Angie Pedersen's Scrapbooking Industry News

CHA Expands License & Design Section

The Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) plans to significantly expand and strengthen the License and Design section of its 2008 Winter Convention and Trade Show in Anaheim, California.

The section will be located centrally on the show floor and will have specially designated pre- and post-show hours with refreshments to give CHA manufacturing exhibitors and members an opportunity to explore the section. Also, License and Design exhibitors will be invited to nominate art directors from other industries for an opportunity to be chosen by CHA for an all-expense paid trip to the Winter Show to explore the special section. Ten art directors will receive the special invitations.

The License and Design section will be promoted in a specialized pre-show marketing campaign and will be supported by a special task force. There will also be on-site promotions, as well as an enhanced turnkey booth package for exhibitors in the section.

SOURCE: Craftrends News Headlines

Scrapbook.com Acquires Keeping Memories Alive Scrapbooking Website

Scrapbook.com, a leading scrapbooking social-network and online store, acquires Keeping Memories Alive online and catalog properties, including the Scrapbooks.com website and domain name, for an undisclosed sum.

Mesa, AZ (PRWEB) May 31, 2007 -- Scrapbook.com, a leading online destination for scrapbookers worldwide, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the web-retail and catalog assets of Spanish Fork, Utah-based Keeping Memories Alive (KMA), including the Scrapbooks.com domain name and website, for an undisclosed sum.

The owners of Keeping Memories Alive are retiring and pursuing other interests, while Liz Rosenbaum, co-owner of Keeping Memories Alive, will continue on with Scrapbooks.com as part of their creative team. The acquisition will allow Scrapbook.com to build upon its more-than 650,000 monthly unique visitors, while simultaneously providing expanded services to the users of KMA Scrapbooks.com.

Scrapbook.com intends to operate the KMA Scrapbooks.com website as a separate web destination. Over the coming months Scrapbook.com will migrate its technology and resources to the Keeping Memories Alive web operations with the intent of growing the number of scrapbooking-related offerings available there.

This is a wonderful opportunity for us," said Jill Davis, founder of Scrapbook.com. "KMA Scrapbooks.com is a great fit. We have long admired the contribution that Keeping Memories Alive, by way of the Christensen and Rosenbaum families, has made to scrapbooking. Keeping Memories Alive is a pioneer in scrapbooking and, in many respects, invented the scrapbooking industry. All of us now employed in the scrapbooking industry owe them a great debt of gratitude for their pioneering efforts."

Keeping Memories Alive was founded in 1981 by AJ and Marielen Christensen. In recent years, they began exploring buyout opportunities for their business. "As we contemplated retirement, we sought out a company that we wanted to assume the long tradition of KMA Scrapbooks.com, continue our legacy, and uphold the same standards that we had based our company on," said Marielen Christensen, founder of Keeping Memories Alive.

Keeping Memories Alive launched the first brick-and-mortar scrapbooking store twenty-six years ago. In subsequent years they launched the first scrapbooking catalog, unveiled the first scrapbooking-related web-store, wrote the first scrapbooking idea books, and were the first manufacturers of scrapbooking products.

About Scrapbook.com
Scrapbook.com is a leading online destination for scrapbookers worldwide. Scrapbook.com and its related sites receive approximately 650,000 unique visitors, and 17 million page views, per month. Scrapbook.com's mission is to guide people through the memory-preservation process and to keep them motivated to document their lives. Services include: providing scrapbookers with the products they need at the right price, supporting them through education, inspiring them through creative outlets such as galleries, forums and blogs, and giving them a home on the Web where they can connect with other scrapbookers worldwide. Scrapbook.com owns and operates Scrapjazz.com, ComputerScrapbook.com, ScrapTutor.com, and ScrapbookAdverstising.com.

About Keeping Memories Alive
Keeping Memories Alive was founded in 1981 by AJ and Marielen Christensen in Spanish Fork, Utah. Over that time the company grew to be a leader in the scrapbooking industry in many capacities: manufacturing, distribution, retail (online and offline), education, and community. Its online store is one of the most visited scrapbooking-related web-stores on the Internet today.

KMA is recognized among scrapbookers throughout the world and has shipped products to over 50 countries. Additionally, KMA has provided products wholesale to over 1,900 retail stores located throughout the US and internationally, and has served local community members by supplying scrapbook materials through its own retail store in Spanish Fork, Utah.

SOURCE: PRWeb and Scrapbooks.com blog

New Papercrafting Magazine: Giftmaker

Seen in the May 27th issued of the Wooden Horse Publishing e-newsletter:

GIFTMAKER is a new bimonthly magazine from publisher DRG (CROCHET WORLD, GOOD OLD DAYS) and is geared specifically toward paper crafting but also incorporates a range of media, including paint, beads, felt and fibers.  Editorial includes paper crafting, stamping, embellishing and gift-making possibilities.  The website is at GiftMakerMagazine.com.  Editor is Amy Wiegman.

CHA Forms Designer Trends Team

The Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) Designer Section has formed an industry trend team made up of professional designers. The group will report four times a year on new techniques, tools, products, and designs from their perspective as craft designers.

The entire CHA Design Section will be invited to contribute information to the team through special trend sessions at trade shows and designer events. The trend team is made up of: Phyllis Dobbs (needlearts), Debra Quartermain (needle felting, wearables/accessories), Sandy Laipply (general paper crafts), Reneee Sparks (scrapbooking), Debba Haupert (home decor/gifts, small accents), Julie Stephani (home decor/large accents), Jill Mackay (jewelry/jewelry fashion), Katie Hacker (beading), Lina Ferrara (decorative painting), Kathy Cano Murillo, the Crafty Chica (general crafts), and Marie Browning (general crafts). Browning is also the team chairperson. Lynne Farris is the Designer Section chairperson.

