The biggest announcement this week arguably came from Becky Higgins, and it was about Project Life, of course. Details of the announcement are a bit sketchy because Becky’s announcement video is currently unavailable for viewing. However, the brief summary points that she posted underneath the video indicate the following big changes are coming soon to the Project Life core kits:

• Project Life core kit production is being shifted to the U.S. from overseas. This will cut down on out of stock time as production is much faster, and the print and paper quality will be much better.
• Packaging is changing to a large flat package that includes a plastic tray in which all of the cards will lay flat. All of the new packaging is 100% recyclable.
• Kit contents will be changing: There will now be 500 journaling cards in each kit, with “filler” designs on the back, plus 40 bi-fold cards (up from 24). The title cards will be horizontal designs on the front and vertical on the back (the same designs, just shifted in orientation).
• Another change that is coming to the kit contents: stickers are being eliminated, for now. Becky says it is too expensive to produce them here in the U.S., so they are eliminating them from the core kits, and looking at options to produce them as a separate item that can be purchased as an add-on for Project Life in the future.
• The original Project Life kit is coming back! As part of the new U.S. production, all of the Project Life core kits are being reprinted: Clementine, Cobalt, Amber, and Turquoise – and the original kit is coming back as well! It will be called the “Cherry” edition.

Looking for great ideas on how to use Tim Holtz Distress Markers from Ranger? Here’s two tutorials that will help!

The first is from the blog of Ranger Senior Educator Wendy Vecchi, and shows a great technique for coloring her cream colored Blossom Bucket Trinkets with the pens.  The results are amazing, and the possibilities for creating custom embellishments are endless!

Next up, how about a video from Jennifer McGuire? Jen shows a great technique for using an embossed stamp with Distress Markers and Perfect Pearls to create a very colorful card in a short amount of time.

(Also, I want to say a big congratulations to Jennifer McGuire on her adorable new production! Baby Lila Grace made her debut on, of course, Mother’s Day. She is absolutely beautiful! Head on over to Jen’s blog to get a peek at the little cutie and share your congratulations with the family!)

Maya Road has announced their early summer 2012 releases. There’s a selection of chipboard, including elements, an album and some 3D items, but the most notable is perhaps Maya Road’s joining the ever-growing hexagon trend sweeping the industry:

Another notable piece from their new slate of introductions is the Limited Edition Antique Treasure Buttons, which will be available in Onyx and Diamond. The diamond are pictured here:

There’s new twine cording, embellishments, and stamps, too!

Here’s a treat for digital & hybrid scrapbookers – the Designer Digitals Quarterly sale is going on now! Every item in the Designer Digitals store is 30% through Tuesday, May 22nd.

Anyone who is a fan of 6×6 paper pads (like me!) should check out the American Crafts blog this week. They’ve been doing a whole series on things you can do with 6×6 paper pads! My favorite is the tutorial about how to create this gorgeous layout by Michelle Clement:

There’s lots of cards and layouts – and even a canvas – to get inspiration from in the series. So check it out and then be prepared to head to your favorite store to load up on pads to play with!

If the new art journaling trend intrigues you and you want to learn more, there’s some really great education to be had on Jule Fei-Fan Balzer’s blog this week! On Thursday she showed about a dozen different things you can do with a single wood parquet stencil design. In her “The Things You Want To Learn” piece on Wednesday, she provides an encyclopedia of resources to learn the basics all about various Mixed Media techniques (and even explains the definition of mixed media).

Have something new & noteworthy to share in our weekly noteworthy column? To be considered for next week’s column, email Nancy at nanally@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

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Studio Calico announced a new line this week called “Hey Day”:

The line also includes a huge assortment of embellishments – including mistable Thickers and shapes, wood veneer shapes, and an assortment of Thickers, diecuts and other stickers. There’s also new Mr. Huey’s mists and a template. You can check out the whole collection on the Studio Calico blog. I have to admit – I usually despise anything orange (or tangerine) but this collection has such beautiful color combinations and patterns that I cannot wait to try it out. Way to go Studio Calico  - you’ve made an orange out of me!

Hey Day will be shipping to retailers in June 2012.

