Craft, Hobby & Stitches Show 2012

Hello Blogosphere. I've just spent a wonderfully busy day at the UK Craft Trade Show in Birmingham. My feet are killing me, but my head is spinning from the inspiration I found there.


First stop was the Personal Impressions stand. The crowd around Tim was so big I couldn't see anything, so I wandered over to where Dyan Reavley was demonstrating. Her Dylusions stamps and inks are wonderful. The colours are so vibrant and pure, but still retain enough of the Ranger Earthtone look that they would co-ordinate well with the other product ranges. The Dylusions stamps have a quirky, almost Bratz feel to them. Dyan has made sure that the various figures within the sets are all interchangeable with each other, so that if you don't like the head on one, you simply cut it off and superimpose another head in its place. They all lend themselves to being coloured in so that you, the crafter, choose the look and feel of each of the figures. The other stamps on each sheet are strong enough to stand on their own, but really come out when you bring the various sets together. Dy was working in her journal while I stood there and had a lovely mushroom stamp and then brought out a stamp of a caterpillar from the same stamp that fits perfectly the mushrooms.


Next stop was with Lord Tim of Holtz himself. The crowd had thinned out a little, so I managed to find space right next to his elbow. While I've seen the demonstration of Distress Markers online, it was useful to see the pens up close and personal. The fine tip is exceptionally fine. I think I've only seen as fine on a Zig Millennium pen or a professional Rotring pen. I can see that these will bring non-stampers into the Distress world, but will supplement the products that crafters like me already have. Using the Specialty Stamping Paper from Ranger, Tim was able to get some amazing results from the pens.

I stopped to have coffee with my friend, Carol Hornby-Clements and her husband and a quick natter about what we'd seen up to that point.


Over to Sizzix and Stephanie was demoing her new range of dies with matching outline and fill-in stamps. I like that each set comes with the outline stamps for each image (2 or 3 in each set), the co-ordinating fill-in stamp, plus the die to cut them out and the die to cut an outline background. Retail price could be high - in the US the MSRP IS $30, so we could easily see these retailing for around £25 - but an investment that would be good if you don't like colouring in and can't be bothered to cut out the stamps yourself.

Around lunchtime, I forgot that I was supposed to be taking photos and spent a lot of time meeting and hob-nobbling with various people.

My favourite US distributor, Product Performers came over this year for the first time. They have such low minimum order requirements and have leveraged such a good deal with UPS, that importing from them is very easy and competitive with the UK distributors. Their only problem is they don't have electronic products for the European market and there are restrictions on some of the things they can sell so they don't step on the toes of manufacturers with a European operation, like Sizzix. But, they are a family-owned and run company and the family are lovely, generous people. I recommend them to anyone trying to get some of the brands that are difficult to find here. Their catalogue is very extensive.

It was great to see Stacey Caron and Kim Hupke again. Kim showed me the new M-Bossabiities which look like larger versions of other embossing folders available, but they're double sided, so you get two patterns for the price of one. I love that Spellbinders products give a nice deep emboss. But, with a few exceptions, the patterns are not to my personal taste. They're too uniform in both pattern and texture for me.

I also stopped at Artemio. They are a Belgian distributor in their second year of pushing into the UK market. Their emphasis is mostly on scrapbooking and home decor, but they have a few things not seen here before. It will be interesting to see how their UK involvement colours their offering.

I took the opportunity to take a class called "Crafting with Sizzix" to find that in our one hour workshop, we were going to cut out the shapes necessary to make a quilted placemat, and there seemed to be an expectation that we'd stay to hand-stitch. My feedback was this, a) if you're going to have a class on quilting, please state it on the description b) make it a simple shape that even sewing morons like me can produce something with in the hour and c) don't do a quilting class when you've only got an hour.

I decided that with time running out I should at least see the Bright Sparks Pavillion. This is a section of the show where first-time exhibitors get a smaller, discounted stand space and get pushed and promoted a little more. I didn't know about the Bright Sparks Pavillion in my first year and didn't qualify in my second year, but it seems to be a good place to showcase the new talent. There was one stand that really caught my eye.


IndigoBlu make a small but perfectly formed range of UK themed vintage stamps. Without having an overtly steampunk look, they evoke that feeling of an age gone by so would fit into work headed that way. If one of their vintage union jack stamps had inadvertently fallen into my bag, I wouldn't have been disappointed. Later on, they won the award for Stamp of the Year. Congratulations and well-deserved.



So, after the show there were the annual craft awards. It's nice to see people getting recognition for the hard work they put in over the year, but you can only be nominated if you design for, advertise with, or sponsor the magazine who runs the awards, so it's hard not to be cynical about them as it's not a complete representation of the crafting industry.


But congratulations to Joanna Sheen for winning Card Designer of the Year and Leonie Pujol for accepting Online Craft Retailer of the Year on behalf of createandcraft.tv and to Stephanie Weightman for getting Celebrity Crafter of the Year (just pipping Leonie to the prize). I first met Leonie when we spent a day demoing for Personal Impressions at their retailer training day back in 2005.

So, a hike back to my car where was parked in Outer Mongolia (otherwise known as North 10 car park), then it was a gentle 2 hour drive home to see Zandy and G. Tired.

Location:Birmingham NEC

Recycling and Repurposing

Zandy turned 45 this week and as usual, he is still one of the most difficult people in the world to get a stable present for.

But he's been wandering around with his iPad not in any case and he's been drooling over suitable models on the Internet. Unfortunately, he still has champagne tastes even though we're living on a Coca-Cola budget,so buying one was out of the question.


So, here's my solution. A fused plastic sleeve. I got the idea from a video I saw on YouTube (search "threadbangers laptop bag"), using shopping bags ironed flat to make a durable, but sewable material. It is lined with an old knitted jumper and the padding is all the off cuts of plastic from the bags. It seals with self-adhesive Velcro and there's a bit of Duck Tape to give the top flap a little more sturdiness.

Initially, I thought it had come out too small, but as the padding settles and the seams ease, it is turning out to be exactly the right size.

And it looks much better than I thought it would. I've just made Zandy promise to never turn it inside out as the stitching inside is truly awful.

But, instead of taking the few hours I thought it would, it took nearly three days. I think as I get more practised at both sewing and construction, it'll take less time. I'm now working on one for me that will be made by weaving the strips together to make interesting patterns. I may also apply alcohol inks to brighten up the strips.

And I'm not going to run out of shopping bags in a hurry!