Glenda's show on Saturday not Friday?

[Marie]

Maybe I got it wrong in the first place but i was setting up my sky+ this evening to record a few shows this week including Glenda's winter glimmer show, which I thought was on Friday morning at 9am. Anyway I noticed it had been replaced by the POTW show but thankfully is on Saturday morning at 9am instead.

As I say, maybe I got it wrong in teh first place but just in case anyone else thought it was Friday.:confused:

[Wellington]

It quite possibly was on on Friday origanally Marie, C&C seem to chuck things round their schedule willy nilly these days - particularly Glenda's shows ATM :mad:

[Chess]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that C&C are losing the plot now as well? I've just checked out today's and tomorrow's schedule and if you're not watching through the night there's hardly a prerecord in sight. Today there are 6 half hour shows and one 1 hour one between 9am and midnight, and tomorrow, as far as I can see, there are none - the schedule is just packed with POTW, 4 day deal and craft weekend programmes. It used to be that that was where C&C won out against QVC, but to be honest, if IW win the Craft Awards this year it'll show the awards as a complete farce. I wonder if more and more of the quality suppliers are voting with their feet, or whether they are just too much competition for the company's own wholesale company, Superstore TV?

[Wellington]

Can't be doing with all these half hour pre-records they seem to have on ATM - don't mind the odd one or 2, but they have so many of them on these days. Those & the 'come & join our club' shows :mad: Smacks of some desperation IMHO.

[Tolly]

Totally agree with you Chess and Wellington.

I was at the NEC last weekend and the hard sell of "Come and join the club" was nauseating! Now they are even giving away a "free" months membership with the latest Weightman cd monstrosity....certainly seems like desperation to me! Am still trying to work out where the friendship bit comes in to it! Weightman sells it as some kind of social club but without a forum to get to know the members on, such as here, how the heck can you meet fellow members?!

Also why bother to join it when they have removed the only time it was actually worth using the discount for - during the sale craft shows!

[crafty anne]

Tolly, have to take umbrage with you :) the "latest Weightman CD monstrosity" is in fact absolutely gorgeous. I received mine last week and can honestly say it is one of the best I have.

As to C&C, if I don't like what is on, I turn it off, there's plenty of other things to watch on TV. I'm a member because I like the discount and I quite like the magazine as well. I always find it strange that some people seem to think that Ideal World and C&C are some kind of free entertainment or teaching channel, they are not. They are a business and their business is selling. However, I do believe that as a by product of this, they have been responsible for the popularity of other businesses such as Joanna Sheen, Glenda (before her bust up with them), Crafters Companion and so on, they have also brought wonderful demonstrators into our homes such as Jayne Nestorenko, Nancy Watt, Sue Smith, Wendi Rhodes and so on. Unfortunately they have also brought red hot bed into our homes as well but that's easy I just turn those shows off! I have still voted for them as channel of the year because QVC crafting may have some nice bits and pieces how they present them is just downright boring.

[Tolly]

Okay... outside Crafty Anne.....embossing boards at 10 paces it is then!:D

Agreed with most of what you said with the exception of the cd...have seen it and sorry but still don't like it. It was interesting to note the demonstrators you listed as some of the best ones that C&C have brought us. Did you notice that with the exception of Nancy Watts they were all brought to us by Alan & Barrys' C&C?

I also switch off programmes I don't like...and that is why my television hardly ever has C&C on there these days!

Now where's that embossing board?! :D

[ob1]

As to C&C, if I don't like what is on, I turn it off,

Turning it off is all very well, I'd like to be able to figure out when to turn it on. If only they'd stick to the advertised schedule - I'm fed up with tuning in only to find they've switched to a different programme at the last minute, or that I've missed a guest I would have liked to see because it just appeared in the schedule as "rubber stamping" rather than listing it as Jayne Nestorenko or Glenda or whatever.

[crafty anne]

I have a glue gun Tolly, and I'm not afraid to use it!! :)

We will have to agree to differ on the CD, I think it is just lovely, superb artwork.

As for A&B, well they did actually work for Ideal World and got the heave ho which I was pretty pleased about and I remember watching quite a few shows with A&B and Nancy Watts, she's been around for about 5 years I reckon. Anyway as for A&B, they have all but disappeared since they parted company with IW (sorry no loss there I'm afraid), let's hope that Glenda doesn't as well, but you have to wonder how she is going to publicise her product now.

Getting back to C&C shows, I remember this time last year there were lots of gripes about the content of the shows in the run up to the end of the year. They obviously use this time of year to clear the decks.

