Hello Crafters,
Today began with a 5.00am alarm call, so I dragged myself out of my warm and cosy bed and into the shower and slowly got myself ready. Outside, the sky was still as dark as it could be and the temperature was quite chilly. I longed to go back to my cosy bed, but today was the day for a special adventure! So at 5.45am I left home and drove to meet up with Bev and David (Bev's hubby) at the Bee Crafty shop in Bidford upon Avon.
What were we up to you may well ask? Were we off to trek into the deepest darkest jungles of Africa to look for lions or tigers or elephants? No. Were we off to race F1 cars at Brands Hatch? No. We were off to man the Bee Crafty stand at the Excalibur Craft Fair at the Braunstone Leisure Centre in Leicester! Yaaaay!!
We arrived in really good time (only took 45mins to get there) and began to set up the stand. It didn't take long as Bee Crafty are very well organised when it come to preparing for craft fairs. Then at 10.00am the doors were opened and in came the general public! This was the first time Excalibur Craft Fairs had organised an event in Leicester, so both the public and the exhibitors were a little nervous to see how the day went.
Neither party had anything to worry about! The venue was extremely well lit, nicely decorated and very clean. There was plenty of space between each of the stands, which meant people could move about freely and were able watch the many demonstrations taking place with ease. (There were also plenty of chairs available, which went down well with those who were a little less able than others.)
David expertly manned the till with his usual beaming smile and proved himself to be very popular with certain more mature lady crafters! I donned my trusty "Bee" headgear, Bee Crafty apron and ribbon rosette and enthusiastically welcomed all who visited the Bee Crafty stand. It was lovely to be able to spend time chatting to so many happy and genuinely friendly crafters.
Bev did an amazing job demonstrating the "WOW" range of embossing powders to a steady stream of interested crafters. They watched eagerly as they were shown how they could emboss using an embossing stamp pad, and embossing pen or even double sided tape. One of the real hits was the creation of glittery embossed paper using Wow's "Sparkling Snow|", which was then used with a paper punch to make snowflakes ... it was so popular that it was the first colour to sell out!
Bev also demonstrated how you could emboss other items, such as chipboard shapes, buttons, brads and Card Candi. She also showed how you could use just a touch of embossing powder to highlight or accent part of a stamped image. The stamped images Bev used were from the new Christmas range from Molly Blooms. These new Molly Bloom stamps were also promoted on the stand via the beautiful card samples that Julie-Ann had made over the past few days.
Another range of products that proved popular today were the "Shabby Vintage" collection of papers and die-cuts from Craftwork Cards. Again promoted by the stunning card samples made by Sam yesterday. I can't wait to get my set of papers out and have a play with them, they really are gorgeous.
One final range that stood out today, was Kaisercraft - the new December 25th paper collection and the Magic Happens paper collection received ooooow's and aaaaah's all day long. Regulars to Bee Crafty are looking forward to the 2hr Christmas card making class on the 12th November, in which a couple of the Dec 25th papers will be used to make two beautiful cards. (Anyone who is interested in this class should book a place as soon as possible, as places are limited - details can be found on the Bee Crafty website).
We all had a really enjoyable day in Leicester and would not hesitate in going back again in the future. Off now to have a long relaxing soak and a glass (or two!) of wine. Till next time - Dx
