Where to Buy Sublimation Paper: Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Walmart and More
There are two versions of this question and they have different answers. One is “I have a project on the press and I ran out of paper an hour ago.” The other is “I am about to buy paper for the next six months and I do not want to overpay.”
Craft stores solve the first problem well. They are a poor answer to the second. Knowing which trip you are on saves you both money and a wasted drive.
There is also a third thing worth knowing before you go anywhere, and it costs people more than price ever does. Sublimation paper sits on a shelf surrounded by four other products that look almost identical on the packaging and behave nothing like it.
Quick answer: Hobby Lobby and Michaels both carry their own house-brand sublimation paper. Office Depot and Staples stock Brother’s sublimation paper. Walmart’s selection is mostly third-party marketplace sellers rather than shelf stock.
Amazon and dedicated sublimation suppliers have the widest brand range and the lowest cost per sheet, but nothing arrives today. Joann is no longer an option, since all US stores closed in 2025.
Where to Buy Sublimation Paper at a Glance
| Retailer | What they carry | Availability | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby Lobby | House-brand paper, letter and legal | In store and online | Same-day pickup, small packs |
| Michaels | Make Market house brand, letter size | In store and online | Same-day pickup, coupon buyers |
| Office Depot | Brother sublimation paper | Store pickup and shipping | Brother printer owners |
| Staples | Brother sublimation paper | Mostly shipped | Brother printer owners |
| Walmart | A-SUB, Hiipoo, TruePix and others | Mostly marketplace sellers | Brand names at lower cost, if you can wait |
| Amazon and sublimation suppliers | Full brand range, all sizes | Shipped | Bulk buying, larger sheet sizes |
Note: An online listing does not guarantee shelf stock. Craft store sublimation inventory varies significantly between locations, and the smaller stores often carry blanks without carrying paper. Check stock on the retailer’s site for your specific store, or call, before making the drive.
Free Shelf Check Card
Print this or save it to your phone. It’s the label test, the four wrong products, and the retailer quick reference from this article, condensed onto one page so you can check it standing in the aisle instead of pulling up the full post.
Hobby Lobby
What They Actually Stock
Hobby Lobby carries its own sublimation paper in a standard 8.5 x 11 pack and, usefully, a separate legal size version. The legal size is worth knowing about because very few walk-in retailers stock anything other than letter.
Their sublimation section sits under mixed media blank surfaces rather than with the printer paper, which is where most people go looking first. You will find it alongside sublimation blanks, tumblers, mugs, and in some stores heat presses.
They also sell a heat protective paper rated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and marked single use. That is a genuinely useful product, and it is not what you print on.
What Not to Grab by Mistake
This is where Hobby Lobby catches people out, because the sublimation section and the heat transfer vinyl section are close together and the packaging language overlaps heavily.
Their house-brand flock HTV will not hold sublimation ink. Neither will most standard heat transfer vinyl. HTV is a material you cut and press onto a garment. Sublimation paper is something you print on and then discard. They serve completely different purposes and neither substitutes for the other.
The protective paper is the other easy mix-up. It goes between your press and your project to catch stray ink, and it never carries your design. Our guide to sublimation protective paper covers when you actually need it.
Michaels
The Make Market House Brand
Michaels sells sublimation paper under its Make Market label in a 100-sheet letter-size pack. It is positioned as a general-purpose transfer paper and works with standard sublimation ink on polyester and coated blanks.
Michaels also runs frequent coupons, which changes the value calculation. House-brand craft store paper is rarely the cheapest per sheet at list price, but a good coupon can close a lot of that gap on a single pack.
Online Listings Versus Shelf Stock
Michaels lists sublimation supplies online and offers pickup, but their sublimation range is broader on the site than in most stores. If you are driving specifically for paper, verify it at your location first rather than assuming the online catalogue reflects the shelf.
Walmart
Marketplace Sellers Versus Stocked Inventory
Walmart is the retailer where “do they sell it” and “can I go get it” have the least in common. Search their site for sublimation paper and you get A-SUB, Hiipoo, TruePix, HTVRONT and others, in sizes from letter up to 13 x 19.
Most of those are third-party marketplace listings. The brands are real and often the same ones people recommend, but the fulfilment is not Walmart’s, and almost none of it sits in a physical store.
How to Tell Which You Are Buying
Two checks on the product page settle it. Look for who the item ships and sells from, and look for whether a store pickup option appears at all. If pickup is unavailable and the seller is a company you have not heard of, you are buying from a marketplace vendor with their own shipping times and return policy.
None of that makes it a bad purchase. It does mean the item will not save you on a day when you need paper immediately, which is usually the whole reason someone considers Walmart in the first place.
Office Depot and Staples
Both office supply chains carry Brother’s sublimation paper in a 100-sheet letter-size pack. Office Depot lists it with store pickup at many locations, which makes it a genuine same-day option in places without a nearby craft store.
Worth knowing: this is Brother’s own branded paper, sold primarily for owners of Brother sublimation printers. It works with other sublimation printers, but it is not a general craft-market product and the range stops at one size.
The Iron-On Transfer Trap
Office supply stores stock far more inkjet iron-on transfer paper than sublimation paper, and the two sit in the same aisle. Avery and similar brands dominate that shelf space.
Iron-on transfer paper is a completely different product. It works with regular pigment or dye ink, it leaves a plastic film sitting on top of the fabric, and it works on cotton.
