Calico Crafts Ltd, Unit 12 Northfield Road Business Park, Soham, Cambridgeshire CB7 5UF

TELEPHONE: 01353 624100

The building is in an industrial estate and the shop itself is a warehouse filled with all kinds of craft products.

The warehouse has been made into little doorless rooms which are filled with crafting products, each room is a different craft company such as Hot off the Press, K & Co, Craftime and Kanban to name a but few. There is an extensive range of wood backed rubber stamps and some Kars clear unmounted stamps that are very reasonably priced.

Calico also have demonstrations by some of the Craft world’s biggest names, this week it was Amanda Bateman and next week it is Joanna Sheen, you need to book a place if you would like to see her.

As you go into the building there is a place where non-crafters can sit and watch the TV, plus there are toilets and the staff will make you tea and coffee. I found the staff very friendly and helpful, they were very willing to demonstrate any of the items for sale in the shop, one lady was buying a Cuttlebug and was given an extensive demonstration of what it could do before she made her purchase

I was very impressed with the shop and will be going back again in the future.

There are three Francis Iles shops in Rochester: an Arts Materials shop, a Gift Shop and the CraftWorks shop. The craft shop is located at:

73 High Street, Rochester, Kent ME1 1LX

Francis Iles craft shop is just south of the entrance to the castle.

I didn’t find the web site to be very user-friendly. The shop itself is quite mixed up, selling a wide range of crafts. Most of the well known cutting systems are available here. They also sell parchment craft products, beads, embroidery and cross-stitch kits.

Like many craft shops currently, they also stock a large range of Do-Crafts products and have a wide selection of crafting magazines and books. Craft demonstrations are available most Saturdays.

If you’re near Rochester, then I’d recommend a visit. The High Road is usually restricted for traffic at the weekends, but there are many car parks available within a short distance.

I enjoy going to Francis Iles, as no matter what I’m looking for, I can almost always find it here.

The warehouse is situated in an industrial estate to the north of Rushden.

The warehouse itself is a large open space, filled with all kinds of crafting products, from Sakura gel pens to Cricut cutting dies. A wide range of papers, card and decoupage papers are available. Many dies for the various cutting machines, both manual and electrical, are always in stock. Lots of rubber stamps, magazines, peel-offs and rub-ons are also available.

On the open days, there are always guest crafters promoting their wares. The last time I visited, Joanna Sheen was there. As she is one of my favourite crafters, I was very pleased, as you can imagine! She was demonstrating some of her new CDs, and I purchased two more to add to my growing collection.

Facilities are available for the non-crafters (hubbies and kids?): there is a toilet, as well as a small room with a TV and a selection of toys, so there can be no complaints while the serious shopping is done. Colemans also provide free squash, tea and coffee. There are usually plenty of staff on hand to help with customer enquiries, and I found the staff very friendly and helpful.

The open days can get very busy and crowded, and one of the downsides to this is that queues can build up at the three tills available. So much so that the queuing time can be as long as 30 minutes at times!

Despite having a large car park, these days are very popular, and parking can be very crowded, so I’d suggest getting there early if possible. I really enjoy these open days, even though it’s a good hour and half drive for us to get there, and I’m looking forward to the next one!

How organised are you when it comes to arranging greetings cards for friends and family? Are you the type of person that wakes in the morning and suddenly remembers that you’ve not bought a card for someone’s birthday, anniversary, house move, graduation etc. etc? Blind panic as you try to find time in your busy daily routine to get to the shop to buy a card and get it in the post in time to arrive? Or do you work off a list, prepared in advance and regularly reviewed?

When you buy greetings cards, do you just grab the first one to hand, or try to pick out a card that matches the recipient’s personality/hobbies/lifestyle etc? Do you buy pre-printed, mass produced cards, or try to pick out something a little different?

How many do you send, and how much do you spend on greetings cards in an average year? – This is a scary question, the answer may shock you!

Would you be prepared to invest some time in creating a ’shopping list’ of your greeting card requirements, listing dates, names, likes/dislikes etc so that someone else could take the burden of remembering to go shopping for a card off you? Would you consider subscribing to a service that provides hand-crafted greetings cards through the post, with a reminder to send them on a few of days before the event?

