Sourcing stash in Devon

Well I'm back from a week of sightseeing with my mum down in Plymouth. And during our day trips, a few craft shops were visited and some stash purchased (it would be churlish not to).

The photo shows the stash in all its glory. Didn't realise it was so much!

In Exmouth I went to Japonica in The Parade and was well impressed by the quality of the stash (gorgeous K&Co papers and albums, for example.) There I bought some Woodware red velvet paper, which I thought would be excellent for Christmas cards, a tag punch and a gold acrylic paint dabber.

Plymouth has several craft shops and in CDS/The Range (very large range indeed!) I treated myself to a new lilac scrapbook album, Papermania chipboard Christmas embellishments, shrink plastic, Papermania gold embellishments, parchment paper, card blanks, micro beads, a sea horse rubber stamp, something similar to magic mesh and some silver glitter letters. Finally, in Endsleigh garden centre on the A38 near Ivybridge, I bought two Sakura gelly roll pens and some tiny shells.

When I got home, I found I had a stash delivery from BG Payne - some silver and cream double gatefold aperture cards, a pink Ink It Up pad and pink embossing powder.

Most of the stuff I bought was on my list and intended for various projects. With the seashells and sea horse I can now start my long awaited canvas. It's going to be seaside themed in shades of turquoise and mauve. With the tag punch, magic mesh and some UTEE I bought before the holiday, I can create a gorgeous golden wedding anniversary card I've been visualising. The aperture gatefold cards are for some special birthday cards for next year. The parchment paper is to try dry embossing. I recently used the Fiskars ScrapBoss and embossed the edges of a scrapbook layout. I was quite impressed with the results and have numerous embossing boards that were free with magazines, so I thought I would try it on cards. The various Christmas embellishments will be used making cards and for scrapbook layouts.

The cost of stash!

It would be quite amusing if one of the magazines did a survey on how much scrapbookers and cardmakers spend on stash. Given that one of the magazines runs a regular challenge on creating a scrapbook page for less than a fiver, it could be quite illuminating.

I must confess that I have at least one spend a week, either online or going to a shop. Where I live, in NE London, it's a crafting desert. There are no shops whatsoever. I have to drive to Romford, which is a good 30 minutes away, or Southend, which is even further.

This week I placed an order with the Stamp Bug for the kit they put together to support one of the projects in the latest issue of Craft Stamper. Last week, I was in Boston and miraculously didn't spend a penny (or cent) on stash, despite my best efforts. I searched all over Google looking for craft shops in the city, but came up with nothing until I got there, bought a magazine and found one advert for a shop called Lily's. I didn't make it there in the end, it wasn't near the tube, so I went home empty handed.

Still, going to Phoenix next week for a very quick visit and I've already researched a craft shop there.

The best places for me at the moment are Swindon and Plymouth. I work in Swindon one day a week. It's become a craft hotspot. Hobbycraft reopened a few weeks ago (they closed a store in Swindon a few years ago when I lived there, before scrapbooking had become so popular), and I see there's a new shop in the designer outlet, plus a shop in Old Town quite close to my company. I was drooling in Hobbycraft because, being new, it's fully loaded. The Romford branch is very weak in scrapbooking supplies.

Plymouth, where mum lives, also has several shops. I went to a big place called CDS recently (doubles as a garden centre) and bought lots of heritage scrapbooking supplies. Endleigh garden centre, on the A38 near Ivybridge, is great for scrapbooking and stamping (as well as garden furniture and Christmas tree decorations!).

I also have my online favourites, some of which are mentioned below. I've also made some good buys on eBay, although sadly they're all "Buy Now" and you rarely get any bargains.

For me, the gratification has to be more or less instant. If an online retailer takes several days to send my order, they don't usually get repeat business. What drives me really crazy is when you're told that something is out of stock, after you've placed the order.

Some of the websites have a lot of room for improvement. It's great when scrapbooking websites allow you to search by theme, by colour and by manufacturer. And let's have some UK centric themes too. A good sales opportunity I would have thought.