Hi! It's Marnie. In lieu of today's Sunday Photo & Words, I have prepared for you a summary of the things that caught my eye while I was in Chicago this past week at the Craft & Hobby Show.
As a little background, CHA is held in July, most often in Chicago. The manufacturers bring their new releases so that the stores can send their buyers to place orders for product for the next 6 months. With the decline in the industry and the increases in digital abilities, the show is smaller than it once was, but still remains a fantastic place to see what is coming. And to build relationship and reconnect with industry peers.
Overall, the show was a tremendous success. Every company, without exception, with whom I spoke was pleased to have attended and pleased with the purchasing. This is good for us, as consumers, as it means that those companies that remain standing should be here another year, and that the scrapbooking industry has found its foothold in this new economy.
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TRENDS
The first time I went to a show, as I tried to watch for trends, I realized that I was too giddy from all the product to notice anything but the speed of my heartbeat and the saliva drooling down my chin. Silly, huh? But to this day, it still happens, so now I go slow and don't try to notice trends as much as I let them reveal themselves to me.
Overall Trends
Generally, I noticed that most brands have clearly established their identities and their new products were true to our sense of their brands. No one tried to be anyone else, and no one tried to step too far outside their zone. I do not mean to say that there is nothing fun coming, not at all! Rather, that everyone produced a message consistent with their history and purpose. For example, Jillibean, Bella Blvd, October Afternoon, and Doodlebug remained true to their color palettes. Imaginisce, Jenni Bowlin, Studio Calico and Webster's Pages held true to their design aesthetic. American Crafts and Maya Road offered up patterns and items that we have come to love and appreciate (and maybe even expect?! teehee!) from each of them.
Repeating Elements
As for repeating elements, there were rulers, cameos/silhouettes, and carnival monograms in full supply. I tried to photograph them as I saw them. Banners are still plentiful as are owls, penguins, and twine. Misting is steadily growing. Tool advances were best seen, again, in the punches.
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EXHIBITORS
IMAGINISCE
Having established themselves as a veritable tool maker, Imaginisce wins again with a new giant i-top, colored foam tape, little snippers, and a rotating punch that reminds me of a leather punch. (But pink, of course!)
They have four new lines: a school line, a fall line, a grown up travel line, and a Christmas line. All produced with the colors, icons, and whimsy that we know and love from Imaginisce. Just look that little Christmas tree person. So sweet. Just like I want from my Imaginisce.
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CONNIE CRYSTAL
was up next. And while not a scrapbook site, there was no way to not admire the creativity here.
and Cinderella has definitely misplaced this shoe!
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TONIC STUDIOS
Even though not new, the petal punches deserve a call out for their ingenuity. Advances in punches are still arriving. Petal punches layer:
And these punches make fancy cuts and trims.
It's always interesting to me to see how dimension sneaks into punches. And to see how far punches have come.
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NIKKI SIVILS
Nikki's new lines include germs, monsters, and school schtuff. (If you look closely you will see new Unity stamps and also some awesome burlap buttons!!)
One of my favorite things about coming to the show is seeing how well the design teams showcase the products. Like this monster killing spray bottle, and this tipped acrylic photo frame made into teacher's gift.
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BELLA BOULEVARD
Bella was busy! They have such a way with patterns, color, and embellishments. After taking a year off, they are back with a Christmas line again.
The colors are great and include unexpected by well placed bits of yellow. They also have cardstock alphies but numbers (numberies?). A brilliant strategy for those who like to make December dailies, with loads of 0s, 1s, and 2s.
Bella also has new Unity stamps to coordinate with each of their lines. They were only one of several companies to have outsourced their stamps to Unity.
Their fall line maintains last year's color scheme which seems brilliant to me. It allows the two lines to intermingle, as well as allowing to create new home decor projects that will coordinate perfectly with those from last year.
Also new is a sports line which might very well be the most understated sports line ever made. I love it. So very smart. And this layout took my breath away.
The Halloween line wins twice with sweet little ghoulies and clouds with lightning bolts. Love love love this paper line.
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JILLIBEAN SOUP
This year, like every year, the Jillibean booth was hopping! And for good reason! Great colors, great patterns, and some fun new features.
Jill reformatted the letter sticker page, so that it now includes the mini alphas as well as the large.
The fall line rocks a perfect color palette, yummy buttons, and the most adorable gnome you could imagine.
As part of the Christmas line, while Jill worked on a penguin, her daughter, sitting across the table worked on a penguin family. Guess whose penguins made it onto the paper?
