ANW / Creativity Works is a new company that was just formed in November 2011 from the combination of ANW/Crestwood and Making Memories. In May 2010, ANW/Crestwood had closed a deal for the purchase of the brands Westrim Crafts, Autumn Leaves, DMD, Crop in Style, Hip in a Hurry, Room Relish and Paper Bliss from the struggling Creativity, Inc.

Colorbök has been around since 1984. They have a large presence in Wal-Mart’s much-reduced scrapbooking section.

“We are tremendously excited to be able to work with Making Memories and ANW / Creativity Works.  We feel that we will be able to drive newness into the marketplace using all of the great brands which include Making Memories, The Paper Company, Westrim, Crop In Style, Autumn Leaves and Hip in a Hurry.  They are a great compliment to our memory and kids crafting business,” stated Colorbök Vice President Todd Spang

“We believe with this consolidation we will be better able to service our consumer with exciting new products,” stated Chuck McGonigle, Colorbök’s President and CEO.

So what does ANW / Creativity Works have that Colorbök wants? There’s several benefits to Colorbök of the deal, which include a Michaels footprint, technology (the Slice), an organizing line, and an extensive back catalog of classic designs by Making Memories and Autumn Leaves. Making Memories has also had some success with bead products, which may appeal to Colorbök.

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Heidi Grace Kress was hosting make-n-takes first thing in the morning at the Ever After Scrapbooks booth using her new Colorbök product.

One retailer was selling Copic markers for an incredible $2.69/each, and had this selection of Strathmore Artist Trading Cards paper bases were on sale Buy One, Get One Free. There was Canvas, Illustration Board, Watercolor Paper, and other materials cut into bases for ATC’s, as well as envelopes and plastic cases for them. I’d never seen these before and snapped up a selection to play with!

Stacy Julian appeared at the Treasured Memories booth to promote her new scrapbooking kits, and was handing out little bottles of emergency sprinkles in case a CHA-er comes across a brownie that doesn’t have sprinkles on it.

Cricut has a new machine called the Cricut Cake which is essentially a version of the Expression machine that has been specially fitted on the inside to handle food. Specifically it cuts thin sugar sheets and thicker fondant for cake decorating. More details (and pictures!) coming in separate post!

“Inside Edition” host Deborah Norville made an appearance to promote her new knitting book, “Knit with Deborah Norville“. She was also giving impromptu knitting lessons about how to do the technique for the mitten that she was working on at the signing table.

Die Cuts With a View had a computer lab set up in their booth to let people get hands-on with their new digital products at 300dpi.com.

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Today Lain Ehmann joins Scrapbook Update as our guest blogger.

Lain Ehmann is CEO and co-founder of Ella Publishing Co. A former “Simple Scrapbooks” contributing editor, she is the author of “Snippets: Mostly True Tales from the Lighter Side of Scrapbooking.” She blogs at Five Things.

Why can’t we all get along?

American Crafts buys Pebbles, Inc. Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp, and Janet Hopkins band together to create House of Three. Colorbok buys Heidi Grace from Fiskars. In addition to creating an entertaining game of corporate musical chairs to observe, mergers and partnerships like these say that the time of cooperation is at hand for the scrapbooking industry.

Social media is ushering in a new era of interactivity between companies, even those who appear to be at odds with each other. The Internet is such big property that one company or entity can’t cover it all, and the only way to make an impact is to team up. A great example of this is our very own Nancy Nally working with Noell Hyman of Paperclipping. Instead of viewing each other as competitors, they’ve teamed up to bring a very valuable – and fun! – resource to the scrapbooking community via Paperclipping News Break.

An area where I’ve seen rampant and impressive RAKs (random acts of kindness, for the uninitiated) is in the digital scrapbooking arena. In my experience, digital designers go above and beyond to promote other digital designers. For example, in a recent article for Ella Publishing Co.’s Scrapbook Ellaments eZine, digital designer Jodie McNally sang the praises of Paislee Press. “When I’m in need of a perfectly precise, quirky quote… I go straight to Paislee Press,” she writes. It reminds me of the scene in “Miracle on 34^thStreet” when Macy’s gained tons of great press when their Santa Claus forwarded children on to competitors when the toy they wanted couldn’t be had in-store. Not to call “Scrooge,” but when’s the last time you heard Stampin’ Up! sending people over to Close to My Heart?

Speaking of good ole’ Stampin’ Up!, they’ve been taking quite a beating lately. When they mandated that their demonstrators sever Internet ties with non-SU entities, the backlash was swift and immediate, with many demonstrators choosing to lay down their Stampin’ Up! aprons rather than forsake their friendships. The statement was clear: Consumers, employees, and industry bystanders have seen the power of connection and aren’t willing to relinquish their personal or professional networks in favor of corporate short-sightedness. And they shouldn’t have to.

Despite the economic realities of our times, the scrapbooking pie is a large one. Rare is the consumer who uses exclusively one product line; most have scrap rooms where Fiskars punches are used on Bazzill cardstock, and Fancy Pants patterned paper co-exists peacefully on the shelf next to Piggy Tales. It’s time for the manufacturers to realize the next generation is about interaction and support, not exclusivity and isolationism.

For manufacturers and designers who want to make their way in today’s social media but don’t know how, here are a few starting points:

Twitter. Open a Twitter account and freely offer your expertise and support to those around you – yes, even to your competitors! If that’s too big a step, start with companies or designers who sell complementary products rather than competing ones.

Facebook. Become a Facebook fan of a competitor. When you do so, the news is relayed to your entire network – what a powerful statement of solidarity!

Blogs. Mention a cool product you saw from a competitor on your blog. Go over to their blog and leave a supportive comment. Or in your next tutorial, use products from a competitor and give them credit. Instant karma boost!

To me, the future is clear: Those who pair up and work together will prosper, while those who insist on going it alone will suffer and eventually die off. Survival for all of us in this global economy, in this recession, depends on partnerships. After all, if you Tweet in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make any noise?

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Today it was announced, however, that Fiskars has sold the Heidi Grace and Cloud 9 consumable lines to Colorbök.

“We are very excited to be adding these strong brands to our paper crafting product portfolio,” said Colorbök’s CEO Chuck McGonigle.  “Fiskars has done an outstanding job of managing and growing these brands in the past three years.  We plan to continue this commitment with Fiskars’ existing retail customers and also expand the brands into even more retail outlets in the future.”

There is more good news if you are a Heidi Grace fan. The line’s founder and signature designer is coming back to scrapbooking to help bring her product line out of retirement, according to the Colorbök CEO in the announcement:

We are also happy to announce that Heidi Grace Kress, the creative force behind Heidi Grace Designs, has agreed to join the Colorbök family and help us to ensure a smooth transition of the brand that she created.

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