There’s so much that’s been going on in the offices lately that I don’t really know where to start updating you!

Issue 44 of Scrapbook Magazine is out in the shops and has some stunning projects in it like this gorgeous baby mini book that I have fallen in love with

and these ingenious puzzle block layouts:

I’m also loving these vintage style layouts – absolutely beautiful!

You can get a copy of the magazine by going here

If you haven’t already heard, we’ve brought out a wedding annual called Perfect Day that has great ideas not only for making your own stationery & jewellery but also covers everything from flowers, colour schemes, wedding venues, hen party ideas to advice with writing speeches and general wedding etiquite. If you’re planning on getting married then this really is your essential read – find out more about it here

It’s also been mayhem over on the forum with the winners of the Crafter’s Companion competition resorting to pouncing on their poor posties in desperation for receiving their prizes – they do make me chuckle bless them!! They should all be receiving them in the next day or 2 so expect lots of cardmaking using the Flower Fairies collection going on all over the country soon!

Oh my, we’re half way through January already! Seriously, where has the time gone? All of us at PPI have been uber busy since Christmas getting magazines out! My baby, Creative Cardmaking, went off to press on Tuesday and I think (even if I do say so myself!) that it looks fantastic! There are so many great features in there and the papers that have been designed by our very own Kay are truly scrumptious!! I’ll give you a few sneaks below so you can get an idea of what you can expect from issue 12 ………………..

These are some of the cards Kirsty Wiseman made using the free papers …………

and then there’s this little beauty that contains shampoo……

There are also cute animal/safari cards from Particraft’s Sue Wilson………

and then for all you foodies out there, Judith has come up trumps with her apple themed creations…….

I’m now working on both issues 13 of Creative Cardmaking and issue 3 of the Creative Cardmaking special edition. This will be my first time doing the special edition & I’m getting really excited about it as I have got Nitwits papers going into this issue as 1/2 of the bumper paper pack – more details to follow!!

I’m also off out for lunch today with fab designer Kirsty Wiseman which I’m really looking forward to as I haven’t seen her in ages. She’s been snowed in for the past few weeks and has got cabin fever to the extreme, so she can’t wait to get out from the confines of her home!!

Remember to pop along to our forum and get chatting with the members already in there – they’re a really friendly bunch and will make you feel really welcome.

I’d better crack on with some work now really – magazines don’t put themselves together do they?!!

Wow, it’s been a while since my last update hasn’t it? A lot has been happening in the office recently, including picking the cardmaker of the year, the scrapbooker of the year and the papercrafter of the year from the competitions we ran in Simply Cards & Papercraft, Scrapbook Magazine and Papercraft Essentials. There are so many talented crafters out there that it was so hard to pick winners. We were joined by the popular designers Angie Parkins and Judith Hannington to help us make the big decision of who was going to win just under £2000 worth of craft goodies! Now I can only let you know one of the competition winners as the others haven’t been published yet & I don’t want to ruin the surprise but ………………………… ***drumroll***…………………

The winner of Simply Cards & Papercrafts’ card designer of the year award went to ………………

Diane Ingram from Norwich with her gorgeous creations, shown below!

How gorgeous are her cards? We all loved her style and the nice, bright cheery cards that she made. I hope you all agree with us!!

I want to share some of the other cards with you though as the standard was so high it would be a shame not to include a selection for you to see. If you want to see the winner & all the runner ups in more detail though, get your copy of the latest Simply Cards & Papercraft (issue 66) where there is a big feature on them all!

We also had a visit from Sara Davies, Meg and Claire from Crafter’s Companion yesterday to give us a sneak peak of their product launches for next year. Now, I’m sworn to secrecy but WOW – you guys are in for a treat in early 2010 from them. They have so many lovely new products coming out including something major that I’m getting really excited about. I’m a tease, aren’t I? Sorry!! They then took us for a lovely meal at a gorgeous Italian restaurant in the evening so thank you so much Sara, Meg & Claire, we all had a wonderful evening with you guys!

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?!!

Welcome to our new look website. We’ve been working hard getting lots of exciting & fabby content for you all and I’m so happy with the results. What do you think of it? Crafts on the Net has almost become like my baby & I’m constantly looking for new ideas and items to add to the site to make it the best it can be, so if you would like to see something on here please let me know!

I’m off to the Hobbycrafts show this weekend to help spread the word about the site so if any of you are going to be there make sure you come over to the Practical Publishing stand and say hi – you can’t miss us as we are right near Create & Craft and Crafter’s Companion stands!!