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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The photo above is from the Crate Paper booth, a company that is known for their amazingly detailed and beautiful offerings, and they’ve added some new designs into their mix this show as well.

Here are four new fantastic neutral button sets. Clockwise from top left we have Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 for Blossom Bucket, We R Memory Keepers, Jillibean Soup, and Basic Grey. I really like the unique textures and designs of each set, as well as the fact that they are neutral so they will work with any colors.

Now let’s look up close at a line that is filled with a lot of notions and button embellishments: French General for Jolee’s Boutique from EK Success. I really like that the line is organized by color, and how useful these pieces will be with the French General papers, or with any other brand as well.

Here is a close up shot of the new Dear Lizzy Neapolatin line buttons for American Crafts – I really like the wood buttons and I think it brings a fun texture to the offering.

October Afternoon has some buttons that are solid color, but done in such fantastic colors and with some great floral detail as well which will make them useful for all kinds of projects – and they’ll work with many other brands of papers as well.

Speaking of color, here are some more fun new choices: (left to right, above) Teresa Collins, Doodlebug, and Fancy Pants. All three mix great colors and a good variety of sizes as well in their offerings.

One of the cutest lines on the show floor – and some of the most unique buttons – are from Rhonna Farrer’s “Follow Your Heart” line for My Minds Eye shown above. I really like the trendy patterns and unique shapes used.

We are seeing buttons mixed in with other shapes and embellishments as well. Above is a new dimensional embellishment that in addition to birds also features adhesive-backed buttons with stitching.

Finally, let’s take a look at Buttons Galore & More [photos by Melissa Stinson]  - a long time manufacturer of buttons (and a Scrapbook Update sponsor). They have really great solid and basic buttons in a wide variety of styles. They also have some unique sets and shaped buttons as well.

Overall with a continued focus on vintage, rustic, and whimsical styles in paper crafting products that buttons go so very well with, I believe they will continue to be a popular item. There are some really interesting designs and types becoming available from painted to wood to other materials as well.

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In the Dear Lizzy line at American Crafts, Mason jars can be found on her paper, stickers, and a stamp as well as in the booth decor.

In Wendy Vecchi’s Studio 490 line for Stamper’s Anonymous, she has a Mason jar stamp and Art Part (chipboard-like material) available.

Here you can see the Art Part jar and stamp (which is the perfect size to stamp on top of it) in use together. The jar is layered in two pieces for dimension, and the back piece is cut out in the middle so that you can actually tuck things into your jar. I love this detail!

Vecchi also has a jar embellishment in her new line with Blossom Bucket as well. It is flat on the back so it can be adhered to any project easily, and it has a hole in the top that allows you to tuck in flower stems (or anything else you’d like) to fill it.

Crate Paper’s new Pretty Party line has a cute mason jar in the chipboard embellishment sheet.

Last but not least, let’s take a look at Jillibean Soup and their offerings.

This cute wreath made from Mason jar lids was displayed in their booth showing off some new papers. They also have paper featuring jars – many with cute tops and sayings on them.

Their Coconut Lime Soup line also has a coordinating stamp set (available through Unity Stamp Co.). Here is a project sample from the booth showing the stamps in action:

Overall I like the idea of Mason jars in crafting. It adds to the homemade, handcrafted movement that is so strong right now and works perfectly with the current trends of vintage, country chic, quilted elements, stitching, and more. I believe when the summer show comes around we may see even more of this shape in paper crafting lines and booth displays.

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After my roundup of Christmas scrapbooking lines went live here on Scrapbook Update, I received many, many requests to do a similar article for each holiday. I can’t promise that I’ll do one for every special day on the calendar (there just aren’t that many paper lines for Talk Like a Pirate Day, you know?), but when there are enough themed lines to warrant a roundup, I’ll be sure to post them to keep you all informed!

As with the Christmas roundup, I’m listing all the Valentine’s Day paper lines that were released either at or after CHA Summer 2011 and have scoured the vastness of the interwebs to bring you representative photos of each. They’re listed in alphabetical order, and, since there aren’t nearly so many of them as there were Christmas lines, I’ll also give a little commentary on each.

Ready to start seeing pink? Let’s get going!

Basic Grey – Kissing Booth

Kissing Booth is a mix of basic patterns (I spy doilies and herringbone in the mix) and sweet watercolor images. This line uses brown as a contrast color and is one of the few cream-based collections in the roundup.