Proof that creativity must be genetic! :)
For other new products, Jillibean has new twine colors, new labels,
and a great new sewing line.
And one paper has carnival monograms, something we saw in quite a few booths this year.
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LOVE MY TAPES
We all love tape these days. But how about some lace tape? Genius. Want some. Might even be a need.
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COSMO CRICKET
Cosmo showcased three lines this show with the colors that we love them for.
The butterflies in the Clementine are delicious; I liked the stark black additions to the Christmas line; and the dreamy pastel brights of Odds and Ends are interestingly juxtaposed against the green apple.
I missed getting a shot of the new big glubers. Fun stuff. And the picture is too small to properly show the new Tiny Text sheets. They remind me of the old text sheets from Making Memories. And I can't remember where, but I did see them at a couple of other booths as well.
Notice their carnival monograms. Trend trend trend.
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FELT!
Again, not a scrapbooking company, but their rolled little felt balls are amazing.
Look at what they do with them. Delightful!
And look how cute Paula and Emily are as they do their make and take!!
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MAYA ROAD
I spy Karen!!
Oooh, her projects are even more lovely in real life. I wish you could be here with me to see them.
Maya Road is filled with new stuff. Some giant woolly blooms
and many others that were much smaller. Of those, my favorite was the velvet resin flowers (which will absorb mist!!)(Sorry for the blurry photo.)
More of the quiet but firm trend, rulers...
And the trims. Oooh, the trims...
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SRM STICKERS
Susan, owner and genius behind SRM is kind, sweet, and incredibly devoted to her product. Their stickers are nearly invisible making them perfect additions for any projects. And coming up for next year are mini calendars
and new additions to their cardmaking sheets. Would you like to see another blog swap? hmm....
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AUTHENTIQUE
This company is new but the founders are anything but. Longtime industry biggies who have just sat out a non-compete clause, Authentique burst onto the market with six lines. Four are color based (yellow, blue, pink, and multi-colored), and two holiday lines (Halloween and Christmas). Something unique to this line is a bi-fold paper.
When we asked about it, they explained that every line needs good foundation papers, but they are sort of boring to see on the shelf so they put all four foundation papers into one sheet, freeing up shelf space and letting the patterns take center stage. Clever!
And speaking of clever, all the little bits have a patterned backside. Ooh, perfect for our mini albums.
And I might have spied more rulers...
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SIMPLE STORIES
A new'ish company, their booth was giant and their releases huge! Stepping in to the kraft/weathered/vintage market, they will certainly fill a niche. And the owners were so nice. So very very nice.
Oh, and do I spy a ruler?
I might have been so beguiled by this next one that I forgot to take more pictures! But we will make up for it in with the August giveaway calendar... ::wink wink::
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LILYBEE
Lilybee has tremendous new product coming. The colors are scrumptious.
They have included mini paper pads (as do many companies this year, come to think of it...)
But my favorite new Lilybee item? This full page alphas sticker sheet, that will retail for just $4.99.
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CRAFTER'S WORKSHOP
The Crafter's Workshop sells stencils. And to help you understand how fun they are, they set up a whole table of creative mediums, a stack of tags, and instructions by Julie Balzar. A very very good idea for helping us realize the benefit and versatility of stencils.
And a great excuse to get our hands dirty. Literally.
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MY MIND'S EYE
Such love. Always such love. Two Christmas lines, one Halloween. New Lost and Found.
Glitter accents on the paper that don't fall off. And, what is that we see? More rulers?
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AMERICAN CRAFTS
Oh how we adore thee. There was terrific buzz around Amy Tan's new line. We couldn't be more excited for her. The colors are current without being too trendy, and the textures are amazing. Fabric, tapes, buttons, and funky paperclips are just part of the fun. And did we mention fabric Thickers?
One of not-just-our favorites was her mini album--an eclectic gathering of papers and tags, with a stitched binding. So very Amy, so very fun. And a great price at $7.99.
A very traditional Christmas line with candy cane stripes on the Thickers, tinsel in the trims, and elves to help Santa.
Daydreams is classic American Crafts. Again, a company staying very true to their brand.
A Fall-oween line with a new vanilla background paper, very thin puffy Thickers, and blackboard labels and paper. Curious and cool.
Garden Cafe, a fall'ish line with houses and embellies like fanned flowers, and cafe foods. (Notice the small patterns of paper creeping onto the embellies?)
A cutting mat that is not only thick but boasts white lines on one side, black on the other.
