Crafting the standouts

Even as scrapbooking, kids' crafts and yarn crafts continued their leading roles in various retailers' operations, the ACCI mid-summer show in Chicago was tagging adult crafts soon destined for the toy industry.

Standout trends at the show included more scrapbooking and mini-scrapbooking, fiber and yarn crafts, origami and paper, jewelry and the distressed-look crafts. While more than two dozen exhibitors made specific appeals to child's play, many others showed lines that might be easily extended to the toy market.

Moreover, fashion may be a noteworthy driver in that trickle-down process. If not exactly slaves to fashion, kids follow trends intensely often mirroring the larger adult culture.

The show was sponsored by the Craft & Hobby Association, the organization created last June through merger of the Hobby Industry Association and the Association of Crafts & Creative Industries.

Just like that bunny, scrapbooking just keeps on going and going and going. If ever there were a doubt, proof of just how hot the business remains could be seen in the exhibitor base and the floor space given over to the category.

By at least one study, the $2.5 billion industry has actively penetrated 25 percent of U.S. homes. The National Survey on Scrapbooking in America, 2004, sponsored by Creating Keepsakes and Craftrends magazines, found one or more people over 18 in those households participated in the hobby in 2003.

Breaking that down further, the research found 76 percent of scrapbookers spent over five hours on related projects in the past 30 days.

The average enthusiast has been scrapbooking for two-to-five years, and has accumulated $1,850 in supplies. Chugging along at an 11 percent growth rate, according to NPD Funworld, the opportunities for crossover merchandising and marketing seem unending.

One of the newest trends in scrapbooking is mini-albums or gift albums, in sizes from 4-by-4, to 6-by-6, to 8-by-8 inches, instead of the common 12-by-12 inch pages. As a less intimidating option for new scrapbookers and kids, it focuses on a single event or celebration as a scrapbooking theme bringing it to a more focused project that can be finished in an afternoon.

But scrapbooking is also finding itself up against the wall—sort of.

It's yet another option for a focused project that highlights a particular person, event, or celebration, and allows the crafter to create a single photo collage in 3D for display in the home. It can be particularly popular with kids, especially tweens and teens, for whom personalization is a strong motivator.

Themed craft kits, all-in-one album kits and cards-in-a-kit have also emerged as some of the best sellers at retail.

Place it in a kit, add coordinating papers, paper accents and embellishments, and you have a hot gift item providing professional results with simple design elements.

Among the broader crafting trends crossing over into kids' crafts are:

• Fiber and yarn arts. Colorful yarns and fibers; blends and textures are driving consumers to this classic art form.
  Origami and Paper-Folding. Kits come with papers, instructions and enough materials to create a themed project with a set of characters, animals or themed paper designs in themes such as jovial animals, trendy women's clothing and shoes, or whimsical fish.
  Jewelry-Making. Sliders, charms, key-chains, word danglers, alphabet tiles, dichroic or faux-dichroic glass beads, metal accents, hemp cording and Japanese triangle beads are a few of the trends in bead-making exhibited at the show
  Distressed Look. This trend reflects the retro appeal of vintage art and is created by using dyes, tea-stains, walnut ink crystals or sepia-toned inks to develop an “antique-look” for papers, photos, fibers or collage pieces. The newest adds colorful aged elements in pastel colors such as sage, lavender and peach.