Trending: Feathers

Crafts

Feb 1

[Editor's Note: With this post, we welcome the newest addition to our staff, Ashley Calder! Ashley will be a familiar face to many of our readers, as her writing and creative work has been widely published in print and online in the scrapbook world. She's also the author of the book, Scraptastic!: 50 Messy, Sparkly, Touch-Feely, Snazzy Ways to Jazz Up Your Scrapbook Pages --Nancy]

Feathers are a hot and trendy fashion, home decor, and art-inspiration item right now! Seen in everything from feather hair extensions, earrings, feather screen printed clothing, to watercolour wall art, scrapbooking is not to be left out! Fortunately a few scrapbooking companies have already jumped on this trend, and there are products made just for scrapbookers. Today I am going to take a look at feather-inspired scrapbooking products currently available.

Several scrapbooking companies debuted new lines featuring a good dose of feathers last month at CHA Winter 2013. As a feather-lover, I was excited to see these new releases as there were relatively few available in the scrapbooking world until now.

Jenni Bowlin Studio came out with a fantastic new line that is just chock full of lovely feathery goodness.

Jenni's new feather rub-ons come in black, gold, and silver. I love that there are different styles and sizes included! Four of the designs even match previously released Jenni Bowlin Studio stamps and digital cut files, which means you can layer these feathered beauties.

Two styles of of chipboard feathers have also been added to the existing line of die cut plain chipboard elements.

These new feather tags come strung on cotton string. Each package contains nine pieces in total, three of each size. I love how versatile these are, and can see they are going to be easy to slip into an embellishment cluster or great tucked in with some of Jenni's other gorgeous tags.

One of Studio Calico's newest lines, Sundrifter, contains many feather motifs including on patterned paper, die cuts, and even a lovely pink feathered piece of flair! I love that the feather patterned paper options include both a multicolour bold pattern, and monochromatic tone-on-tone patterns for those that prefer subtle patterns.

In Sundrifter, I see bold and multicolored feathers on patterned paper, plus some b-sides in monochromatic tone-on-tone feather patterns. That pink feather flair is adorable, and I'm excited about those feather cardstock die cuts.

So, we've seen lots of stylized feathers so far, but what about real feathers? Bella Blvd has a rainbow of full and fluffy feathers for those that prefer the real thing.

There are several styles of feather stamps out there, from photo-realistic to whimsical patterns. This set of two feather stamps by Cocoa Daisy is fun and versatile.

If you're thinking, "hey, I like feathers, but I don't scrapbook bird pictures!", don't worry -- feathers aren't just for birds any longer! Just like you don't need to scrapbook constellations to use stars, or a florist shop to use a flower, you can use feathers just about anywhere that needs some airiness, delicacy, or simply a cool trendy touch!

I paired photos of my three pretty girls with three sets of feather embellishments. A Jenni Bowlin Studio feather stencil served as a great host for paper and wood veneer feather embellishments. I cut cardstock feathers using Jenni Bowlin Studio feather digital cut files, but those Jenni Bowlin chipboard feathers above or the cardstock die cuts from the Studio Calico Sundrifter line would be a great substitute if you don't have an electronic die cutter. The Studio Calico wood veneer feathers were transformed with a dusting of fine gold glass glitter.

Supplies | Patterned Paper: Jenni Bowlin Studio. Tags and labels: Jenni Bowlin Studio. Wood veneer feathers: Studio Calico. Feather mask: Jenni Bowlin Studio. Mist: Maya Road, October Afternoon. Enamel dot: My Mind's Eye. Alphabet: Jenni Bowlin Studio.

How will you use feathers on your layouts or papercrafting projects? Will you go full and fluffy, or stylish and stylized?

Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a wonderful package of feather goodies supplied by some wonderful companies! Give-away will be on February 28th. Leave a comment on my Trending Feathers article each week for another entry for a chance to win!