NEC Birmingham 2011

Hello everyone,

First of all I just want to introduce myself for anyone who doesn't know me!  I am Jane Collman, I'm both a tutor and also one of the people who work with Isabelle and Sandy behind the scenes on the wesbsite, planning classes and now helping out with the blog.

I thought I'd start off by making you all jealous and telling you about our trip to the NEC for the tradeshow.  What a fantastic time we had lots of products to see, people to meet and friends to say 'hello' to.  Although finding somewhere to have dinner was a challenge - never believe them when they say in the hotel, "It's easy to find, just down the road, you can't miss it!"  We did five times, we'd just about lost the will to live when Rebecca phoned the restaurant and they said, "it's easy, you can't miss us" still took three more attempts to find it even with them talking us in.  The following night we went back again - couldn't bear the thought of finding somewhere else - and we found two poor ladies wandering around a deserted car park, they came up to us saying "have you seen a restaurant around here?"  Not just us then!

Anyway back to the show, it was three pretty tiring days and I'm still not sure I saw every exhibit but we have come back with a list of lots of new goodies which will be finding their way to the shop very soon.
I was the designated group photographer and tried to take some pictures of some of our old friends, those you already know from the extravaganzas and demos and some new faces who we are hoping to persuade to visit us soon.

             Here's  Lindsay Mason, who has been to our extravaganzas before, she was demoing her latest lovelies and she will be joining us in June again this year

                                                              Mr and Mrs Spellbinder.
               Jeff and Stacey, who were demonstrating their Grand Calibur and a huge selection of dies.
               What a joy they were, so enthusiastic and passionate.  We were let into a secret, whisper,
    whisper, there are some exciting new products coming in the summer but that's all we are allowed to say!! 

Paula Pascual was working on the Sizzix stand demoing the Big Shot Pro.

   A great machine, I have been very naughty but can't say any more here in case my husband reads this!!  The Sizzix stand was huge and had some fantastic samples of their exciting new dies coming, needless to say the budget was blown by this point.

                Here is Francoise Read on the Woodware stand, she was demoing her new range of stamps, loved the owl, she has agreed to come and see us a bit more often at The Barn so that's really good news.

Mr and Mrs PaperArtsy, Leandra and Mark, with their stand, they had loads of new products including dies and stamps.  We are very excited about their new PaperArtsy Chalk Acrylics. Such beautiful colours and they have the additional property of being able to be used for some outdoor applications,
 bet you're intrigued now!!

 

                                                              Can you guess who this is??

 No?? It is Nellie Snellen of Nellie's Stencils demoing her new range. I wonder how many of you recognised her?

       Can't believe there's anyone who won't know Julie Hickey from Craftwork Cards....

  ....if you look very closely you will get a sneaky peak at their new range coming soon, can't say too much but he is rather cute and he is called Warren and he has lovely floppy ears!  Add to that 26 new colours of     card candy and some wonderful new card blanks and Sandy was in heaven!!

                                                           And now Michelle from Stix 2

Again you will recognise her from our extravaganzas, she has found a really great use for her hot melt glue gun and I'm sure she'll be sharing!

Lastly, the man himself, Sir Tim Holtz. 

 It was, as always, a pleasure to watch him working, very inspirational and lots of new lovelies.  

Kathy Byrne and Carole Cann, two of our tutors, travelled up to Birmingham on Friday for a workshop with the man himself on Saturday morning.  Unfortunately Kathy fell down the steps at the hotel Saturday morning and broke a couple of bones in her foot but she still managed to do the workshop, what a trouper! 

      I couldn't resist being cheeky and asking Tim if he would please work his magic on a project I could    bring back to share with his many fans at The Craft Barn.

Well, he did, but I'm going to keep you in suspense for a bit longer.........

....oh okay here's a little peak!!

Sorry, but that's all you are getting at the moment!!!!!

 Well that's all for now folks, see you soon,

Jane