Rubbadubbadoo www.rubbadubbadoo.co.uk

For those of you who are card-makers - particularly using rubber stamping as one of your crafts - the name Rubbadubbadoo will probably be very familiar. However, I'm sure that not everyone will know that they can buy directly from the company.

It was not something I knew until I found out quite by accident. I found their website listed in Beautiful Cards on the page of stockists. I was curious to see what the website was like as I haven't been able to find the stamps I wanted locally. I have to say that I was really impressed.

The website itself is more than just an on-line shop. When reading down the list of departments on the home page, you find that as well as the sales department there is also a Craft Forum - definitely worth a visit, there is also a Gallery of cards made by their various designers and customers. They have recently had a card-making competition and the winners and runners-up are listed. There is a Projects page with cards of different styles and full instructions on how to make them and the materials required.

When you get to the On-Line Shop you find the huge range of their rubber stamps. With these you get a choice of wood-mounted, foam-backed or magnetic. The magnetic option means that you don't have to find so much storage space as they are only the thickness of the rubber and you use one or two (there are different sizes) magnetic blocks for your whole collection. As I am rapidly running out of storage space, this was the option I chose. The stamps are of extremely high quality and give the best possible results. I shall certainly shop there whenever I need more.

Of course, this is not the only department, even though it is a rubber stamp manufacturer. You can also purchase stamp pads, pens, ink, embossing powders, paper and card and various other items required for this particular hobby.

Having decided on your purchases the procedure is quite straightforward - adding items to your shopping basket and moving forward to the checkout. They have a standard postage and packing charge of £1.95 (U.K. 2nd Class) or £2.50 (U.K. 1st class) - postage free for orders over £40. The charges for overseas orders are also shown on the website. Their aim is for all orders to be delivered within five to seven working days from the order - and for my part, I found that my order was delivered well within this time.

Every Wednesday they have a special offer which, if you are signed up for their newsletter, they email to you. Sometimes this means certain stamps are half-price! They also let you know when there are new items that they think might interest you.

The latest news is that they are about to open the first Rubbadubbadoo shop. This will stock all their stamps in all forms - there is more information on their Home Page.

I hope that this will be of use to you and I thank you for reading it. Happy Crafting!