Crafts : Editor's Picks: Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts : Home & Garden Television

In the pretty papers category, the designer lines from Anna Griffin, Brenda Walton and Tim Coffey for K & Company were delightful. There were more beautifully designed papers at the show than I've ever seen! But there was more than just great paper; die cuts exist for absolutely every topic imaginable, and the embellishments! Oh my.

Anna Griffin's designs remind me of flower-filled English cottages. Her papers, frames, ribbon photo corners, cartouche stamps and die-cuts make such beautiful scrapbooks and cards. She introduced 36 lovely new 12" x 12" paper designs at the show, including color blocked sheets that help with page planning and a line of family history papers and accents.

If you haven't seen her antique-looking paper doll die-cuts, look for them! I think paper dolls are "back" and couldn’t be happier about it. Also don't miss the new Anna Griffin punches, embossing stencils, stamps and stamp sets of words and phrases in pretty, elegant fonts that coordinate nicely with her papers and designs.

Website: www.AnnaGriffin.com

Tim Coffey and Brenda Walton have designed beautiful lines of scrapbooking papers and accessories for K & Company, including cheerful bright florals, elegant embossed vellums and stickers, and a large variety of themed alphabets.

My favorite things in the K & Company booth were the Grand Adhesions--a beautiful and sometimes whimsical line of embellishments made from layers of die-cuts accented with beads, pearls, glitter and wire. There are flowers, bugs, holiday and sports images, and more--plus frames, alphabets, tags, borders, and photo corners. I can't wait to make cards with them.

Website: www.KandCompany.com

Making Memories rolled out the third phase of their Details embellishments line at the show--watch your scrapbooking and craft stores for them. In addition to all of their great eyelets, charms and other metal accents that I'm sure you already love, I really like their double-dipped papers, too. They are colored on both sides but one side is darker than the other, and there are 22 yummy colors with names like parfait pink, cantaloupe and fruit punch. They have a nice smooth texture, too.

Website: www.MakingMemories.com

In the NRN Designs booth, I found a couple of new paper lines that I liked. Jill Meyer has designed a line of vintage-looking papers with postal and botanical themes, as well as coordinating vellum stickers.

NRN also has a new line called Déjà vu, a bright collection of retro-looking papers with big stripes, circles and lettering. Their Pages with a View are quite clever--it's really two layers with shapes and words cut out of the top layer allowing the color from the back layer or whatever you put inside to show through. It makes quick work of page design, for sure, but also I think that once you get your photos in place, you'd put borders, embellishments, etc. on the paper around the photos, which are protected in the inside layer and can be removed and replaced if you ever wanted to. Pretty handy.

Website: www.NRNdesigns.com

Stickers are just too fabulous to be called stickers anymore--nowadays they are known embellishments. They're fabric and wire, beaded and embossed, sewn and metallic, layered and metal. It's just that little bit of self-adhesive stuff on the back that keeps them in the sticker category at all.

Everyone has seen the Jolee's Boutique embellishments by now; they've taken a great idea one step further with the new Jolee's by You line. These smaller packs allow you to create your own themes and mix and match as you wish, but also I think it's great that now each package has just enough in it to make a great card or two. They even have a line of unique blank cards and envelopes in fabulous colors to make your cardmaking as easy as possible.

Website: www.EKSuccess.com

Dolphin Enterprises' Curly Q's and Classy Cuts tags are beautiful quilled-paper accents and tags that make beautiful scrapbook pages. These delicate, detailed little art pieces will add a whole new dimension to your scrapbooks and cards.

The Curly Q's are like stickers, but they are made of quilled paper--they've done the hard parts for you! Look for flowers and such as well as holiday themes like the Easter bunny with some eggs.

Classy Cuts tags also have quilled paper accents but also shells, fabric pieces, buttons and more. Each one is like a mini collage.

