ScrapbookIndustryNews: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Lots of work done and some decent internet found, so on we go to a few more booths at the winter CHA trade show. Next up is BasicGrey. (You can find their current collections here, and almost everything is at least 25% off while it lasts.)

BasicGrey have four new collections, and the first two are companions: Knee Highs and Bow Ties. Though interestingly enough, there are neither socks nor dapper neck accessories included in the motifs. Go figure. (Also, if it’s not already, I’m sure Knee Highs and Bow Ties should be the name of some adorable tap dancing boys and girls somewhere, yes?) Knee Highs is the girly collection and Bow Ties is BG’s boy option this spring.

Pretty chipboard pieces. Glitter Girl is rather fond of all the hot pink + turquoise going on in the Knee Highs collection.

Three Knee Highs stamps – two clear on the left and one red rubber background stamp on the right, which looks promising as I’m not sure how on earth I’ve never seen a background stamp in something so lovely as a heartified polka dot. (Polka heart? Again, it sounds like a dance troupe.)

Brads and some fancy bottle cap-inspired embellishments. (Sorry I didn’t get a better photo of those as the booth is always quite crowded!)

Um, why, yes: those are lyrics from One Direction. I am somewhat speechless, but every girl under the age of about twenty probably just jumped for joy. Or nodded ironically.

These little embellishments are always my favourite part of the BG booth. It makes me want to start crafting instead of keep working though!

Both Knee Highs and Bow Ties have alphabets I like a lot, and this 12×12 sticker sheet looks really useful. It’s only the owl that will take some creative thinking, but owls work great on cards if they don’t fit your scrapbook look. I have a friend who seems to be collecting quite a stack of notebooks with owl motifs so perhaps that’s a project I need to remember!

Knee Highs papers – lush colours.

Exemplar pages and a few cross-over embellishments that link the two collections – wood veneer banners, a printed notepad, and metal tabs in the style of bookmarks.

This is something new at BasicGrey – the 6×8 minibook with a ring binder and woodgrain-embossed chipboard cover. The spine is patterned (there’s another pattern option in another collection coming up) and there are a variety of tabbed dividers and pocketed page protectors to fit.

Which leads us to the Bow Ties collection!

The paper flags in this collection are very sweet and I think they would work for any age really, depending on the other page elements you chose.

Two stamp sets with this collection – a background of old cars or a clear set of rocket ships and comic book POW!s.

If you never scrap boys there is one thing you still need from this collection – the letter stickers. They are notebook paper with a stitched detail at the edge (printed stitches rather than actual stitching). My picture doesn’t make them look nearly as cool as they are, I’m afraid. They are on my must-have list.

And the papers to round off the collection.

Hipster is the darkest colour palette for BG this show, and it’s not too dark – and will easily mix with brighter colours, I think. That sounds good to me.

I’m pretty sure there are no One Direction lyrics in a line called Hipster, by the way.

…though there may be plenty of moustaches. (But I know some of you are not fans of this motif and I can safely say there is plenty in this collection without carefully curated facial hair so don’t skip it completely!)

This last board even shows how Hipster can look quite feminine.

File folders and chipboard buttons…

Brads and a die-cut acetate alphabet…

and printed chipboard pieces.

But the stamps are my absolute favourite! I always wanted an excuse to stamp ‘rad’ on every third layout! I look forward to this new phase of my scrapping. (No, really: in real life I say ‘rad’ far too often, so I’m not even being sarcastic.) I like the distressed touch to that Polaroid frame stamp too.

And three more – five sets of stamps in total for Hipster! The two backgrounds are red rubber, the other three sets are clear.

Hipster has the ransom-style alphabet with the two smaller fonts at the bottom, and the 12×12 sticker sheet includes things like mix tapes and vinyl, which could be just what you need for those no-photo pages telling stories from the days before digital cameras. (Because you know if there had been camera phones in 1985, we all would have been Instagramming every mix tape we ever made, received, or tore piece by piece from the failing car stereo.)

And the papers… I like that last one with the boxes especially. BasicGrey don’t really do cut-apart sheets but this one could definitely work that way as a less expensive form of embellishment.

I also look forward to the day when researchers wonder why circa 2013, there were so many people in the world suddenly named Awesome. (The name badge trend is still going strong!)

