CHA Armchair Attendee Week, Part II

After yesterday's pattern and motif trend post, I am back today to talk about product trends. (If you missed yesterday's post, click here to catch the context for CHA Armchair Attendee Week).

Continuing Product Trends

There are quite a few product trends that emerged recently that I'm still seeing at this show. For instance, I am certain I could very easily wallpaper my home with just the rolls of washi tape being displayed at the CHA show. Twice over. I love washi tape, and am just getting into using it, so that's not a bad thing. I am noticing that the washi tape product trend is spilling over into a pattern trend, with paper and stickers being printed that look like washi tape. There was a bit of this with mid-release lines this spring but I'm seeing that trend grow. Examples include patterned paper from Crate Paper's Acorn Avenue collection and stickers from Pebbles' Walnut Grove collection:

Other continuing product trends include mini clothespins, date roller stamps, and 3-D flags/flag and pole sticker kits. I'd say this is a new trend, but I'm not going to focus on it: library card/journaling card pockets. While all of these continuing and new trends are interesting, I want to focus on one newer small trend and one newer larger trend.

A Small Trend: Polaroid Die Cuts

The polaroid motif has appeared on patterned paper within the last year or so, and now it's being translated into die cut product form. We saw a little bit of this at the last show from Heidi Swapp, and at the mid-release from Ormolu (disclaimer: I may have missed it elsewhere), but it's popping up a bit at this show as well. Here are a couple of examples:

Studio Calico Wonderland, Yearbook, and Classic Calico Vol 3 Frames:

KI Memories (now under the Hampton Arts umbrella) Flashback Instaframes (love the wide one at the center!):

I don't know why, but I just think this trend is fun!

A Large Trend: Alternatives to the Traditional Scrapbook Page

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you've seen a big trend the past two years toward simplifying memory-keeping. A couple of products/trends come instantly to mind here. First is Becky Higgins' Project Life (and all of the variations thereof) and another is K & Company's Smash line. This is definitely an ongoing and growing trend and lots and lots of manufacturers are jumping on this bandwagon, producing everything from creative mini albums to divided page protectors to die cut journaling and title cards  that fit these systems. I myself want desperately to jump on board with this trend, but I fear that my organizational skills are not up to par (or perhaps it's my available time that's a problem), as, after one week this past January, I gave up on Project Life. I am now thinking that I will try again, with the start of the school year as the start of my album.

Here are some highlights I'm seeing from this show:

October Afternoon's Here & Now Books and Chapters:

Simple Stories' Sn@p (there is so much here, from divided page protectors to inserts - I'm just going to pick one image to share here):

Studio Calico's Handbook (again, lots here - I'll paste a couple of images below, but go to their blog to see it all): 

American Crafts' Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go Daybooks:

Pebbles' Seen & Noted collection, including Memorology Page Protectors and the O Flip! Album (I'll include the O Flip! image here - click over to the Pebbles blog to see the rest):

Heidi Swapp Mini Fotosleeve Books:

I could go on and on here, but you get the idea. Lots of options. Something for every style.

I said it yesterday, but will say it again. I am so excited about what we're seeing this summer. After another day of following the show online, I think it's not just the products themselves, but the sheer abundance of them. I don't know whether those of you at the show are picking up on this, but I'm seeing more lines and more products within lines, which indicates to me that the industry is picking back up and bouncing back from the recent recession. Keeping fingers crossed that I'm right on that account!

Stay tuned...tomorrow I will be back with my "must haves" list. I am really, really going to have to reign myself in this time!

CHA Armchair Attendee Week: Trends, Part I

What's a girl to do if she can't make it to Chicago for the summer Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) trade show? Why, attend virtually, of course! Last winter, I blogged an "Armchair Attendee Week" for write.click.scrapbook. and had a blast tracking the show online and posting about it. We're in Summertime Daily mode over at write.click.scrapbook. so I decided to host my own CHA Armchair Attendee Week here at Right Side Up.

Here's the plan for the next three days:

• Wednesday - Trends, Part I: Patterns & Motifs
• Thursday - Trends, Part II: Products
• Friday - My "Must Haves"

I'm going to start with some shameless self-plagiarizing. I am cutting and pasting the introductory text from my January 30th write.click.scrapbook. post below (with updated links and a couple of small edits, of course!). Don't worry, after that it will all be new material. :)

Introduction

Some of you may be wondering what it means to be an “armchair attendee.” How can you “attend” the show if you’re not there? Well, here’s my process.

