the website.  This is actually one of the more fun bits of the whole process, and allows us to be a little bit creative with some funky product photos, as long as we don’t get carried away weighing biscuits or the radio.  As I said, we  have gained a superhuman knowledge of art materials throughout this project, but we have also gained a superhuman knowledge of how much things weigh, and we can tell you straight off a 5p weighs 2g, a Hob Nob weighs 15g and our cellotape weighs 43g.

Apart from sorting the product side of things we’re getting ready to start some groovy promotion and are currently throwing ideas around for some art and video projects so we can get this ball well and truly rolling.  We’ve also got a nice bunch of guys working on the development side who are gonna help us make this website a little more than a glorified shopping basket.

Watch this space.

Come on in and win a prize: from fortune Telling fish to £50 gift vouchers, there’s hundreds of prizes to be won.

Check out the map on how to find the Artschool shop here.

The store has been given a good tidy, and we’ve stocked up again with all your basics for the term ahead. From the ever popular acrylic paints from Winsor & Newton Galeria and Daler Rowney System 3 to Pro Arte brushes Seawhite Sketchbooks, we reckon it’s all there. But if it’s not, please let the team know, and we’ll do our best to get it in.

We hope all you freshers will pop in and say hello, as we like to meet new people. So much so, if you pop in with your matriculation card we’ll give you a discount card, letting you save money every time you visit.

And of course, our Back to College sale is on at the school shop too! Making it even cheaper, whether you’re a student or not.

Artstore at the Artschool

Winsor & Newton Sketchbooks

We’ve just got a new delivery of some bodacious sketchbooks from Winsor & Newton which we’ve just put straight into the sale!

They come in both a case-bound and a ring-bound style in a full range of sizes from A5 to A3.  Each sketchbook contains 48 sheets of 170gsm paper, perfect for all manner of media including pencil, pen & ink, charcoal & pastels and light watercolour & acrylic use.  Each page is perforated so you can be safe in the knowledge that even if your masterpiece turns into a disaster before your very own eyes, you can quickly whip out the page and start again!

We’ve got plenty in but they’re going fast, especially since all the staff keep snapping them up.  But if you’re going back to college or just looking for a great quality sketchbook, then look no further!