A new trimmer that seems safe. (But will it be straight?? Jury hopes so...)
Knockout punches are shipping soon.
Their first stint into the assorted pen package.
(With a retail value of $19.99--woohoo!)
And a value pack of cardstock (100 sheets!!) for $19.99. Did I just hear you shout woohoo? Thought so.
Glittery ribbon, tinsel-y ribbon.
And lastly, microbeads are seeing their comeback. Whodathunkit?
All in all, a really strong showing for American Crafts. Such a stable industry powerhouse. And the nicest family.
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PEBBLES
Still flourishing under the American Crafts umbrella, Pebbles has expanded their immensely popular baby line with new papers and embellishments.
They also have a new line boasting subdued primary hues. (Happily, this color scheme was noticeably present in more than a few booths.)
The Pebbles' Christmas line is also very traditional in color and pattern.
We are so glad that AC scooped up Pebbles so that Brenda could continue creating such fun products.
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OCTOBER AFTERNOON
First, I must confess that October Afternoon makes some of my favorite paper lines. So I went in looking for love. And was not disappointed.
Sasparilla is filled with iconic and cartoon images. Not usually combined in the same line, it somehow works. The colors are vintage OA hues with some uncharacteristic, but not unpleasing, larger scale images of wood and denim.
A cartoon page was very eye catching, as was the clouds paper. Oh, clouds, how I love thee. (You may also notice a variation on the carnival monogram theme. Trend alert!)
Each new line comes complete with a shaped mini album, trim, buttons, and flair.
Sasparilla also includes toothpicks and flags. So cute!! but not as cute as my girl singing cowboy poetry at the campfire...
Boarding pass is their new travel line. But before I saw the papers I saw Marcy!
Or at least Marcy's son's feet! The album for this line is a camera. Which reminds me of an old KI Elsie camera album. (Not a bad thing.)
Farmhouse is so perfectly me that I turned to Kim, the owner and designer, and begged her to come a decorate my house. In those exact colors. Sigh...
And how could one not fall in love with eyelet lace trim and an armoire mini?
Hey, look! It's more rulers! and monograms.
and my perfect paper.
Sidewalk. Another tdf line for me. (Sorry. I try to be thoughtful of your needs, too, but I have such a hard time looking past my own pleasures in this booth...)
More Marcy - oooh, Sidewalk + Marcy = TLF.
And this mini album is a conversation bubble, and the trim has twine. I am weak in the knees.
And now back to regularly scheduled programming wherein Marnie regains a little drool control...
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CANVAS HOME BASICS
This booth was huge and a sight to behold. Everywhere you looked there was something fun to see.
The trinkets were stellar with wooden and painted (black mostly) clothespins of all sizes, spools, packaging, boxes, etc etc etc. It went on and on. Delightfully. But in great measure. Think of it as the Martha Stewart decorating line in rough farmhouse style.
One thing that caught my eye were frames wrapped in burlap and denim.
And they had paper for babies, and the holidays. Logical pairings for packaging and celebration.
But to me the greatest thing is still their canvas bits.
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GLITZ
Glitz released three lines with colors and textures true to their unique style.
Winking at us were more silhouettes and carnival monograms. (no rulers this time, though!!)
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MY LITTLE SHOEBOX
MLS has five new lines!! (Somehow I missed getting photo of their Halloween line.)
Each has five double-sided patterned papers, one diecut paper, one sheet of tags/journaling squares, two full size alphas (with sealed in glitter!), three mini-alphies, a sticker sheet, AND newly added, Unity stamps, a coordinating diecut die, and a sheet with punch out roll up flowers. Whew!
With papers with kites, darling little girls, flowers large enough for fussy cutting, and vespas, there is something for everyone to love. And Helen and Erin are not only talented but extremely kind and lovely. Such a lovely company.
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EK SUCCESS
Every year, Tara from New Jersey gives me my EK tour. But sadly, this year, there was no Tara from Jersey. Another lovely salesrep showed me around the booth. She was helpful but I was disappointed to not hear Tara from Jersey's lovely accent.
On to more important things...
First, up, new punches. There are now punches that pull all the way apart so you can punch in the very middle of the page, if you would like.
There are also punches that make garlands. The shapes are two sizes and work together to create a line of punched shapes. Think hanging monkey lines. Pretty cool. (And the last show had spiders. How fun would that be?)
And lastly, there are fancy, detailed punches.
Martha's party line has expanded. So many do it yourself items from decor to food packaging to invitations. It's all there.