And here’s the final collection from BasicGrey at this show: Mint Julep. Light and sweet and delicate… and there are deer.

Told you. (Also: check the bottom right badge. Love it.)

Interesting die-cut patchwork pieces, plus two kinds of brad embellishments.

All sorts of prettiness, actually!

Five stamps in this collection too – three backgrounds and two clear sets. All the deer are in one set so you can be pro-deer or anti-deer with ease. (I say embrace the deer! But if we have deer with moustaches and name badges next season, that is GOING TOO FAR. Anything other than that is acceptable.)

The stickers are surprisingly primary coloured, but they do look very lovely with the papers, I promise.

And there are the papers, by the way!

Card inspiration!

And ahem: enamel dots in every colour needed to match all these lines. Perfect for stocking up.

And one last look at the BG binder – so you can see both paper options: one for Hipster and one for Bow Ties.

Now… when will all this actually be available to buy? Soon:
Knee Highs and Bow Ties will arrive in stores in mid February.
Hipster and Mint Julep is available in April. Enjoy!

Click here to shop for BasicGrey products and here for the inspiring BasicGrey blog.

Comment [46]

And CHA is open for Winter 2013! I’m here in Anaheim for the big trade show in the craft industry. Hundreds of companies are here to debut their collections for 2013, and part of my lovely press duty is to share all that goodness with you. I’m starting with one of my all-time favourites: Jenni Bowlin Studio.

I have two top picks at the JBS booth this time: a new line called Modern Mercantile designed by Lisa Dickinson and Jenni’s new stamps – but actually there are lots of lovely new embellishments throughout this JBS release.

Modern Mercantile is a lovely new twist on Jenni’s vintage style, with some brighter spring colours and a mix of current trend motifs like feathers with the ephemera style we know from Jenni’s ticket stubs and ledgers.

Cut-apart cards are perfect for journaling boxes on a 12×12 page or for the small pockets of divided page protectors, of course.

All the papers are double-sided, cardstock weight paper. (I have a video to come with the lovely Lisa telling us a bit about her design inspiration, but I’ll have to find a better internet connection so I can share them!)

Some design inspiration for the Modern Mercantile papers, plus some of Jenni’s new embellishments – including more paper feathers.

And here are those new paper feathers – the last release of these were very popular (Glitter Girl is a big fan too). This time there are kraft feathers with text and other small patterns plus a colourful floral set.

Flatbacks are Jenni Bowlin’s new flair or badge style embellishments – perfect for adding dimension in a flash. They come in three different packs, all with a classic vintage style. I definitely have my eye on the set on the left.

And new mini card sets – great for layering and a good size for cards, scrapbook pages, and other projects.

Plus brand new tape! These are really rich colours and versatile patterns, but there is one in particular that has my heart:

…sigh. Whitewashed woodgrain washi tape. Seriously, just typing that sounds so pretty it’s almost a song lyric.

New additions in the True Vintage offerings include price signs and tickets. These are real vintage pieces, so each pack is unique, all sourced from Jenni’s adventures in the antique world.

JBS rub-ons are always such high quality (I may have stocked up on a lifetime supply of those beautiful large butterfly rub-ons with no regret!) and there are new designs including feathers and jars. That jar can do something rather beautiful for an embellishment, by the way:

…stamped on vellum with a pocket of stars and sequins inside, then stitched onto the project. So pretty!

New chipboard packs include bare feathers and leaves read to be customised and printed dominoes, bingo chips, and clock faces.

And these are my second pick from the JBS booth: the new clear stamps, all in sets of two to make little books or perfect for creating journaling cards for pages or pocketed page protectors.

They stamp so beautifully, and would create such lovely gift wrap tags, especially dressed up with a photo in the frame stamp a bit like a paper locket.

Taking a look around the rest of the booth, there are some lovely twists like combining the vellum butterflies with the bingo cards. As a product, this is a great idea for those who sell completed crafts rather than just supplies, but if you have these items in your stash, there’s your inspiration for a great gift or something to dress up your own wall.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Jenni Bowlin without some red and black to grace the booth!





This is the mid-release Red and Black collection from just a month or two ago. You can find this in stores now. (There’s a sheet from this collection in my January picks for the Best of Both worlds kit.)

