Angie Pedersen's Scrapbooking Industry News

Big Picture Scrapbooking

Link: Big Picture Scrapbooking. is offering a free class to start off the new year: January's Layout-a-Day Challenge with Lain Ehmann, contributing editor to Simple Scrapbooks magazine, blogger and podcaster.

The class is just that - a challenge to create a layout a day in January - 31 layouts in 31 days.

Here's what you'll get:

• Welcome letter from Lain in the classroom

• Voice message as streaming audio, downloadable MP3 file, and transcript
  Email access to Lain
• Private posting gallery to share your finished creations and thoughts with your classmates
• Mid-month live chat with other challenge participants
• The chance to win one of 31 awesome prize packages - one for each day of the month

Read the FAQ about the class here.  Registration ends January 15, 2008 at 10:00 p.m. PST.

Funky Finds Promotes Indy Crafters

Jessica Hood, owner/editor of the Funky Finds blog, recently announced a new mission for 2008:

I am making an effort to sponsor more giveaways in 2008. Readers love free products & they enjoy spreading the word about giveaways on various sites. The last week of each month in 2008 will have a theme. For example, the last week in February will be dedicated to promoting independent jewelry designers. A giveaway will also be sponsored during the week featuring donated items from various business owners & designers. Below is a list of the themes for each month in 2008.

I am an advocate for buying handmade items & for supporting independent business owners. I grew up in an environment that encouraged creativity & creating items by hand...Please note that advertising on Funky Finds is NOT necessary to be a featured find. My site exists to help spread the word about your products.

Monthly Themes for 2008 (Last week of each month)

January - Stationery & Paper Goods
February - Jewelry
March - Children?s Goods (Apparel, Toys, etc.)
April - Home Décor & Housewares
May - Crafts & Hobbies (Knitting, Quilting, Scrapbooking, etc.)
June - Pet Products (Apparel, Toys, etc.)
July - Plushies & Softies (Handmade toys)
August     - Adult Apparel & Accessories
September - Artists & Artwork
October - Ceramics & Pottery
November - Charitable Shopping (Businesses that donate a portion of sales to charities)
December - Holiday Items (Cards, Gifts, Décor, etc.)

New Idea Book Inspires Crafters to Celebrate Cultural Influences & Heritage

ETHNIC SCRAPBOOKING, by Lisa Sanford, provides resources for scrapbookers to make cultural connections to their memories and daily lives.

BOWIE, MARYLAND – December 27, 2007 – Visit any scrapbooking store or website, and you'll find plenty of resources – ideas for scrapbooking about first steps, birthdays, holidays, and travel experiences.  But if you want to include meaningful commentary about your cultural heritage and experiences, you may be looking for ideas for quite a while.  Until now -- award-winning scrapbooker, designer, and instructor Lisa Sanford has released Ethnic Scrapbooking, an idea book geared toward providing meaningful inspiration to scrapbookers of all skill levels.

When Sanford's sister returned from a trip to Africa, she handed Lisa a stack of over 2000 photos and asked her to scrapbook them with "cultural flair".  An avid scrapbooker with over 70 albums in her library, Sanford was up to the challenge, but quickly realized that the travel scrapbooking products wouldn't convey the sense of culture she wanted to capture.  How do you depict the attitudes and ways of living of a people?  Their customs, their traditions, and their values?  Sanford couldn't find those answers, so she created her own.  The result: Ethnic Scrapbooking, Sanford's 116-page book released this month.

ETHNIC SCRAPBOOKING is the first multi-culturally inspired book that offers specific ways to include examples of culture and ethnicity on a scrapbook page. With over 100 full-color images, and ideas from over 40 countries and cultures, this heartfelt book will inspire a wide audience, no matter their race, nationality or ethnicity.  Sanford's ideas encourage the reader to live a lifestyle of cultural awareness and preservation.  Memory keepers of all skill levels will be able to add new cultural perspective to their projects with ideas on topics such as:

• Adding memorabilia to scrapbooking projects, like postage stamps from specific countries of family origin
  
• Documenting family namesakes
• Detailing ethnic holiday celebrations
  
• Including ethnic-inspired prints as backgrounds
  
• Identifying traditional family recipes, and researching their cultural origins

Each chapter shows readers how to make cultural connections with their photographs, memories and daily activities.  ETHNIC SCRAPBOOKING describes the process of creating unique layouts and memory albums with cultural flair using all types of scrapbooking supplies and tools.  The book features Lisa’s guiding philosophies on ethnic scrapbooking, offering a fresh new perspective on cultural nuances and traditions.  ETHNIC SCRAPBOOKING is a rich source of innovative ideas for preserving memories, and an invaluable addition to any family photo historian’s library.