AC sister brand Crate Paper has also been busy. They are joining the wave of recent baby-themed releases with two lines of their own. They hinted about the new lines on their blog today; Full previews are coming next week, but you can see them here first!

Little Bo Peep, the line for baby girls, is full of soft florals and soft pink, mixed with brighter tones of pink and teal.

There’s also a little boy version, called Little Boy Blue:

Both lines will be accompanied by full selections of embellishments – Thickers, brads, stickers, chipboard and other Crate favorites. To see the full line, visit the Crate Paper blog next week!

The entire American Crafts family of brands unveiled new websites this week. The websites for American Crafts, Pebbles, Crate Paper, and Studio Calico now share a coordinated look. The sites have tabs along the top menu bar that link them together, and a big new feature: an ecommerce store.

To check out the new sites, visit the American Crafts home page and click through the tabs!

Looking for something to do? The Great Lakes Mega Meet is this weekend in Novi, Michigan.  The Mega Meet is one of the largest scrapbooking events in the country every year, and this year features appearances by Melissa Frances, Jill Yegerlehner, and Jenni Bowlin.

Down south in the sunshine state, the Orlando Scrapbook Expo will be taking place next weekend (Friday & Saturday) at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Looking for last-minute Mother’s Day inspiration? Check out this lush card by Gloria Stengel on the Hampton Art blog!

The card combines the Graphic45 Fashionista collection with Hampton Arts’ Hydrangea Collage stamp. I love the layered arrangement of the blocks and the delicate use of the green and purple as highlight colors!

Making Memories has announced that they are having a warehouse sale at their warehouse in North Salt Lake, Utah on May 15th-17th. For the hours, details, and location (their warehouse has recently moved – please note the address!), visit their blog.

Ever wondered what goes into actually printing your favorite paper lines? Jill Yegerlehner from Jillibean Soup gave a great peek on their blog behind the scenes at a press check for Jillibean Soup‘s latest production run of some of their papers this week.

It’s a very educational look at the process and will leave you impressed with the effort that goes into creating a seemingly simple piece of paper!

Pink Paislee has been running a fabulous series on their blog all week about the new trend of using ombre in design.

To quote Pink Paislee’s introduction to the topic, “Ombre is a French word meaning “shadow” or “varying shades of a tone”, like a graduation in color.” Want to learn more about how to use it in your scrapbooking? Don’t miss the fabulous Pink Paislee design team’s beautiful and educational series!

And finally…don’t forget that Ali Edwards’ 31 Things workshop starts next week at Big Picture Classes! From Ali’s description of 31 Things:

31 Things is about capturing life right now but will be much more in-depth on a single daily subject than the documentation you might be used to with projects like Week in the Life or Project Life. This is an opportunity to get more specific pieces of your story told with the goal of going more in-depth; get those pieces of your life documented with words.

31 Things starts on Thursday, May 17th and the price is (of course) $31. Don’t miss it!

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Now halfway through March, both Easter and St. Patrick’s Day holiday, as well as floral, spring, rainy day, and other seasonal subjects are popping up on blogs everywhere. Inspiration is plentiful, and lots of exciting things are going on.

The Pink Paislee blog is always full of inspiration, what I really enjoyed this week is the gold, cream, and green “color crush” series they have had this week. This card and decorated tin by design team member Jess Mutty really stood out for me. Her use of a wide mix of products by Pink Paislee as well as the color and metallic mediums she used to accent her project really caught my eye.

Over on the Get it Scrapped blog, Kelly Purkey wrote a piece showing five ways to get scrap-lift inspiration from her layout. Breaking down specific ideas and elements to her page that can be used as inspiration for your own, it’s a great way to see ideas that could lead to creating an entirely different looking page. It’s also a nice reminder that when searching for inspiration to take a close look not just at whole projects, but specific ideas and elements within the project itself.

This cute rainy day mobile tutorial on Miss Make caught my attention because it a really great step-by-step and an adorable project as well. The rain drop element is a bit beyond me – but I think that baker’s twine and punched paper, buttons, or some other element that does not require crochet skills would work just fine. This could be done for a baby shower gift, child’s room, or for some unique party decor. It certainly doesn’t have to be restrained to a rainy day theme either.