New releases from Jenni Bowlin Studio will ship to stores in February!
Click here to shop for current Jenni Bowlin products
and check out JBS Mercantile for Jenni’s kit club and a full range of classic JBS products.

By the way: at the end of CHA on Tuesday, I’ll take all the comments and throw them in a hat for a few prize drawings. Just something informal, but I’ll just mention it now and catch up with you about that with some winners on Wednesday, if that sounds good!

Comment [152]

It’s hard to believe Amy Tan launched her first scrapbooking collection with American Crafts just a year ago, but that’s exactly true as her original collection debuted here in Chicago last year. Then she added brighter colours and whiter whites in her sophomore Sketchbook collection last winter and now Amy introduces an autumn colour palette for collection number three: Ready Set Go.

This collection includes bright (but not too bright!) greens, glassy blues and warm yellows all grounded by rich brown tones. Some of the Thickers styles are easy to customise with ink and two come in a new shape – square tiles.

Motifs in this collection include cameras, globes and arrows plus the occasional cheeky elephant. Why not?

These letter stickers are more than meets the eye: they are sheer! Each card has two colours and they look gorgeous layered over a subtle patterned paper (which shows through) or overlapped to create a darker shade wherever there are two layers of sticker.

Hello is a big theme throughout!

Such perfect DIY elements, with lots of paint and yarn to customise Amy’s displays. Spray-painted globe: check!

Two new spiral daybooks in the large size, with mixed pages…

…and stitched daybooks in a new mini size, with matching pages. (Plus a big ribbon value pack at the left.)

The die-cut pack has so many versatile shapes, and the leaves from the first collection are back in the new colours, and possibly just slightly smaller. Could be my imagination. Not my imagination that I really liked using these when they came out in the first collection. I used two whole packs!

Onto the papers, my favourites include the parquet flooring, the spinning globes…

and the LOVE LOVE LOVE print of white ink on kraft. It makes me sing Beatles’ songs and recite lines about Blue Meanies. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or just a coincidental side effect.

Not one but TWO date stamps in this collection, and the years go back to 2007! Huzzah. I am forever putting my Dear Lizzy date stamps away when I remember the photos predate the rolling date stamp. (There are a bunch of new date stamps from the American Crafts family of brands. Like half a dozen new date stamps. Everyone needs six more, right? If a little is good, a lot must be better!)

On the left, a product very near and dear to Amy’s heart: a travel scrapping kit that includes all the basic tools and necessities in a perfectly sized zip pouch. On the right, beautiful layered heart embellishments with vellum and stitching.

As you left Amy’s booth, you could pin the map with your location. I got to pin a new space on the board, which was very exciting! (I share this because it might be a good idea for scrapping your own travels – add mini brads or other markings to a map patterned paper as a background design element, perhaps!)

Really looking forward to working with this range, and planning an update soon of how these products mix and match with the two existing collections – always one of my favourite things to try with signature style collections like this.

Click here to shop for Amy Tangerine products.

Comment [13]

Just around the corner from October Afternoon, it’s Echo Park central. Existing Echo Park fans will be pretty happy, since three of their new collections are twists on favourite collections from EP earlier this year, but with three holiday collections in the mix, there’s plenty of room for new fans to join the Echo Park fun.

Just for the Record 2 comes in two new colour themes. This blue and yellow scheme is the ‘Documented’ option.

‘Tailored’ leads with a warm reddy pink, plus orange and green.

‘Documented’ includes this worn numerical print in black and white to go with anything you like.

The journaling cards have plenty of sentiments to work with all sorts of everyday moments.

The sticker sheet includes cameras, doilies, and a bicycle. Plus they put a bird on it, so you can put you can put birds on things. Always a plus.

‘Tailored’ incudes this very pretty and striking doily print. (Did you see Glitter Girl’s doily picks from the show floor?)

I can’t decide if this black and white print is completely beautiful or makes my eyes cross. Is it possible to be both?

Sewing themed accessories are always cute, but not the easiest to match to your photo themes unless you sew pretty much all the time. That’s okay in this design because they all have great layering potential with the circle and stripe designs.

On the other hand, the border sheet is one that is so easy to use that I might need two.

Lush text choices in the cut-apart sheet. Happy paper is good paper.

