Well, I think I’ve just about recovered from the NEC show – I couldn’t believe how busy it was! Saturday was the worst day for getting crushed, I’m sure I saw people doing stretches & warm ups before they entered the hall just so they would be able to get from one end to the other without getting injured!!

I did manage to get away from the stand on Sunday though to have a good look around to see what lovely products were on offer. As always I spent far too much but I did come away with some beauties. Take for instance this rather nifty gadget:

This, is the fabulous i-top tool that lets you make your own covered brads. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and I will be doing a ‘Tried & Tested’ feature on it in issue 11 of Creative Cardmaking. You can get brad blanks (as in, get the brad in 2 parts to allow you to put it together yourself), stencils, punches & stickers to use alongside it, and I’m really excited about using it for the first time (I haven’t had a chance to breathe, let alone do any crafting since I’ve come back from the show!)

I also bought some adorable stamps to add to my collection from C. C Designs. These 2 cuties are the ones that I bought:

How adorable are they? I won’t bore you with every single purchase I made (you’d fall asleep before I got to the end!) but I did spot some gorgeous new templates from Colour My World and there were flowers from Prima Marketing that were just to die for. Needless to say, they were included in my purchases!!

It was great to see so many readers to our magazines at the show so thanks to everyone who came over to say hi.

That was my last show for the year so I’ll be saving up my pennies in preparation for all the shows that are happening in the new year. I’ll try to make a promise to myself to be a bit more restrained with my purchases next time – do you think I’ll stick to it though?!!