IHP Trendsetters

Walking the floor of the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Trade Show is always an adventure! What could possibly be more exciting than getting to see three huge showrooms of brand new products that you can hardly wait to get your hands on? Only one thing: getting to share that experience with your girlfriends!

From the very beginning, the i {heart} papers team has had strong ties to Paper Craft Planet. Our mutual love of paper and paper-crafting was the foundation for our friendship, and CHA has given us the opportunity to meet face-to-face and translate those online friendships into real life. It's so much more fun in person than it is on screen!

As we walked the CHA floor we were drawn to certain products and projects...when we discussed them over dinner we discovered some emerging trends. That's what today's challenge is all about.

Of course, not everyone can attend CHA. We were quite sorely missing some of our team mates...and the general public is not eligible to attend. Thankfully, those of you who couldn't be there can live vicariously through the next best thing: photos! Check out these in this post from Susanna, and several posts from MoxieFab!

My project uses 4 of the current trends; Sewing, Paper Quilting Background, Butterflies, and 3-d Embellishments.

I'm a quilter on the side and I have a butterfly themed quilt hanging over my sewing desk. This year's paper crafting trends are right up my alley! While I'm not overly fond on the colours that are seen in almost every major paper and embellishment line, there is still a lot available that I like that is trendy.

This sentiment is from combined from 2 sets by Technique Tuesday; Amazing and Simply You. Isn't that tiny butterfly divine?!!! I embellished it with a tiny adhesive backed half pewter pearl from Zva - it's a perfect colour match for the Bonjour paper pad from Kaiser Craft. I stamped the sentiment using London Fog Memento ink by Tsukineko because this ink has fantastic coverage on acrylic stamps.

I cut 1" squares and adhered them to a card stock rectangle and then I trimmed off the excess paper. I sewed the paper in place using a zig zag stitch. While all my corners matched, I love the extravagant look of these white pearls from Kaiser Craft anchoring the pieces in place.

3-d embellishments are still trendy, and I've used a die to cut both butterflies and then I layered and sewed them in place. I also layered the ribbon and a mesh rosette from Trimmings ribbon by Tim Holtz with  crochet trim from Vintage Natural Lace by Kaiser Craft.

I love the depth of this butterfly and the delicate feel of the lace die cut combined with the translucent velum solid image butterflies.

There are several more trends to be showcased, so please do hop along and check out what the rest of these lovely ladies have to show you! Please use code ihp0212 when you upload to any online gallery so we can see your project and cheer your creativity.

• Carolyn
• Deb
• Gretchen
• Loretta (you are here)
• Lori
• Lynn
• Tracy
• Kate

and our guests from PCP:

• Adela Rossol
• Lisa Somerville
• Lyn Bernatovich
• Susanna Boyd
• Taylor Usry
• Wendy Price

stamps; amazing, simply you (technique tuesday from ihp)
paper; bonjour (kaiser craft from ihp), kraft (american elements), irridescent vellum (paper accents), coconut swirl, walnut creme (bazzill)
ink; london fog memento ink (tsukineko from ihp)
accessories; trimmings (tim holtz from ihp), vintage natural lace pack, snow white pearls (kaiser craft from ihp), pewter pearls (zva from ihp), lace butterfly die (marianne), labels 20 nestabilities (spellbinders from ihp), bigz beautiful butterfly die (sizzix)