Butterflies, sewing machines and doilies in the sticker mix.

Then we’re into the holidays, starting with Halloween and a detailed, ornate collection called Chillingsworth Manor.

Interesting that although it’s definitely an orange, green and black, but it’s a very muted orange rather than a bright pumpkin shade.

Makes for a bit of a different look against stark black!

Have to love a doily in a Halloween collection. Lots of delicate details here really.

Not just doilies sneaking in – butterflies too!

And some more traditional Halloween imagery shows up on the sticker sheet.

With some frightful words on the alpha sheet. And stickers of glass jars. To fill with creepy crawlies and peeled grapes and cold spaghetti. Or something.

Then there are two Christmas collections. This & That Christmas brings the look of the two This & That collections released earlier this year to a red and green colour scheme with plenty of woodgrain.

This & That Christmas includes a set of Advent numbers for a countdown project or two.

It always makes me smile when I spot a Jen Gallacher page on the show floor! Very sweet.

The Christmas edition of the ticket pattern includes tickets for entry to the Christmas tree farm and assorted other sweet and simple Christmas things.

I didn’t notice this pattern at a distance but I love it up close – green on green detail and tiny red stars to pack a punch.

Flash cards with plenty of Christmas words, and in red. Last year’s collections didn’t have nearly as much red. I’m totally a fan of this red resurgence.

Doilies! Woodgrain! Father Christmas! I mean really: what’s not to love?

And a mixed-up-font style in the countdown numbers.

This multi-coloured stripe is a little something different for a Christmas paper. Looking forward to giving it a try.

Lots of pretty on the two cut-apart sheets.

And sweet simplicity in the stickers. All just a charming and easy to use release in This & That Christmas.

Very Merry Christmas mixes handwritten sentiments with traditional holiday graphics and a bit of big blocky text.

See, that letterpress-inspired large lettering look is definitely big this year. This is two brands out of three in what I’ve been able to post so far.

Cut-apart journaling cards that will mix and match with a fair few other collections, new and old.

Two sheets of stickers – and a unique choice of font for a Christmas collection. I’m not sure how easy this one would be on a small-format page, but it certainly work well for a striking title on a 12×12 page. (It would still be striking on a smaller page, I just don’t know how many letters would fit with the width of these letters.)

But really, that’s not all from Echo Park! I’ll come back with another post to include their new mini themes and their new Photo Freedom collections for divided page protectors.

What’s your favourite of all this? Anything singing to your scrapping fancy?

Click here to shop for Echo Park scrapbooking supplies.

xlovesx

Comment [32]

I wonder what scrapbooking goodness could be around this corner? Could it be October Afternoon?

Greeted by some of these gorgeous layouts, I venture that’s a yes!

October Afternoon debuted four new releases: Midway and Witch Hazel scheduled to ship in late summer; Make it Merry and Farm Girl scheduled for the end of September.

And yes: Midway includes stickers and chipboard versions of a rainbow-trimmed Polaroid camera. Indeed.

Bright shades but true to the October Afternoon look of bright meets vintage. They have stayed with tried and true products that work for so many scrappers, like the label and word stickers.

I am joyous at the addition of a great hot pink shade in the Mini Market letter stickers.

All the Midway designs are cute, but hands up: who is seriously considering buying the journaling cards and the tin pins purely based on the camera? Surely I am not alone? Maybe I will have to challenge myself to find the perfect page for all the others, but that design is certainly my favourite.

Two stamp sets – one with multiple designs and one large background image. Pie-charts and starburst shapes are definitely popular at this show.

Love this washi! The top option is like the green date tape from 9 to 5 but with a variety in the wording and a brighter tone to the colour. The bottom option is just crazily cute. I can’t stand word bubble stickers on their own and yet I am remarkably drawn to them on washi tape. Who knew?

Lots of happy die-cuts. I really like that [photos taken here!] caption.

The minibook pieces for this range are photo-inspired with pretty vintage scenes (there are some non-photo patterns in the mix too).

The papers are a great mix of bold, bright patterns that will challenge you to come up with something creative and small, repeating prints that are amongst the most versatile around. (There’s a ferris wheel paper that might work with the same tactic that Glitter Girl is up to in her adventure later today, by the way.)