Are you a Scenic Route fan? Do you miss their paper designs as much as I do? This week on the SR facebook page Sarah Milne made an announcement:

I’ve joined American Crafts! I’ll be doing Social Media Marketing for Pebbles, Creative Samples and some product design for American Crafts and Pebbles! I am super excited, so far it’s been really fun!

I am very interested to see what product designs we will see from her with American Crafts, as well as what changes we will see with Pebbles online presence.

Anna Dabrowska (aka Finnabair) is an amazing artist. Her art journals and scrapbook pages are full of incredible detail. I would love to get a glimpse of her process or take a class (note: it was announced that she will be in Canada and USA teaching with Prima this summer). She posted a layout and stop-motion video that is very inspiring. She originally shared this in Nat Kalbach’s “Creative Jump Start 2012″ newsletter:

There were so many creative, talented ladies in this project, sharing their tips and ideas… I loved it so much! This layout above and my first ever stop-motion animation was my contribution to this wonderful project:) I hope it will give you as much positive energy and fun as I had making that for you

It is a very uplifting and inspiring video, and look at her process as well.

With St. Patrick’s day this weekend, I couldn’t resist mentioning the cutest little shamrock project that was shared over at the Doodlebug blog. Elizabeth Carney cleverly uses a template to make simple shamrocks out of patterned papers – Doodlebug green is just perfect for all things Spring and St. Patrick’s Day! It reminds me that using my scrapbook stash for holiday decor and gifts is always a good idea.

Finally, I must issue a warning! Budgets beware – as I type this new product is pouring onto store shelves. I received notice that new Amy Tangerine and other American Crafts brands March release products are now shipping. Scrapbook.com has new Lily Bee, Heidi Swapp, Clever Handmade (Heidi Grace Kress), Pink Paislee, SEI, the Lucky 8 punches from We R Memory Keepers, and more. At local stores and elsewhere on the internet I’ve spotted new Tim Holtz dies, Melissa Frances, Doodlebug, and more.

Noteworthy is a weekly column here at Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? If you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

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With versatility like this, it’s no wonder that coral made an appearance in one form or another in almost every paper manufacturer’s booth on the CHA show floor. In fact, the color was so popular that I had to narrow down the list of collections to feature here to those that prominently used coral in their color scheme. In reality, there were many more lines that I could have shared that used coral as an accent color, but the range of images and styles shown here should give you a pretty good taste of what’s to come (and is in some cases already available!) from the new crop of collections.

Die Cuts with a View (also known as DCWV) made the color the focus of one of their newest paper stacks. Coral Couture pairs both the orange and pink versions of coral with aqua and yellow to create a sophisticated color palette. The addition of large floral and butterfly motifs give the line a vintage feel. For more on this line, you can visit my blog here, where I spotlight this new paper stack, and May Flaum also took it for a test drive in a post on her blog.

Cosmo Cricket infused two of their newest lines with shades of coral. The sultry and sassy Evangeline collection shows off coral’s pink side with lovely florals, while the funky, fresh Twenty Three pairs up a more muted shade with oranges and yellows.

The always on-trend Pink Paislee included a full spectrum of coral shades in the House of Three licensed Spring Jubilee line. Here again we see butterflies and florals in a coral-dominated line – it’s like the entire industry has spring blooms on the brain!

Hambly Screen Prints mixed up a brand new coral ink to add to their existing color palette. You can see an example of it below in one of their trendy new hexagon prints, and a brighter, pinker version in their new line of printed cardstock.

Two of Echo Park’s new lines - This & That: Graceful and Hello Summer - make use of coral, but in very different ways. This & That: Graceful sports a deeper, pinker shade, while Hello Summer’s version is more vibrant and leans toward the orange side of the spectrum.

Little Yellow Bicycle popped bits of coral into several pieces of their new Hello Spring! collection. Here coral is more of an accent color, but I wanted to include it since it shows up in so many of the line’s embellishments as well as the papers.

Fancy Pants brought two summer themed lines to CHA, and one of them – Summer Soul - is packed full of pinky-coral tones. The shade is just perfect for this summer/beach themed line!