• In the weeks ahead of the show, I regularly frequent websites that compile manufacturers’ sneak peeks. Most manufacturers “sneak” their new releases prior to the show via their company’s blog/website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and that can be exhausting to follow without the aid of websites that do the work of compiling sneaks for you. Two good websites for this are Scrapbook Update and The Scrap Review. Each presents the sneaks a little bit differently: Scrapbook Update provides a clickable list by date of sneaks (the list can also be sorted by manufacturer by clicking at the top of that column) and The Scrap Review blogs sneaks as they appear.

• As I look at sneaks, I make sure to check out both official product images as well as any projects showcasing the new products. Often a line or a product that doesn’t grab me at first looks different when I see it on a layout or a card.

• Once the show starts, I watch online for photos and videos from the CHA show floor. Not all companies do sneak peeks or extensive sneak peeks and seeing new products together with projects made with them in the booth can inspire. You can try searching #CHAshow on Twitter, check magazines' and manufacturers' Twitter feeds/Facebook pages/blogs, or follow targeted CHA forums (like the CHA Summer 2012 forum at Two Peas in a Bucket or Studio Calico's CHA forum).

• The most important piece of my process: I make my wishlist! That was made much easier this year by Pinterest. I started a CHA Summer 2012 board and every time I looked at sneaks I pinned ones that grabbed my attention. (Don't worry, I won't buy it all!)

Summer Show: Some Context

In many ways, the summer show is a bit predictable. There are always lots of fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, winter, and Christmas lines released. Those lines represent the upcoming seasonal highlights, and manufacturers want to be sure that their customers have what they need for the holiday season. However, just because the themes of many of the lines are predictable, that doesn't mean that there isn't great variation from year to year in the way product designers interpret those themes. There are also still many lines released at the summer show with non-seasonal themes, but most manufacturers throw a holiday line or two into the mix amongst their other collections.
 
Continuing Trends: Patterns & Motifs

Depending upon your perspective, you will be happy to hear that many pattern and motif trends from last winter's show (and earlier) are continuing. I am still seeing a ton of chevron prints, woodgrain patterns, polaroids, banners/flags/pennants, and hexagon motifs. There are some new twists here that are keeping these trends fresh, for example, Studio Calico's elongated hexagons and American Crafts' Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go woodgrain chevron patterned paper.

 

I don't want to dwell on the obvious, however, so let's move on to a newer trend. I'm only going to address one major trend for this show, as it's really the only new standout for me.

Speech Bubbles: A New Dominant Trend
I'd say this is the dominant pattern/motif trend at this show, at least from the armchair perspective! (I'd love to hear from those of you at the show to hear your take on this.) A good thing I love this trend, right? :) Manufacturers are interpreting this in lots of different ways:

Studio Calico's Yearbook collection includes wood veneer speech bubbles:

Pebbles's Seen & Noted collection has speech bubbles all over the place, including a speech bubble patterned paper, phrase cards, and chipboard speech bubbles, but my favorite take on the trend within this line are the chalkboard stickers:

Another fun take on this trend comes in the form of washi tape from October Afternoon's carnival-themed Midway collection:

Simple Stories' new Sn@p brand provides the most colorful take on this trend I've seen yet. There are so many takes on the speech bubble within this new product line! I'll post two here, but you should really check out the whole line on their blog here and here!

 

Pink Paislee is showcasing this trend via stamps in the Portfolio collection:

 
Let's peek at one more take on this trend before closing, this one a patterned paper with patterned speech bubbles from American Crafts' Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go collection:

The more I look at what's being released this summer the more I am thinking this might be my favorite show in a good long while, like maybe the last five years! (This does not bode well for the wallet, of course!)

I'll be back tomorrow to look at product trends. I'm seeing another hugely dominant trend there, but will comment on some ongoing trends as well.

Feel free to comment here if you think I've hit the nail on the head, missed the boat, or missed reporting on a favorite new or continuing trend you've noticed.

  

Sharing My News!

I am thrilled to share that I am a member of the 2012-2013 Pebbles Design Team! This might be old news for some of my readers (if you also read the Pebbles blog or saw me post about this on Facebook yesterday), but this all transpired last week while I was on vacation and didn't have the ability to write a blog post. "What?" you say, "But you had a post every day last week?!" Yes, that's the beauty of scheduling posts ahead of time. :) My term officially begins in September, and I can't wait!

Here's one of the layouts I submitted for the design team call:

Pebbles has three new collections debuting at the Craft & Hobby Association trade show in Chicago this week and I can't wait to get to work with them!

First up is Walnut Grove:

 

Next is Seen & Noted (I'll let you in on a little secret - this is my favorite of the new lines :)):

Embellishments

Journaling Cards

Phrase Cards

Memorology Page Protectors

O Flip! Album

Last, but not least, is Tricks and Treats:

(These Thickers come in four colors! Black, white, orange and green.)

I am madly pinning and plotting out my CHA Armchair Attendee blog posts for the rest of this week, so stay tuned!