Take a time (usually 1900′s) when steam was the power source for so much (trains, etc), add a lot of scientific funky inventions, and a whole lot of fiction – and you’ve got “steampunk”. It’s not a new genre, but it is one that continues to gain steam in first books, and now crafting as well. It’s a trend I’ve noticed more and more as I cruise the isles of my local bookstore. Recently with vintage inspired crafting products being on the rise, I’ve also noticed steampunk showing up in crafting stores as well. From jewelry to mixed media arts and everything in between – this funky vintage sub-genre isn’t limited to works of fiction anymore! It’s officially crossed over into crafting.

Doing a search on amazon.com for steampunk crafting books turned up some interesting options:

Steampunk Style Jewelry, by Jean Campbell:

Steampunkery: Polymer Clay and Mixed Media Projects, by Christi Friesen:

What I find really interesting, is that a number of books are available only for pre-order, meaning they haven’t been published yet. In other words, I think that this steampunk stuff is going to keep growing in crafting as a trend for awhile, thanks to titles like these -
1,000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear, and Art (1000 Series):

Steampunk Softies: 8 Scientifically-Minded Dolls from a Past That Never Was, by Nicola Teadman and Sarah Skeate:

While the books coming out are very cool, they are all over the craft spectrum. What about paper crafting?

I have found there are a number of products available that can lend themselves to a steampunk look, as well as a whole collection devoted to the genre. I’m talking about Graphic 45, who is leading this trend’s charge into paper crafting with their Steampunk Debutante line. I love the funky designs and the choice of color palette in this line, and I can’t stop playing with all the bits and pieces!

While this line has a feminine feel to it, the steampunk look can be equally masculine. Traditionally, the genre seems to lean towards the Victorian style and era. However, there really aren’t rules here. You could go for a high-tech wild west cowboy look (see Will Smith’s Wild Wild West movie for inspiration), focus heavily on trains and the mechanical aspects, or do your own thing entirely.

What elements in craft supplies work for a steampunk-inspired look? Mixing a vintage look with clocks, time pieces, gears, steam engine/train inspired pieces, cogs, wings, and other aged metals and funky stuff works great. Add some grunge with paints and inks, distress with sand paper, and have a ball. Once I started looking into this trend I realized that a lot of the products Tim Holtz designs would work incredibly well.

Above: Gadget Gears die cuts by Tim Holtz Alterations from Sizzix and sprocket gears from Tim Holtz Idea-ology.

Below: Timeworks masks and game spinners from Tim Holtz Idea-ology.

7 Gypsies has a line of Steampunk rub-ons, each filled with small images that could be used any number of ways.

There are many other products out there that could work great too. Just look for the elements and general feel that you’re aiming for.

What kind of projects could you apply this style to? I think just about anything! I could see some really great masculine pages taking advantage of the gears and such, but it works just as well for themes like travel, memories/time, girls, or anything else you’re scrapping about! I chose to use the gears as inspiration to do a page about my mysterious three year old (aren’t they all a mystery at this age?!).

My layout shown above features both Graphic 45 papers and Tim Holtz elements. I had so much fun with this! I used the sprockets with flowers and other embellishments, and often in place of where I’d normally lean towards buttons or flowers. This is such an easy style to try. I love it!

Supply List:
Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante Paper Pad
Tim Holtz Idea-ology sprocket gears, game spinners, brads, Locket Key, and metal charm
Girls’ Paperie letter stickers from Toil & Trouble and Tinsel & Twig sticker sets
Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous flourish stamp
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Brushed Corduroy
Tim Holtz Distress Stickles in Antique Bronze
Making Memories Paper Reverie rose brad and letter stickers
Prima white flower
Tim Holtz Tissue Tape (Traveler)
Tattered Angels Chalkboard Glimmer Mist in Peacock

Why not add a bit of steampunk to your next project? The Graphic 45 line of papers is so lovely – I could see it working well for a number of subjects and also for cards, tags, and altered or mixed media projects too. Some of the designs are simply too pretty to cover up!

Or just try your hand at mixing more metal and punk into your vintage papers and see what turns out. I love the possibilities this trend has for all kinds of paper crafting – especially since it’s more masculine and boy friendly than many trends we see.

Now I’m off to watch the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or perhaps read a good novel, and get some fresh ideas for my {steampunk} crafting!

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One of my favorite aspects of scrapbooking holidays is that vintage inspired products are easy to put to use with my photos easily. Thanks to twists on tradition, color combinations that work for a variety of photos, classic designs, and new ideas the scrapbook market is filled this year with vintage inspired bliss. I can’t wait for Halloween to be over just so I can have more photos and reasons to scrapbook!