Speaking of beach collections, Webster’s Pages’ new Palm Beach line is also packed with shades of coral, along with bright aquas and oranges.

That wasn’t the only place that coral was to be found in the Webster’s booth, though. Sunday Picnic also includes punches of the trendy color, especially in the omnipresent floral motifs.

Basic Grey’s Konnichiwa collection had me at “cherry blossoms,” and I love how they’ve paired up delicate, ethereal yoshino blooms with vibrant shades of coral.

I spotted a pairing of cherry blossoms and coral again at the My Little Shoebox booth, where the Aiko collection fuses the shade with sky blue for an airy look.

Coral was everywhere in the Prima booth – especially in their copious embellishment flowers – but nowhere was it more apparent than in the upcoming mid-release line, Doodle Deux. Here coral is coupled with a much warmer yellow than seen anywhere else in the show, which really amps up the punch factor.

Both Rhonna Farrer and Jen Allyson debuted new lines with My Mind’s Eye, and both designers made abundant use of coral in their collections. Rhonna’s Follow Your Heart: Be Happy line teams up coral and light aqua with yet more florals, and Jen’s Miss Caroline mega-collection also pairs up those same colors and motifs, but in a more vibrant and varied style.

It didn’t take long to spot the coral influence in the Teresa Collins booth! Spring Fling also makes use of the popular aqua/coral pairing. Though it also uses floral and butterfly images as many of the other lines we’ve looked at so far do, Teresa’s are a much more graphic style than we’ve seen so far.

Elizabeth Kartchner’s latest addition to her Dear Lizzy line with American Crafts, Neapolitan, was perhaps the poster child for coral at CHA Winter 2012. Filled with sweet pinks, yellow, oranges, and pale aquas to offset the lively bits of coral, Neapolitan was one of the biggest hits of the show.

Take Note by Studio Calico (one of their latest collaborations with the owners of former superstar company Sassafras) takes the vintage, eclectic flair that Studio Calico is known for and infuses just a touch of coral in the floral print as well as the journaling card sheet.

October Afternoon brought two coral-heavy lines to the show. Woodland Park teams coral up with peacock blue and animal icons, while the festive Cakewalk collection combines it with greenish-aqua and yellow.

I found coral all over the EK Success booth, as well, including in two new additions to the K&Company brand – Tim Coffey’s travel line and Bloomscape both show off coral’s versatility and range.

Graphic 45 is another company that came bearing coral in more than one collection. Tropical Travelogue, a mid-release collection that was actually available before the show, is a place you’d expect to find coral hidden amongst the tropical and beach themed prints.

What you might not expect, though, is to also find coral in a baby line! Little Darlings for the most part eschews pale pink in favor of a light shade of peachy coral.

Pebbles shows that coral works well in both floral and party themed lines. In fact, they brought one of each to the show in the form of Hip Hip Hooray and Country Picnic.

Popular stamp company Lawn Fawn debuted a new paper line at CHA Winter 2012 and showed that they definitely have their eye on trends. Coral is a major player here amongst the chevrons and touches of hombre.

Simple Stories shows how fabulous coral can be in their aptly named new collection…Fabulous! This collection is the more “girly” of the new Simple Stories collections, so the shade of coral used here is definitely on the bright pink side of things.

Janet Hopkins has returned to paper designs, and her newest collection from Bazzill Basics Paper, Wayfarer, literally puts coral on the map.

The last stop on our coral tour of CHA Winter 2012 brings us to a booth that has something to tie everything we’ve seen previously together. Petaloo manufactures embellishment flowers in every color imaginable, and their collections at this show were designed to coordinate with the top 20 paper lines being displayed on the show floor. With that kind of range, you know there’s a coral shade in there! Indeed, you can find it in the Hyacinth colorway of the Spring Darjeeling collection.

Did anything in that massive dose of eye candy catch your eye? Do you see yourself using coral in any projects in the near future? Chime in and let us know what you think of this new trend!

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So, in no particular order…here’s the Scrapbook Update CHA Winter 2012 Top Ten Hot Picks!

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook from American Crafts

This may have been the most buzzed-about line at the entire show. Every conversation about what was hot at the show inevitably seemed to include this line eventually. To generate this level of excitement with a sequel to Amy Tan’s red-hot debut at CHA Summer 2011, is a real accomplishment.