The Smash Box line has a few new items, but many more items are scheduled to preview in January!!
In their do-it-yourself-accessories line, there are new pre-assembled items, component parts awaiting your creative assembly, and a new line by Jule Comstock, owner of Cosmo Cricket.
There were also new stamps, new stickers, and some cool cross-stitch kits. Oh, if only there were more hours in the day.
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WEBSTER'S PAGES
Webster's pages debuted four new lines. The party line had a very lovely color scheme. The hues on the pastel brights were perfectly comprised of lights and brights.
There was a traditional Christmas, and one for people with no snow. Unique. Smart.
And a western theme. With hanging petticoats.
And every new line has feathered flowers, and a plastic mini cd holder filled with journaling papers and cards.
Rulers, anyone?
Cameo pin toppers, thin (hooray!) crocheted embellies, and trims. Bestill my beribboned heart.
Did you happen to notice the raw edged lace?
Sigh... pure love.
All so we can make lovelies like this one.
And lastly, Webster's has created a new program called NovelTree, for printing photo books. (You know how very very happy this one makes me!) With thick matte pages and a cover with a gorgeous matte finish, the pages lay perfectly flat and had beautiful designs. Hopefully there will be more on this soon.
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JENNI BOWLIN
The new Jenni Bowlin includes an addition to their original red and black line. With pen nibs as the graphic anchor to the line, it is sure to please JBS fans.
She has a new cigar box out. Ooh, the possibilities...
And stamps that scream out, I belong to Jenni!
Oooh, what's this? A ruler? :)
And a booth filled with vintage loveliness and whimsical treasures.
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FISKARS
was not at this show, but they did have two Fiskateers browsing in paper dresses with new Fiskars paper. And someone to help sew them in and out of their dresses (hopefully potty breaks were minimal... :) ). That's dedication.
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DOODLEBUG
The only surprise in that Doodlebug won the booth award is that it hadn't happened before. Each year the booth is a visual wonder: colorful, balanced, amazingly well-merchandised, and in every way set up to help you fall in love with their product.
With five new lines, Doodlebug holds true to their roots, with sweet images, whimsical delights. and all sorts of ways to help you make cards and quicker albums.
Debuting their own twine, it is not only very reasonably priced, but the holiday twines are actually three color. And did I mention the twine alphabet stickers?
This year they added dimensional elements to add to their cards. Such magic and only $1.49. Woohoo!
And their albums and page protectors have some great features like 6x12 inserts. Fun!
Congrats to Tonya, Cynthea and team. We are so thrilled for you!! And thank you for an elf with glasses! she was my fave...
Oooh, and in other very exciting Doodlebug news, Riley Blake fabric will be creating a line of Doodlebug fabric, due out in November. And there will be oilcloth! I can't wait!
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PINK PAISLEE
Hello Karen!!! Oh, how I do love your layouts!!
Remember how last year, Pink Paislee showed off their new paper with a resist that meant you could do all sorts of cool things with it? And remember how it didn't really resonate with me? and maybe not with you either? Oh, no! We were so misguided. It is awesome. Check out these tags and bits.
Many of them are misted resist paper. Oh, I think I have fallen in love with a new technique and product. So can't wait to try more.
And look at the new lines.
Pink Paislee always does Halloween so well. So very well. (Oh, and did you notice the silhouette? trendy trendy... :) )
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CRATE PAPER
How much fun is it to just have hanging papers floating all aournd you?
While Crate Paper scaled down its booth, there was nothing scaled down about the team examples--they were amazing. With three new lines, Farmhouse, Random (how awesome is that name?) and Peppermint, Crate will surely maintain their share of consumer love.
Can you see the little bits of yellow in the Christmas line? (does two sightings make a minitrend?)
Mini paper pads and cool trinkets for every line. Can't wait to get some.
And again, some rulers...
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STUDIO CALICO
Studio Calico released three lines. They are easily my favorite SC lines ever,
though Calico Classics is my favorite of the favorites. Those colors. Mmm, good.
I have a not-so-mini crush on the new mini albums.
And the new mini paper pads!
April and her team always do such a terrific job with their booth and samples. And getting to see Kelly P in the booth was the cherry on top! She is simply adorable. And so, so, so very talented.
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So that's it. There were many many many more booths, but never enough time. We found some great items for giveaways and some new understanding of how important it is to know how to use products!! As with each each, we tried to help spread the news of our site, so that we can stick around and help provide you with amazing content.
We are looking forward to a terrific autumn and holiday season of amazing new products and techniques!