CHA Winter 2012 | Clever Handmade by Heidi Grace Kress

It's been a long and winding road for designer Heidi Grace Kress, but she's landed at CHA Winter 2012 with a new (and adorable!) paper line and is happy to be making a fresh start in the industry.

I caught up with Heidi Grace at the Clever Handmade booth and chatted with her about the path that's lead her here. She started with a signature paper and embellishment line with Cloud 9 Designs, which was later sold to Fiskars. Eventually her line (along with all other consumable products in the Fiskars lineup) was removed from production due to a challenging economic climate. That shift coupled with a noncompete agreement that Kress signed with Fiskars left her without a signature line and without the legal rights to use her own name to launch new collection. Heidi then spent two years designing for Colorbok after they purchased the rights to her line from Fiskars, departing the company when her initial contract term was up. Though she still doesn't retain the rights to her name as a brand (those rights are currently held by Colorbok who continues to produce designs under the Heidi Grace brand), Kress has gone on to release a new signature line at CHA Winter 2012 under the name Clever Handmade.

The four new lines in the Clever Handmade family each tell a different story and revolve around a common theme, and the papers feature Heidi's signature whimsical artwork on the front and clean, simple patterns in coordinating colors on the back. Some of the line's embellishments include feathers, sequins, and matching journaling and alphabet sticker sheets.

Here are just a few photos of the Clever Handmade booth and each of the new collections.