IHP DT Challenge: Crafty Trends from CHA

Walking the floor of the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Trade Show is always an adventure! What could possibly be more exciting than getting to see three huge showrooms of brand new products that you can hardly wait to get your hands on? Only one thing: getting to share that experience with your girlfriends!

From the very beginning, the i {heart} papers team has had strong ties to Paper Craft Planet. Our mutual love of paper and paper-crafting was the foundation for our friendship, and CHA has given us the opportunity to meet face-to-face and translate those online friendships into real life. It's so much more fun in person than it is on screen!

Those who were fortunate enough to walk the CHA floor this winter (sadly I was not among them) were drawn to certain products and projects. Over dinner discussions they discovered some emerging trends. That's what today's challenge is all about.

Thankfully, those who couldn't be there can live vicariously through the next best thing: photos! Check out these in this post from Susanna, and several posts from MoxieFab!

Some of the current trends that they identified were:

Chevrons

Paris

Travel themed products

Sewing (not new but still going strong)

Quilt patterns as paper backgrounds

City skyline

Pinwheels and Flowers and Butterflies

Pennants

Twine

Small sticker letters

3d embellishments

The ones I used in my layout are highlighted in red. I created my own chevron pattern using the Mint Motif set Beyond Borders. This set has been getting a lot of play lately, having been featured in the recent issue of Stamp It! 3 Ways (published by Paper Crafts Magazine). I actually pulled out my sewing machine for this. Major shocker for those who know me. Almost as much of a shocker as the fact that I made a scrapbook layout in the first place!

The sticker letters came from one of my favorite 12x12 Collection Kits, Little Girl by Echo Park. I created my cupcake embellishment with an old Sizzix die I have in my collection. Cupcakes are also not a new trend, but I refuse to give them up!

The sweet baby in this layout is my adorable new granddaughter, Lilia. Don’t get me started…I have become the stereotypical grandma in so many ways!

Anyhow, you’ll definitely want to check out the rest of our team, as well as the Paper Craft Planet Supernovas, to see how they interpreted the trends. 

Carolyn (you are here)
Deb
Gretchen
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Tracy
Kate

and our guests from PCP:
Adela Rossol
Lisa Somerville
Lyn Bernatovich
Susanna Boyd
Taylor Usry
Wendy Price

Have fun!