Hobbycrafts, Birmingham 2012- disappointing...

Went to the NEC over the weekend for the Hobbycrafts show, which is always a highlight of my year but, I must admit that, this year, I was a bit disappointed with what I saw.

As anyone who has visited the show will know, the stands are set out in rows with an aisle down the centre and each stand has a letter and number code. When I have been to previous shows, there have been enough stands to have them coded up to the letter 'j', yesterday the letters only went up to 'g' and that was only from about G1 to G3. Considering there are an average of 48 stands in each aisle, there were around 150 less stands than at previous shows. We had managed to walk round every stand writing down what we wanted to look at again by around 11.30am, when it would usually be closer to 1pm. It was, however, also very obvious that less people were visiting too- lots of stands had plenty of stock left towards the end of the day and there wasn't the usual squash to actually look at some stands (although the amount of people with motorized scooters or pushchairs(!) did still manage to make looking at some things difficult).

Lot's of big name brands were not there such as create & craft and polka doodles. It is obviously an expensive time for the retailer as I'm sure a stand is not cheap and the internet makes it possible for people to get the products without leaving home, but I hope this is not a sign of things to come as I much prefer being able to see a product in the flesh before I buy it.

That said, there were a small number of exciting new products to be had which I will post about in more detail later- nowhere near as many as in other years though- I actually came home with some money left for once!

Harry Potter 'Hedwig' card

Here is one of the cards that I made, what is now, weeks ago! Finally used the Harry Potter themed acrylic stamps bought from the NEC last November (just in time before the next visit!)

It is quite a simple card, started with a craftwork cards A5 scalloped white card blank. I used my favourite 'stormy sky' distress ink to colour the background, carefully trying to blend the ink to make sure there wasn't any lines. I then used my 'chipped sapphire' distress ink, alongside the 'indigo blu' stamps to create the design at the bottom of the card using the 'friend' message & the 'arch window' stamp. I also added the dark blue organza ribbon for the bow down the spine of the card.

The main topper needed a bit more work, but was definitely worth it (I think so anyway...)

I wanted to stamp the main owl image onto acetate so that I could use gilding flakes behind it but my black stazon ink pad was short of ink. To solve this problem, I used my versamark ink and then embossed it with a black embossing powder from 'Heat It Up!' that I've had for years. I then used a double sided adhesive sheet to prepare the acetate for the gilding flakes. I then cut the image out, leaving a small border, and attached it to my card using foam pads.

All in all, I think it's a beautiful card, that was fairly simple to create with a beautiful set of stamps!

new cards???

Seems like an eternity since I blogged anything new but hopefully that will change soon. Week off work so i've had time to make a couple of cards but seemed to spend most of the week at the garage! Will post the new stuff soon- they are fabulous and definitely worth the wait (even if I do say so myself!).

Create & Craft...update 2

I clearly never should have praised create & craft for that credit note as I now stand by my first moaning post even more and can add a bit of extra moaning to go with it!

Lovely Kanban time machine stamps have not yet arrived and after contacting customer services, I have been told that they are not going to because STOCK LEVEL ISSUES- which in English means...

THEY SOLD ME A PRODUCT THAT THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE!!!

and took 4 days to even think about giving me the refund. Pissed off would be a gross understatement.

My, strongly worded, letter of complaint will be on its way to them tomorrow and I have lodged a complaint with 'Consumer Direct' too. Never known service like it.

The Range, Kings Lynn

Visited The Range in Kings Lynn today, specifically to buy the lovely new Papermania Portobello Road stamps (with creativity magazine voucher of course). Particularly want to use the double decker bus stamp to create a Harry Potter Knightbus card (even though it's not a triple decker, it will be purple!)

Realised, that I'd not blogged about this shop in particular (slipping...sorry!). The craft section isn't quite as impressive as other The Range stores i've been to in Nottingham & Lincoln but they do stock a good Papermania/docrafts selection as well as some dcwv & dovecraft papers. Prices are pretty reasonable but standard and not many offers in store really. Good for the basics, but not the sort of place you travel any real distance to visit.

Not like certain Kanban based factory outlets (already itching to go again despite having used very little of the purchased items from last years June visit)!!!

NEVER tidy a craft room!...update

The tidying of the craft room is still ongoing :-( but it's getting there (although very very very slowly)!!!

Hopefully it will be finished by the end of the month so that I can actually get back to making some cards and trying to complete some scrapbooks. I'll probably have another million pics by the time I get started though!

Create & Craft...update

After my moan about Create & Craft the other day, thought that I ought to give them a bit of credit after my discovery on Thursday.

Got home early so had a quick look at the Kanban hour on Ideal World. Not very exciting, but thought i'd give the website a look to see if i'd missed anything good earlier in the day. After logging in to my account, discovered that I had 2 credit notes on there (one for the cricut cartridge overcharge and one for who knows what!). Not sure why they credited an extra £6 to me, but needless to say, it made me feel a bit more positive about C&C.

Or maybe that was the fabulous set of Kanban Time Machine Stamps that I ordered???