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Album (photo by Melissa Stinson)

This album was one of the most talked-about items in the line. Many, many people seemed eager to use it for Project Life albums, an indicator of how people are now integrating their favorite product lines into their Project Life creativity.

Amy Tangerine Day Books (photo by Melissa Stinson)

These day books were almost as popular among CHA attendees as the camera album. They will offer some serious competition in the market as an alternative to K & Company’s Smash book line.

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook (photo by Melissa Stinson)

The colors in this line will make it a perfect spring line, and that fits with its ship date, which isn’t until March. I predict this line with fly off of store shelves.

Tim Holtz Distress Markers for Ranger

Another item that there was almost universal excitement about was Tim Holtz’s new Distress Markers for Ranger. For fans of the blockbuster Distress ink pads, these markers – available in all 36 Distress colors, plus Picket Fence (white) – are a natural extension of the Distress ink line.

The Distress Markers have the essential tips for stampers and scrapbookers: brush and fine points. With the new abilities that they bring to Distress such as convenient coloring of images through applying color directly to stamps, and easy blending of colors, these are sure to be must-haves for any Distress ink fan!

Jolee’s Boutique French General Collection from EK Success

Jolle's Boutique French General Collection (photo by May Flaum)

EK Success is known more for solid, middle of the road products than for huge buzz generating releases, but the French General collection from Jolee’s Boutique is certainly breaking that mould. The show floor was buzzing about this signature Jolee’s collection from the Los Angeles craft store that specializes in amazing quality vintage styled goods. The French General line will include some things rarely seen from Jolee’s, such as ribbon and tags, in addition to the more usual adhesive embellishments.

French General is certainly a breath of fresh air into the Jolee’s line, and will bring it plenty of new consumers. I predict this line will be not only a huge hit, but also scarce and difficult to find on store shelves as demand, especially for specific items, will outpace supply.

Clever Handmade by Heidi Grace Kress

Known to many as the creator of the Heidi Grace signature line (currently owned by Colorbok), Heidi Grace Kress was back at CHA after some time away from the industry. This time she’s out on her own creating products for her new company, Clever Handmade. Her unique signature style and some attention-getting new product ideas made sure that her line grabbed the attention of CHA Winter 2012 attendees.

One of the most attention-getting products of the new lines was Kress’s rub-ons that are intended to serve as patterns to be stitched over for hand stitching designs on paper crafts items. On the layout below, a rub-on pattern was used to create the cloud design:

Kress’s return to the papercrafts market seemed to be welcomed with open arms by CHA attendees and I’d expect to see her distinctive designs showing up on the shelves of many local scrapbook stores very soon.

Fabrications by Teresa Collins Designs

Collins’ signature look has always been very distinctive: black and white, with very little color in the mix. I’ve often described her work as “the White House Black Market of the scrapbook industry.” So it was nothing short of stunning to see sneak peeks released of CHA Winter 2012 designs for Teresa Collins designs that featured color – and lots of it!

Adding color to Collins’ elegant design style is sure to attract attention from a whole new segment of consumers who would have not been interested in her previous signature color palette. Fabrications, in particular, with its palette of very friendly bright colors,  should open Collins to a whole new market of consumers. It’s hard to think of an established brand as being a break-out hit, but I predict that this release will bring Collins to the attention of a much wider – and larger – market.

Heidi Swapp

Swapp didn’t just generate buzz at CHA Winter 2012 for being a big name returning with her own new signature line after a long break.  It was the way she returned that generated buzz – by capitalizing on a major trend sweeping the industry right now and giving it her own interpretation.

A certain segment of the papercrafts market consumer is tiring of the traditional 12×12 page format, and in response we are seeing the growth of formats such as mini albums and Project Life. Swapp’s new product line, which is being distributed through Pink Paislee, interpreted “off the page” scrapbooking in her own way, with a system she calls “Memory Files“.

