Hello Diana, I live in London and only started scrapbooking recently so I am not too sure on the shops in the UK, but this is what I found: there is much, much, much more available in the US and it is also a lot cheaper there. Often you would find that an item priced US$10 would cost £10-12, plus a lot of things are simply not available here at all. One thing that is virtually impossible to find here are value packs of anything (which seem to be widely available in the US). Also, I don't think there are any discount coupons available, which I gather are one of the best things about scrapbook supplies shopping in the US...
The most popular craft in the UK is cardmaking, with scrapbooking just beginning to catch on. There are people who have been cardmaking for years and only recently started scrapbooking, so the market is beginning to pick up but things are still very expensive. The most widely available scrapbooking brands here are Making Memories, K &Co, Papermania, with some non-chain stores selling other brands, such as papers by SEI or KI Memories. As an example, I recently visited a craft shop called Creative Pastimes, which was voted second best for papercrafts in the South East, and I could only find single papers by Bazzill, MM, SEI, KI Memories, AMM, Doodlebug, Basic Grey, K&Co and some layering blocks by DCVW...
There are only two craft chain stores in the UK, as far as I know: Hobbycraft, which carries some basic scrapbooking supplies (and also a lot of other crafts, from cross stitch to silk painting to model making) and there is also Lakeland, primarily mail order company which also carries some (but not many) scrapbooking supplies. You will find that independent craft stores are often located in barns on farms in the countryside. These shops often offer classes in anything papercraft-related. Also, these shops don't really have very good sales (last time I went was the biggest sale of the year and only very few things were actually reduced, and even then they were more expensive than in the US!) and I also noticed some items being sold well above the RRP! The situation is dire... But these shops are still worth visiting, especially for other papercrafts or crafting in general! However, there are a lot of online shops so you can find what you are looking for... eventually.
In fact, I have found that scrapbook supplies are so much better in America and my husband is stopping over in LA for two days on his way back from NZ especially to go scrapbook supplies shopping for me! I am compiling a loooooooooong shopping list!
I can recommend some great papercraft magazines in UK: Papercraft Inspirations, Scrapbook Inspiration, Creative Scrapbooking, The Scrapbook Magazine and others. There are some very talented scrapbook designers in the UK (alas I often find the products they use are not that easy to find here). I also recommend watching the QVC shopping channel in the UK on Tuesdays from 14:00-16:00 - Paper Crafting with Dawn Bibby (Dawn Bibby is the UK's 'cardmaking queen'). This would give you an idea of the trends in UK papercrafts. You can have a look here:
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If you need more info, please let me know. If you tell me which part of the UK you are visiting, I can look through my magazines and find out about the shops in that area. Klara