Trend Spotting at CHA and Dallas Gift Market

First of all I'd like to point out that I do not have a crystal ball when it comes to identifying what will be the latest and greatest for the upcoming year.  If I did, I'd be soaking up the sun on a beach somewhere in front of my vacation home, surrounded by turquoise blue waters, tropical flowers and gentle sea breezes.  I'd most likely be searching the beach for shells for ongoing sea shell projects, especially Sailor's Valentines.  Don't know what they are?  Give me a week or two and I'll post something about them on my blog, Life in the Craft Lane. 

Back to trends.  For the past 20 years I have attended both the winter and summer CHA shows and the Dallas Gift Markets, which are also held in January and July, about a week before CHA.  These shows are symbiotic in nature.  15-20 years ago, Gift Market lead the way in design, color and trends, but over the past few years both markets have been featuring pretty much the same trends at the same time.  As I walk through the showrooms and past manufacturer booths, I make notes about images, colors and styles that I see over and over again.  Popular colors are determined for us by Pantone, so there's no guessing here.  The color for 2011 is "Honeysuckle", #18-2120 described as a "reddish pink".   Yes, you're right, I saw a lot of it around last year too..........    There are many things in common this year:  Vintage, whimsical, sparkle and bling, birds, birdhouses, butterflies, garden themes, flowers and bags - bags and bags of bags.  Everyone had them.  At CHA they were given to retailers to carry their catalogs, whereas at Gift Market they were being sold to retailers for their customers to buy to carry their purchases.  Flowers in every medium continue to dominate and we pay homage to recycling as much as possible.  Here's a thought about recycling - isn't that what crafting used to be all about.  I grew up making things from materials readily available at  home - crafting at its very best.

There were two things in particular that stood out.  In Gift Market there were even more elves than last year and at CHA, just about every booth had some kind of rosette.  Check out the photos below from CHA and Gift Market and see what you can see.  Enjoy!

Yours truly,
Julie