About the Author:
Lisa Sanford is a speaker, passionate paper craft instructor, product designer and award winning scrapbook artist. Her inspiring ideas have appeared in multiple publications, including a contribution to Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker’s Soul, and a guest spot on "DIY TV Scrapbooking". She is a contributing editor for ScrapsofColor.com, an informational website for African American scrapbookers. 

Sanford and her husband live with their five children, one grandson, and multiple pets in Washington, D.C.  Visit www.ethnicscrapbooking.com for more information and cultural scrapbooking ideas.

Call for Submissions: Digital Scrapbooking, June/July

Posted recently on Digital Scrapbooking magazine's associate editor Molly Newman's Blog:

T3: Tips, Techniques and Tutorials

Our info-packed new column, "T3," features cutting-edge techniques, tips and tutorials from our talented readers and regular contributors.

Tips. Have you found a great way to use layer blending modes? A quick fix for less-than-perfect photos? Send your tips of 50 words or fewer on any digital scrapbooking subject, along with a layout or project that illustrates the tip in action.

Techniques. Send your time- and stress-saving techniques to make scrapbooking quicker and easier, along with a layout or project that shows how you've used them to create.

Tutorials. Send your projects featuring intermediate- to advanced-level techniques, along with complete instructions for achieving the look.

Submit your work with complete contact information and materials list via e-mail. Your submission should be a JPEG file, 100K or less. Deadline is January 7.

Reality Scrapbooking: Scrapbook Your Real Life
Tell your true story by sharing the details of the less-than-perfect moments you've experienced. Whether they led you to make a positive change, taught you a valuable lesson or simply helped you develop a sense of humor about yourself, difficult times deserve to be scrapbooked too.

Send your layouts sharing the details of your real life. DSM is looking for strong and meaningful journaling and photos that capture emotion. They'd also like to hear your stories about how scrapbooking challenging times has helped you to cope with them in a positive way.

Deadline is January 7.

Visit DigitalScrapbooking.com for more info.

Junkitz Closes Doors; Partners with Inque Boutique

Recently announced on their website, Junkitz has closed its doors.  They will now produce products with Inque Boutique. You can read more on the Inque Boutique Blog.

As part of its mission to providing retailers with the things they need to help them profit, Inque Boutique is expanding its focus to include more products for scrapbooking. In light of this expansion, Inque Boutique is thrilled to welcome Stacey and Kenny Panassidi, founders and creators of Junkitz, to its team.

“We are truly excited to get involved with this vibrant young company that shares the passion Stacey and I have always had for not only creating innovative, quality products, but also for supporting the industry’s retailers in every way possible,” says Kenny.

This merging of the talents, energies, resources and experience really is a total home run for us and will result in phenomenal opportunities for our retailers and the consumers they serve.

Junkitz has already begun developing new scrapbooking products and services for store owners and will unveil them at CHA Winter 2007. Visit them at the Inque Boutique booth, #3757.

SOURCE: Junkitz

Pantone Selects Blue Iris as 2008 Color of the Year

CARLSTADT, N.J., Dec. 10, 2007 - Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, selected PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris, a beautifully balanced blue-purple, as the color of the year for 2008. Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement.

"From a color forecasting perspective, we have chosen PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris as the color of the year, as it best represents color direction in 2008 for fashion, cosmetics and home products," explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. "As a reflection of the times, Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspect of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast.  Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic. Look for it artfully combined with deeper plums, red-browns, yellow-greens, grapes and grays."

About Pantone, Inc.
Pantone, Inc. has been the world’s color authority for more than 45 years, providing design professionals with products and services for the colorful exploration and expression of creativity. Always a source for color inspiration, Pantone now offers paint and designer-inspired products and services for consumers. More information is available at www.pantone.com.

SOURCES: Pantone News Room, Memory Makers Books blog, HOW magazine blog

Retrospect Releases New Scrapbooking Organization Tote

Retrospect recently launched the Extra-Large Zip Tote, ideal for transporting your albums or other large supplies. At 15” x 15” x 4-3/8”, it can hold large scrapbook albums, numerous folders full of scrapbooking paper, and even vertical paper organizers. Designed to hold at least 20 pounds, this tote helps keep your valuable supplies together and protected when you need to take them out and about. The strong nylon handles can be held by hand or easily slung over your shoulder. An extra pocket inside is handy to hold your identification, photos or notes. Acid-free, PVC-free and photo safe.

• Holds large scrapbook albums and organizers
• Comfortable carrying handles/shoulder straps
• Zips closed for easy transport
• Over 20-pound capacity
• Bonus pocket for photos or notes
• Heavy-duty and waterproof poly
• Suggested retail price: $12.99 each

Visit www.retrospectbysmead.com to see the entire line of Retrospect products offered by Smead.

