Stampin' Up! goodies

Just sitting down with a cuppa for five minutes and the doorbell went. It was the postman and he handed me a huge padded envelope.
I couldn't think what it was as I knew I wasn't expecting anything but then I wondered if I'd actually ordered some stash without realising!

I'm on the email list for a couple of hundred craft shops and now and again when I've had an email about exciting new stock I'll pop things in an on-line basket but then not go through to the payment stage, asking myself  "Do you really need this?".

Anyway I opened this packet, a bit confused and a lot concerned.
Initially concerned in case I had spent money that I hadn't accounted for but then when I realised it was all Stampin' Up! supplies I was very worried that someone had made a mistake with my name and address and had sent me someone else's stash.

If it was just one small item I might not have thought too much about it, although would still have been confused, but I quickly totted up what I thought this lot might be worth (2 x ink pads @ £5 each, paper pack @ £10, some cardstock, ribbon, one of the stamp sets is about £22...)

And then, I found this, sticking to the bottom of a pack of cardstock:

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won a prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can actually keep the stash, how cool is that??
I never normally win anything so it was such a nice surprise. Well I have won stash before but it was from sending in cards/ letters/ tips to magazines, I've never won anything from just entering a prize draw.

I did go through a phase once of sending things to magazines, and found they vary in what they give you for any contributions. My craft club was featured in Docrafts magazine years ago and they sent free copies of that issue, a different craft magazine (think it was Cardmaking & Papercraft) also featured our club and sent about £50 of free stuff so that was nice.
Tips were usually worth about £5-£10
A card I made -  £25
Another card (Crafts Beautiful) won a massive box, £100 of mixed stash, had fun opening that one.

I haven't sent anything in for ages but might start again, I've tried encouraging my craft club ladies to do so in the past but I don't think any of them have as yet.
Right now I think I ought to make Papercraft Inspirations a thank you card, they've made my morning :)