The Cleared TableThe Cleared TableWe clear the table. They make the mess.
A craft table that is ready before they are

Creatology Craft Supplies, Sorted Into Nine Shelves You Can Actually Find

Creatology is the house craft line from Michaels: foam, felt, pipe cleaners, pony beads, poster board, washable markers and the boxed kits that hold a wet afternoon together. We have taken the whole range, sorted it the way a cupboard is actually used, and written down what is in each box so you are not guessing from a photo.

Browse the nine shelves

A child coloring a large Creatology wall poster

Nine shelves, not one long list

Supplies are grouped by what they do on the table, so the fuzzy drawer and the paint tray never end up in the same scroll.

Counts written out in full

Twelve packs of one hundred is twelve hundred pieces. We say so on the card instead of leaving it in the product name.

Colorways kept together

When one listing sells in six colors we show them on one card with a picker, rather than six near identical entries.

The Nine Shelves

Sorted by what the material does on the table, not by how a warehouse files it.

Pipe Cleaners & Pom Poms

Bendy stems, pom poms, craft fluff and wiggle eyes — the soft handful that turns a flat sheet of paper into a creature with a personality.

16 items

Foam Sheets & Shapes

Sheets, shapes, adhesive backs and glitter finishes. Foam cuts with blunt scissors, never frays and forgives a wobbly line.

21 items

Felt & Weaving

Felt sheets by the ream, glitter felt, pre-cut leaves, looper bags and the loom that turns them into a potholder.

8 items

Paper, Board & Canvas

Poster board, artboard, tissue squares, corrugated plastic and canvas panels — every flat surface a project can start on.

6 items

Paint, Markers & Glue

Washable markers, dot markers, brushes in four shapes, finger paint trays and glitter glue by the dozen.

11 items

Beads, Gems & Trims

Pony beads, acrylic gems, sequins, charms, chain links, stretch cord and key rings — the jewelry end of the table.

19 items

Wood Pieces

Craft sticks, dowels, clothespins, peg people, slats and picks. Plain wood, ready for paint or glue.

10 items

Activity Kits

Everything-in-the-box projects: ceramic banks, melty beads, canvas painting, sticker books, art totes and color-in puzzles.

24 items

Cases & Caddies

Craft cases and six-cup caddies. The part that decides whether tomorrow starts with crafting or with tidying.

3 items

Picked Off the Table This Week

One in-stock pick from each shelf, chosen on buyer rating rather than on margin.

What We Keep on the Table

The Cleared Table started as an actual table — a dining table that stopped being a dining table around the time the second child learned to hold scissors. Everything we list here has been through that table at some point, which is a less scientific test than a lab would run and a more honest one than a product page.

What we found is that the useful question is almost never which brand. It is whether the thing in the cupboard matches the thing the child has in mind, and whether there is enough of it. So that is what the cards answer: what the material does, how much arrives, and what size the sheets are.

Creatology craft supplies arranged in a flat lay
Creatology craft boxes stacked on a storage shelf

Supplies That Survive a Classroom

Classroom counts look absurd until you have handed a pack of twenty pipe cleaners to eight children. The bulk packs on this site are not a trick to make you spend more; they are the unit that matches how the material is used. A hundred stems is one afternoon with a group. A thousand tissue squares is one mosaic wall.

The same logic applies to the things that get destroyed rather than used up. Brushes, glue sticks and markers come in classroom counts because at least one of them will be left with the lid off. Buying the case once beats replacing singles for a term.

Kits for the Days With No Plan

Some days you want a cupboard of raw material and a free afternoon. Other days it is raining, everyone is cross, and what you need is a box that already knows what it wants to be. The kit shelf exists for the second kind of day.

A kit arrives with its own surface, its own color and its own instructions, so the distance between deciding to make something and actually starting is about thirty seconds. That gap is where most craft afternoons die, and a boxed project closes it.

A slime tray activity from a Creatology kit

Why These Shelves

Everything Is in the Box

Kits ship complete — the surface, the color, the glue and the steps. You are not making a second trip for the one thing the instructions assumed you had.

