I wanted to take a break from the regular coverage, though, to talk about trends (or perhaps the lack thereof) at the show. While we did see many trendy items and icons (washi tape, chevrons, arrows, and hexagons, to name a few), there were actually very few new trends at the show. One of the most notable is the inclusion of cut-apart sheets of journaling cards in almost every paper line, though even that's something that's been around for a while with the only new thing being that now everyone is doing it, thanks to the popularity of Project Life.
I did spot one trendy technique that's been turned into a pattern, though, and as strange as it seems to me to call dots a trend, that's exactly what I'm about to do! Confetti prints (and also bokeh prints) popped up all over the show floor in a variety of collections, and I love how versatile these randomized dot patterns (often included as the B-side of a paper) are. I'm sure I didn't catch them all, but here are just a few that I picked out...
Lily Bee gets the prize for the most bokeh/confetti in one booth, and they even included some adorable heart-shaped confetti in the print below from their Sweet Shoppe collection.
This sheet from Lily Bee's Pinwheel line uses larger versions of dots with more overlap.
And this sheet from Destination puts a bit of heart confetti over a woodgrain background.
Lawn Fawn didn't miss out on the trend- check out this paper (called Spritzer) from their Pink Lemonade collection!
Cosmo Cricket included a confetti-like print in their TV dinner collection.
And you'd expect to find confetti at a celebration, so it's not a surprise to find this sheet amidst the other papers in Party with Amy Locurto in the Pebbles booth.
The Crafter's Workshop has a stencil to help you create the confetti look with your mists or inks.
The Glitz Uncharted Waters line has both a confetti/bokeh paper in the paper pad and a matching washi tape!
I nearly missed this bokeh/confetti print in the We R Memory Keepers booth until I was writing up their CHA recap post last night, but you can spot their version of this trend in both the branding strip on the bottom of the constellation paper as well as in the sheet still on the rack near the bottom left corner of the photo.
This last print on our little trendy tour is definitely in the bokeh category, but since it's from photographer Maggie Holmes' new collection with Crate paper, that doesn't come as a shock at all! Her "Dreamy" bokeh print is actually the back side of a her camera patterned paper, and you can see a snippet of it in the photo below along with a product image grabbed from the American Crafts web site right under that.
With the popularity of the confetti technique in the last year or so, it's no surprise to see product designers catching on and including it in their product lines. And with dots being such a basic pattern, I think that this is one trend that won't look dated in the years to come.