Today I have five picks to share with you:

Graphic 45′s “Halloween in Wonderland”  [Scrapbook.com] is probably the Halloween collection I’ve heard the most buzz about. The designs are so much fun – it literally is “Halloween in Wonderland!” My personal favorites, though, are the more neutral (black and cream) pieces that could easily lend themselves to many of my non-holiday scrapbook needs.

Anna Griffin’s “Esmerelda” collection [Scrapbook.com] is a dream come true. I usually find her product to be stunning – but my photos never seem quite formal or fancy enough to work well with the product. In this case, I feel like the intricate designs are perfect for any eerie, pumpkin filled, or spooky Halloween photos I might take.

Jenni Bowlin’s chipboard buttons [Scrapbook.com] are a wonderful addition to any stash! I love the jack-o-lanterns and children pieces mixed in with the labels.

Echo Park Paper’s digital Apothecary collection [at jessicasprague.com] combines a classic spooky Halloween look with patterns and designs that could be useful beyond the 31st of October. I love the damask and polka dot pieces especially.

Finally, I may be on the Girls’ Paperie design team, but even if I weren’t I still love their new line Toil & Trouble. It is vintage inspired Halloween product at it’s finest. It doesn’t matter how many projects I make with it – I still adore it! The Crepe Paper embellishments and the stickers (a great value!) are among my favorites – but you can’t go wrong with any of it.

Supplies used on layout:
Girls’ Paperie Ghost Story Paper  Scrapbook.com
Girls’ Paperie  sticker market Scrapbook.com
Girls’ Paperie crepe paper flower market   Scrapbook.com
Girls’ Paperie stamps   Scrapbook.com
Girls’ Paperie  metal glitter charms  Scrapbook.com
Girls’ Paperie flower market Scrapbook.com
Tim Holtz  distress stickles in spiced marmalade  Scrapbook.com
Ranger enamel accents  Scrapbook.com
Ranger UTEE in Platinum
Other: buttons, pen, white cardstock

I could go on all day – My Mind’s Eye’s [Scrapbook.com], Tim Holtz [Two Peas], and Pink Paislee [Scrapbook.com] all have  fantastic offerings as well just to name a few more. There is so much great product to choose from – whether you want elegant or grungy, spooky or whimsical, or something in between you’re sure to find the perfect product for you.

Do you have a favorite supply for Halloween scrapbooking? Feel free to comment here and share with us…

Check out the latest e-book from Ella Publishing by Angie Lucas & Kelly Jeppson:

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The scrapbook industry is definitely subject to the whims of trends just like fashion and home decor is. Here’s a look back at some of the past trends in the industry in the past few years:

• CHA Winter 2009 Product & Style Notes, Part 1
• CHA Winter 2009 Product & Style Notes, Part 2
• Top Product Trends from CHA Summer 2009
• CHA Winter 2010 Product Trends, Part 1
• CHA Winter 2010 Product Trends, Part 2

One of the biggest trends at CHA Winter 2010 (which will probably continue into CHA Summer 2010) was vintage. Nobody does vintage like Graphic 45 does vintage…so this hour our prizes are from Graphic 45!

That’s right, I said prizeS. Plural! This hour there will be THREE winners!

We have 8×8 paper pads to give away: A Proper Gentleman, On The Boardwalk, and Le’ Romantique. Each pad will go to a different winner!

How to Enter:

All you have to do to be one of the lucky winners is leave a comment on this entry before Midnight U.S. eastern time on Sunday night, May 2nd, telling us what your favorite CHA Winter 2010 trend was, or what trend you predict for CHA Summer 2010. Make sure you include your email address in the line reserved for it on the comment form (for your own protection, don’t put it in the text of the comment, where it will be visible to the public – just in the line labeled “email” in the form where only Scrapbook Update staff can see it). We will need it to notify you if you are a winner. Winners will be drawn by random drawing from all eligible entries. One entry per person. (Note: If you are reading this post via an RSS subscription, click here and it will take you to the giveaway on the  Scrapbook Update website where you can fill out the comment form at the bottom of the article to enter.)

Paperclipping is having a special 50% off sale today for new members for NSD:

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Ning is a platform which allows users to create social networks in a way similar to services like Blogger & Typepad host blogs. Up until now, the company has offered a free level of service along with paid upgrades for additional services and service levels. On May 4th, Ning says it will be announcing a new fee structure that will not have a free option. Users of the free service level will be given 10 weeks to transition off of Ning to a different provider or upgrade their service.