A Width of Choice for Every Age

The same shelf holds jumbo brushes shaped for a fist and natural bristle brushes for a child who has outgrown them. Ages are on the card where the maker states them.

Priced for the Whole Table

Bulk counts are the normal unit here, not an upsell. Supplies that get shared between several children are cheaper to buy once than to top up four times.

Creatology, in Plain Terms

Creatology is the own brand of craft supplies sold by Michaels, the American craft retailer. It covers the everyday end of the craft cupboard rather than the specialist end: foam and felt sheets, pipe cleaners, pom poms, pony beads, poster board, washable markers, craft sticks, glitter glue, and boxed activity kits aimed at children roughly between three and twelve.

Because it is a house brand, the range is built around price and volume. That shows in the pack sizes — classroom counts are ordinary here — and in the materials, which are chosen to be forgiving rather than archival. For a school display, a party craft or a wet Sunday, forgiving is the right trade.

Choosing Supplies by Age

For the youngest crafters, the fuzzy and foam shelves do most of the work. Nothing there has an edge, nothing needs drying time, and a crooked cut in foam still looks deliberate once it is glued down. Dot markers belong in the same bracket: they put color on paper without requiring any control of a tip.

From about six, beads and weaving start to hold attention because they produce something that can be worn or used. From about eight, the wood shelf and the larger canvas and artboard formats come into their own, since a child of that age wants the result to look like the thing they pictured. Where the maker states an age on the box, we repeat it on the card.

Keeping the Table Tidy

The least glamorous shelf on this site is the one that decides whether the rest gets used. A caddy that keeps brushes, scissors and glue upright and visible means crafting starts with sitting down. A drawer of loose supplies means it starts with twenty minutes of searching, which is usually twenty minutes longer than the enthusiasm lasts.

Latching cases with compartments do the same job for the small parts. Beads, sequins and charms are only fun while they are sorted; the moment they mix into one bag they become a chore. One case per category, labelled, is the whole system.

Common Questions

Is Creatology a Michaels brand?

Yes. Creatology is the own label that Michaels puts on its children's craft range, in the same way a supermarket puts its name on its own groceries. The products are made for Michaels rather than by a separate independent company.

What does the name Creatology mean?

It is a coined word — create plus the -ology ending used for fields of study. There is no literal translation to find; it reads as the study of making things, which is roughly the intention.

Are Creatology supplies non-toxic?

The children's lines are formulated to meet the usual safety standards for art materials, and the boxes state it where it applies. We repeat whatever the maker puts on the packaging in the details on each card, and we do not add claims the box does not make. Small parts mean small parts, whatever the formulation, so the stated age on the box is the one to follow.

What comes in a Creatology activity kit?

It varies by kit, but the principle is that the box is complete. A ceramic bank kit arrives with the bank, the paint and a brush. A canvas painting kit arrives with the canvas, the colors and a printed outline. The contents list on each card is taken from the maker's own description.

Can these supplies be used in a classroom?

That is largely what the bulk counts are for. Twelve-pack cases and thousand-piece counts are designed for a group rather than one child, and the washable markers and paints are chosen to come off hands and most clothing. Teachers tend to buy the caddies at the same time.

Can I buy individual pieces rather than packs?

Mostly no. This is a volume range, so the smallest unit is usually a pack of a dozen or more. Where a listing is sold as a single item — a loom, a case, one large canvas — the card says so in the count.

Where can I buy Creatology supplies?

They are a Michaels own brand, so the craft chain itself is the primary route, and a good deal of the range is also listed by the maker and by other sellers on the large online marketplaces. Each card here links straight through to the listing we checked the price on.

How current are the prices on this site?

We refresh them against the live listing data rather than typing them in by hand, and the date of the last check is printed in the footer. Prices still move between checks, so the listing itself is always the final word.

Before You Start

Two things are worth deciding before the first order. The first is how many children will be at the table, because that answers pack size better than any product description can. The second is where the supplies will live when the table has to be a table again — a caddy and two cases bought with the first order will still be in use when the third pack of pipe cleaners has gone.

After that it is only a question of surface and color, and the shelves above are sorted exactly that way. Pick the flat thing first, then the thing that goes on it.