Creative Craft Show June 28th-29th

The Creative Craft Show at the NEC, what do I think, what did I see, and would I go again? This post will basically cover my thoughts and opinions on the show on the 28^th-29^th of June. It’s a very different post for me and a long one so I thought I would let you know that in advance.

I had never been to the show before but it was a show I had wanted to visit for a few years I was under the impression that it as this huge exciting craft show and I expected my family to have to live on beans on toast for the month as I was going to come home with so much new stash.

It was a lot smaller than I was expecting, in my head I was picturing craft stalls for days with new (new to me at least) products and lots of exciting crafty goodies to look at, that’s why I was staying for the whole weekend and it wasn’t like that, a few hours was more than enough for me to see everything and do a class and make and takes. There were some very strange stalls considering it was a craft show, cat protection, those great stretchy lids for keeping food fresh, oh and two stalls keep calling out asking if I wanted my shoes or my glasses cleaned for free, very strange and oh boy! it did start making you feel very unclean and uncomfortable after a while. The craft stalls there were more focused on soft crafts, things like fabrics and wool, which were beautiful but not for me.

Now for the fab bits

There were lots of guild stalls and crafts stalls that were just beautiful to look at. The British Polymer Clay Guild and the Lace Guild were there and it was a pleasure being able to see all the stunning things they create, 

they were also really friendly and helpful and if that is the craft you like to do or want to learn you should totally get in contact with them, and the woven wicker baskets from (I think they were called) Willowpool Designs were 😍😍😍

For the kind of crafting I like to do, there were a couple of booths that were highlights for me. The Heartfelt Creations booth was so inspiring.  I got to see my lovely friend Liz again after far too long, meet the adorable and talented Emma Lou, buy some new goodies to start my Heartfelt collection, and laugh as me and the ladies got my Graham to make his first card, he went completely off script and failed to follow the instructions, but he did a great job.

I also found the Thirsty Brush & Co stall they were new to me but have been trading for a year now. I had a very interesting conversation with Claire the owner who was willing to answer all my questions and I was even allowed to take a stencil out of the packaging as I really don’t like thin stencils which Graham thought was hilarious, he even had the cheek to roll his eyes at me, Claire on the other hand completely understood, because she’s fab. By the way, the stencils feel great and I’m looking forward to playing with them this week, they also have a selection of pretty flower stamps and matching dies, and are hoping to expand on this range as the company grows.

Would I go again just to do the show, probably not if I’m very honest, there really wasn’t enough for my type of crafting and the expense of visiting the NEC for the show and the travel time, really makes it not worth it, but I went for the weekend with my Graham, we went to the show but we also spent some much need time together, talking to friends, eating out, walking around, sitting outside in the sun, watching movies and having fun. All things that made the visit totally worth it and something I would do again and again any day of the year.

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading.

Did you go to the show? what did you think?

Let me know in the comments 

xx Gemma xx