Scrapbook Expo

Charity Wings started the 2011 year by holding their first ever “Live at CHA” event during the CHA Winter 2011 Conference & Trade Show in Los Angeles. They invited crafters that were not able to attend the show to catch a glimpse through Ustream of the manufacturers and their new products, and let them travel the show floor a bit to see the booths and even win a prize or two. Industry personalities like Jenni Bowlin, Anna Griffin, Teresa Collins, and Melissa Forsyth & Candy Rosenberg (from the Rubber Cafe, pictured below) stopped by to take part in the live event.

For a $48 fee, Live from CHA participants received a bag filled with 5 make-n-takes and goodies from event sponsors. Charity Wings also raised money for Crops of Luv at the event through manufacturer and designer-donated items that were put up for auction on ebay during (and after ) the Live from CHA event.

Charity Wings volunteers (such as Karen Poirier-Brode, pictured below) also helped out in the Westcott booth with make-and-takes. Westcott, a Charity Wings sponsor, features the Charity Wings logo on their product packaging and helps raise money for the Charity Wings Fund to cover operating costs for the organization.

This year also marks an increased partnership between Charity Wings and Scrapbook Expo, with Charity Wings agreeing to host all of the crops for Scrapbook Expo’s 2011 season.

For Charity Wings founder Elena Lai Etcheverry, all of this started from having a willing heart to help raise money at a Susan B. Komen breast cancer crop. She had so much fun with the crop she decided that she needed to help with the next one – and even joined the committee to help run the event.

It was after this experience she realized charitable work was something she wanted to do all year long. Scrapbook Royalty was born. With a talent for motivating crafters and having a wide network of crafters, retailers, and manufacturers to work with, Etcheverry decided she could really help organize and creatively inspire crafters that might not know where to start raise money for their favorite charity.

Scrapbook Royalty’s first event in 2006 for the American Heart Association raised $2500. Participants enjoyed the event so much they immediately started planning the next one…and then another, and another. American Heart Association, Susan B Komen foundation, Autism awareness/research and Crops of Luv are just a few of the organizations Scrapbook Royalty has helped to raise money for.

Realizing that Scrapbook Royalty was becoming something greater than its founder had imagined, the organization applied for non-profit status in 2008. In 2009, Etcheverry was joined in her work by another charitable crafter, Sheila Goldsberry, and they changed the organization’s name to Charity Wings to encompass all types of crafters and better describe their mission.

In 2010, the 100% volunteer-run organization lent a hand with 37 events across the country that raised money for over 27 different charities. According to Charity Wings’ figures; the organization has raised over $347,000 for various charitable causes during their 5 year history. Their participation in events can range from coordinating the entire event and finding sponsors, to just helping to advertise the event. In addition, they hold online raffles, do “fairy fly-bys” (giveaways) at events, and even have a monthly “do good” challenge with their “Club Royalty”. These challenges for the most part encourage members to use their crafts in some way to help the charity’s cause of the month.

To learn more about Charity Wings and their upcoming events, visit the Charity Wings website.

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Scenic Route announced today in an email to customers that they are holding a liquidation sale in preparation for shutting down the company.

Scenic Route is owned by Jim and Sarah Milne, and based in Saratoga Springs, Utah. Sarah Milne was a paper designer for Rusty Pickle before starting Scenic Route. A little over a year ago the six-year-old company was flying high in the scrapbooking world. According to the liquidation announcement, the company had its best month ever in August 2008. But the company says it was hard hit by the economic crash of Sept. 2008, which has lead to its liquidation:

Thanks to you, Scenic Route had growth year after year culminating in our best month ever in August 2008. Unfortunately, September 2008 brought economic hardships to our company, the scrapbook industry, and this nation.

Nicole Snow, who recently stopped writing the Salt Lake City Scrapbooking Examiner, came out of blogging retirement to tell the scrapbook world about Scenic Route’s closure:

I was suprised to see that their booth at the Scrapbook USA Expo this month had new paper lines available at a discount. Typically the Scenic Route booth has discounted stickers and chipboard, but their paper tends to remain a bit high-priced (at least by Expo standards).

Looking back further, it’s easy to see that as early as January of this year there were economic concerns at Scenic Route when they laid off well-known designer/instructor Layle Koncar, who was quickly snapped up by Basic Grey. Then in July, the company skipped exhibiting at CHA-Summer 2009 in Orlando, and did not release new product either. This was perhaps understandable given the birth of Sarah Milne’s new baby barely a month before CHA, but the timing couldn’t have been worse for an obviously wounded company.

Scenic Route is holding its liquidation sale on its web store for consumers, and they’ll also have booths at two Scrapbook Expos in California in October.