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, please leave a comment.

Unit 23 Northfield Road Business Park, Soham, Cambs CB7 5UF

CTM are located just off the A142 Soham bypass, behind Scampers Pet Store.

CTM are easily spotted at craft shows, as they usually have a large vending machine which dispenses balls filled with craft goodies, much like the kiddies machines found at motorway service stations.

There is a good range here, which includes products from Sizzix and Ellison, in the Big Shot and Tag A Long ranges. There is a large selection of 12×12 papers and many of the Doodlebug products are also available from stock. In addition, there is an extensive range of diecut and embossing products from Cuttlebug. Storage solutions are available by All My Memories and Art Bin.

The majority of the stock is geared toward scrapbooking rather than card-making.

Like many stores these days, a range of workshops are held, for which pre-booking (available via their web site) is essential.

A kit is available on a monthly subscription plan, suitable for scrapbookers and card makers alike. Gift vouchers are also available.

In summary, a mecca for local scrapbookers!

The NEC is a massive place, shuttle buses run from the car parks to the main halls complex – it’s that big. There is Disabled parking available which is a much shorter walk to the halls, but the place is a bit of a maze when driving, so keep your eyes open! There was a Classic Car show on at the same time, which added to the numbers, the traffic queue trailing all the way back to the exit from the M6 to join the M42. We eventually arrived at the halls just after 10:00. This was still comparatively early, and there was barely any queue for tickets when we arrived. We entered via the Art Materials Live gate and breezed through.

Despite the apparent ease of entry, the exhibition was already quite busy. A quick scout around showed all the usual suspects were present: Create and Craft Club, Oyster Stamps, Crafters Companion, the Glitter Girls, Joanna Sheen, Stamp Addicts etc. Over 150 stands in all. Because this show is so established now, it seems as if the line-up and location of the stalls is pretty much set into a regular pattern, making particular stands easy to find for regular exhibition go-ers like ourselves.

Given the title of the show, there is a bit of cross-over with other disciplines – it’s not just about paper crafts and there were several stands for Stitchcraft too. In fact, part of the ‘entertainment’ on the stage was a fashion parade, showing off several home-made creations. This was not well attended when I was there, possibly because the stage was hidden away at the back of the Art Materials Live part of the exhibition.

As the day went on, the crowds increased, and the place got hotter. A little tip: inside the exhibition halls are snack bars and restaurants. At one point I bought a small 50cl bottle of still mineral water from one of these snack bars. It cost me £1.60. Later in the day I went outside to the Atrium where I found a Martins Newsagent. A large 1l bottle of water cost just £1.25. Forewarned is forearmed.

By the time we’d finished looking around all the stands / collapsed from pure exhaustion, we’d spent something like 4.5 hours at the show, and came away absolutely laden with new goodies. At we left, the gates to the halls had been closed in an attempt to reduce overcrowding and a large crowd (having already purchased their tickets) was awaiting entrance. This was a new phenomenon to us as we usually visit the show on the Sunday and avoid such situations. So, another tip: avoid the Saturday, it’s busy!

So, in summary: big and busy, but if there’s something specific you want for your crafting, you’re likely to find it here. Don’t forget your cash/cards and a packed lunch.

UNIT 11, Rochester Airport Ind Estate, Laker Road, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3QX.

Oyster Stamps is located behind Rochester airport, just off J3 of the M2.

Graham and Tracey frequently visit trade shows in the USA, and invariably return with stock of the latest goodies. They carry a good selection of scrapbooking materials, as well as their own range of rubber stamps ‘More than Words’ – many of which are exclusives designed in-house, and the latest gadgets such as the Cuttle Bug and Cricut range of manual and electronic die cutters.

Always friendly and helpful, a visit to either the warehouse or their stall at the many shows they attend will be well rewarded.

The old one hadn’t been updated in a very long time, mainly because it was all fashioned in raw html which made the coding extremely tedious.

We hope that by switching to Wordpress, we’ll be able to bring much more news and views of what’s going on in the crafting world to you. Mikki and myself are out most weekends, visiting different towns, popping into the craft shops and doing some ’secret shopping’

So please pop back when you can and see what we have to say.