Sublimation paper carries dye that turns to gas and bonds into polyester, leaving nothing on the surface.
Watch out: Packaging on both products uses the phrase “heat transfer paper,” and both show a t-shirt on the front. The word that matters is “sublimation.” If the pack does not say it, and if it mentions ironing or light and dark fabric versions, it is not sublimation paper.
Our comparison of sublimation paper versus heat transfer paper explains exactly how they differ.
Amazon and Dedicated Sublimation Suppliers
This is where the real range lives. Every major brand, every sheet size from letter through 13 x 19, every weight, and bulk quantities that craft stores do not touch.
It is also consistently the lowest cost per sheet, and the gap widens with pack size. A large pack from an online supplier is usually a fraction of the per-sheet cost of a small craft store pack.
Two things you give up. Nothing arrives today, and the sheer number of near-identical listings makes brand selection harder rather than easier.
Our sublimation paper buying guide and the paper comparison guide both narrow that field down.
If you are buying at case volume rather than pack volume, supplier reliability starts to matter more than brand. Our walkthrough on vetting a sublimation transfer paper supplier covers what to check before committing to a large order.
What Happened to Joann
Joann closed every US store by the end of May 2025, following its second bankruptcy filing and the sale of its assets to a liquidator. The chain is gone entirely, stores and website both.
It comes up here because a lot of older sublimation guides still list Joann as a walk-in option, and people still search for it. If you find a resource recommending them, that resource has not been updated in over a year, which is worth knowing about the rest of its advice too.
The Real Risk of Buying In Store
Price is the thing people compare between retailers. Buying the wrong product is the thing that actually costs them.
Four products sit near sublimation paper on craft and office store shelves, and all four get taken home by mistake:
- Inkjet iron-on transfer paper. Works with regular ink, sits on top of the fabric, made for cotton. Will not work with sublimation ink.
- Heat transfer vinyl, including flock. A cut-and-press material, not a printable one. Sublimation ink does not bond to most of it.
- Infusible ink sheets. Cricut’s pre-printed sublimation-style transfers. Genuinely similar chemistry, but they are finished designs rather than blank paper, and you cannot print on them. Our comparison of infusible ink versus sublimation covers where each one fits.
- Heat protective paper, butcher paper, and parchment. Barrier sheets for the press. Nothing prints on these.
Tip: Do one check at the shelf before you pay. The pack must say “sublimation” and it must say it works with sublimation ink. If the packaging talks about ironing, about light and dark fabric versions, or about cotton, put it back. Those three signals only appear on iron-on transfer paper.
Which Option Fits Your Situation
Four common cases, four different answers.
You need paper today. Hobby Lobby or Michaels first, Office Depot second. Call ahead. Accept that you are paying a premium for the convenience, because you are.
You are testing before committing. Buy the smallest pack you can find, from wherever is nearest. A craft store pack is ideal here precisely because it is small. Paper behaves differently with different inks and presses, and a sample-sized purchase tells you more than a review does.
You print regularly in small batches. Online suppliers, mid-size packs, one brand you have tested and stick with. Consistency matters more than chasing the lowest price, since every paper change means re-testing your press settings.
You are buying at volume. Dedicated suppliers rather than general marketplaces, and vet before you commit. A bad case order costs you the paper, the ink you printed on it, and the blanks you pressed it onto.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you use sublimation transfer paper with any printer?
No. Sublimation paper only works with sublimation ink, and most printers cannot use it. You need either a purpose-built sublimation printer or a compatible inkjet converted to run sublimation ink. Putting sublimation paper through a printer with regular ink produces a print that will not transfer.
Does Hobby Lobby sell sublimation paper?
Yes, under their own label in both letter and legal sizes, stocked with the sublimation blanks rather than with printer paper. Availability varies by location, so check your specific store before driving over.
Is craft store sublimation paper worse than online brands?
Not inherently. House-brand paper is usually manufactured by the same kinds of suppliers that produce the recognised brands. What you give up is consistency and choice, since you cannot pick a weight and there is no guarantee the formulation stays the same between production runs.
Can I use regular printer paper instead?
No. Regular paper absorbs ink into the fibres rather than holding it on a coated surface, so very little transfers during pressing. The result is a faded, patchy print. It also scorches more readily at sublimation temperatures.
Do sublimation sprays let me print on cotton?
Sprays apply a polymer coating that gives the dye something to bond with, so they do something rather than nothing. Results are inconsistent, coverage is hard to keep even, and the hand feel changes. For cotton and dark garments, a DTF-based approach is more reliable than spraying.
Where can I buy larger sizes like 11×17 or 13×19?
Online, in practice. Hobby Lobby’s legal size is the largest most walk-in retailers carry. For tabloid and super B sheets you are looking at Amazon or a dedicated sublimation supplier, and you will need a printer that can feed them.
Picking the Right Trip
Decide which problem you are solving before you decide where to shop. If the press is hot and you are out of paper, a craft store pack is worth the premium. If you are stocking up, that same pack is one of the more expensive ways to buy paper there is.
Whichever you choose, do the label check at the shelf. Sublimation paper sits surrounded by products that look like it and do not behave like it, and that single ten-second habit prevents the most common wasted purchase in this hobby.
Still working out what you need before you buy anything at all? Our beginner setup guide covers the full list, and the guide to what kind of printer sublimation needs explains why the paper only matters once the printer is sorted.
