7gypsies, which was founded in 2001, had been part of Ultra-Pro since 2004. The company is known for its eclectic vintage style. Its bestselling signature products include the Binderie punch, printer trays, vintage image clear stamps, and paper tape.

Springdale, Arkansas-based Canvas Corp was founded in 2006 by Randy and Christine Meier. The Meiers had previously founded DMD Industries in the mid-1990′s. (That company is now a property of ANW/Crestwood after being sold to them in February 2010 by the now bankrupt Westrim.) Canvas Corp sells products under the name Canvas Home Basics to the scrapbook, craft and home decor market. Although it produces popular patterned papers, the company is perhaps best known for creating products from materials besides paper: burlap, corrugated cardboard, and its namesake canvas.

“Our focus is to bring creative ideas and people back together,” said Christine Meier, Co-Founder of Canvas Corp. “and the fit could not be more perfect with the 7gypsies team, design esthetic and core philosophy.

Ultra-Pro’s other scrapbooking brands, Chatterbox and Around the Block, were also included in the sale to Canvas Corp. Chatterbox was purchased by Ultra-Pro in 2007, and Around the Block was purchased in 2008. Both brands were retired in 2009. The inclusion of these brands in the Canvas Corp transaction divests Ultra-Pro of all their scrapbooking assets and returns the company to its core business creating protective storage items for collectibles such as baseball cards and sports memorabilia.

7gypsies’ operations will be moving from California to Canvas Corps’ headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas. The 7gypsies sales office in Utah will remain open and their contact information will not change.

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For those of you who just said, “well, duh, Melissa,” let me explain. I’m not talking about just any old tape here. I’m talking about the fun, decorative, available-in-so-many-colors-and-patterns-that-it-makes-you-want-to-collect-them-all kind of tape!

Also commonly known as “washi” tape (from the Japanese word referring to a specific type of handmade paper), decorative tape is available to crafters in a dazzling array of colors, widths, and types of materials. Many Etsy shops and small online sellers offer imported washi tape made in the traditional Japanese style, and a large number of scrapbook manufacturers also produce their own varieties of similar decorative tape.

Scrapbook-specific styles of decorative tape are being designed to coordinate with new paper lines, such as American Crafts Mixtapes from the “City Park” and “Dear Lizzy: Enchanted” collections.

Making Memories has introduced patterned tapes for many of its new lines over the years including their latest travel release, “Panorama“.

Decorative tape fits right in with 7 Gypsies’ vintage, eclectic style, and they’ve produced it to coordinate with many of their lines such as “Lille,” “Avignon,” and “Venice.” The patterns are reminiscent of vintage ephemera – 7 Gypsies’ signature look.

Holidays and seasons are another popular design theme for decorative tape. Tim Holtz has some amazing designs in this area, including “Hobgoblin” (Halloween) and “Tidings” (Christmas) versions of his tissue tape.

American Crafts’ holiday-themed tape is also a strong entrant in this category. The “Dear Lizzy: Christmas” version features a gorgeous array of colors and patterns in a single package.

7 Gypsies has a fun Christmas set available in the form of their “Christmas Wrap” collection.

Not even Martha Stewart can resist the attraction of decorative tape, as evidenced by this sweet Valentine’s Day offering.

Many decorative tapes are also being produced as standalone products with no associated holiday or paper line. Perhaps some of the most popular of these are Tim Holtz’s tissue tapes – the timeless patterns and neutral colors of his designs (“Sketchbook,” “Nostalgic,” and “Journeyman” shown below)  make them perfect accents for all types of layouts, cards, and paper projects.

Tim even dreamed up a tape-gun style dispenser for his tissue tapes that’s now being produced by Advantus.

Pink Paislee has several styles of tape available in their Artisan line of generic embellishments, including the Bayberry, Green, Lime, and Red varieties shown below.

Martha Stewart has another entry in this category – the fresh and feminine “Vintage Girl” collection.

Hambly has jumped into the washi tape trend in a big way with their new tapes. Four new collections were debuted at CHA Winter 2011 and have been one of the most anticipated releases from the show.

Digital scrapbookers aren’t left out of this latest trend. Many designers are now including coordinating tape strips in their digital kits as well as offering standalone tape collections. “Patterned Tapes No. 1” and “Defined Tapes No. 1” from Designer Digitals are just two of the many, many styles available.

So what can you do with all of those beautiful products? Decorative tape is a supply that is as versatile as it is varied, and there are myriad uses for it on your papercrafting projects. It makes a wonderful base for embellishment clusters – just tear off a small piece and use it as a way to anchor your embellishments to each other and to the photo block at the same time. You can use it to completely cover die cuts and chipboard (instead of using paint or patterned paper). It’s a wonderful replacement for ribbon or paper strips, and it’s even great at adhering items (imagine that)! Amy Tan is a master at that last one and often uses copious amounts of washi tape in her travel mini albums (you can see one of her more recent works here). She also offers an instant download course at Big Picture Classes called “Get Those Creative Juices Flowing,” in which she covers her use of washi tape along with ideas for making your own.