[Chess]

Re A&B: they have 2 live shows a day on Sky, and have a website that knocks C&C into a cocked hat. There are umpteen product-related demos, galleries etc available to all users. I've heard that there is sometimes a problem with deliveries but their Customer Service team sure show the IW shower a thing or two. Looking back on some of the early shows which I recorded, it's almost a case of 'bring them back, all is forgiven!!' And I wasn't a fan! I've said elsewhere that at least there was a variety, both of products and of guests. M Marsden started appearing with them (and getting on well with them) not that long before they left, but we were never overwhelmed week in week out with her stuff. As for Glenda, she clearly has a reputation and following far and wide which do not rely on IW: I would bet she'll survive the same way as others who have freed themselves from the shackles and appalling reputation of Diabolical World.

[pyjama princess]

.... Anyway as for A&B, they have all but disappeared since they parted company with IW (sorry no loss there I'm afraid), .....

With turnover this year close to the one million mark I don't think it can be said that they've all but disappeared :)

This is a newspaper article from a few months ago.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/businessfeatures/Crafty-web-show-gets-an.4265874.jp

[Marie]

I've never yet managed to find Alan & Barry on sky, despite tuning into their channel, but I'm sure I'll find it eventually. But to add my 2pennysworth, one of teh reasons I've started crafting is because of seeing shows on IW/C&C and QVC. I really enjoy the different presenters and products and there is no way that I could have started to develop my own skills without seeing them on TV.
I sometimes get the feeling that there is a bit of craft snobbery from "experienced" crafters who generally avoid the TV shows and rarely buy goods from them and the rest of us who are learning and like the products. Also, I've been off work with a lot of ill health over the past couple of years and watching shopping TV and the craft shows has helped to pass the time instead of feeling as though I'm cut off from the rest of the world. So I'm a real supporter of the channels, they aren't perfect, none of us are, and we should remember that they are in business and not social networks.
Having said all that, even I've noticed recently what seems like almost begging us to "join our club" on C&C as well as a preponderence of shows with 2 guests, ie Michelle and Nancy, with a bit of Jayne, Crafters Companion and a few others thrown in for good measure. I actually think that they all do a very good job, the few times i've been in front of a camera I've come across as a blithering idiot so I know it's not as easy as it looks. But I have been disappointed with the rescheduling over recent months, especially cancelling Glenda's show last weekend, as it suggests that they have little regard for the viewer. The powers that be must know by now that many of us were at the least disappointed so they can't pretend that they don't know! I also think that the tactics to stop us getting our discount on sale items is a bit of a swizz. But they do sell some things at very good prices (I know you can find good prices elsewhere if you know where to look but I'm generally happy buying from them if the price is okay so I don't have to spend my time looking!) so I guess it's swings and roundabouts.
Anyway that's my opinion and I'm sure taht most of you have switched off from this post from sheer boredom!

[LoobyLou]

There are some very good points raised here both for an against IW and it's marketing ethos. One thing I beg to differ on though. They are in no way responsible for Joanna Sheen's success. She is the mistress of that all by herself. She set a forum up for a few of us who were being spammed to death on another craft forum and it just snowballed from there. She works hard, has great CS and delivery and deserves all the success she has. Her fans would buy her products with or without the discount that CC/IW offers, and in fact unless it's on one of their admittedly frequent PnP free days/weekends then often it's still cheaper to get from Joanna herself.

Got my tweezers ready if anyone wants to take me on :p

LL

[Marie]

I'm sure you're right about JS, LL, actually I'm not a great fan of many of her "vintage" products, but I do enjoy watching her stamping and doing shows where she is demonstrating her technique. She is clearly an excellent artist and it's great that she has managed to achieve this in such a competitive and money orientated market. It's useful to know that her stuff is usually cheaper direct if I want to buy, but again it might work in her favour to purchase from IW/C&C if it keeps her sales figures up and ensures that she gets invited back.
Anyway enough of my proselytising (not sure what that means but it sounds good!) and I hope you all have a good night's sleep!

[Phree]

Oh dear, do I see the glint of sharpened pokey tools, please ladies lets not fall out over the fact we all like different stuff;)

As for IW and Glenda, well Glenda has her own companies, she manufactures and distributes her own stamps via a number of UK retailers, she also has Graphicus, her craft shop. She is a UK distributor for some rather lush products from the US, and on top of that she has one of the most popular crafting blogs in the UK, so whatever happens next, I doubt if Glenda's sinking into crafting obscurity is going to be one possible outcome.

As for her working relationship with IW, well who knows - her shows always sell out fast when she brings new stuff so they must have been making money for IW - I guess it's up to IW and Glenda to work out if there is a way forwards that suits both companies.

[Wellington]

Lots of stuff going on here :) Marie, I was like you - it was C&C that got me right into crafting when I stumbled across it nearly 2yrs ago. Other peeps on here know that I used to defend C&C a lot, but they do seem to have become rather lost in the last 12months or so. There really does seem to be far too much of similar products & the overkill on the craft days/weekends in the last 6months has been ridciculous.

I liked having a weekly craft POTD to look forward to & then a Craft Day every 6/8 weeks, but now it's just too much cos they don't actually offer much different each time they do one (every other week)