Daily Mail recently reported that knitting is helping us through the hard times and ‘sales of wool are up almost 30% since the banking collapse last autumn’. BBC reported ‘Needlecraft is sew this year’. Visit Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts in Brighton, Glasgow and Liverpool and join the nation to start knitting, making, customising and mending!

Visitors will discover the latest designs, ideas, supplies and advice from over 120 exhibitors at both The Brighton Centre and Aintree Pavilion, Liverpool and over 175 at Glasgow SECC. Find materials for papercraft, needlecraft, jewellery-making and more for every occasion and be inspired how to use them.

Enjoy exciting new features at all the spring shows this year – get up close to the OSCAR and BAFTA winning 18^th century-style costumes, originally worn by Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes from the British hit film ‘The Duchess’.

Visit the Learn to Knit stand and take part in the brand new nautical knitting project ‘Above and Below the Waves’ in aid of the RNLI’s Train One – Save Many Campaign and designed by Alison Murray. When complete the display will incorporate a walk through tunnel representing life under and above the sea and will feature exclusively at ICHF shows in autumn 2010 and spring 2011.

An exciting new joint venture between the UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA) and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) will culminate in a Stylish Stitches display this year. The two organisations arranged a competition, challenging members to knit an original home or fashion accessory using unusual materials, fibres and textures. The fabulous winners and star entries will be on display at all shows.

Take part in FREE demonstrations, talks and mini-workshops to get help and advice from experts, every day at all shows. Enjoy Papercraft demonstrations and try your hand with various tools and techniques, learning to make greeting cards using card cutters, decoupage and fabric.

Whatever age or gender, if shopping for any celebration, occasion and all seasons, you’ll be sure to leave Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts with every supply and new idea on the market!

Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts – Glasgow SECC

4 – 7 March 2010

Open 09.30-17.00 (Saturday 17.30)

Tickets:

Adults £6.70 on door (£5.20 advanced price)

Seniors £5.70 at door (£4.20 advanced price)

Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts – Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool

23 – 25 April 2010

Open 09.30-17.00 (Saturday 17.30)

Tickets:

Adults £6.50 on door (£4.00 advanced price)

Seniors £5.50 at door (£3.00 advanced price)

All shows – Children under 16 free if accompanied by an adult (otherwise £3)

Buy tickets on-line at www.ichf.co.uk or Phone Ticket Hotline: 01425 277988

We have 10 pairs of tickets to give away. To be in with a chance of winning a set, simply answer Glasgow or Liverpool when asked which show you would like to win tickets for below.

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The team at Funky Hand have released the gorgeous Dreams Come True CD-Rom which includes 12 colour coordinated design collections to inspire your card making and papercraft projects. Each collection has:

• 20 trendy backing paper designs on A4 sheets.
• Resizeable alphabet characters in your choice of coordinated colour.
• Word book generator. Combine any backing paper design with a character in a harmonising colour to build up your own word book.

Plus the CD also contains 35 resizeable illustrated digistamps to use as toppers for your cards.

Dreams Come True runs in the brand new Papercraft Factory application that has been exclusively developed for Funky Hand CD-Roms and is installed as part of this product.

In total there are 6755 individual printable files. When used in the Papercraft Factory application these can be combined to create over 50,000 different printable craft items.

We have 5 discs worth £16.99 each to give away. For your chance to win, simply answer the question below.

For more information about the Papercraft Factory application please visit www.funkyhand.com

Competition deadline date 5th March 2010

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Serif are offering 3 lucky winners a complete version of the newly released Digital Scrapbook Artist 2!

On 25^th January Serif launched version 2 of the highly popular Digital Scrapbook Artist that has great new features in it such as:

• Blend modes (a very high-end feature of products such as PhotoShop that allows seamless blending of layers)
• Photo Lab (a really advanced built-in photo editing software)
• Hover selection aid (this means items will glow when you hover over them with your mouse to enable easy selection)
• Colour palette designer (select a colour and you will be shown colours that go with it to help you design your page)
• Brush offset tool (adjust where a brush stroke sits on an object – i.e. move it outside or inside the object)
• Extra brushes & edges
• Stencils (you can drag any embellishment/shape etc into the stencil tool and it creates a stencil of your object)

For more information about the Digital Scrapbook Artist software visit www.serif.com

Now you can be in with a chance of winning one of these top of the range kits worth £29.99 by simply answering the question below.

Deadline for competition entries is 28th February 2010

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Swanstitch are giving away a bumper pack of ranger goodies worth £50!

All you have to do is register your details below to be in with a chance of winning.