Bazzill Basics Paper – Love Story

Bazzill, long known for its quality cardstock, has only recently entered the patterned paper market. The Love Story line continues the graphic style displayed in other lines that have already been released by the company, and they’ve chosen grey to offset the sweet pinks and bright reds of the designs.

Bo Bunny – Smoochable

Bo Bunny’s signature style is readily apparent in their Valentine’s Day offering, Smoochable. Light distressing and the use of light purple and hints of green are the signature elements in this line.

Crate Paper – Paper Heart

Crate has knocked Valentine’s style out of the park with their Paper Heart collection. It’s at once vintage and trendy with its pops of turquoise and use of popular elements such as chevrons and doilies. I predict that Crate will have a major hit on their hands with this collection!

Doodlebug Design – Sweet Cakes

Sweet Cakes is everything we’ve come to expect from Doodlebug – whimsical graphic designs in their signature color palette make it easy to identify. Doodlebug has gone all out for this release, producing a wide variety of coordinating embellishments including a special Doodle Twine card and a Doodle Twine spool featuring a red, pink, and white twist. Be still my baker’s twine loving heart!

Echo Park – Yours Truly

Following in the footsteps of their Be Mine collection from last year, Echo Park continues to produce Valentine’s Day papers in a traditional color palette. This year they’ve thrown red and grey into the mix of Yours Truly (last year’s collection was almost all pink and black), but if you’ve got any Be Mine still hanging around your stash, this new collection should coordinate with it wonderfully.

Fancy Pants – Love Story

Fancy Pants has amped up the pink to nearly hot proportions and added lots of turquoise to their Love Story collection. This is one of those lines that would work well for everyday pages, especially with some of the strong, non-themed B-side patterns that the line sports.

Jillibean Soup – Hearty Barley Soup

Hearty Barley Soup shows Jillibean returning to their krafty roots. I’m completely in love with the woodgrain print – it has tiny little hearts worked oh-so-subtly into the pattern!

K & Company – Circus Valentine

K & Company “themed the theme” with their Valentine’s release Circus Valentine – it’s filled with circus motifs!! The pops of blue add unexpected contrast and interest.

KaiserCraft – Sweet Nothings

This line from the Australian powerhouse is pure vintage elegance. Filled with Victorian-style cupids and flowers, Sweet Nothings is perfect for those who want a softer feel for their Valentine’s projects.

Karen Foster Designs – Valentine’s

Karen Foster Designs’ Valentine’s collection puts a comic book style spin on the holiday.

KI Memories – Hot Date

While not specifically advertised as a Valentine’s line, the Hot Date collection has all the motifs (including plenty of XOXOs and hearts!) associated with the holiday, wrapped up in a completely nontraditional color palette.

Lily Bee Design – Head Over Heels

Head Over Heels is another line that isn’t specifically for Valentine’s, but in my opinion it’s a stronger collection for that very reason. There are plenty of pinks, creams, and floral motifs to make it suitable for the holiday, but the addition of orange and turquoise and the lack of a huge amount of Valentine’s specific motifs make it a very versatile line sure to keep you scrapping long after 2/14 has passed.

Martha Stewart Crafts – Valentine’s

Martha Stewart brings her simple, graphic styling to her newest Valentine’s Day collection. The real news here, though, is the punches! Perenially a highly sought-after crafting item, her newest border and shape punches are sure to be a hit!

My Mind’s Eye – Love Me

My Mind’s Eye chose a decidedly cream base for their Valentine’s line Love Me, then loaded it up with several shades of pink, plenty of grey, and just a hint of baby blue. The collection is filled with the doily and banner designs that we’ve all come to know and love from My Mind’s Eye’s more recent offerings.

Pebbles – With Love

Long known for having a simple graphic style, Pebbles has kicked it up a notch with the With Love collection by including a kraft-based sheet in the mix. The speech bubble pattern is printed right onto heavy-duty kraft paper, providing a great contrast to the pinks and reds in the rest of the collection.

SEI – Promise Me

The Promise Me line from SEI is all softness and beauty, with just a hint of gold to set it apart from the rest of the field.

Tim Holtz for Sizzix – Texture Trades, Love Struck Bigz Dies, and Love Struck Movers and Shapers Mini Dies

Tim doesn’t have a paper collection for Valentine’s Day (though I think that a V-Day version of his Kraft Resist paper would be an awesome addition to his line- hint, hint!!), but since this is such a huge cardmaking holiday I just had to include his new Love designs from Alterations for Sizzix – dies (available in both Bigz and Movers and Shapers mini formats) as well as his new Texture Trades embossing folders.

