Saturday 7 November 2009

My Shopping Trip to the Hobbycrafts Show at Birmingham NEC...

Today saw the yearly pilgrimage to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for the Hobbycrafts Show
My friend Helen and I go every year, we save all of our crafty cash up for a good old spend!!!
I have not blogged all week as we have had Ofsted in school and it has been a manic week with 12 and 13 hour days!!!!!

This year I drove, we normally get the train but driving was much less stressful and meant we could pop to the car at lunch, have a bite to eat and unload our stash ready to fill our bags again!!!

I have photographed all of my spends, so i hope you are sitting comfy!



First up we have:
Sweet Treats Cricut Cart :: loved this as soon as i saw it, you can cut cupcake shaped cards, i think these will still work nicely on my little create machine and will show you some examples later in the week!
4 rolls of DS tape :: essential!
A Bach issue of cards mag :: love this mag but missed this issue so thought i would grab it while it was half price!
Set of fiskars texture plates :: these were a bargain at £1 so i got them even though i was unsure if i already had them...turns out i do...bummer...so there will be some blog candy coming soon ;o)
2 unmounted Stamps :: Music notes and gingham background stamps, I am not the best stamper but thought these would be great for backgrounds and tarting up scraps of paper... oh yesh scrapheap challenge!
2 inks :: to go with new stamps, i don't have much ink!
Little scissors :: i had a pair of these last year and they are fab for £1 but i left mine in the garden so had to replace them!



Envies!
Lots of envelopes and some card blanks :: i use square card blanks normally but want to make some of my own up and wanted some unusual sizes of envelopes so these should fit the bill, all envies £1 per pack of 25



12x12
I am mainly a cardmaker but do love some pretty papers, these here were total bargains!!!
Basic Grey :: these fabby sets were a bargain, reduced from £15.99 to £4.99 i snapped up 2 as i love the designs... and did i mention the price!
The other single sheets were great too, pick and mix 25 for £7 lots of love elsie, MM, Rusty Pickle and chatterbox to name a few!!



Embellies
Loads here, the only things that were over £1 were the scrabble alpha letters that were still a bargain at £4 for a box of 360
I totally love the brads in the bottom of the pic, they are quite chunky but not too big!



My find of the day, wood grain embossed card!!!
I love this, it will be ace for making cards and gifts with, infact i loved it so much i had a large box and small box with mainly those 2 designs in them!!!



Close up of my lush wood grain card
I am so glad i took the car, it whould have killed me lugging this as well as everything else to the train!



My bargain of the day...
I think this will be a great card making tool, it has all of the markigs on it for A4, A5 C5 C6 etc on it which will be a godsend!!
It was reduced from £59.99 to £15.00 so i could not resisit!!!



hmmm... Craftwork cards have a lot to answer for!!!
I fell in love with the xmas papers, very expensive at £4.00 for 12 8x8 sheets but i will only use it for best...LOL
Also some pop out birthday greetings and some cute little bird house boxes!



some colour me ovals that i thik will make some great quick cards!
And some festive bauble greetings, there were not from CWC stall but another stall that had them on offer for £1 per pack!



Punches and dies... you didn't think i would come home without a die or a punch did you????
little frilly square punch
leafy punch
flower punch - retro type
Dino border punch, dunno what i will do with this but i loved it!!!
Spellbinders create a flake 2 ( i have set one so it will go good with that)
cute crimbo tree die, this will make some cute cards and gifts
owl on branch die, i just love all the cute owl's about at the mo, and working in a school these should go down well on cards!
at the back there is a little handbag type die, this was free with the owl and tree die which was nice and i am sure i will put it to good use!



This is a little test i did with my dino punch!!
I think it is fab...still not sure what i will do with it so keep your eyes peeled!

all in all it was a great day, it was tarnished slightly by the sheer volume of people at times you just could not move!! That couples with all of the trollies that people dragged over my feet did wear me out a bit!!!

If you are planning a visit tomorrow ENJOY!!!

Hugs
L xXx

10 comments:

camcraft said...

Oh My. That was indeed a great trip - you sure got some bargains! Well done you :-) Love the wood grain card - not seen this before.
Carole x

Alix said...

wowzers...you could open a stall of your own with that lot!!!

now...what are you going to make first?? ;)

Hazel said...

Wow!! way to go!! You know how to shop! You've got some bargains there. x

Jenny said...

Oh my goodness me lucky you!! That's an amazing haul, love the woodgrain and what a bargain on the trimmer, it would have been rude not to ;-) x x

Unknown said...

Wow! You certainly treated yourself. I love going to the NEC, but haven't managed to get there for a couple of years.

Virginia said...

LOve it - the expression shop til you drop comes to mind - there's nothing more satisfying than spending to your hearts content particularly when you managed to grab a bargain or two!

Carmen said...

You weren't kidding were you? Am SO jealous. I love the woodgrain card and the dinosaur punch - how cute is that?

Roll on April so I can have a spend at Ally Pally. Serious withdrawels... not for those blimming trolleys though. Ouch!

Nerdy Girl.... The Life of Linda said...

Wow, looks like you had a really great day out.

Ali said...

That is one heck of a shopping spree!! Sooooo jealous! Love all your purchases - how cute is that dinosaur stamp.

clare said...

OMG..i thought i was bad enough when i go to the show...lol glad its not just me that comes home with bags & bags of goodies...lol
roll on the 27th march for the next show..cant wait.

are you and helen going this year?would be great to meet up x

hugs clare xx