Hobbycrafts at the NEC.

Well, I did go to have a look-see, and yes, I did buy some more stuff! I was very good though, and returned home without a single Christmas themed item! Having looked through all my stash recently, I came to the conclusion that I could make Christmas cards from now till the end of time, and probably still not use all the Christmas stamps I have- and don't get me started on Christmas paper pads, please.

So, I mainly bought stamps, and embellishments- something I don't really seem to have much of. I have tried to remember where I bought everything, and link either to the retailer, or someone who has the product if I couldn't think who it was.

Some u/m Stampscapes stamps, definitely one of my weaknesses, I prefer u/m's, and not many places seem to carry them, so these were a distinct bonus.I have wanted the Oak Branch and Spooky Branch for a while, but the u/m sheet the Oak is on also contains stamps I  already have as woodmounts. I got these from BJCrafts. 

These clear stamps from Inkylicious were very reasonable,and I thought the multiple types of birds will be very useful. The Face caught my eye too, I have a similar one but smaller.


I liked this when I saw pictures of it a few months ago- nicely dark & gothic. I can't remember who I got it from, but it is available at Cheddar Stamper.


These two packs from Kaisercraft have lots of useful words and phrases, and were a very reasonable £2.99 each, which I thought was fabulous value. Bought from Ali-craft.

 A Paperartsy set, Clocks 5, and Crafty Individuals CI 305. I love the cogs stamp on the Paperartsy, and the CI stamp has good male/collage images. I bought both from The Artist Trading Post.







These two u/m sets by Papermania really surprised me. Called Urban, they have really nice, usable images for me, not what I would normally associate with their name. Usually, they are too 'cutesy' for my tastes. These came from Hotshot Craft- there are 4 available. These two are Bird Print  and Botanical print. The other two are Type print & Travel print.

 These are three u/m plates, two are textures & patterns and one is faces. They were an amazing £2.50 each- hows that for great value. The irritating thing is that a really can't remember who I got them from, sorry. At the bottom right are three tiny Lavinia Stamps images, small toadstools, a bee and a flying dragon, all £1 each.



Last stamp I bought, Tim  Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Postcard images. I have had my eye on these for a while now, and finally gave in to temptation.

Moving on from stamps, I wanted some metal embellishments for my cards/tags. I found this great company, Riverside Beads, as you can guess from the name, they specialise in beads for jewellery making. However, they have chain, metal charms etc , in a variety of finishes, ideal for adding to your tags and other projects.
You can see one or two price labels there- they are a really good buy- you can have a lot of different embellishments for very little money. For instance, the bag of coins you can see at the top, contains 6 coins- the brass colour cost me £1.20, and the antiqued silver ones £1.35. I think this place was my best find of the day- it shows what you can discover by a visit to a craft show, I doubt I would ever have found them otherwise.

I've pictured them against a ruler so you can get an idea of their size.This is just a small selection of what they have, by the way.

 
Paperartsy pen nibs, and some really neat penny farthing bicycles, by Route 52, which I got from The Artist Trading Post.



 Some Tim Holtz game spinners, chains and 7 gypsies cogs.




     
You can see I also bought a Tim Holtz paper pad, the Winter Distress Inks Limited edition, and also Stormy Sky.


4 new embossing folders, a Cuttlebug one featuring cogs & gears, and three generic ones. One of them has what I think will make a good background for Oriental designs.

At the top of this picture is the clear stamp set that came free with Debbie Moores new Stamping Inspirations magazine- a nice set that are all going to be usable. Some black & white spotted organza ribbon, mica flakes, 3new (to me) Stickles a bottle of Black Cosmic Shimmer Pearls, I assume this is like the Liquid Pearls, and a Karantha mould of a face.









Almost at the end, some spray mini-misters.







Two Tim Holtz
dies, Tickets and Rosettes.




Two great storage containers, A4 size, filled with smaller ATC size boxes. These came from Samuel Taylor.





And finally, some Klingon for those u/m's, and on top of that a selection of acrylic hearts/circles etc from a place called Add Some Sparkle- sold as a pick & mix, you fill the little pot you can see with your selection, for £2! They do this pick'n'mix online too. Not just these stones I bought, they have loads of other styles/colours/designs too.This place was another great find.