Over the last few months I have been working on purging my craft supplies. As I dig down into the oldest items in my stash (in the time before I was a mom), I’ve discovered something unexpected and wonderful.

Despite all the change, all the constantly evolving trends and new paper lines, there are companies whose products from several years ago are not only still viable but that also still coordinate – and can be updated with – their newer releases. While you might think this would make them stale, instead I believe this gives these products an increased value. I also believe that products from these companies will continue to coordinate and work with future releases. Having a longer shelf life in stores and keeping products relevant in my personal stash is a great thing for companies – and I’d like to take a moment to mention each of them:

The first company I noticed this about was Jenni Bowlin. I still have stickers and papers from years ago that remain just as useful and wonderful as ever alongside her current releases. Not only that, but I sometimes purchase her older products even today because they truly don’t go out of style. Thanks to her signature vintage style, consistent color palette, and ability to create products that are useful and coordinate together so well, I am still just as in love with my older products from Jenni Bowlin as with the newer ones. Jenni Bowlin made the Scrapbook Update Top 10 Hot Picks list for this last CHA show, and it’s no surprise to me. Her products remain timeless treasures.

At the other end of the design rainbow is the always bright and colorful Doodlebug. Known for bright colors and whimsical designs, Doodlebug continues to reinvent the very definition of cute scrapbooking supplies. By staying true to their adorable roots, and continuing to produce products like the above pictured alphabets and buttons, they continue to add onto their lines and create coordinated products that aren’t trend dependent. They base themselves on a core set of colors and a cute aesthetic. By continuing to market fresh product designs with great packaging, Doodlebug manages to stay popular with a wide variety of scrapbookers – from those who simply enjoy their colorful embellishments, to those who appreciate the whimsical designs of their sticker and paper lines.

Finally, we have another CHA Top 10 Hot Pick pick from Scrapbook Update to talk about. I purchased the woodmounted stamp pictured above years ago, and I was delighted to see that this new batch of releases from Tim Holtz included that same image in both paper and sticker form. This is just one example of how Tim continues to keep his ever-growing line of products fresh, while not discarding past designs. You’ll see a lot of browns and creams and kraft, as well as metals in his idea-ology line. The colors not only make it easy to mix and match products from various releases, but also make them perfect to customize to your own preferences.

I like unique releases that stand alone as much as the next crafter, but these brands are ones that have stood the test of time here in my stash, and not only survived my purging efforts but also amaze me with how they still coordinate the older product with the new.

While I feel they are too young to say for sure, I believe there may be several other companies who will choose to follow this path of keeping older product relevant and somewhat coordinated with newer product. Specifically I have my eye on Studio Calico and the Girls’ Paperie, as I’ve been able to mix & match all of their releases so far. There are also companies like KI Memories and American Crafts that continue to release alphabet and general embellishment products that are not tied to any one paper line. This too is something special, as these products are easily mixed with whatever you have on hand or wish to use them with.

I don’t believe that every company can (or should) make coordinating products flow from each new release, but it is a welcome discovery for my budget, and my stash when a company produces coordinating lines. Knowing that some will, and that I’ll be saved the time and energy of trying to find coordinating things for their older products is a lovely thing indeed.

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