Retrospect by Smead is an innovative system of products designed to protect, transport and store scrapbooking and paper crafting necessities.  Celebrating nearly 100 years in business, Smead is a woman-owned company well known for its high quality and innovative organizational products. Smead's Retrospect line of products is committed to one purpose: Keeping Your Creations Organized.

RocketLife.com Launches Online Digital Photo Product Creator

"Smart Arrangement" Technology Instantly & Intuitively Designs Beautiful Artistic Photo Layouts in a Few Seconds

December 5, 2007, Folsom, CA — Visan and Rocketlife.com, the inventors of ground-breaking award-winning new media technologies, announced today RocketLife.com, the next generation of photo creation technology that revolutionizes the way that consumers create all types of personal photo products online. Rocketlife.com puts an end to the frustration of creating photo products online by instantly creating artistic designs and collages in a matter of seconds. With Rocketlife.com, there is no need to log into an account and no need to even upload your photos to start creating photo gifts, such as photo albums, calendars, posters, t-shirts, etc.

"Smart Arrangement" & Real-Time "3D Digital Merchandising" Technologies

"Smart Arrangement" Technology intuitively lays-out and designs photos into artistic works of art. Its smart technology unleashes the power to create customized multi-photo collages and products in seconds. In addition to creating photo products with Smart Arrangement Technology, photos can also be manually cropped, rotated, and manipulated, with photo treatments, such as tints, blurs, lighting, textures, text, and graphics, added with the click of a mouse.

Rocketlife’s "3D Digital Merchandising" real-time photo-realistic 3D renderings allow you to make any change you want and instantly visualize exactly what the photo end-product will look like in real-time to create a final product that you will love. These RocketLife.com exclusive patent-pending technologies make intelligent design and layout decisions to allow you to create and personalize your photo book in about 5 minutes, turning the traditionally long hours of frustrating work into just a few minutes of fun.

"The heart and soul of RocketLife.com is the creation software," said Daniel Kaye, President of Visan. "RocketLife.com offers key advantages, such as the unique ‘3D Digital Merchandising’ technology, which displays your photos on real-time photo-realistic 3D renderings of each product, so customers can see exactly what the products will look like when they are shipped."

RocketLife.com software can be downloaded for free and features premium products such as photo books, calendars, collage prints, posters, collage mugs, and many more. For more information, see www.rocketlife.com.

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SOURCE: Thomas-PR.com.

Smilebox Secures $7M in Series B Funding

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 11, 2007 — Smilebox, Inc., the leader in multimedia expressions technology, today announced it has raised $7 million in Series B financing.  Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investor Frazier Technology Ventures.  Rob Stavis, Managing Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will join the Smilebox board of directors.  Smilebox will use the new funding to expand internationally, extend its partner syndication and promotional partnerships and bring Smilebox to new platforms.

“Smilebox has pioneered the multimedia expressions category and established a proven business model. The service combines technology innovation with a strong focus on ease of use,” said Rob Stavis at Bessemer Venture Partners.  “We look forward to working with Smilebox and its partners to accelerate its growth.”   

The Series B financing comes at a time when more than 1.8 million users have installed the Smilebox service since its launch in June 2006 and more than 1.3 million unique users worldwide access it monthly.

Read more at the Smilebox blog.

SOURCE: Smilebox blog

Ultra*PRO Acquires Chatterbox | Craftrends Magazine

Ultra*PRO Corp., parent company of 7gypsies and other consumer products, has acquired the assets of Chatterbox International. Chatterbox was founded in 1997 and is a provider of a variety of scrapbooking products, ranging from albums to paper and embellishments.

Ilene Albert-Nelson, vice president of scrapbooking and business development for Ultra*PRO, said, “We are very excited to add another premier scrapbooking brand to our portfolio. The combination of Chatterbox with our 7gypsies scrapbooking business places us amongst the leaders within the multi-billion dollar scrapbooking category. We are looking forward to being able to offer an incredible array of new products for both brands at CHA Winter 2008.”

Melody Ross, co-founder of Chatterbox, said, “We are thrilled to be partnering with another leading brand in scrapbooking where we can continue to design beautiful and innovative products to help people all over the world capture their family history and life’s greatest moments; it’s what we love about this industry.”

Both the Chatterbox and 7gypsies brands will be headquartered in City of Commerce, California.

In addition to its scrapbooking businesses, Ultra*PRO is a manufacturer and marketer of consumer packaged goods including investment protection products for sports and gaming collectibles. Through its Hanover Accessories subsidiary, the company also manufactures and distributes a broad line of jewelry, hair care, and fashion pet accessories.

SOURCE: Craftrends Magazine

See also: Chatterbox blog