The free level of service at Ning has been a popular host for small scrapbook hobby groups to utilize to congregate online. (A search of the term “scrapbook” on Ning yields 114 results, although not all those results are craft-related.) The majority of these groups have fewer than 50 members, and many of them have less than 20 users. Even a small charge will displace many of these boards off of Ning to other services, according to many of their owners.

Shawn Lahr, who owns the Nuts About Sketches board, summed up the situation of many of the free Ning network users:

I’ve had the board I believe 6-7 monhths. [sic] I think it has 30 or 40 members. It’s a board for my sketch site. I can not afford to pay for a message board, so they’ll have to delete it.

Several scrapbook companies also use Ning to host social networks. Among these are Pink Paislee, Unity Stamp Company, Graphic 45, and Reminisce. These companies, however, typically are already paying for some level of premium service from Ning, and so will not be as affected by the new fee structure.

As Pink Paislee’s Rebecca Cross told Scrapbook Update:

We use this community to interact directly with our consumers while providing them with a place to share their Pink Paislee projects and we are convinced this is an integral part of our marketing efforts. We were one of the first manufacturers in this industry to launch this type of community and we will continue to support this portion of our website for our fans.

One complaint of both the free and premium users of Ning has been having their boards overrun by spammers, a concern voiced to Scrapbook Update by Graphic 45′s Candy Rosenberg. The fee structure changes may be the last straw to push those users to go elsewhere.

So where else is there for displaced Ning users to go that offers similar services for free? The following options are among the ones that Scrapbook Update has found being discussed in various places as replacements for Ning’s free service level:

• Buddy Press
• Grou.ps
• Social Go
• Spruz
• Bravenet
• Google Groups
• Yahoo Groups

At least one scrapbook group with 1500 members, Jennifer Bliss Community, has already begun the migration to the Spruz platform. [Note that the above are not recommendations of Scrapbook Update but just sharing suggestions made in other resources.]

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Weather:

The good news is that as the week has gone on, the weather forecast for Anaheim for this weekend and next has improved quite a bit. The chance of rain through Friday is 80-90%, and after that the chance of seeing rain throughout CHA week will be 0-10%, with the exception of 40% on Tuesday, when scattered showers are forecast. Temperatures are forecast to be somewhat comfortable during the day with highs in the 60′s. However, it will be quite chilly at night with lows in the mid-to-low 40′s. So if you will be out-and-about after dark come prepared with some layers!

Graphic 45 Booth Giveaway:

If you drool like I do over the beautiful samples every time you venture near Graphic 45′s CHA booths, you’ll love the giveaway they are running at CHA Winter 201o. At 1:30 pm each day of the show they will give away a selected collection of booth items. Then on the last day of the show they will be giving away items in the booth from all three collections at one time! For every $100 you spend at Graphic 45 you will receive a raffle ticket for this giveaway.

If you aren’t a retail buyer or aren’t feeling lucky in the raffle, there is still a way to win some Graphic 45. At 1:30pm each day of the show 50 people will receive one paper pad absolutely free just for showing up in Graphic 45′s booth for the raffle!  Plus, Graphic 45 will have a roving secret agent out on the show floor giving out paper too…so keep an eye out and maybe it will be your lucky day!

Stacy Julian Finish Line Kit:

Stacy Julian’s popular Finish Line concept and classes help scrapbookers quickly put together finished pages and albums with their pictures. Now she is extending that concept to kits! Julian will be selling a limited number of the premiere version of her new Finish Line kits at the Supershow on Saturday in the Treasured Memories booth (#553).

As Julian explains on her blog, each of the kits will be themed to a certain project:

I love the idea of personality and will therefore give each of my kits a distinct personality and a name. This first kit, just in time for Valentine’s Day is specifically designed to help you scrapbook a big stack of everyday snapshots depicting love at home.

The first kit is called “Complete Bliss” and is themed to be used with photos like those Julian keeps in her Library of Memories organization system drawer called “All About Us” under a tab called “Together Forever”.

Live Reports from CHA!

Scrapbook Update will be reporting live from CHA via several methods:

• Posts to Scrapbook Update
• Notes and quick pics posted to my Twitter and Facebook profiles

Paperclipping Roundtable will also be doing a taping at CHA. Stay tuned over the weekend to the above outlets and the Paperclipping Roundtable home page for details on the location as soon as it is available to us!

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