Cut-apart sheets are always a favourite for me – great for layering and embellishments without the added cost of dimensional stickers and such. So that’s Midway!

Witch Hazel is up next, for Halloween. The wonky sheet music pattern comes up a few times and it’s an interesting Halloween twist I haven’t seen elsewhere. The banners and buttons chipboard stickers would make a good choice for scrapping Halloween without young kids, while the other designs are more youthful. And check out what they did with the label sticker sheet: all in black! Definitely something for everyone, even if you have no plans to ever scrapbook Halloween.

Halloween always brings out the twisty, Gothic-inspired fonts, and this one is new to the OA line-up. Plus the stand-by Sticky Keys and Mini Market letters in new Halloween-inspired colours.

Die-cut captions, with the cassette tape shape reading ‘spooky mix’, which made me giggle for reasons I really couldn’t fathom, other than it doesn’t take much to make me laugh.

A storybook look to the minibook sheets and plenty of vintage Halloween art evidence in the miscellany.

This makes me want to send Halloween cards this year! Have you ever sent Halloween cards? (Who am I kidding? I never finish the Christmas cards really.)

The papers are a mix of Halloween-specific and more versatile – plenty of stripes and chevrons and repeating patterns in there to balance the spider webs and scary trees. Don’t overlook Witch Hazel if you’re not all ghosts and goblins in October!

Then we move on to Christmas with Make it Merry. That large text print at the right? Remember that when we look through some more booths. Big letterpress-inspired text prints are big this Christmas.

There’s something about the border strip page that reminds me of Monopoly. And I love it.

Everyone has Advent countdown numbers this year! These are lovely – variety in colour and pattern but continuity in size and shape.

I love the vintage lettering style on the cut-apart sheet.

Again being clever with classic label stickers: all in red! I’ll take six. At least.

Like Witch Hazel, some of the pieces have grouped the more youthful designs together, which is handy for deciding whether each piece in the collection is right for you.

Classic small letter stickers in red and green. Perfect for small format albums at Christmastime, as well as full size scrapbook pages.

A mix of vintage and modern with the Tin Pins badge designs.

Plenty of happy embellishments, of course.

Stitched or stitchable banners are something popping up in a few places. First at American Crafts last year, now in the current collections at BasicGrey and here at October Afternoon (and a few others too). These are described as ‘sewable’ so I’m pretty sure they come as a punch apart sheet then you stitch them yourself. The Christmas version includes another countdown option, should you opt for Advent bunting.

Tough to get great pictures of these two examples as the booth started to get crowded, but I just wanted to include them as two things really inspired me – the dimension from using the snowflake pieces in the banner on the first card and the snowy effect on both cards from an off-centred application of white mist. Great ideas to file away.

And finally, Farm Girl. The OA Farm Girl herself reminds me a bit of the Campbell Soup Kids from my youth. Of course, if my youth had been today, there would be a photo of the crazy stacking Campbell’s soup bowls with faces… but alas I’m sure that image is just in my memory and not on film. I’m ashamed to say I just spent ten minutes trying to search for an example online because I’m sure it’s one of those things that shows up in every antique mall in the midwest, but I’ve come up empty-handed. Shall we talk less of soup and more of scrapbooking? Oh yes.

The papers bring out two things even this city girl likes: the yellow and blue combination and the potential in that wedding ring quilt pattern at the bottom right.

BUT WAIT! I mean I was excited about hot pink Mini Market letters. I have LEAPT WITH JOY over woodgrain Mini Market letters. Do you hear me, October Afternoon? LEAPT. WITH. JOY.

But speaking of those hot pink letters from Midway, I’d love to use them with these two blue patterns from Farm Girl. Note to self there.

On to embellishments. The cassette tape does not say ‘tractor mix’ or ‘combine harvester remix’ but I’m thinking it might need to. Because living in London gives me many opportunities to scrapbook combine harvesters… but still. (Okay – it’s blank and in a good colour: what I’m really saying is you can use it for anything and not just farm pictures. But seriously, someone scrapbook a combine harvester. Thanks.)

Stripes and cherries on the washi tape. Roosters with the power of speech on the journaling cards. All good things.

SewFun Banners in this collection too.

