Stamping Ground

So here's a tiny card that matches the criteria of the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. Love this frog..by Inkadinkado and painted with H20s which I'm sure you can tell at a glance! Lots of table for you to admire too, man my skills are utterly without skill.

I went to the Make It! show at Farnborough on friday, with the queen of Cricut and Design Studio, Ally F. Find her on UKS if you like, I'm right.
Anyway, the show. I thought it was expensive at £9.50 on the door to get in. Although I was reminded that parking was free. At other venues they charge seperately to park, so it's more transparent but ultimately, it's all chargeable. I mention this because I resent the implication that I'm gullible enough to think that they're letting me park for free. But I did pay to get in, so now they know that I may be gullible, but I ain't grateful for 'free parking'!
The show itself was nice - good amount of floor space and not restricted to just paper crafting, although that was the majority. It wasn't a huge show, I can't guess at the number of companies, but it took me about 4 hours to browse everything at a relaxed pace and still chat to a handful of people that I know at various companies. There were no really hot, new, totally-must-have products. This possibly accounts for the smaller number of on-stand demonstrations. I dunno. I would say if you're trying to sell stuff that everyone's seen before, you probably could do with a 'bit of a turn' to help do that. Notice the demonstrator bias here? I've worked as a demonstrator for a few years, so I'm allowed, on this particular molecule of the interweb, to champion a personal cause - specially as I believe it wholeheartedly. I bought 3 woodmounted and three clear stamps (Impression Obsession from Stamps and Memories, and Lavinia Stamps). And here's the psychology of my purchases....both these stands had demonstrators and I bought what they were using/had used on their samples. Just as intended of course. Gullible? p o s s i b l y, but here's a point: I liked the demos and what they did ON THE SPOT with the products. I managed to be a fairly sophisticated consumer; I bought what I know I would use; I have nearly everything, and I use a fraction of it. So maybe I've grown up as a consumer if not as a crafter. And that makes Mr Dunnit incredibly grateful!