Another use for washi tape? Fold it over baker’s twine and cut to shape for a fun spin on the pennant trend!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper (“Raven“)
Patterned Paper: Creative Imaginations (“Threepio “, “Blueprint” and “Storm Trooper” Die Cut)
Journaling Spot: Anna Griffin (“Darcy” collection)
Letter Stickers: American Crafts (“Poolside” white)
Punches: Martha Stewart Crafts
Baker’s Twine: The Twinery (Charcoal)
Spray Mist: Studio Calico (Calico White)
Decorative Tape: Tim Holtz for Advantus (“Journeyman“)

I’d like to take a moment to thank Japan – a country that has gifted to the world such cultural phenomenons as Hello Kitty, anime, and Nintendo – for giving papercrafters everywhere a trend that they can call their very own. Which reminds me…I found the cutest Hello Kitty washi tapes on Etsy and need to go order some right now!

The staff of Scrapbook Update would like to extend our sincere best wishes to the people of Japan as they work to recover from the recent earthquakes and tsunami.

(These trends shouldn’t be confused with design trends, which will be addressed in another article. This article just deals with what types of products are being introduced, not what style they are.)

So, in no particular order…here’s the first five of the top ten product trends from CHA Winter 2010:

1. Banners

This trend is actually a product and a design trend. Banners were everywhere at CHA Winter. They were for sale as products, and handmade ones were used as booth displays to show off new products. But here, we’re only concerned about the products. There were canvas banners, banner board books, banner stickers & paper, and banner stamps:

Clockwise from top left: Canvas Home Basics, Canvas Home Basics, October Afternoon, Maya Road, Webster’s Pages, October Afternoon.

2. Decorative Tape

Tape has been around for awhile in a limited sense – I personally own a huge collection of the Heidi Swapp and Making Memories designs and love using them on pages and cards – but now tape is popping up everywhere. There was even a new exhibitor at CHA Winter called Love My Tapes that sells nothing but tape.

Tape is appealing for several reasons to both buyers and sellers. It can sell at an affordable price point for a large quantity. It also has use to a wide range of crafters, from scrapbookers, to cardmakers and beyond.

Clockwise from top left: Love My Tapes, Pink Paislee, Pink Paislee, 7 Gypsies, Tim Holtz idea-ology, Making Memories.

3. Felt

Felt has been around for awhile as well but it is becoming increasingly commonplace. The retro craze has made it especially popular. It’s being used for a wide range of sticker-type embellishments, as well as by companies like Queen & Co. for ribbon-style borders.

Clockwise from top left: Prima, Making Memories, Dear Lizzy by American Crafts, BasicGrey, Kaisercraft, Queen & Co.

4. Artist Trading Cards

ATC’s have been on the fringe of the paper crafts industry for awhile but lately they’ve been growing in importance as companies like 7 Gypsies have been releasing products aimed squarely at that activity, and stampers and scrapbookers look for more things to do with their supplies.

At the CHA Craft Supershow in Anaheim, one booth was doing brisk business in selling ATC card blanks from specialty papers by Strathmore. At the trade show, companies as diverse as Tim Holtz and Making Memories both introduced ATC supplies. Many stamp designs were being sold that were obviously influenced by the ATC aesthetic, which is infiltrating mainstream scrapbooking.

The bottom example here is of the most importance in illustrating this trend. It is of the Shabby Chic version of the new Tim Holtz idea-ology paper pads. It includes pages that are 12×12 as well as pages that are designed to be cut into smaller sizes. There’s some 6×6, some tiny squares, and then some pages that are a combination of ATC’s and borders. This is a big development in the market, selling a product that is designed assuming that most buyers are interested at least somewhat in ATC’s as well as more traditional scrapbooking and card making.

5. Unmounted Rubber Stamps

The use of acrylic stamps has been exploding in the scrapbooking industry. There are several reasons for the growth of unmounted rubber: Concern about the design limitations of clear stamps, a desire to attract hardcore rubber enthusiasts as customers, or the need to compete with the price of clear stamps.

Clockwise from top left: Eco Green Crafts, Hero Arts, Stampendous, Lizzie Anne Designs, Stamper’s Anonymous, Unity Stamps.

Stay tuned for part two, coming soon!

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]]> http://www.scrapbookupdate.com/2010/02/02/top-ten-product-trends-at-cha-winter-2010-part-1/feed/ 10 http://www.scrapbookupdate.com/2008/07/17/around-the-block-joins-ultrapro-family/ http://www.scrapbookupdate.com/2008/07/17/around-the-block-joins-ultrapro-family/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:16:02 +0000 Nancy Nally http://scrapbookupdate.lifedecanted.com/?p=229 Ultra*Pro Corp, already the parent company of scrapbooking manufacturers 7 Gypsies and Chatterbox, announced July 10th that it has also added the company Around the Block to its growing scrapbook industry portfolio.

Around the Block, which was founded in 2005 by Guinevere Wessell and Jennifer Straus and previously owned by Masterpieces Puzzle Company, specializes in creating tools for scrapbookers. Their most recent introduction is the Paper Gator, a tabletop corner rounder tool that cuts through multiple sheets of paper (or even chipboard), and which features several available cutting blades for different corner cuts. Around the Block also makes the Tape Writer, a label-maker type tool with interchangeable font wheels.

Ultra*Pro will move Around the Block’s operations to their City of Commerce, CA headquarters just as they have done with previous acquisitions 7 Gypsies and Chatterbox. Ultra*Pro has been on something of a scrapbook company buying spree of late – it was only in Dec. 2007 that they snatched up the reportedly struggling Chatterbox.