Summer CHA 2012 Trend Spotting

Shopping for paper crafting supplies is a little like shopping for clothes. You have favorite “go to” outfits for special occasions and for lounging around the house. You have accessories that dress your outfit up or down. It’s never a wise investment to be too trendy, but you want to keep up with fashion so you don’t get stuck looking like you’ve been stuck in the 1970s for 30 years.

Our CHA reporters have the trends from CHA, some are fun for now and some will stay around awhile.

Hexagons: You’ll be seeing this shape in new paper lines, stamps, masks and dies. If you’re feeling thrifty, try using the stamps to recreate the look of patterned paper. Or make your own mask and accomplish the same look and feel with a spray mist or some distress inks. (Chevrons: You’ve been seeing these for awhile — but expect to see a lot of them in the holiday lines.)

*Lifestyle Crafts HEXAGON Cookie Cutter Dies DC0170	*Simon Says Stamp HEXAGON BORDER Craft DIE S107	Heyday Hexagons Spray Mask by Studio Calico
Echo Park Hexagon paper	Happiness The Sweetest Thing Stamps	My Minds Eye 6×6 Quilting Bee

Fabrics: Zipper flowers, burlap, canvas, oh my! If it’s fabric, use it. Now might be the time to go see what you have hanging around in your old sewing basket.

Colors: same lovely orange that’s been hot all year is still hot. I call it “orange” but officially, it’s the Pantone color Tangerine Tango. Brown and Kraft have moved aside for Grey and Navy, but black is also featured prominently. Traditional red and green are back for Christmas.

Project Life: If you’re a scrapper, you probably already knew this was HOT this year. Well, now, it’s not just Becky Higgins offering paper pieces designed to fit into the popular pocket sizes. All of the major paper manufacturers are making 3×4 and 4×6 pieces.

Mixed Media: Manufacturers are pre mixing pocket pages, envelope pages and interactive pieces into preformed pages. We’re seeing a lot of sprays, fabrics and papers all playing well together on cards. It’s a free for all — let your imagination run wild

Polaroid frames:  you’ll see them in stamps, you’ll see precut frames, you’ll see them in paper lines.

Feathers: More than just peacocks — feathers in stamps are big right now, and Studio Calico is even masking a misting mask for them!

Washi — This is not new, but it’s getting hotter and hotter. Now coming in all the trendy patterns!

Stencils — more than just images — words hot now too. Aren’t you glad we have such a great stencil tutorial area?! (grin)

My favorite?  More and more products are coming in a finish that you can change the color with mists or distress inks.