Hobbycraft, the UK's largest arts and crafts retailer, celebrated the opening of its new store at Lakeside Retail Park in West Thurrock on Saturday (16 September) with a host of crafting activities, product offers and goody bags for the first 100 customers who walked through the doors.

 The store officially opened on Wednesday, 13 September, whilst the grand store opening event following on attended by Mayor of Thurrock, Councillor Susan Little.

 The new Hobbycraft store offers customers the retailers' extensive range of crafting products from art, baking, home craft, papercraft, knitting, sewing, kids' crafts and model making to accessories for weddings, celebrations and much more.

 Furthermore, the Lakeside store will be hosting a free Decopatch workshop on Saturday, 23 September, in which customers can create their very own Decoupage animal to take home with them, and a free Digital Cutting Demonstration with Cricut on Saturday 30th September, in which customers can learn new digital cutting techniques from a Cricut expert. Both sessions will be running throughout 9am and 1pm.

Hobbycraft Lakeside created 12 new jobs in the local area. The new Hobbycraft colleagues will be on hand to provide their crafting expertise, with some of the team including:

•  Cameron – Sewing Expert
• Amelia – Crochet Expert
• Shika – Art Expert
• Nicola – Cricut Expert

The Lakeside store will offer customers a range of experiences and dedicated craft spaces in store, including:

Store Manager, Gina Ford, comments: "Our amazing store is packed with crafting materials to suit all ages and abilities, and beginners through to experienced crafters are all welcome to pop into the store and chat to our creative colleagues. They're always happy to share their knowledge, tips and tricks."

 To find out more information visit the new Hobbycraft at Unit A2B Lakeside Retail Park, West Thurrock, RM20 3LP or visit the Hobbycraft website at www.hobbycraft.co.uk. The new Lakeside store will be open Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm, Saturday 9am to 7pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm.