It is clear that digital mediums have certainly made a big impact, on the craft sector in general. “The advent of inexpensive, easy to use digital cameras makes photography much more accessible to people, as do camera phones. Suddenly, you have photo opportunities everywhere - without the hassle of film! It's making people more avid photographers. We imagine a percentage of those people will want to create scrapbooks using those pictures,” explains Sara. Perhaps the key question to ask is whether they will scrapbook them in the traditional way, using paper, scissors and glue, or whether they'll take advantage of the burgeoning digital scrapbooking market, with digitally created layouts and fonts? “The future is hard to read, but the clever retailers will be those who find a way to use the new digital technology instead of fighting it,” adds Sara.

The last year has seen continued interest in scrapbooking, with some really strong trends emerging indicating that there is a bright future for this sector. Hot Off The Press exhibits at consumer scrapbooking conventions across the United States and at the end of each year, takes stock of the trends that dominated the sector. “This year we were craze spotting from California to Pennsylvania and Texas - and a few places in between. No matter where we went, the biggest trends seemed to stay consistent,” comments Sara.

Trend 1: Vintage
Period inspired patterns and colours dominated the scrapbooking world this year. The most popular patterns included harlequin diamonds, florals, paisley and stripes. The key colours were soft and muted, in shades of light blue, French vanilla, mint green, dark brown, mauve and teal. Manufacturers catered to the look with faux-distressed papers patterned with scuffing and 'inked' edges.

Trend 2: Page Kits
This year was all about the page kit. Any shortcut was appreciated - busy customers valued the convenience of having pre-matched papers and embellishments. A large number of the packs ranged in style from flat pre-made pages, to kits with three-dimensional embellishments and matching papers.

Trend 3: Altering goes Mainstream
Altering is no longer viewed as a hobby just for those artsy paper crafters, as mainstream scrappers become more experienced, many try their hand at it. They’re experimenting with surfaces like clipboards, canvas, glass microscope slides and jewellery making. Manufacturers addressed the mainstream customer with kits for altering various mediums.

Trend 4: Discount Stores
Cut price shops and online bargain basement retailers showed up at several of this year’s shows, selling brads, die-cuts and other products at low prices. Discount booths were a hit with scrappers who wanted a bargain, but attendees often said they’d prefer to stock manufacturer's complete range at the regular price.

Trend 5: Chipboard
Chipboard was found at every show, and was offered in a selection of shapes, alphabets, albums and clipboards. It has become available in patterned and plain, single pieces and coordinated sets. In light of this, consumers were also shopping for tools, punches and inkpads to work with this material.

Trend 6: Overwhelmed and Out of Space
From feedback received throughout the year, we discovered customers consistently said they were overwhelmed. Newbies to the craft were often intimidated by product choices and 'involved' techniques, while experienced scrappers simply had more crafty bits than room.