Trend Watch | Gray and Yellow

October 10, 2011 By 11 Comments

The yellow and gray color trend that swept through the home decor industry last year has found a new home in this season’s crop of scrapbooking supplies. As the Scrapbook Update crew covered the show floor at CHA Summer 2011, we spotted line after line that was either completely inspired by a yellow and gray color palette or at least included hints of it in some way.

When I say that this color scheme was big in the home decor industry last year, I mean big! And from the looks of things, it’s still going strong this year. To demonstrate just how popular this color combination is, I put together a little pinboard on Pinterest displaying some of my favorite yellow and gray images from around the web.

And now, just as I collected some of my favorite home decor examples of yellow and gray, I’ve brought together a sampling of my favorite yellow and gray scrapbook supplies, as well! [Read more...]

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Trend Watch: Plum

July 8, 2011 By 8 Comments

As a fan of the many shades of purple, I can’t tell you how excited I am to see a lush shade of plum popping up all over sneak peaks for CHA Summer 2011. It’s so prominent that I’m officially issuing a trend watch: Keep your eyes peeled for fabulous plum products! Already I’ve noticed many top companies previewing product that features this lovely color. Here are a few examples that I’ve found from the CHA peeks that have started showing up.

I’m wildly impressed with the direction that Studio Calico continues to go in, and they are right on this trend. In addition to the hints of plum in the peeks above of their Memoir paper line, I also noted that they’ve included a new mist called Plum Thumb.

The new Amy Tan + American Crafts partnership is one that I’m very excited about. After seeing the preview on the American Crafts blog I’m even more certain this line will be a winner. Note the punchy bright plum color that works it’s way throughout the line.

BasicGrey has revealed their new collections already, and among them is Indie Bloom – a color-filled explosion of patterns created in bold color combos. Shades of purple are featured throughout, definitively adding BasicGrey to the ranks of companies giving love to plum.

Finally, let’s talk about hot new company Authentique. As a design team member I got to be one of the first to test out this paper and I am really a fan of it’s thickness and beautiful texture. The Splendid line features hints of plum, and a plum alphabet sticker set as well.

There are a lot of directions that can be taken when using plum, and you don’t have to wait for new product to get into this color trend either. Ranger’s Adirondack color line has a beautiful wild plum color and Bazzill has a nice dotted swiss cardstock pack in plum pudding. Digital scrapbookers should also keep their eyes  peeled – I spotted a lot of fresh offerings over at Designer Digitals when I did a search for “plum” including a paper pack, a new set of brushes from Ali Edwards, and much more. Of course I have a feeling that this vibrant color is going to be found much more easily in papers and embellishments – and I’m looking forward to using it more in the future.

I really like the color palettes that I am seeing in use with plum. For more ideas I strongly recommend the design-seeds blog. They have daily inspiration and loads of color inspiration that never fails to give me fresh ideas.

I’m glad to see this color trend. I look forward to seeing it a lot in the coming months, and to seeing what other manufacturers utilize this shade to add a bright pop to their lines. Stay tuned to Scrapbook Update’s CHA sneak peek page for updates as new lines and previews are revealed.

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Pantone Announces Color of 2011

December 9, 2010 By 5 Comments

Pantone has announced its 2011 Color of the Year. The color is Pantone 18-2120, known more familiarly as “Honeysuckle”.

Described by the company as a “reddish pink” the tone definitely plays into the ongoing vintage theme in the scrapbook industry. Because it also coordinates well with the 2010 color of the year, turquoise (which was seen widely in scrapbook products the past year) we’ve actually already been seeing some of this tone in product lines that are already on store shelves.

Examples of some recent scrapbook product lines that feature a Honeysuckle pink tone include:

Those are just a few examples of where you may have seen recently a color that has definitely been a building trend in the industry.

According to Pantone, the shift from turquoise reflects a shift in peoples’ mindsets, presumably a reflection of the slowly recovering economy. It says that turquoise represented escape to many people (being the color of tropical waters). In contrast, Pantone describes 2011′s Honeysuckle pink using words like “verve” and “vigor”, and describes how the 2011 color palette helps energize people to deal with the ongoing challenges we face.