The team's first report will be part of a session entitled “Trend Tracking and Forecasting,” to be presented during CHA Designer's Education Day, Monday July 23, a day devoted to professional development for designers. Seminar topics include copyrights, trend spotting, licensing, and trade show presentations. The registration fee is $125. For more information, visit www.chashow.org.

SOURCE: Craftrends News Headlines

CK Media Magazine Staff Changes

Effective June 1, Lisa Bearnson will step down from her role as Creative Director of CK Media in order to focus more on her duties as Founding Editor of Creating Keepsakes magazine and spend more time with her family. Brian Tippetts is editor-in-chief of Creating Keepsakes, replacing Tracy White, who resigned. Britney Mellen is creative editor. Lin Sorenson will assume the position of editorial director for CK Media's scrapbook magazines and will serve on the company's executive board. Jennafer Martin will assume the role of editor-in-chief of Simple Scrapbooks and Digital Scrapbooking magazines, effective June 15. All other editors and contacts at Simple Scrapbooks and Digital Scrapbooking remain the same.

SOURCE: Craftrends News Headlines and Lisa Bearnson's blog

ScrapBiz Opens Doors to All Small ScrapBiz's

Starting a business is the dream of many scrappers and for the past five years, ScrapBiz.com has been helping entrepreneurial-minded scrapbookers do just that.   Many small non-traditional retailers started on their own and until now, ScrapBiz has not offered services for those who flew solo at startup time.   As of May 2007, ScrapBiz now invites all non-traditional retail scrapbook businesses to join the largest  retail support group (by membership) in the $2.2 billion a year Scrapbook industry.   

"As I discovered when I started out 6 years ago, running a business on your own can be lonely," says Founder and Industry Expert, Kim Guymon. "We've been doing this for long enough now that we believe every scrapbook entrepreneur will find a plethora of resources and support to help their businesses grow.   There isn't another place in the industry for non-traditional retailers to get this type of info and support once they've started.  If they didn't start their business with us, we still believe they can benefit enormously from membership."

According to the ScrapBiz.com website, current businesses must qualify themselves as having completed the startup phase in order to join under this special program.   The difference is that an existing business is not required to purchase the ScrapBiz Business StartUp guide in addition to the monthly membership.  Current businesses may join by paying a nominal account set-up fee and then the regular monthly or quarterly subscription fees after submitting proof of business.

For more information about ScrapBiz, visit www.ScrapBiz.com.

Digital Scrapbooking Wiki Launches

Digital Scrap Wiki is a website "for digi scrappers by digi scrappers", a place to collaborate and discuss digital scrapbooking.  The site acts as a compendium of resources for and on digital scrapbooking, including information on digital scrapbooking equipment, software, designers, blogs, magazines, and online retailers.

As is the nature of a wiki, site visitors can view, create and edit the content, as well as post comments to Digital Scrap Wiki.  To contribute to the Digital Scrap Wiki, you must be a registered user of WetPaint, the hosting service for the wiki.

According to Wikipedia, "a wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content...This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.  ...The word wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning "quick". Wiki systems are therefore designed so that their content can be made available in a quick and uncomplicated manner."

Other scrapbooking-related wiki's using the WetPaint engine: BHG Scrapbooks ETC and Perk-u-late/Circleback Studio.   

ScrapNFonts.com Announces Design Team

In their most recent newsletter, ScrapNfonts announced their new design team.

They are:

• Maelynn Cheung (DT Coordinator)
• Regina Easter
• Keela Fox
• Andrea Gomoll
• Dixi French
• Nisha M.
• Cathy Pascual
• Tiffany Tillman

Their creations will be featured on the new ScrapNgal blog, in the email newsletters, and on the newly remodeled web site.

SOURCE: ScrapNFonts May Newsletter.

EK Success Launches Marvel Line

EK SUCCESS LTD. is releasing an assortment of dimensional stickers, embossed papers, and albums featuring various Marvel heroes, including Spider-man, Wolverine, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Captain America and the Fantastic Four.  Products are said to be in stores this month.

    

EK is also releasing a hot pink Cutterpede® (Rotary Blade Shuttle included), HERMA double-sided tape, and new totes from the Maple Lane Studio line.

CHA Partners With Art Materials Retailer Magazine

The Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) will partner with Art Materials Retailer magazine to strengthen and enhance the art materials offerings at the association's summer show July 20-22, in Rosemont, Illinois.

Spotlighting the category will include new pre-show and on-site initiatives, including an online product preview and buyers' guide, special lounge area on the show floor highlighting new products, distinctive show signage, best new product award competition, and more. The partners will also build on these initiatives to significantly expand the art materials section for the CHA Winter 2008 show.

According to the 2006 Summer Show Attendee Survey Report, 48 percent of all attendees wanted to see more art materials at the show; 70 percent of chain retailers reported interest in seeing more such resources.

An Art Materials Task Force will meet Sunday, July 22, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., to gain input from CHA art materials members on specific seminar and workshop programs they feel will add the most value to their show participation. Members interested in participating should e-mail ssennas/at/craftandhobby.org.

For information about the show, visit www.chashow.org.

SOURCE: Craftrends News Headlines