Deadline for competition entry is Friday 5th February 2010.

Swanstitch, 82 – 84 High Street, Deal, Kent, CT14 6EG

Tel: 01304 366915

www.swanstitch.com

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Crafter’s Companion have teamed up with Crafts on the Net to bring you an exciting competition where you can win a bumper Flower Fairy kit worth a massive £149.91!

Each kit contains:

• The triple disc set worth£39.99
• All 6 rubber stamp plates
• 40 sheets of assorted special effect card
• 100 sheets of special effect paper

If sold individually the contents of this pack is worth a massive £149.91 and we have ten packs for you to win!

To enter, we want you to get creative! All you have to do is create a card using ANY Crafter’s Companion products (available from www.crafterscompanion.co.uk) and then upload a photo of your finished card on to the forum.

The deadline date for submissions is 31st January 2010 with the winners being announced first week of February.

You could win one of three product sets donated by Which Craft? this month, which includes Frame-Its, Super Shutter cards and die-cut circles.

Enter now for your chance to win!

Prize donated by:

Which Craft?

Tel: 01302 369666

www.whichcraftuk.co.uk

With Christmas just around the corner, children and adults will soon be getting into the festive spirit, decorating their homes and wrapping up presents. This year there is one great way to ensure your present stands out from the rest whilst under the tree; by using a Sharpie marker!

Whether personalising your wrapping paper with a festive silver snowflake or putting colourful finishing touches to that perfect tag, Sharpie markers are available in 13 stand-out colours making them the ideal Christmas creative companion.

Crafts on the Net have teamed up with Sharpie to give 10 lucky readers the chance to get their hands on a goodie bag of Sharpie markers – the ultimate Christmas design kit worth £35, which will ensure your gifts really stand out this year.

For your chance to win, simply fill in the quick form below – good luck!

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Over £1200 worth of digi kits to be won!!

To be in with a chance of winning one of ten bumper digital crafting packs worth over £120 each, simply register for free on here before 1^st December 2009

Each crafting pack will contain:

• Digital Scrapbook Artist (including DaisyTrail Digikit Collection 1)
• DaisyTrail Digikit Collection 2
• DaisyTrail Digikit Collection 3
• DaisyTrail Digikit Collection 4

Serif’s Digital Scrapbook Artist offers a unique combination of ease-of-use, traditional scrapbooking techniques, and truly realistic-looking results. You can quickly and easily transform your photos and memories into wonderfully personal artwork that you will cherish forever. It is suitable for all papercrafters, from novice to expert, as you can create so much more than just a scrapbook layout with this software. It is incredibly easy to use, fun and fast and gives you unlimited creativity for unique designs.

The Digital Scrapbook Artist contains everything you need to get started. There are two fantastic digikits pre-installed on the program, and a bonus DVD from DaisyTrail.com containing super high quality embellishments and materials! The four DaisyTrail Digikit Collections each contain ten gorgeous themed kits. What’s more, each DVD comes with a full colour resource guide, so you’ll be able to see exactly what bits you’ve got.

As a registered member, you will also receive regular newsletters that contain special members’ only competitions and discounts, on top of all the exciting new features found on the site!

You will find the registration tab at the top right of the screen!

Apple Grove Designs are giving away 10 bumper craft packs worth over £100 each!

Inside each pack you will find:

A Brenda Walton Scrapbooking Kit containing:

• a 12×12″ scrapbook
• a 12×12″ memory folder
• 24 sheets of 12×12″ paper (2 each of 12 designs)
• Jewel embellishments
• Sparkle toppers
• Co-ordinating floral toppers
• Mini alphabet stickers
• 24 double-sided 12×12″ papers (2 each of 12 designs)
• 6 pages of assorted paper and card
• Co-ordinating alphabets & borders

Design House Papers:

• “Water’s Edge” range – 5 die cut designs with two co-ordinating backgrounds
• “Country Flowers” range -  5 die cut designs with two co-ordnating background papers
• The fun “In the Mood” range – 3 designs and two co-ordinating backgrounds
• The cute Pig Tails kit as recently featured by Stephanie Weightman on Create & Craft
• The sweet  “Woodland Capers” kit as featured by Stephanie Weightman on Create & Craft
• The “Dog’s Life” kit as featured by Stephanie Weightman on Create & Craft

To enter this amazing competition to win £100 of specially selected papers and craft accessories, including some of the new die cut Water’s Edge and Country Flowers ranges by Design House simply visit www.applegrovedesigns.co.uk and tell us what their “special Message for Crafters” is. You will find this out by subscribing to their newsletter!