And two more gorgeous layouts as I exit. So pretty – absolutely loving that vellum star layering!

Does anything float your boat at October Afternoon? What made you LEAP WITH JOY, I ask?

Click here to shop for October Afternoon products.

xlovesx

PS: Looking for something? This might be it:

(Don’t worry if that makes zero sense to you at all. It’s a game and will make sense to those playing!)

Comment [52]

CHA Summer 2012 is officially open for business, so I’m going to jump right in with booth-by-booth coverage for the next couple days, starting with my favourite in the scrapbooking world: Jenni Bowlin Studio.

I always love how Jenni displays all the supplies and samples with her beautiful vintage finds. It’s like a little treasure trove and no one else has this kind of vintage detail to their styling. But let’s look at the products, shall we?

Some Christmas gorgeousness to start! If you haven’t created a page with a row of JBS journaling cards, put it on your to-do list now. It always looks so delicate and perfect!

Two groups of tiny things that I love: the True Vintage collection at the top – small packs of actual vintage goods including milk caps, buttons and labels. Then in the non-vintage side, tiny adhesive rhinestone stars in three colours. Definitely need these for my Christmas journal this year, and probably for everything else too.

New paper embellishments include the flag tags in white and kraft (to coordinate with the tags and pockets released earlier this year) and mini file folders, complete with tiny coordinating labels.

The Christmas 2012 papers include a cut-apart sheet with journaling cards, a sheet with 6×6 patterns on a 12×12 sheet, a page of December 2012 calendars (perfect for journal accents or for cardmaking), and full-page 12×12 designs.

The top of the journaling card sheet has countdown numbers for Advent. Love these bold stars!

See what I mean about the detail in Jenni’s styling? Gorgeous pages from the design team, gorgeous scenes for the display. Sigh.

Four new mini card packs and two new chipboard shapes: hexagons (to match the stickers released earlier this year) and eight-pointed stars.

Here are the mini card designs actually in focus!

Jenni has also added four new Fiskars punches to the line-up, all in the squeeze variety this time around.

The designs include that same star in the chipboard, a split square that makes perfect pinwheels, an artisan label and an index card. Keep in mind these are small designs – perfect for tiny details.

But you know it is sometimes the simplest things that make me the happiest, which is why I gasped in delight at this: grey JBS letter stickers!

Also in red and black, of course. Love these. Great size, they include numbers and they have cute labels at the bottom of the sheet. Sold.

I can’t add commentary to this. It’s just so very pretty.

New stamps include this stitched grid (amazing for adding your own tiny embellishments inside), a typewriter and an important memo.

A new shape to Jenni’s sticker line-up: postage stamps! In four designs. Love the airmail look of the red and blue.

Here’s the paper from that pretty page above. It’s a red and blue print in the die-cut paper line. Cut it apart or keep it together and fold it up to create a mini project. Can’t really go wrong with this – very classic and clean in design.

Love the red label sheet in the die-cut paper line too. An entire sheet of labels to embellish anything that will sit still. Sounds good to me!

Pretty paper feathers!

Love that typewriter stamped – doesn’t take much to go from that stamped image to a perfectly finished card.

This made me giggle in its fabulousness: a photo displayed in the flashbulb of an old camera! Love it.

A look at those red perforated labels in use, with plenty of pop dots.

The paper feathers look like this up close – in prints or plain.

There are lots of new journal products on the show floor, and Jenni has one too: the chipboard journal comes as a pack with chipboard covers, tabbed index pages and paper pages in a variety of lines, ledgers and grids. Plus the two rings to hold it all together.

This hotel key holder was released at the winter show but just started appearing in stores and it’s so pretty, I figured I could show you again!

One stand down, a bunch more to go… what’s your favourite item from Jenni’s new release?

Click here to shop for Jenni Bowlin Studio products or here to join Jenni’s monthly kit club, JBS Mercantile.

xlovesx

Comment [46]

Simple Stories wins my personal prize for the company that is just making so much sense right now. They are a younger manufacturer than many on the floor, though their company history does actually go back beyond the Simple Stories name, with earlier adventures in retailing and all things scrapbook, but Simple Stories is doing smart things with an identifiable style, and it’s exciting to see their new ideas as they mature as a brand.

