1. BasicGrey

This pick may sound a bit redundant, because BasicGrey is such a force in the industry. But their last few show introductions have been somewhat underwhelming. One of my favorite companies was frankly, starting to edge toward getting stale. But with the introduction of Kioshi, Green At Heart, Capella, and Max & Whiskers, BasicGrey is starting to look more again like the company whose papers used to make a serious dent in my budget. I wasn’t the only one excited, either – I heard the same sentiment from many others on the show floor.

Another fabulous showing from the company at CHA Winter was their Basics line. Available in 3 colors (white, cream and kraft), it is a line consisting completely of text and ledger-style paper designs that make great backgrounds for building on. Ledger paper is incredibly popular – a whole collection of it is a dream for many scrapbookers.

2. EK Success Slimline Punches

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the EK Success slimline punches. There will be plenty for everyone to love now, because despite the trend towards smaller product line introductions, EK Success is introducing 78 new designs of slimline punch.

A large number of the new punches are border punches, including some that create paper ribbon chains. For Halloween, EK was previewing a punch collection that included a new even larger size of border punch.Consumers are all about tools right now, and punches are used by scrapbookers and cardmakers. Expect the popular slimline punches to get even more popular with this huge introduction of options.

3. Melody Ross for GCD Studios

A few months after the news broke that the Ultra-Pro owned Chatterbox was defunct, founder Melody Ross is back in style with an amazing collection for GCD Studios. She’s obviously thriving in her new professional home, as this is the best creative work that we’ve seen from Ross in quite some time. Ross, who revolutionized the industry a decade ago with her work at Chatterbox, reclaims her position as one of the leading creative minds in the industry with her CHA Winter lines for GCD Studios.

4. Staz-On Metallic

Stamping is hot. Metallic is hot. So StazOn, the ink that stamps on almost any surface, being introduced in new metallic shades seems like a made-to-order hit for manufacturer Tsukineko.

The metallic StazOn ink pads come in four metallic shades: gold, silver, copper and platinum. The pads work in a similar fashion to the Tsukineko glue pad, coming with a pad and a re-inker bottle from which the pad must be loaded and then more frequently refreshed than a regular ink pad.

5. The Girls Paperie

Margie Romney-Aslett has definitely moved on to a successful new chapter after being let go by Making Memories nearly a year ago. Her new line with Advantus, called The Girls Paperie, was all the buzz at CHA in Anaheim.

The designs are in the beautiful vintage style that Romney-Aslett is known for, and include both papers and embellishments. There are two lines. One is travel-themed, and one is a classic feminine floral grouping.

6. Tim Holtz for Sizzix

Sizzix generated a lot of excitement with the announcement that Tim Holtz would design a line of dies for them called Alterations, and the products unveiled at CHA did not disappoint Holtz’s fans. Alterations is something of a departure style-wise for Sizzix, so it may attract a whole new group of customers for the machine.

One nice feature of many of Holtz’s die designs is that they are divided into many pieces. For instance, pieces from the butterfly die can also be used to create  a dragonfly or half butterfly design. The Alterations line also includes a group of embossing folders for the Sizzix machine.

7. Cricut Cake

While technically not exactly a scrapbook product, the Cricut Cake machine from Provo Craft is designed to extend a papercrafting product line to a new audience: bakers. This new version of the Cricut Expression machine is food safe and designed to cut sheets of sugar to use in decorating cakes and cookies. It will ship in May and retail for $399. Regular Cricut cartridges do work in the machine.

The machine can cut from two different thicknesses of decorating material. From the examples on display at the Provo Craft evening event in Anaheim, the Cake is capable of cutting quite detailed images. The images on the cake below come from a Cricut cartridge called A Child’s Year. The Cricut Cake generated a lot of buzz at CHA, and is a great opportunity for Cricut to extend its market base beyond just papercrafters. According to a representative for Provo Craft who spoke to Scrapbook Update at CHA, the Cake is just the start of some major development in the Cricut line – the company has five new machines in the pipeline for the next few years.

8. Copic Markers

The rise of interest in stamping has brought along a rise in interest in mediums that are used with stamps. There’s been a lot of buzz recently about Copic alcohol-based markers for use with stamps. Copic markers were hot sellers at the CHA Supershow in Anaheim (in fact, the booth with a great deal on them was the only one I waited in line at all day). There were examples on display in many stamping booths at the show that had been made with Copics, and Couture Cardstock was advertising its new bleed-proof Pure Silk blending papers designed especially for use with Copics.

9. Lily Bee Design

Lily Bee Design, a new exhibitor, has been attracting a lot of buzz with its vintage feminine designs. They’ve achieved something that usually seems to be difficult for a new company, by creating embellishment designs that are beautiful and noteworthy. Their chipboard flowers and 12×12 rub-on sheets are worthy accompaniments to the company’s beautiful papers, giving Lily Bee’s lines a depth that many new companies can’t match. These lines’ reasonable size and their quality means that a retailer doesn’t need to cherry-pick them to carry them.

