Another Trip to Craftmania, Norfolk.

 

As my daughter wanted another trip to Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park in Lowestoft last weekend, I had another chance to visit Craftmania, which is nearby in Gt Yarmouth. This time I decided to stock up on some Christmas goodies. I can highly recommend a visit if you are in the area, don't be put off that it is on an industrial estate, it just means the shop is soo much larger!

They have a really wide selection of Hunkydory, as well as lots of other makes. This time I took my list of Versa Fine Clair ink pads, so I could buy up some of the missing colours.

And this is the first card that I made using one of the Hunkydory Daisy Days Pocket pad images

Variety

 

I bought a pack of 40 cards & envelopes, thinking they were folded cards, but upon opening, discovered they were just single sheets, so I have had to be inventive to utilise them as background papers for birthday cards 

So I have used dogs & cats - plus the Temu toppers to make the most of the floral backgrounds

.........still got lots left to use up though!

Blast from the Past - HOTP

 

I've been gifted lots of unused papercraft books by the US company, Hot of The Press, including these colour themed Sarabooks pads

Made a couple of tag cards from the purple pack

and another tag card from the classic pad - might keep most of this one  aside for Christmas cards

These books were produced over 15 years ago, one is dated 1998! Rather than following their dated fancy fold  designs, I've used the backing papers for more a more current styled cards

Independent Shops ..... Craftability

 

I am lucky that nearby in Ipswich, Suffolk, there is a wonderful independent craft shop called Craftability

When I popped in there on Saturday, I picked up 2 sets of spellbinder nested dies for the bargain price of only £3.00 each! That was because they had been used at one of their workshops and were not on the original packaging 

I also went to the Ipswich branch of WH Smiths that was closing down and found these pots of Dovecraft flowers reduced from £1.50 to 25p each. They had the date of 2011 on the back, so had been sitting around in a stockroom somewhere for 15 years!

So that seemed a good excuse to sit in the craft room and marry the die cuts and flowers together in some birthday cards.

And use up a few old peel-offs too!

Similar, but Different ...

Here are 4 different, but similar, birthday cards that I recently made.

I've paired up some of the TEMU Toppers that I bought last August with some yellow frame stickers that I found in Flying Tiger

Stamped on a greeting, then layered them onto some contrasting background papers from the bottom of my stash for 4 quick and easy birthday cards!

 

More cards made with the items I bought at Craftmania in Gt Yarmouth, I thought this image from the Hunkydory Feline Fabulous pad worked well for a Anniversary Card

And this card uses a background paper and die cut sentiment and giraffe that I bought there too. The wooden toucan I have had forever in my stash!

and this oval lily image from an older Hunkydory pad  and fitted perfectly with the oval floral border from the bargain paper pack

Scrap Boys - Elizabeth

 

One of the paper pads I picked up at Craftmania last week was Elizabeth by Scrap Boys, in fact I was very tempted by several of their collections, so will get another when I next visit.

With the pale blue and blush pink tones, the papers have a lovely vintage feel to them

Plus I loved the image of a cute white cat sitting in the window!

Used a couple of old wooden embellishments in this one!

A Flock of Parrots

 

I've had fun playing with the bargain parrot die set that I bought last weekend

Despite the terrible puns on the sentiments - Happy Bird Day and Aparrot'ly Its Your Birthday!!

I enjoyed paper piecing together the parrots from brightly coloured paper scraps.

Trip to Craftmania, Gt Yarmouth

 Whilst my daughter went on all the rides at Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park, I took the opportunity to visit Craftmania nearby and ended up with this haul!

Craftmania is run by Jamie Rodgers, who also owns Creative Expressions. However, the shop stocks lots of other brands such as John Next Door, Hunkydory, Scrap Boys, Ranger & Julie Hickey 

I loved his own brand Happy Birthday to You die, and quickly rattled off a couple of cards using it.

The place is stuffed full of tempting papercraft goodies, and I came home with stencils, dies, inks, stamps  and a Junk Journal Book by Ciao Bella

They also have an amazing inspiration Room  with loads of cards made from their products, plus some real bargains from the end of ranges, where I picked up this parrot die set

and some vintage swan papers at knock-down prices. I can highly recommend a visit to anyone who is in the Norfolk/Suffolk area, but you will need some time to wander around it. Just as I pulled up, a lady parked and went inside, whilst her husband or partner got out and took a dog for a walk!

They also have an online shop too www.craftmaniacrafts.com which has free postage on orders over £15. 

Scraps Away!

 

I've been trying to use up all those scrappy, left over bits of patterned paper that I just can't throw away.

I've manage to mix and match a few together to make some more birthday cards

Cherry Blossom

 

I've had this cherry blossom stamp and die set since 2010, it was a freebie from a magazine. With spring in the air, it seems a good time to get it out and use it again!

4 different birthday cards now made to showcase the branch of cherry blossoms

Card Candy Galore

 

Back in 2010 I won a large box of Craftwork Cards Candy dots in assorted colours.  They have appeared in my blog over the years here, here and here

I did buy a Christmas tree stamp which uses them and featured that back in Nov 2023.  I  have just bought this Bubble Bloom flower  stamp off eBay to try and use up few more.

However, it only uses 16 per stamp (the smaller dots are Nuvo Drops), and I have hundreds to use up!