Heidi Swapp Memory File (photo by Melissa Stinson)

The decorative file folders essentially serve as mini albums that are then stored in their own file box:

Heidi Swapp Memory File Folder (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Heidi Swapp Memory File Box (photo by Melissa Stinson)

This system  definitely is in sync with the current trend away from traditional page scrapping, and was much-discussed at the show. Consumers are hungry for something new. For many of them, this system may be part of their search for new and different ways to experience their craft.

Lindy’s Stamp Gang

I always like to throw a wild card into this list – something few people I talked to seemed to know about at the show but that I think they will hear about in the near future. At CHA Winter 2012, I think that company was Lindy’s Stamp Gang. Although I didn’t hear much buzz about this company, their booth was jammed when I visited it – always the truest sign that a company is having a successful show.

Lindy’s Stamp Gang certainly isn’t new, having been around since 1996, but products of theirs could be poised to grab consumers’ imaginations. The company offers paints, spray inks and stains that are two-toned, and some that use Mica to lend an iridescent quality to the medium. Papercrafters are fascinated with color mediums right now, but always want something new, and these products don’t generate repeat sales after a crafter builds up a basic color stash unless something new and innovative is offered up. The Lindy’s Stamp Gang products have the potential to grab the attention of consumers who are looking for something new and different from the spray inks they’ve already been using for awhile.

Their Starbursts two-tone inks are available in spray bottles, stain applicator bottles, and a “shot” jar for painting applications.

Lindy’s Stamp Gang’s Moon Shadow inks have a walnut ink undertone with a brighter color as an overtone. They are available in a 2 oz mist or a 2 oz jar.

Hambly Screen Prints

This company has always been popular among the trend-conscious scrapbooking set, but transparencies are becoming extra hot right now thanks to a few Project Lifers such as Ali Edwards using them in high-profile ways. Hambly is well-positioned to take advantage of this trend, since they are the most well-known producer of transparency products for scrapbooking, and also produce  products in designs and colors that coordinate well with Project Life’s core kits.

Hambly Hexagon Transparencies (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Hambly Transparencies (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Washi tape is also hugely trendy at the moment and Hambly was one of the first companies to bring that to the scrapbook mass market. They produce designs that coordinate with their transparencies and paper, creating a unified graphic look available in all the hottest embellishment mediums for Project Life.

Hambly Screen Prints Washi Tape (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Hambly has always been the domain of the “graphic design” style consumers. Recent industry trends, however, are going to make their products more mass market as we move forward.

Follow Your Heart by Rhonna Farrer for My Mind’s Eye

Heidi Swapp wasn’t the only former member of House of 3 that debuted a hot new line at CHA Winter 2013. Rhonna Farrer also unveiled a new collection with My Mind’s Eye that had show attendees declaring was “classic Rhonna”.

“Follow Your Heart” is a perfect match for My Mind’s Eye – elegant, frilly and heavily detailed with vintage touches, in Rhonna’s signature style.

Rhonna Farrer Follow Your Heart paper (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Follow Your Heart is loaded with trendy icons of the moment: butterflies, hexagons, bicycles, music, birds, maps and text. The color palette is also up-to-the minute, featuring blues and yellows, and a coral tone of pink that is very hot as well.

Rhonna Farrer Follow Your Heart Buttons (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Rhonna Farrer Follow Your Heart Brads (photo by Melissa Stinson)

Even the collection’s embellishments are the current trendy essentials – buttons, brads, bling, and baker’s twine. This collection is already shipping to retailers and I predict some elements of it will sell out fast!

Hero Arts

Stamping is hot, and so is Hero Arts. That they were hot was no surprise – we even included them in May’s pre-show “new and noteworthy” series.

The buzz around Hero Arts recently has been amplified thanks to high profile partnerships with Basic Grey, Studio Calico, and Sizzix.

The distinctive styling of the Studio Calico licensed stamps are especially getting attention (pictured above: Weekdays, from the Take Note collection, and Roma, from the Abroad collection), and the latest release has the broadest appeal yet. Some of these designs have the potential to become perennial favorites for many stampers, regardless of whether they use the rest of Studio Calico’s products.

So that is it – the Scrapbook Update list of the Top Ten hottest products at CHA Winter 2012! A few companies managed to repeat, and a few companies made the list for the first time…but I guarantee that all of these companies are ones you will be hearing a lot about in the next few months!

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?