Docrafts Creativity! magazine (Docrafts Creativity!)

Member Name: daisychaingirl

Product:	Docrafts Creativity!
Date:	07/07/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent value, great cards ideas and inspiration.

Disadvantages: Not in most stores.

Docrafts Creativity magazine is a must have if you are a cardmaker or scrapbooker.

Docrafts is a major brand in the crafting world that makes a whole host of products, from stickers, to card blanks, to craft tools etc. It also makes a magazine that is one of, if not the best priced craft magazine of its kind around today. There is a new issue every other month and it is priced at only £1. When you consider other well known popular craft/card making magazines sell at around the £3.75 mark, this is outstanding value. Each issue also comes with some sort of a free gift - whether this is a sheet of stickers, a rubber stamp, or some ribbon. The free gift changes each time and in my opinion makes this magazine even more worth buying. I've yet to receive a free gift on an issue that I haven't wanted or been able to use and they always include ideas in the magazine of what you can make with them. Occasionally, they will release a 'bumper' issue which has about 3 times as many pages as a standard issue and a higher quality free gift. This is usually priced at £2.50 which is still an amazing price. The magazine itself is bright, colourful and easy to read. I love that they always give card ideas and clearly show you how to reproduce them yourself, step by step, and include all the materials that have been used, their prices, and where you can buy them. They feature a lot of new products to the market, telling you what the latest trends are and must haves. They have reader's pages where you can see other peoples cards they've sent it or even see your own published! There are prize draws to win craft products, interviews with people from the 'craft world', a puzzles page, a very useful craft companies index, and so much inspiration for making cards for all occasions. Certain months of the year the magazine tends to have sections that focus on certain events - for example, November's issue would feature a lot of articles on Christmas cards, and the month before Easter would see ideas for spring and Easter cards.

I buy quite a few craft magazines and it is my favourite of them all. I cannot understand how they manage to price it so low but am very glad that they do! It has a very friendly feel and online you will find a Docrafts forum where you can meet other readers. They cover all ranges of ability - there are 'easy' makes and then card ideas for more advanced readers to tackle. I look forward to getting my issue every time and I know I will always learn something new or see new products I want to buy and try out myself. I keep my back issues and I often pick them up again months later and see something I didn't get round to trying that I then attempt doing. I think that if you are new to crafting then this is one of the best magazines you can get to start you off and if you are a seasoned crafter, then the chances are you already buy this! ;o)

The downside to this magazine is that it is not available everywhere. If you go to your supermarket and look at the craft magazine section, it won't be there. It is only available in craft shops and if you don't have a local one of those, you have to get it online. This of course means you have to pay P&P charges which are annoying when the magazine itself is such a good price. Unless... you are like me and buy from an online store that offers free P&P!! This is hard to find because most insist on a minimum order of £5 to qualify for free shipping. I usually combine buying my magazine with stocking up on other goodies too and so go over the £5 mark. Sometimes though, this isn't always the case and I buy from an online store that offers free P&P with no minimum spend. There are sites like this around and I can always be messaged if you want to know more on this.

Summary: Must buy for a crafter!