Starting with paper lines, the new feminine line Fabulous (available now!) includes both full 12×12 sheets and a variety of cut-apart pages with journaling, title and accent cards and strips.

So whether you prefer to scrap traditional pages, pocket pages or a mix – you’re covered. Smart move.

Seeing all the cut-apart pieces like this makes me want to use plenty of them on regular pages, so it really is more versatile than ‘just’ a collection for pocket systems. The Fabulous collection has a bit of flower-power influence but it’s not over the top in colours, daisies or peace signs. There’s a good balance across the line – and everything is double-sided to minimise anything being left-over because it’s not quite the right title for your page.

And it makes my heart very happy to see so many designs in a collection that encourage writing, especially when the 12×12 paper option makes them a lot more affordable than some journaling-card notebooks.

This is the big news on the Simple Stories stand: the 6×8 pocket album. Look for this in so very many projects come next December, I do believe! But plenty before that too.

The page protectors in this system have a variety of pocket configurations plus the full 6×8 page, so there are many looks to try even on the smaller page size.

The binder itself has a fabric spine in black, brown or navy, plus a heavy-duty chipboard cover that can be customised in any way you like. Inside, a 3-ring binder makes it easy to add and move pages as you work.

Plenty of options for packs of papers designed to this size and the coordinating page protectors so you can choose your own mix.

This paper size also includes some options for pockets to hold things you want in your album but you don’t particularly want to glue to the page. I like the scrolled edges on the pockets that make them a little more formal than a plain edge.

And there are pocket pages available in the 12×12 size too!

That leads us to the more masculine 12×12 collection – Awesome. (Available now – find it here!) It’s a similar format to the feminine line, but with a more primary-influenced colour scheme and circles and stars in lieu of flowers and peace signs.

It’s general enough that it should be easy to use on a variety of pages – it doesn’t require the boy in question to be a skateboarder or a fan of dirt bikes or any of the other specific themes that seem to turn up on boy collections so often.

Best name badge ever, right?!

Paper collections are shipping now and the album will hit stores from later this month. This was a very popular item at the show so I would expect it to sell out and be restocked at stores throughout the year. Simple Stories promised they would be making more since it was such a hit!

Click here to shop for Simple Stories products, including these new lines and the Year-ography and Documented lines, perfect for year-long scrapping projects.

Comment [2]

In a world where scrapbooking supplies are divided between cute and sophisticated, Little Yellow Bicycle lives right in the space where those two collide, with products that can be easily adapted to either pure and simple cuteness, or rich detailed designs, depending on what you choose.

Saturdays (available here) is the first collection to ship from this release, with a denim blue base and plenty of kraft and cream accents. Perfect for family portraits, but versatile enough for all sorts of photos of things that aren’t too formal. Everyday or a little special – there’s something here that could work.

And lest you assume the denim factor makes it too masculine, check out these feminine looks made from those very same supplies.

Little Yellow Bicycle find something that works and then adapt it to all sorts of themes, like the ’5 things’ pockets that make list journaling easy and attractive, plus spinner accents, die-cut shaped papers and word stickers (those are my favourite).

The Paradise collection shipped just before the show, to warm up your winter with all things tropical.

The ’5 Things’ pockets with the shadow box? Love that idea. That’s exactly what I mean by the meeting point of cute and sophisticated.

One of these days I really need to actually make one of these mini book kits. Every time I see them, I love them! They include a good mix of pages and envelopes and would be just right for something like a week of memories from any sort of adventure.

Swoon, a new wedding collection, ships in March. Lots of white and silver.

Hello Spring hits stores in April – and that wreath is so lovely!

Such happy, bright colours in this collection.

Splash ships in May, with a beach or poolside theme…

…but looking at the individual elements, I think there’s a great deal that could work outside that theme, actually. Those die-cuts and rosettes, for starters.

And though the stickers are pretty specific, the border strips are just a nice splash of colour, whether there is any actual splashing in the photos or not!

Escape is the new LYB travel line for early summer. Particularly liking that little pennant kit. We’ll see more of this when it gets closer to its release.

So all in all, quite a full schedule of new things to come from Little Yellow Bicycle – something new to hit the shelves every month! Which are your favourites?

Click here to shop for Little Yellow Bicycle products, including two of the brand new collections already!

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