Pantone’s report from Fashion Week in the Fall of 2010 says that we should also expect to see the following colors dominate the spring of 2011:

  • Coral Rose
  • Peapod
  • Beeswax
  • Silver Peony
  • Russet
  • Regatta
  • Blue Curacao
  • Lavender
  • Silver Cloud

Lavender and gray were already very evident in some holiday scrapbook collections, most notably “Mitten Weather” from Cosmo Cricket. The two neutrals in the collection, gray and brown, have actually been rising trends for awhile in scrapbooking (reference: everything created by Tim Holtz). In fact, the few product lines recently that have used black as a neutral (Cosmo Cricket’s Circa 1934, Jenni Bowlin’s collections) have really stood out because they’ve become so unusual.

Overall it looks like the spring color palette predicted by Pantone (and played out at fall fashion week in the spring 2011 fashions) will continue the industry’s recent love affair with all things vintage.


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Stampin’ Up! Overhauls Color Palette

April 8, 2010 By 5 Comments

Stampin’ Up! announced Tuesday that the company is overhauling their core color palette with the release of the 2010-2011 catalog this summer and making major changes to their product offerings.

The changes will go into effect on July 1st and will create a new 40 color core color palette at Stampin’ Up!. It will include five completely new colors: Marina Mist, Cajun Crazy, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso and Daffodil Delight.  Ten previous In Colors will be made part of the new core color palette: Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, River Rock, Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, and Wild Wasabi.

* new colors

Neutral colors will now be part of the core palette instead of a separate palette. Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Basic Gray, and Basic Black from the former neutrals palette will be part of the new core palette. The existing color Kraft will be renamed Crumb Cake for the new palette. The rest of the 25 core palette colors will be drawn from the existing Stampin Up core palette: Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Always Artichoke, Garden Green, More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Pretty In Pink, Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and So Saffron.

Palette colors will be reorganized into four color collections, called Brights, Neutrals, Regals and Subtles. In addition to the 40 core colors, each year there will be five new In Colors, which will have a life of two years.

The overhaul will also mean a large group of colors will be retiring. Thirty colors will be retiring in all, unavailable after the end of June 2010:

Kits of new colors for items such as card stock, markers, classic ink pads, pastels and watercolor crayons will be available for sale to help Stampin’ Up! fans fill in their color collections and transition to the new core colors.

The new color offerings will be smaller than previously, 50 in all when the second set of rotating In Colors is added next year. By comparison, the 2009-2010 catalog offers 62 colors. Stampin’ Up! explained the reasons for the reduction:

We retired colors based on sales history and focus group feedback. Members of our focus groups indicated that they had some colors they didn’t use; for instance, they purchased a whole family of ink pads and then rarely used some of the colors in that family. In addition, sales on many colors were very low, and the cost to support those colors was not worth the return. We were careful to choose the most popular and up-to-date colors.

Another reason we reduced the number of colors is that we wanted our collections to be less overwhelming to new demonstrators and customers—we wanted it to be easier for new stampers to get started. And with fewer colors in each collection, demonstrators and customers can save money and use that money to purchase more of what they love—stamps, accessories, and other items.

Stampin’ Up! is making other moves that seem influenced by the current economy as well. Besides reducing the selection of offered colors, Stampin’ Up! is also almost completely eliminating a long-offered product. Full sized Craft Stampin’ Pads will be available after July 1st only in Basic Black, Whisper White, and Very Vanilla. The Craft Stampin’ Spots mini ink pads will continue to be offered for the full core color palette, along with the ink refills for them.

The pigment ink Craft Stampin’ pads, at $7.50, have been the more expensive of the two ink options offered by Stampin’ Up!. Their dye ink Classic Stampin’ pads are priced at $5.95. A 12 count color collection set Classic Stampin’ Spots sells for $22.50, while the Craft Stampin’ Spots sell for $25.95. (These Stampin’ Spot collection prices will likely change in the new catalog since the new collections will have 10 instead of 12 colors in them.)

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Pantone Makes Color Predictions For Fall 2010

April 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

Pantone has issued its Fashion Color Report for Fall 2010. Bright red, coral and earthy greens are some of the noteworthy components of what Pantone assembled from the fall runways, which often influence other areas like home decor and crafts.

Notice the continuing presence of turquoise (called Lagoon here) which was also a strong presence in the spring/summer palette in the scrapbook industry. Gray also started to make an appearance in summer’s vintage lines, as did purple.

Based on these predictions, we can expect the dominant trends in Christmas lines to be bright reds paired with more subdued earthy greens. It’s likely plenty of the winter theme lines will have gray or silver as a dominant tone. Royal purple tones could show up in unexpected places, such as holiday lines, as well.

To read the entire report, or to download the color library to use in Adobe or Quark software, visit the Pantone website.

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