Design powerhouse American Crafts had a massive booth, and introduced several new lines at CHA Summer 2011.

Their popular line of albums got a refresh with some new designs added in with the old standbys.

Popular fashion designer and scrapbooker to the stars Amy Tan made a huge splash with her new signature line called “Amy Tangerine”, generating lots of buzz both on and off the show floor.

I love all the Thickers in her new lines, especially these with faux stitching drawn around the edges – so cute!

American Crafts is known for certain signature embellishments (such as Thickers), and their Mixtapes are fast becoming one of those staples. The “Amy Tangerine” line features several new styles and patterns of this washi-style tape.

Amy’s line is also bursting with extras such as clear stamps, ephemera, and letter stickers.

American Crafts’ “Daydreams” line is a fun, feminine collection that sports a bright color palette and funky bold designs.

The Thickers in this line are smaller than the normal letters that American Crafts produces, making this lover of tiny alpha stickers very happy indeed!

“Night Fall” is American Crafts Halloween/Fall offering. There are only a few strictly Halloween themed papers in this line, and even those sheets have “B” sides that are neutral enough to use for general fall pages.

“Hollyday” puts American Crafts’ signature graphic spin on a red, green, and silver color palette. Clean lines and mod designs make this a fun and cheerful collection!

These candy cane striped Thickers are simply genius!!

American Crafts also offers Christmas patterns in their popular Pow! glitter paper, famous for sparkly stuff that never flakes off.

The “Garden Cafe” line, with its punchy flowers offset by deep browns, has a funky retro vibe about it.

“Margarita” was American Crafts’ mid-season summer themed release and features all the bright, vibrant colors associated with the season.

Webster’s Pages is known for their elegant designs both on paper and in their embellishments.

The “Western Romance” line features a soft country look filled with feminine touches such as painted cowgirl boots and flower covered mailboxes.

Webster’s Pages is also known for innovative embellishments like these delicate feather flowers.

The brightly colored “Let’s Celebrate” line would be perfect for scrapping birthdays.

Webster’s Pages’ “All About Me” line features a pleasing color palette that will “play” well with many different types of photos and layout subjects. With its mix of pleasing patterns and gorgeous illustrations of every day (and some not so every day) objects, I could see this being a great candidate for use in a “Week in the Life” album.

Webster’s introduced not one, but two Christmas lines at this CHA show! “Winter Fairy Tales” is filled with fanciful scenes and a soft color palette, while “Botanical Christmas” features bolder colors and a more traditional Christmas theme.

Let’s round out this portion of our CHA Summer 2011 tour by stopping in at the Fancy Pants booth!

Fancy Pants’ new lines featured some of the most creative color combinations that I saw anywhere at the show. For instance their Christmas line, “Saint Nick”, has a mostly traditional color palette but adds a light shade of purple to just a few prints for added contrast and interest.

Their fall line, “Summer’s End”, has the oranges and browns that you’d expect from a seasonal fall line but also includes a punchy shade of blue-green for an unexpected twist.

And “Oct. 31st”, Fancy Pants’ Halloween line? It includes a bit of bright blue amongst the orange and purple! Not to mention all the lush damask prints scattered throughout.

This piece of paper was my absolute favorite of the whole booth – it totally appealed to the geeky engineer in me!

Fancy Pants was also one of the few companies offering a strictly “back-to-school” line. “Off to School” has been getting a lot of buzz on the blogs lately, and I predict that it will be a big seller this fall.

Fancy Pants’ Brag Books were actually released at the Winter CHA show, but with the huge success of EK Success’s Smash books they were smart to bring them back to the summer show. Fancy Pants’ version of the blank journal trend is less decorative than the EK Success version, giving the scrapper full creative control over the final look of their project.

Have you all been making your post-CHA shopping lists as you read these booth tour posts? I know I’ve been making mine as I write them! Don’t finalize that list just yet, though, because there’s so much more to come!

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

Paper Embellishments

There is a massive movement towards paper embellishments in the scrapbooking industry. They are affordable SKU’s for both the manufacturer, retailer and consumer, making them perfect for the current economic climate. Die cut papers, journaling cards & tags, bingo & other game cards, and chipboard buttons are all examples of the current trend towards paper embellishments that are cheaper to produce, cheaper for retailers to stock, and cheaper for consumers to buy. Sassafras, Jillibean Soup, Jenni Bowlin, Tattered Angels, and October Afternoon are some of the standouts in this area.

Sassafras

Jillibean Soup

Cheaper Price Points

The paper embellishments are just part of an overall trend toward less expensive embellishments. As noted in our design trends piece, buttons are back – a relatively affordable alternative to the metal embellishments that were trendy a few years ago. (Metal still exists but it is now a niche market from companies that specialize in a particular vintage look, such as Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies, instead of everyone making metal pieces.) If you are still a fan of metal, check out Tim Holtz giving a tour of his current line to Noell Hyman of Paperclipping.