Website: www.Protect-A-Page.com

Scrappin' Dreams is another entry in my "pretty papers" category, but I was also excited to learn about their Dream String and Scrappin' Tracer. The Dream String is thinly wired string that can be twisted, curled and tied into all kinds of neat scrapbook accents. The Scrappin' Tracer is a simple little tool--a wooden stick, basically, with a sharp point stuck in it. But it's extra handy because it cuts as you trace, and in every direction, not just in one direction like a craft blade would. You can make precise cuts in circles without turning your paper or moving your arm so much. Very good idea.

Website: www.ScrappinDreams.com

I couldn't wait to use the Sonnets by Sharon Soneff double-sided tags, so she was kind enough to send me some heart-shaped ones way in advance to use in my Valentines a few months ago. These pretty tags come in several shapes and paper styles, all with a different but coordinating pattern on the back. The little metal rims really help them stand out and give them presence on a page, more than just a die-cut might have.

Website: www.CIgift.com

I love to make cards using square cards and envelopes, but buying them already made is always more expensive than the regular ones. Now I can make my own with Hanko Designs Square-velope envelope-making templates. They come in packs with five sizes of templates included. I never realized that making envelopes could be a simple trace-and-cut process, but it is, and I can't wait to get one of these.

Website: www.HankoDesigns.com

Pixie Press has a great idea for keeping those pretty scrapbooks on display as well as making sure not a month goes by without being documented. Their "A Year to Remember" scrap calendars allow you to create a scrapbook page on your calendar every month. They have stickers and such made just for the calendars, with all the months and themes included, like snowmen for January, hearts for February, and so on.

I also like their Threading Frames. I don't think I've seen these anywhere else before; they are frames in various sizes and shapes with holes around the edges to thread ribbon through. A lovely addition to a scrapbook page, in my opinion.

Website: www.PixiePress.com

I really liked the handmade scrapbooks offered by Pulp Paper Products; in particular, the muted but colorful baby toile fabric makes a pretty book, as well as their baby applique books embellished with little crocheted ducks, lambs and other critters. For the grownups, they have a nice line of canvas scrapbooks that can be personalized by adding one of hundreds of images on the front, from themes like zodiac, travel, nature, retro, even wedding and baby designs.

Website: www.PulpPaperProducts.com

Persnippity's Ink Drops are vellum black and white stickers printed with quotes in various cool fonts, plus a few line drawings that go with the theme. I'm a quote-aholic; I like to use them in cards and other projects, but I also like reading them. I'm happy to see that I won't have to be printing out my own anymore. Can't wait to read all of these, either.

Website: www.Persnippity.com

If black and white isn't your thing, then check out Quotables from Kopp Design. They are similar to the Ink Drops above--also printed on vellum--but these come in fresh pretty colors that match the Kopp papers and they have cute little drawings on them, too. They are less of the quote variety and more of the title or little saying variety, but that's ok--I like these too.

Website: www.KoppDesign.com

With all the embellishing to be done to scrapbooks with numerous cool accents, it's a wonder people ever have the time to actually build the pages at all. The folks at Me & My Big Ideas must have wondered about that, too, because they've made Power Pages, which are books of 16 designed pages that you just add photos to (and embellish if you want). The papers are already laid out for you; you just get to do the fun parts.

Website: www.MeAndMyBigIdeas.com

At the show, various booths have tables set up with "Make-it and Take-its"--fun little projects that allow you to sit down, make something quickly, learn a little and move on. There was so much to see at the show that I didn't get to do many of these, but I did learn to emboss with stencils. I had no idea it was so easy or I would have been doing it a long time ago! I already mentioned that I love the Anna Griffin's stencils (see above), but it was a kind lady at the Lasting Impressions booth who taught me how simple and fun this process is. They've taken a good thing a step further, though (don't you love when craft companies do that?). The Colored Impressions software allows you to print designs from your computer that match their stencils. The printouts sort of look like ghost shapes--just little blobs of color here and there--but when you line them up with the matching stencils and emboss them, voila! You have pre-printed color right where it belongs and your stenciled designs are perfect.

Website: www.LastingImpressions.com

Crafts

Editor's Picks: Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts

Tools

MOST POPULAR

Crafts

Editor's Picks: Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts

Tools

MOST POPULAR

Home and Garden Ideas from our sponsors