We R Memory Keepers – Love Struck

We R Memory Keepers finishes up our roundup with their Love Struck collection. Here light blue offsets the plethora of pink, and the collection has a nice variety of both large and small patterns.

And now, dear readers, I’d like to hear from you. Which of these collections has caught your eye? Any favorites? Sound off in the comments and let us know!

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The papers are a selection of Crate Paper Peppermint, Echo Park Season’s Greetings, and Studio Calico Classic Calico that blend bright pops of seasonal colors with sophisticated grays and grounding woodgrains for a fun, cozy feel.

Speaking of the papers, the main kit photo above only tells half the story about them as all of these sheets have lovely prints on their B-sides, as well.

Stars are a very popular Christmas embellishment this year, and these gray ledger star rub-ons by Studio Calico are a great non-holiday-themed item that will work well on Christmas and winter layouts.

Crate Paper’s Peppermint Ribbons and Trims are rich and will add just the right pop of color to your projects.

I brought in these North Country bling pieces by Prima to add a touch of sparkle.

And how could I resist these amazing Echo Park Season’s Greetings Brads? There are so many in the package that they’ll last you through many, many scrapbook pages.

This is just one of the two alphabet sheets included in the kit. This page alone (from Echo Park’s Season’s Greetings line) has three different alphabets on it, while the Studio Calico kraft alpha sheet holds two more.

In addition to the main kit, I’ve also put together an add-on that’s all-Christmas, all the time! Meet “Deck the Halls,” a fun foray into the spirit of the season. While I worked hard to keep the main kit from being completely themed, I completely let go of that with this add-on and filled it with a variety of gorgeous themed items.

Mister Huey Calico Shine from Studio Calico will add sparkle to your projects, and it’s especially gorgeous when paired up with any color mists you may already own.

These Christmas cameos from Webster’s Pages are so finely detailed and gorgeous and will add a special touch to your cards, layouts, and mini albums.

I fell in love with these candy cane striped Elf Thickers by American Crafts as soon as I saw them at CHA, so of course I included them in my kit!

And Crate Paper’s beautiful chipboard accents just begged to be included, as well.

I’ve also got two projects created from this kit to share with you today (and look for more in the next couple of weeks!). The first, while set on Christmas Day, is decidedly winter themed. I used Studio Calico’s Calico Shine mist in conjunction with a bottle of Mister Huey’s Calico White that I already owned to mist the background, then broke out my Martha Stewart snowflake punches (Glacial, Icelandic, Alpine, Arctic, and Himalayan) to create some accents to add to the snowflake-themed chipboard and brads in the kit and add-on.

This next page, though? It’s all Christmas! Stockings have been such a fun Christmas tradition for me since I was very young, and it’s one that I still enjoy as an adult!

Here’s a listing of the complete contents of the kit. We won’t be offering a single-package purchase link for these kits this month (that option will return in 2012), but we’ve included individual product links to make your shopping easier.

Main Kit – Merry and Bright

Paper

Echo Park Season’s Greetings – Calendar
Echo Park Season’s Greetings – Tree Skirt
Echo Park Season’s Greetings- Christmas Ads
Canvas Corp Green and Kraft Collection – Dot
Crate Paper Peppermint – Gingerbread
Crate Paper Peppermint – Wintergreen
Crate Paper Peppermint – Ski Lodge
Crate Paper Peppermint – Snow Globe
Crate Paper Peppermint- Candy Cane
Studio Calico Classic Calico – Woodgrain One

Cardstock

Bazzill Basics Paper – Avalanche
Bazzill Basics Paper – Stonehenge
Bazzill Basics Paper – Cream Puff

Embellishments

Prima Bling Swirl – North Country 2
Echo Park Season’s Greetings Brad Assortment
Crate Paper Peppermint Ribbons and Trims
Studio Calico Classic Calico Alphabet
Echo Park Season’s Greetings Alphabet
Crate Paper Peppermint Phrase Stickers
Studio Calico Classic Calico Gray Star Rub-Ons

Add-on Kit – Deck the Halls

Paper

Echo Park Season’s Greetings – Border
Crate Paper Peppermint – Mint
Crate Paper Peppermint – Embellish
Studio Calico Classic Calico – Star

Embellishments

Studio Calico Mister Huey’s Color Mist – Calico Shine
American Crafts Holly Day Thickers – Elf, Red
Crate Paper Peppermint Chipboard Stickers
Webster’s Pages – Silhouettes

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