Companies are also packaging items in smaller quantities to make the price point lower on the item. Instead of a package of 12 items, you’ll see a package of 6 embellishments. Stamp sets are smaller than in the past. Where there used to be acrylic stamp sets that retailed for $40 from Technique Tuesday and Fancy Pants, now it is rare to find a set that retails for $20. The new e. line from Prima is an excellent example of the new packaging being used by companies. Prima has repackaged mulberry flowers, pearls and bling that were previously sold in large quantities in decorative packaging into small plain paper packages at an MSRP of $1.50 each.

e. by Prima

Why are lower price points important to the manufacturers? With the average ticket price going down for consumer purchases, companies have a better chance of ending up in a consumer’s shopping bag if their price point is lower. They might price themselves out of the market if their high price point requires the consumer to commit their entire budget for the shopping trip to a single item.

Lots of Kits

Kits are great for retailers because they can use them as pre-packaged classes, cutting down their costs for developing and packaging classes. Inexperienced scrapbookers like having everything coordinated and being given instructions. Experienced scrapbookers like the convenience. Manufacturers  can sell a bundle of products to consumers – a bulk sale – in a way that the consumer is almost guaranteed to not get frustrated figuring out how to work with the product. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Technique Tuesday, BoBunny and plenty of others are offering kits for scrapbooking and cards. Quick Quotes is taking kits to a different audience with its wall canvas kits.

Technique Tuesday page kits

Quick Quotes 10x20 canvases

BoBunny Recipe Book Kit

Cardmaking

The holidays that are the focus of product releases at CHA-Summer lend themselves to cardmaking, and many companies are taking advantage of that to try to find an additional market for their products as cash-strapped consumers turn to more affordable homemade cards to save money. Card samples were on display in many booths, even for product lines that weren’t for the Christmas/Valentine’s Day card making holidays.

Quickutz is investing heavily into the DIY stationery market with its new Letterpress product that allows users to create expensive-looking engraved stationery items such as invitations, place cards, and thank you notes.

Technique Tuesday card samples

Little Yellow Bicycle card samples

Quickutz Lifestyle Crafts letterpress kit

Going Green

Some companies were placing a lot of marketing emphasis on how green their lines are. The e. line by Prima (pictured earlier) is being marketed as both budget and eco-friendly. A few paper lines are starting (or continuing) like Cosmo Cricket to advertise the “eco” certifications that they have received. However, Sandylion took it to a whole new level and made their whole booth about how eco-friendly their presence at the show was.

Sandylion's low carbon-footprint booth

Of course, the bonus for Sandylion is that “efficiently transported” means more affordable to transport. This booth is a beautiful example of turning cost-cutting into a feature.

Tools

There seems to be more emphasis on tools in the scrapbooking market than in the past in an attempt to reach consumers who want to feel they are getting more value for their money by purchasing items they will get multiple uses out of. The most obvious example of this is the ubiquity of acrylic stamps, an affordable but reusable tool that are being sold it seems by virtually every scrapbooking company.

Kaisercraft clear stamps

Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels

Inks and other similar products (such as Glimmer Mist) are also getting a lot of attention for the tool category. Where consumers used to pay $5-7 for a package of embellishments, most would now rather spend that amount on a reusable item like an inkpad that they can use to create multiple effects.

For a video demo of an interesting new tool from CHA, a tool from Imaginisce that lets scrapbookers create their own paper topped brads, visit the I-Top Brad Demo video at Paperclipping.

Higher-priced tools are also getting a lot of attention. Where consumers used to routinely drop $100-200 on consumable supplies at a time, now it seems those large purchases are more often a carefully planned and budgeted reusable tool such as die cutting equipment.

Slice by Making Memories

Multiple Holiday Lines

With the increased emphasis on the holidays and cardmaking in papercrafts, some companies are trying to expand their reach in that market by not limiting their customers to one style option. Cosmo Cricket, My Minds Eye, and Kaisercraft were among the companies at CHA-Summer that had multiple holiday lines on display for retailers to choose from, so that retailers could offer several options of styles to their customers.

Colorful Christmas by My Minds Eye

The Merry Days of Christmas by My Minds Eye

Not Exhibiting

One trend from CHA-Summer was not actually being at CHA-Summer. There was a long list of major companies who decided to have no presence in Orlando at all, and a second group of companies who decided that they could get more return on their investment by holding events in conjunction with the show but not actually exhibiting at it. Those companies included Fiskars, who held a 360th birthday party at Epcot with some of their Fiskateers, and Scrapbooks Etc. magazine, who held an evening event at the Peabody Hotel across the street from the convention center.

Scrapbooks Etc. event at the Peabody Hotel