10. Eco Green Crafts

Also in the new exhibitor section, Eco Green Crafts is making a timely entrance to the market when interest is building in “green” products. Co-founder Julia Andrus is a cancer survivor, and all of the company’s products in some way are designed to be environmentally friendly – from low VOC paints and inks to unmounted rubber stamps that save wood. The company’s line of inks are vegetable-based. Eco Green Crafts offers an extensive selection of colors of inks and paints, recycled paper board books, and a catalog of unmounted rubber stamps that are “steampunk” styled, among other products.

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Paris Hilton Does CHA

The CHA crowd is used to having the likes of Vanna White and Martha Stewart grace the show with their presence. But the show has never quite seen a spectacle like happened at CHA-Winter 2009 in Anaheim when Paris Hilton strutted onto the show floor trailed by a posse of burly bodyguards and foreign paparazzi.

Well, now I can check “getting elbowed by German-speaking paparazzi” off my bucket list at least.

Creative Memories Files Bankruptcy

Although the bankruptcy of Creative Memories was technically filed in late 2008, the disposition of it continued into 2009. The court approved the company’s bankruptcy plan on January 9th, but former company officers still face legal action from former employee shareholders over their actions in regard to the bankruptcy plan.

CK Media’s Financial Problems

Stories stemming from the underlying thread of CK Media’s financial issues were a recurrent theme in the scrapbook news in 2009. First Digital Scrapbooking was shut down, and shortly afterward Simple Scrapbooks magazines was closed as well. Scrapbook Update broke the news in February that CK Media had called in turnaround/bankruptcy firm CRG Partners to settle its debts with its creditors under threat of a bankruptcy filing.

In early July, the sale of CK Media’s remaining publications to New Track Media became final, triggering major layoffs at the company.

CHA Craft Supershows

There was something else new at CHA-Summer 2009 besides the venue – the addition of a consumer event that operated the weekend after the trade show. Although controversial when first announced, the Craft Supershow was a massive success in Orlando, and CHA is continuing the event in conjunction with CHA-Winter 2010 in Anaheim.

Big Names Depart from Creating Keepsakes

As the company foundered this year, a lot of big names departed Creating Keepsakes and its parent company to work on other projects. The departures went all the way to the top of the company, when Creating Keepsakes founding editor Lisa Bearnson announced she was giving up her role with the magazine. Other popular well-known names who departed the company included Becky Higgins, Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and Jessica Sprague.

Stampin’ Up Angers Demonstrators With New IDA

In early fall, Stampin’ Up issued a revised IDA (independent demonstrator agreement) to all of its demonstrators that included new restrictions on their online activity. Stampin’ Up originally interpreted the new guidelines as meaning Stampin’ Up reps couldn’t link to anyone online who linked to anywhere else that sold or promoted non-Stampin’ Up products. Many reps threatened to resign rather than live with restrictions that would force them to remove themselves from a large portion of the online community, and Stampin’ Up was forced to loosen the guidelines.

Memory Makers Ceases Publication

In early May, Scrapbook Update broke the story that F+W Media was planning to shut down Memory Makers Magazine with the Sept/Oct issue. This news was confirmed by the publication the next day. The magazine’s remaining subscriptions were picked up by Northridge Media for digital fulfillment with an all-access pass to its titles.

Melody Ross Departs Chatterbox, Company Shelved by Ultra Pro

In early July, Chatterbox founder Melody Ross revealed that she had departed the company back in April. At CHA-Summer, a rep for Chatterbox parent company Ultra-Pro confirmed to Scrapbook Update that the Chatterbox brand’s product lines were being discontinued. Ten years ago, the company was revolutionary in the industry. Now, it no longer exists.

Lenders Attempt to Force Wilton Brands Bankruptcy

After holding company Wilton Holdings breached covenants of loans it owed, the parent company of EK Success and K&Co was called into bankruptcy court by lenders who filed a petition to force the company into bankruptcy. The issue was eventually settled out of court by the lenders and Wilton. Later in the year, Wilton’s CEO resigned, saying that the new ownership should have an opportunity to select their own management.

Gypsy Introduces New Era Of Scrapbook Electronics

Shortly before CHA-Summer, Provo Craft started executing a viral marketing campaign to raise buzz on its new electronic accessory for the Cricut called the Gypsy.

The campaign was successful at raising buzz on the Gypsy, which is a handheld device that lets users create designs from their cartridge library and then cut them via their Cricut machine. Probable future plans for the device include the ability to purchase individual cut designs from an iTunes-style store, instead of having to purchase entire cartridges.

The Gypsy debuted with an HSN package and a 30 day exclusive run at Michaels. Although the MSRP is $299, over the holidays the street price seems to be hovering around $250.

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Ross was the founder of pioneering manufacturer Chatterbox, which was shut down earlier this year after being purchased in December 2007 by 7 Gypsies parent company Ultra-Pro. Ross no longer ran the company at the time of the Ultra-Pro purchase. Business difficulties had required Chatterbox to bring in an investor in November 2006 to take control of their operations.  At that time, Ross had reverted to solely a creative role in the company. Ross announced in July 2009 that she had left Chatterbox entirely back in April.

Artsy Urban is a significant departure from the signature style of Chatterbox, but very much in Melody Ross’s personal style if you’ve seen her scrapbooking or her fashion.

According to a blog entry by Melody Ross, Michaels has already requested a second collection from her. That collection will be titled “Homespun Chic”.

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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.